Funding OK’d to assist residential developments
Bond Commission approves $13.5 million for residential developments
The state Bond Commission gave the green light Friday for $13.5 million in public funding for two major residential projects in downtown Hartford.
HARTFORD — State funding for two major residential projects in downtown Hartford got the green light Friday from the state Bond Commission.
The 10-member commission voted unanimously for the projects that are part of a broader effort to increase housing in the downtown area that has traditionally been reserved for office workers.
The Capitol Region Development Authority is providing $13.5 million in loans to help the residential conversion of one of the most high-profile buildings near Bushnell Park at 55 Elm Street — the longtime home of the offices of the state attorney general, comptroller and treasurer, among others. State employees have already moved out to another nearby location, and a South Norwalk developer is planning a $63 million conversion of the 200,000-square-foot building that would help transform the area into a residential center, including ground-floor retail space in the building.
The property is currently surrounded by a series of parking lots near busy Pulaski Circle, adjacent to Bushnell Park and not far from the Hartford Public Library. The developer paid $6.8 million for the building and three parking lots, according to public records.
“There’s demand now,’’ Gov. Ned Lamont said after the commission meeting. “A lot of people are discovering our towns and cities.’’
In another approval, the commission approved a $2 million loan to assist the second phase of the Pratt Street redevelopment that includes a $9.1 million conversion of student housing behind the Lofts at Temple and Main into apartments. The project is part of an ambitious $100 million redevelopment of downtown’s Pratt Street corridor that is currently underway. The developers of the Pratt Street corridor are Hartford parking magnate Alan Lazowski,
developer Martin J. Kenny and downtown’s largest commercial landlord, Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The funding had been t emporarily delayed because the bond commission has not met since December under Lamont’s “debt diet.’’ Lamont has cut back on bond offerings compared to former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who held regular bond commission meetings in a long-running tradition.
The conversion of 55 Elm Street is seen as a catalyst and key step for the larger
“Bushnell Park South” project that envisions a mixed-used development of housing, shops, restaurants, and offices that would be constructedinmultipleyears.
The Pratt Street corridor project includes transforming what was once college student housing at Market and Temple streets into 12 townhouses and 76 gardenstyle apartments. The renovation will changeaninterior courtyard that is now dominated by concrete into an area with improved lighting andbenches. After groundis broken, the construction is expected to last one year.