Downtown Hilton could become apartments site
Proposal would convert top floors of struggling hotel that faces closure
Downtown Hartford’s long-struggling Hilton Hotel — further battered by the loss of bookings in the pandemic and now facing closure — could be partially converted into nearly 150 apartments on the upper floors in a $29 million proposal that would keep a portion of the 22-story building as a hotel.
The aging hotel on Trumbull Street would be renovated and rebranded as a DoubleTree Hotel, also a Hilton brand, by its current owner, Waterford Group, which has been unsuccessful in selling the hotel in the past year. The proposal calls for the number of hotel rooms to be cut by more than half, from 393 to 166, all located on the lower floors.
Waterford would partner with Randy Salvatore, the developer of the $200 million-plus North Crossing mixed-use project around nearby Dunkin’ Donuts Park, in converting the upper floors to apartments. Salvatore also renovated and now operates the Goodwin Hotel on Asylum Street.
The complex proposal, still in the early stages, seeks to avert a shutdown of the hotel and job loss, the loss of hundreds of hotel rooms critical to attracting events to city sports and entertainment venues, and prevent the possibility of a huge, empty building on a prominent downtown corner.
If closed, the hotel would likely revert back to the city. The city has loaned money to the hotel and it owns the land under the building.
“I really did it because I’ve got such an investment right across the street from there, and Hartford — I really believe and I’ve always said — I’m bullish on it and it’s on the upswing,”
— Randy Salvatore, developer of mixed-use project around Dunkin’ Donuts Park
The plan will require a battery of approvals, including $11 million in state taxpayer-backed loans from the Capital Region Development Authority. Funding those loans would need the approval of the State Bond Commission, which, under Gov. Ned Lamont, has become more choosy about projects.
The proposal also would have to pass muster with the Hartford City Council because the city owns the land under the hotel, has a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement and has loaned $4.9 million in federal money to the building.
Salvatore said Friday that he had considered buying the hotel when Waterford put it up for sale, but initially passed on it. But when Waterford approached him early in the fall, he took another look and thought about what a closure might mean for his development around the ballpark, now in the first phase.
“I really did it because I’ve got such an investment right across the street from there, and Hartford — I really believe and I’ve always said — I’m bullish on it and it’s on the upswing,” Salvatore said. “The Hilton closing — that would be like GE when GE left Fairfield — it would be so detrimental to the city.”
While some hotels have recovered from the pandemic as tourism picked up, hotels such as the Hilton also depend heavily on business travel are still struggling. Business travel has yet to recover in any significant way, and some experts say it might not ever return to levels prior to COVID-19.
About half of the $11 million in funding from CRDA — $6 million — is needed for the apartment conversion and won early backing Friday from the agency’s housing committee. Funding for the hotel renovation, pegged at $5.1 million, must be approved by a separate committee and both by CRDA’S full board.
A possible closure of the hotel also raised alarms about the potential loss of more hotel rooms in the city. Hotel rooms are critical to booking events at both the convention center and the XL Center and foster economic development and vibrancy.
The city already has seen its stock of hotel rooms dwindle. The former Radisson on Morgan Street is likely to be converted fully into apartments, its top floors already rentals. The Homewood Suites on Asylum Street closed early in pandemic and is being converted to rentals.
“Why is the Hilton critical to CRDA is pretty simple,” Michael W. Freimuth, CRDA’S executive director, said, at Friday’s meeting. “The convention center’s and the XL Center’s success is based on a certain number of rooms that have to be in the market, and we are perilously close to losing that threshold.”
Without plans to revive the building, Freimuth said it was likely the hotel would close in the “very near term,” its operations being heavily supported by a federal Paycheck Protection Program loans that were now running out. Public records show Waterford received $3.6 million from the program for the Hilton.
Freimuth said it had been clear for some time that the building would have to undergo a significant renovation. The pandemic just pushed up the timing of making a decision, Freimuth said.
“This is a chance to reboot the property,” Freimuth said. “I don’t want to say, ‘once and for all,’ but for a while. Let’s try to get a 20-year run out of it. It’s an old property, and we’ve known this was coming for several years. It’s just been put on our desk a little quicker.”
Under the proposal, about $18 million would be earmarked for the apartment conversion, with Waterford splitting a $2.5 million equity investment with Salvatore. The hotel upgrade would cost about $11 million.
“Significant dollars are going to go in,” Len Wolman, Waterford’s chairman and chief executive, said Friday. “To really bring this hotel current and competitive and relevant with a new flag going on it.”
Wolman said the plan would allow the Hilton to continue to operate, and a new contract would be negotiated with the unionized hotel workers. Waterford explored every option, including an auction, but splitting the use of the building — not unknown elsewhere in the country — appeared as the only viable alternative, Wolman said.
“I’m feeling optimistic, but cautiously so because there are a lot of moving pieces,” Wolman said. “It’s really going to take everyone’s commitment and cooperation to get this thing done.”
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said Friday it has become clear the Hilton cannot survive solely as a hotel.
“We have to make sure this building, which requires substantial investment, does not become a vacant and ultimately, blighted eyesore in the middle of downtown,” Bronin said. “Instead, we have to be clear-eyed about the choices and the options, and this is the only deal that is available to us to preserve hotel rooms and continue Hartford’s residential growth and to prevent a whole lot of worse outcomes.”