THIS COULD BE SOMETHING ‘ICONIC’
New plans for Founders Plaza mixed-use project include 130 waterfront apartments, restaurants, museums, but $4 million marina idea is shelved
Adeveloper is close to announcing a large-scale redevelopment plan for Founders Plaza that would bring apartments, a medical office building, restaurants and museums, East Hartford’s town government announced Wednesday. “Founders Plaza hasn’t seen development in 50 years. The potential for this is large: It has the capability to be a very iconic regional development that will benefit both sides of the river,” Mayor Michael Walsh said. At the same time, a different developer — the Simon Konover Co. — is preparing to formally propose constructing about 130 apartment near the river, according to the newly released Control Tower ’23, a planning document from the town. The apartments would be built on Konover-owned land along East River Drive between the CREC Two Rivers Magnet School and the American Eagle headquarters building.
Konover is refining estimates of development and operating costs, and wants to build 120 to 140 garden-style, market-rate units, according to Newton Brainard, the company vice president of development.
“We’re crunching development numbers and cost estimates. The market today is more challenging than 18 months ago in terms of new construction for apartments,” Brainard said. “In light of the headwinds, we’re proceeding cautiously.”
Fuller details will emerge when Konover presents its formal plans to the planning and zoning commission, which Brainard said would probably happen later this year.
Developers of the Founders Plaza project are expected to make details public
The empty Bank of America at Founders Plaza in East Hartford is one of a collection of office buildings in the area that date back decades. Developers say it would be included in a project to revamp the area, and work could start this year. AARON FLAUM/ HARTFORD COURANT
sometime in March, according to Walsh.
Even as those projects advance, riverfront development has hit a setback: Goodwin University has shelved its much-heralded pitch for a $4.5 million marina along the riverfront.
“Due to unfavorable conditions in the supply chain and rising construction costs, estimates have come in higher than expected,” according to a statement released Wednesday by Mark Mcgovern, Goodwin’s economic development director.
“For the present time, Goodwin University has decided to put the marina project on hold,” Mcgovern wrote.
The Founders Plaza initiative, tentatively named Port Eastside, is the biggest new proposal on the horizon in East Hartford, Walsh said this week. He predicted it could “remake” Founders Plaza, a collection of office buildings that date to the 1970s.
The developers are on the verge of presenting their plans for luxury apartments at Founders Plaza along with a medical office building and restaurants. The project would include more than one museum, and possibly an elevated greenway as part of new recreation amenities, he said.
The project would use the former Bank of America building, which is nearly 150,000 square feet of office space that’s stood vacant for years, along with a second building and parking garage. Walsh said work could start this year and be done in phases through 2026.
The developers expect to be talking with town officials and the state about tax incentives, Walsh said.
Walsh cited the project as the top new element in the Control Tower ‘23 plan, which identifies key goals for East Hartford.
Last year’s version of the document listed two chief targets as the massive National Development warehouses that are planned at Rentschler Field, and the new apartment complex proposal at Showcase Cinemas.
He noted that National Development bought the 280-acre site from Raytheon in January, and has begun preparing the ground for the first of two 1.25-millionsquare-foot warehouses it plans there. National Development hasn’t publicly named the tenants yet, but expects one company will lease all of the first building and another will lease all of the second one.
Based on the town’s phased-in tax incentive agreement with National Development, that project should bring in $8.6 million in one-time payments to the town along with roughly $4.6 million a year in new tax revenue after the fifth year following completion, according to the town.
The Concourse Park apartments at the former Showcase Cinemas property should be under construction in April or May and ready for occupancy in late 2024, Walsh estimated. The developers had at one point talked of more than 470 apartments, but have scaled back this winter. Walsh is expecting a base of 300 units at least.
Walsh has said with all of the new projects along with the anticipated redevelopment of Silver Lane Plaza and the Church Corners Inn, the town is in the early phases of a major transformation.