Landlord unloads apartment building
Downtown Hartford site bought less than 2 years ago; questions loom
A controversial apartment landlord in New Haven, who reportedly sold off dozens of rental properties last year in the Elm City, has now unloaded one of the first it acquired in downtown Hartford less than two years ago, according to city records.
An investment partnership headed by Shmuel Aizenberg of New Haven and connected to Ocean Management, also based in New Haven, sold the apartment building at 201 Ann Uccello St. for $3.9 million — 20% above the $3.2 million Aizenberg paid in 2021.
The apartment building — known as “The Grand on Ann” — was acquired by Ann Uccello Apartments LLC, headed by Quay Wallace Watkins of Stamford, city and state records show.
The sale could raise questions about the future of other properties in Hartford owned by Aizenberg given the selling spree in New Haven.
An inquiry left with Ocean Management Wednesday was not immediately returned.
Aizenberg’s Hartford properties include 275 Asylum Street — long the location of the Morse School of Business and, more recently, the High School Inc. program of the Hartford Public Schools. The Asylum Street building also was purchased in 2021 at the same time as The Grand on Ann and from the same seller, Yisroel Rabinowitz. The two buildings, in the heart of downtown, were Aizenberg’s first in Hartford.
At the time of the purchase, a spokesperson for Aizenberg said the plan was to convert the 4-story structure at 275 Asylum in apartments. But nearly two years later, state officials say they have not been approached with plans or a request for a low-interest loan.
The building, at the corner of Asylum and Ann Uccello streets, also is among the 10 highest properties in the city with delinquent real estate taxes. As of Jan. 24, $262,306 were owned to the city.
Reporting by the New Haven
Independent found that Aizenberg sold 65 properties in New Haven last year containing 170 apartments for nearly $27 million. The sales, the Independent reported, did not put much of a dent in the 1,400 rental units Aizenberg owned in New Haven as of early 2022.
Aizenberg also appeared in housing court multiple times last year for code violations that gave rise to protests and the forming of tenant unions at some of his buildings, according to the Independent.
In Hartford, Aizenberg also acquired two former church properties in 2021, in addition to the downtown buildings.
The St. Augustine School in the city’s Barry Square neighborhood and St. Peter’s School in the South Green area near downtown were purchased for $3.75 million, according to city records.
The seller, Joseph Novoseller, of New Jersey-based Aria Legacy Group, had planned apartment conversions for both schools. The massive St. Peter Church on Main Street also was part of the sale to Aizenberg.
In December, a limited liability corporation controlled by Aizenberg won the city’s backing to alter a previous approval for converting the historic St. Augustine School on Clifford Street into rental housing. The school is considered historic and had been placed on an endangered properties list by the Hartford Preservation Alliance.
The new plans call for increasing the number of apartments from 47 to 65, according to an approval notice from the city.
“This will be accomplished by adding a new floor above the west “gym” wing and making smaller units to better meet the owner’s market expectations,” the notice states. “A further change is the addition of a new entry ramp in lieu of an elevator.”
The building’s lower level will be fully accessible, meeting state building codes, according to the notice.
City development officials confirmed Wednesday that work has not begun on the conversion. The property also has been cited by the city for blight and deteriorating conditions.
There hasn’t been any movement on St. Peter’s School at 11 Charter Oak Place, city officials said.
The sale of The Grand on Ann apartment comes nearly a decade after the structure, a former Masonic Temple, was converted into 26 residential units. The historic structure was the first of the most recent wave of partially state-financed apartment rental conversion in the downtown area headed by the Capital Region Development Authority.