[JayCT]

Nice to see that Hartford Stage is benefiting one of the shows it helped develop and promote. It is a wonderful theater with many great shows and is surely a important part of downtown. Jay

Musical royalties lift Hartford Stage's finances, but other pressures weigh on its bottom line | HartfordBusiness.com

[JayCT]

A New Jersey developer that already owns buildings in Hartford has purchased two former Roman Catholic church properties in Hartford with plans to redevelop the properties. One is the historic St. Peter's on Main Street overlooking South Green. The other is the former St. Augustine School on Clifford Street in the South End's Barry Square neighborhood. The developer plans to add/develop apartments on both properties but will save the historic St. Peter's Church for likely religious purposes. This is great for the city. Jay

Makeover set for ex-Hartford church assets | HartfordBusiness.com

[beerbeer]

Originally Posted by JayCT

A New Jersey developer that already owns buildings in Hartford has purchased two former Roman Catholic church properties in Hartford with plans to redevelop the properties. One is the historic St. Peter's on Main Street overlooking South Green. The other is the former St. Augustine School on Clifford Street in the South End's Barry Square neighborhood. The developer plans to add/develop apartments on both properties but will save the historic St. Peter's Church for likely religious purposes. This is great for the city. Jay
Makeover set for ex-Hartford church assets | HartfordBusiness.com

The debut of new apartments has been ongoing for years now. This project, more apartments at Colt, conversions of older downtown buildings and -if it ever gets out of court- a new apartment building in north downtown are in the pipeline or development stage.

The next wave of downtown housing is about to open. Teachers Village on Asylum just opened with 60 units. Spectra Pearl could open as soon as March with 250+ units. 81 Arch Street will follow with 53 units. That's almost 400 new living spaces.

Previous apartments have filled up quickly with almost all reporting over 90% occupancy. It will be interesting to see if 2019 apartments fill as quickly. If they do, there is really no end in site to downtown housing boom.

[MrGompers]

Another new apt building is going up on Silas Deane Hwy Wethersfield next to the Marshalls/Walgreens plaza. I can't remember the name of it. I'm sure it won't be cheap, but that is a good location with a good # of stores to walk to and is on the bus line for CT Transit #55 which goes into downtown Hartford and Middletown.


I wonder if this apt building was/is the reason the MDC was doing so much work on the water system in this area.

[troutman85]

Originally Posted by beerbeer

The debut of new apartments has been ongoing for years now. This project, more apartments at Colt, conversions of older downtown buildings and -if it ever gets out of court- a new apartment building in north downtown are in the pipeline or development stage.

The next wave of downtown housing is about to open. Teachers Village on Asylum just opened with 60 units. Spectra Pearl could open as soon as March with 250+ units. 81 Arch Street will follow with 53 units. That's almost 400 new living spaces.

Previous apartments have filled up quickly with almost all reporting over 90% occupancy. It will be interesting to see if 2019 apartments fill as quickly. If they do, there is really no end in site to downtown housing boom.

I would imagine downtown Hartford is running low on older buildings to convert to apartments. If the demand holds through this next batch of apartments coming on line I would think the next move would have to be new construction. I wonder if downtown rent prices support the cost of construction for new apartments/towers. Could be big changes for the city if demand can hold, especially in light of how expensive nyc and Boston have gotten.

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by troutman85

I would imagine downtown Hartford is running low on older buildings to convert to apartments. If the demand holds through this next batch of apartments coming on line I would think the next move would have to be new construction. I wonder if downtown rent prices support the cost of construction for new apartments/towers. Could be big changes for the city if demand can hold, especially in light of how expensive nyc and Boston have gotten.

May be a possibility. Thanks to the new rail line, it may be more likely that people will live in the Hartford area and commute to the NYC metro area for work. I knew a couple of exec's that did this many years ago when I still lived in Simsbury but I suspect it will now be more economically feasible and easier with the rail line from Hartford to New Haven. And also commuting from Metro North in Waterbury may see an increase in riders as people move from the more expensive areas closer to the NYC metro area outwards. Just a theory at this stage...

[OyCrumbler]

Are many of these new large housing developments mixed-use with retail or some other component to these buildings aside from residences? I reckon these should be an important part of the mix to draw people in both to live within Hartford and to attract people in the area to the region’s downtown.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

May be a possibility. Thanks to the new rail line, it may be more likely that people will live in the Hartford area and commute to the NYC metro area for work. I knew a couple of exec's that did this many years ago when I still lived in Simsbury but I suspect it will now be more economically feasible and easier with the rail line from Hartford to New Haven. And also commuting from Metro North in Waterbury may see an increase in riders as people move from the more expensive areas closer to the NYC metro area outwards. Just a theory at this stage...

It's really not viable. It's 2 hours 50 minutes from HFD to NYP on Amtrak. 6:31am departure. 9:21am arrival. They switch in an electric locomotive in New Haven which is a delay and it's the antithesis of "high speed rail" since the track infrastructure is so lousy. Commuter rail to Grand Central would be much longer than that. Commuter rail changing trains in New Haven is even longer than that.


From Simsbury, you'd kind of have to drive the hour down to a Metro North station. Driving to Hartford, train to New Haven, and then train to Grand Central would take forever.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

It's really not viable. It's 2 hours 50 minutes from HFD to NYP on Amtrak. 6:31am departure. 9:21am arrival. They switch in an electric locomotive in New Haven which is a delay and it's the antithesis of "high speed rail" since the track infrastructure is so lousy. Commuter rail to Grand Central would be much longer than that. Commuter rail changing trains in New Haven is even longer than that.


From Simsbury, you'd kind of have to drive the hour down to a Metro North station. Driving to Hartford, train to New Haven, and then train to Grand Central would take forever.

Yea, there'd have to be a bit of work to make that viable. You'd need the Hartford Line to be electrified in order to get out of having to make a transfer at New Haven (and to speed up acceleration between stops) and then that service will need to make express stops on the way to Grand Central. You'd have to speed up the rail service itself along both stretches to make it more reasonable. The somewhat good thing is that train time can often be used productively.

There are people who do three / four hour commutes each way in the US (a friend's mother used to do such in Southern California for several years, but as a much more excruciating drive rather than train ride--highly do not recommend and she moved, as planned, within walking distance of work as soon as the youngest left for college as in the month after the youngest's high school graduation), but that's pretty rare.

[beerbeer]

Changes could be afoot on Pratt Street. But no one seems t know what changes the new landlords will make.

"Samuel Cohen agreed to sell the three buildings he owns on Pratt Street to Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC, a New York real estate investor that has made big moves in downtown since entering the city in 2014.

“They are not just going to vacuum and call it a day,” Jonathan Cohen said. “They are going to make changes. Unfortunately, we don’t have the pocketbooks that they have, and it takes some deep pocketbooks to make these changes.”

He adds: “It’s going to take Shelbourne to take it to the next step.” Shelbourne declined Wednesday to reveal their plans for the street. The purchase of the three buildings — totaling $4.8 million, city records show — will add to their purchase last summer of 196 Trumbull St. and 99 Pratt St., which wrap around the corner.

With the purchase of the Cohen properties, Shelbourne will control all but two buildings on the south side of the historic, brick-paved street and a total of 190,000 square feet. The buildings all date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and have commercial space above storefronts.