The 160-unit Columbus Commons apartment complex, which broke ground in October at the former New Britain police station property, is the first privately-financed development built in the city’s downtown in decades.
The 9.4-mile CTfastrak that runs between New Britain and Hartford promises to boost the region’s economic competitiveness by providing a car-free commuting option favored by Millennial workers and others weary of congestion and car payments.
Two years since the dedicated busway line’s completion, it’s starting to pay dividends in communities along the route seeking to revitalize faded downtown and commercial districts with multifamily housing.
In downtown New Britain, developers broke ground in October on the first phase of the $58 million Columbus Commons, a 160-unit apartment complex at the former police station property at 125 Columbus Boulevard.
And in West Hartford, a 54-unit mixed-income development called 616 New Park is under construction at a former Pontiac dealership site, part of the town’s efforts to transform an industrial area into a walkable mixed-use environment including housing.
Progress on the projects bodes well for additional development clusters popping up along the imminent Hartford line commuter rail extension between New Haven and Springfield, economic development officials say.
Transforming An Industrial Corridor
The goal of redeveloping the long-vacant West Hartford dealership predated the completion of the town’s two CTfastrak station sites in 2015. The town’s Housing Authority was evaluating sites for a mixed-income development and the blighted dealership property was a natural choice, said Kristen Gorski, West Hartford’s economic development specialist.
But there was a hitch: the existing zoning only allowed industrial uses, not housing. The town council approved an ordinance amendment in 2012 permitting multifamily developments, provided they include first-floor commercial space.
The housing authority’s nonprofit development spinoff, Trout Brook Realty Advisors, obtained $10 million in federal tax credits from the Connecticut Finance Housing Authority after setting aside 32 income-restricted units as affordable housing and another 11 units for veterans. Market-rate units are expected to rent for $1,300 to $1,550 a month, Gorski said.
Hartford-based Amenta Emma Architects designed the 4-story wood-framed structure above a steel and concrete podium. In an urban design strategy, architects situated the building close to the street, maximizing its visibility and creating a distinct pedestrian corridor, said Myles Brown, a principal with Amenta Emma Architects.
A rust-colored corrugated metal exterior reflects the neighborhood’s industrial influence. Parking spaces were reduced by 25 percent from traditional multifamily property requirements, reflecting the likelihood that some residents will rely on public transit. Completion is scheduled for spring 2018.
While no other formal development proposals for housing have been filed, Gorski said investors have expressed preliminary interest in additional mixed-use projects.
Improving pedestrian and bicycle routes in the neighborhood – a four-lane highway lined with strip malls and single-story office and industrial buildings – is the town’s next priority, Gorski said. The plan will build on a completes study submitted last spring by engineering consultants Fuss & O’Neill.
A Milestone In Private Investment
When Erin Stewart was elected mayor of New Britain in 2013, she dusted off downtown redevelopment plans that had stalled during the recession. The city designated a partnership of developers Dakota Partners of Waltham, Massachusetts and Xenolith Partners of Bedford, New York to redevelop the former police station site in July 2016. The city had laid the groundwork with an environmental clean-up and demolition after obtaining $3 million in state and federal grants.
“This is the largest development our downtown has seen in decades from a private developer, and it’s a very exciting time for us,” Stewart said. “We are seeing the impact of mass transit on the ability to redevelop our downtown area. It’s been a great opportunity to form partnerships with downtown developers and identify key parcels.”
Columbus Commons, the winning development team’s submission, stood out because of its mixed-use approach, including 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, Stewart said.
Significantly, the developers were willing to contribute their own equity to the project, setting them apart from a half-dozen other firms that would have relied exclusively on public funding, she said. Ground was broken Oct. 17.
Columbus Commons’ performance is likely to be watched closely by other developers as a test case of building market-rate housing in the downtown. To accelerate future downtown redevelopment, Stewart is seeking city council approval for a $2 million revolving fund to acquire blighted downtown properties. Other selling points for developers: an absence of building height limits and minimum parking requirements under current zoning.
Economic development officials say such projects are exactly what Connecticut cities and towns should be encouraging to retain younger residents, bringing 24-7 vitality and expanding their range of housing options.
“Developers are capitalizing on the connections to bring residents and hopefully Millennials to job opportunities in Hartford and Springfield and New Haven,” said Tim Sullivan, the state’s deputy commissioner of Economic and Community Development.
The scheduled groundbreaking in 2018 of the 62-mile Hartford line commuter rail extension from New Haven to Springfield, Massachusetts will offer the next opportunity for significant transit-oriented development.
The $500 million project scheduled to begin running in May 2018 will provide 17 round trip routes between New Haven and Hartford on weekdays and include a $20 million station in Meriden, where the city adopted a transit-oriented development zoning district in 2013.
That has spurred projects like a 63-unit apartment complex at 24 Colony St., which broke ground in 2015 and was completed this year. The first 75-unit phase of Meriden Commons, a 150-unit apartment building at 161 State St., is under construction.
“If you look at the trajectory of construction in downtown Meriden, there wasn’t a lot of it teed up before the announcement of the Hartford line,” Sullivan said. “All along the line you’re going to see and already seeing green shoots with two projects by two different developers. It shows development around transit can work in Connecticut.”
