Patrick McMahon
CEO, Connecticut Main Street Center
Age: 51
Industry experience: 20 years
Vacancies and underutilized real estate in downtowns are an untapped source of economic potential in the Nutmeg State, with one study estimating an additional $1 billion in tax revenues if all 187 million square feet of Connecticut’s downtowns were occupied. As CEO of the Connecticut Main Street Center, Patrick McMahon works with its 80-member communities on strategies to help landlords fill vacant spaces and build housing and mixed-use developments in walkable and transit-oriented neighborhoods.
A Windsor native, McMahon was an economic development official in his hometown, Windsor Locks and Suffield, before being named CEO of the Hartford-based Main Street group in 2017. The organization was founded in 1995 by Connecticut Light & Power and spun off as an independent nonprofit in 1999, providing technical assistance, training and workshops on downtown revitalization.
Q: What’s the most frequent problem that you hear members asking for assistance with?
A: Activating that ground floor space. We’re going to have another summit on Oct. 2 at the Lyceum in Hartford and Oct. 3 in Stamford at a place to be determined. The theme will be “Main Street retail in the age of disruption: what communities and landlords and businesses can do to activate first-floor activity.”
Communities that are proactive potentially could get more market share, because some of the malls are dying or struggling and there’s people who want to be in those core downtown areas. Pop-ups are working in different communities. There’re some communities that have programs to help with code upgrades to their downtown buildings. Manchester just came up with a new program, Norwich has been doing that for a while. More communities are going to have to do that. It’s older building stock.
Q: How much momentum has the CTfastrak created for transit-oriented development?
A: It’s not just the Fastrak. It’s the new Hartford Line and there’s a focus throughout the state, on Shoreline East and the MetroNorth.
Lisa Tepper Bates, Gov. Lamont’s [senior coordinator for housing and transit-oriented development] is coming to New Britain, Meriden and Windsor Locks this week to look at some examples of progress and planned projects. In Windsor Locks, they’ve got the 250,000-square-foot Montgomery Mill, which is 160 units of mixed-income housing being redeveloped by Beacon Communities of Boston.
What a night-and-day from just a year and a half ago. It was vacant, boarded up, broken windows, kind of an eyesore of Main Street. All of a sudden, it’s changing perceptions of the downtown. Windsor Locks created a tax increment financing district and they are looking to acquire a strip retail center to work on a transit-oriented development in that area. The former train station is being renovated and the exterior has been upgraded using private grants. In New Britain, Dakota Partners is doing Columbus Commons [a 160-unit apartment complex at the former police station].
Q: What’s your wish list for the new Lamont administration?
A: One of the more important things is historic tax credits, especially in our downtown areas. We have a really robust program in Connecticut, but it gets oversubscribed. It’s $32 million a year, but they’ve already allocated all of the funding for this year. There’s been a push to increase the cap. I don’t think it’s going to get through this particular legislative session, but it would be wonderful. The governor’s got the “debt diet,” but we still need the allocation to the Capital Region Development Authority. They’ve been able to bring 1,000 housing units to downtown Hartford.
Q: How much activity are the federal Opportunity Zones generating?
A: Everybody’s very interested in Opportunity Zones and still trying to wrap their arms around the benefits and how they can tap into it. Communities need to tee up shovel-ready projects and market them. Those would be really beneficial to the investment side. Outside of that, it’s really private sector investment.
Q: Connecticut Main Streets was instrumental getting the tax increment financing (TIF) legislation passed. What communities are using that as a downtown catalyst?
A: So far, seven communities have adopted TIFs. Windsor Locks was the first, and New Britain was the second for almost their entire downtown. Old Saybrook was the most recent for Mariner’s Way, a section of Route 1 near Saybrook Junction. Connecticut Main Street Center helped Enfield with the mall area, with a district master plan and that should get approval by the town on June 3. That’ll be huge. Then they can start to advertise that they have a TIF in place. The Thompsonville neighborhood is a location for a future stop on the Hartford Line. They’re going to have some transit-oriented development, and having a TIF would be a good tool for that. With the Enfield Mall itself, it needs to be reimagined. There’s been some significant vacancy at the mall. The other retail around it is doing really strong. Those other plazas are full and activated, but the mall is struggling. Maybe they need to bring in some apartments.
Q: What are the costs to be a member of Connecticut Main Streets?
A: It depends on the size of a community, but from $500 to $2,000, whether the member is a nonprofit or the town itself. There are different organizational models. Some members are special service districts, and we also have some nonprofit organizations such as Main Street Waterbury and the Simsbury Main Street Partnership. The important thing for the communities that are not members yet is there’s got to be an organization, meaning they have full-time staff and an active board of directors and funding in place. We know not every town has the resources for a full-time director, but it could be part-time staff, or a nonprofit or downtown merchants association.
Q: What are some of your upcoming programs?
A: Our annual awards dinner is coming up June 3 in Willimantic. We’ve be giving 10 awards to nine different jurisdictions, and presenting the Eversource award to Bob Santy, president of Connecticut Economic Resource Center and a longtime board member and supporter. And on June 19 we will be doing a Norwich downtown preservation and development conference. We’ll start at the Wauregan apartments ballroom.
McMahon’s Five Favorite National Parks (So Far):
- Yosemite
- Glacier
- Zion
- Grand Canyon
- Acadia
