Tarek Raslan of developer Community Solutions oversees the final stages of core-and-shell construction during a recent visit to the property. Oversized windows provide generous natural light to the future food production space. Photo by Steve Adams | Commercial Record Staff
The former M. Swift & Sons factory is a physical reminder of industry’s expansion and decline in Hartford’s northeastern corner.
From a one-room shack, it began churning out decorative gold leaf products in the early 1800s. The plant expanded in phases until the 1930s, eventually spanning over 80,000 square feet before the company’s demise in 2005.
Now, a New York City development firm led by a Hartford-area native is reactivating the 63,000-square-foot campus. Community Solutions is restoring part of the once-blighted structure as commercial kitchens, leasing other portions of the main building to a hydroponic farming company and reserving the rest for office and coworking space.
Program Responded to Community
For Tarek Raslan, project manager for Community Solutions, the decision to pursue an all-commercial development required a leap of faith.
“The easiest thing from a development standpoint would have been to chop this up into residential housing,” Raslan said. “In terms of capitalizing this project, it would have happened much quicker and the financial basis for the success of the project would have been easier to convey to lenders and funders.”
The $34 million project broke ground in June 2018, eight years after Community Solutions acquired the vacant structures on Love Lane for $1 from the Swift company. Core-and-shell completion is scheduled for late October.
Founded by West Hartford native Rosanne Haggerty, Community Solutions surveyed neighborhood residents on their preferences for redevelopment of the site. In a neighborhood where the unemployment rate is seven times the statewide average of 3.6 percent, job creation was a consistent theme, Raslan said.
Community Solutions specializes in affordable housing, with a mission statement of ending homelessness and the conditions that create it. The chance to improve employment opportunities for local residents through commercial space fits into the firm’s vision, Raslan said.
“What we heard from the community was, ‘We really need economic development. We need jobs, we need youth engagement, we need public safety.’ That’s when we decided to make it exclusively commercial,” he said.
But the all-commercial focus required an unusually complex financing package, comprising 16 financial institutions and public agencies. New Market tax credits generated $8.4 million, while the state Department of Community and Economic Development provided $7.3 million in financing. Another $3.8 million came from a trio of federal agencies.
Bear’s Smokehouse Barbecue, which has four Connecticut locations, will occupy 14,000 square feet for a commissary. Millis, Massachusetts-based Freshbox Farms is set to use 37,000 square feet for hydroponic farming of leafy greens that it sells to grocery stores.
Another 4,500 square feet is reserved for a food startup incubator, with shared office, refrigeration and assembly space.
“It’s like a seat at the table, next to the big operators, and a chance to collaborate,” Raslan said during a recent tour of the property.
Community Solutions will lease out and manage another 18 private offices and co-working spaces, which are scheduled to open next spring. Two 19th-century houses that remain on the property are being converted into community meeting rooms and space marketed to office users and health care agencies.
Track Record Convinced Lender
Previously an executive with IT Properties, a New York-based for-profit developer, Raslan welcomed the opportunity this summer to join a development firm with a social mission.
“The philosophy of the organization and the nature of this project was too good not to want to be involved in,” he said. “It was a way to scale up and scale out in terms of having a real value to society as far as real estate development is concerned.”
In its residential developer role, Community Solutions has preliminary plans to create a community land trust that would acquire and manage residential properties in the surrounding neighborhood to guard against displacement.
BlueHub Capital, a Boston-based nonprofit lender, contributed $17 million to the project through permanent debt and bridge financing. Formerly known as Boston Community Capital, BlueHub added Hartford as a focus of investment several years ago and provided financing for conversion of the former Hartford National Bank tower into apartments.
Community Solutions’ track record gave BlueHub the confidence that the Swift factory project will improve economic mobility for Hartford residents, said Michelle Volpe, president of the $185 million BlueHub Loan Fund.
“We really respect the work that Community Solutions does. We’ve been following their work and appreciate their viewpoint looking at root causes of homeless and poverty,” Volpe said.
The strength of the development team and support from public funding sources outweighed concerns about the prospects for a successful commercial development in a neighborhood that’s experienced decades of disinvestment.
“This was one instance where we were very eager to see preleasing,” Volpe said.
