East Hartford councilors next week will consider a proposal to sell the town-owned former Showcase Cinemas property at 936 Silver Lane to a multifamily developer. Photo courtesy of Milone and MacBroom
East Hartford’s Silver Lane commercial corridor has gone through decades of decline, prompting town officials to step up blight enforcement and demolish vacant structures.
The former Showcase Cinemas property, which has sat dormant since 2006, was identified in a recent planning study as a key redevelopment site suitable for multifamily housing. Now a New Britain developer has agreed to buy the 14-acre property from the town, offering the prospect of an infusion of property taxes while diversifying the town’s housing stock.
“We saw an opportunity to reinvest in a corridor that has significant areas of concern,” East Hartford Mayor Marcia Leclerc said.
New Britain-based Jasko Development was the only bidder on the property, acquired by the town in 2019 for $3.3 million. The developer is expected to propose a 260-unit market-rate apartment complex, Leclerc said.
On Sept. 13, the town council will review a purchase-and-sale agreement in which the town would sell the property to Jasko Development for $1.
East Hartford has sought to encourage redevelopment of underutilized properties in the area, approving an overlay zoning district that would enable Jasko to propose multifamily housing. The town demolished the former buildings last year, tapping into $3 million that it borrowed in 2016 for property acquisitions and blight removal.
Town officials reached the conclusion that public intervention was needed to catalyze redevelopment in the area, Director of Development Eileen Buckheit said.
“We have given this a lot of consideration and thought it was better for us to have [the Showcase property] in public hands than an out-of-state company that wasn’t going to do anything with it,” Buckheit said.
More than three-quarters of East Hartford’s housing stock was completed before 1970, including many small single-family homes built for employees of aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. With scarce vacant land remaining, little housing development has taken place since the 1970s, limiting the options for homebuyers and renters alike.
“We’ve lost upwardly mobile families,” Leclerc said. “When they start to maximize their earnings potential, they mostly move out of the town of East Hartford.”
Jasko Development, led by Principal Avner Krohn, has been active in downtown New Britain property conversions and development and has an 111-unit apartment complex under construction in Bloomfield.
Jasko did not respond to messages seeking comment on the East Hartford site.
Corridor Falls into Stagnancy
The predominantly four-lane highway provided a link between Interstates 84 and 384 from the 1960s through the mid-1980s. After the completion of a new connector road which siphoned off much of the former traffic, commercial properties suffered. The 1,157-acre district has approximately 215,000 square feet of vacant commercial space – about 25 percent of the overall inventory – according to a revitalization study completed in 2018 by consultants Milone and MacBroom.
Large-scale development in recent decades has been concentrated on the Rentschler Field site at the western end of the district, where the University of Connecticut opened a new football stadium in 2002 and Cabela’s opened a superstore in 2007 on land previously occupied by a military airfield and later a private airport.
The revitalization study recommended rezoning the corridor, including sections designated for multifamily development and neighborhood retail. An overlay district that includes the Showcase Cinemas site was approved by East Hartford officials this year.
Distribution Eyed for Rentschler Parcel
A potential change of ownership could pave the way for a future large commercial development in the heart of the district.
In February, Pratt & Whitney parent Raytheon Corp. hired CBRE’s Hartford office to market another 300-acre section of the former Rentschler airfield as the Logistics Center @ Rentschler Field, touting its potential for a 2.3-million-square-foot distribution center on 280 buildable acres. CBRE marketing materials describe it as the “largest and most convenient development site available between New York and Boston.” CBRE Executive Vice President John McCormick said this week no update on a potential transaction was available.
Town officials are also acting on recommendations from a Silver Lane transportation study that looked at ways to improve conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists, such as extending sidewalks and removing a vehicle travel lane to create a bike lane.
“If we’re not willing to do our own investment to change the impression of the community, why would anyone expect anyone else to?” Leclerc said.
