The Belfonti Cos. of Hamden received approval from Rocky Hill officials to demolish a former Ames department store headquarters and construct 213 apartments, along with office and retail space. Image courtesy of Studio Architects.
A real estate relic of a defunct discount chain in Rocky Hill will be replaced by hundreds of apartments with complementary retail and office space under plans recently approved by a Hamden developer.
The Belfonti Cos. Founder and CEO Michael Belfonti said the project will support Rocky Hill officials’ and residents’ desire for a new town center-style land-use pattern on the eastern side of the Hartford suburb. Belfonti plans an 11-building complex including 213 apartments, 11,000 square feet of office space and nearly 10,000 square feet of retail shops, replacing the 225,000 square-foot former Ames Department Stores headquarters on the 12-acre site.
Belfonti was driving through Rocky Hill while developing the 160-unit Landon apartment complex, which opened last year in nearby Cromwell, when he saw a real estate sign for the Ames property. The property was listed by Jeff Dow of New Haven-based Dow Realty, whose father founded the firm and had been a friend of Belfonti’s.
“I was kind of happy to see his sign and I gave him a call, and that’s how it got started,” he said.
The retail discount chain was liquidated in 2002, shortly after declaring bankruptcy for the second time in 12 years, and the property less than a half-mile from town hall deteriorated over the past two decades.
Rocky Hill officials sought to revitalize the site and others in the neighborhood, part of a town center zoning district that encourages mixed-use development. The town’s 2015 Plan of Conservation and Development mapped out the vision for future land uses to encourage pedestrian-friendly infrastructure and higher density.
“While the predominant development approach over the past 50 years has been automobile‐oriented patterns with single‐use sites, there is growing interest and demand for more walkable development patterns with a diversity of uses within individual buildings and in small areas,” the plan stated.
The Ames redevelopment will include 10 percent income-restricted units, also recommended in the town conservation and development plan. Market-rate units would rent for approximately $2 per square foot, or a range between $1,500 to $2,500, Belfonti said.
The site also includes an adjacent half-acre property at 1 Dividend Road, which contains a 1,620-square-foot office building, and would be replaced by one of the apartment buildings with ground-floor retail.
The project financing includes $500,000 in state funding to demolish the 56-year-old former Ames building. Construction would begin following the acquisition of the property, which has been owned since 2014 by a Miami Beach investor, and obtaining construction financing.
Construction loans are rising in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s March interest rate hike, and developers are updating their project costs amid inflationary pressures driven by supply chain and energy cost increases.
“Interest rates are definitely moving up and material costs have significantly gone up. We’re cautiously optimistic we’re going to be OK,” Belfonti said.
