Hartford's Parkville Market is seen at night. Photo courtesy of Carlos Mouta
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin has asked city councilors for authorization to enter into tax deals to help finance a pair of developments.
The first, in the city’s popular Parkville Arts & Innovation District neighborhood, would see the city give local developer Carlos Mouta a 15-year tax abatement on 17 Bartholomew Ave, where Mouta plans to build a 57-unit apartment building with ground-floor commercial spaces. Mouta also plans to develop a 350- to 400-car parking garage on the remainder of the site, then subdivide the garage from the apartment building and deed the former to the city for use by the public. in exchange for the tax break deal.
Mouta has been the major investor in the neighborhood’s revitalization, most notably redeveloping an old factory into a food hall called Parkville Market. His planned apartment building, Bronin’s letter to city councilors states, is also receiving $5.5 million in state money via a CT Communities Challenge grant.
The second tax deal Bronin pitched to councilors Monday would offer a major inducement to any prospective buyers of a former graduate school campus for Troy, New York-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The 13-acre parcel at 275 Windsor St. sits on the edge of the city’s Downtown North neighborhood. Anchored by the new Dunkin’ Park baseball stadium, the site has attracted significant developer attention but other parcels closer to the park are mired in a legal dispute.
Bronin’s letter to councilors called the tax deal “an important opportunity for the City to maintain the momentum of development in that vicinity.” CBRE is marketing the property for its current owner, but no buyer has emerged since it went on the market in February.
The deal Bronin pitched to councilors would fix 275 Windsor St. property taxes at $82,050.50 for five years, then progressively phase in tax increases over a 20-year period to a final amount determined once a development proposal is finalized.
The deal would, however, also obligate the land’s future developers to give women- and minority-owned businesses a specific share of work on the project and to set aside 20 percent of any future homes on the property as affordable housing at rents accessible to people making between 50 percent and 120 percent of area median income, plus contribute to support neighborhood services.
Hartford city councilors plan hearings on both of Bronin’s proposals.
