Photo courtesy of The Millennium and USJ
Faced with increasing enrollment, the University of Saint Joseph will expand its footprint from Hartford’s suburbs to its downtown.
The school announced this week it’s signed an agreement with the owners of the Millennium Apartments hotel-to-multifamily conversion at 50 Morgan St. to place an unspecified number of upperclass undergraduate and graduate students in the building for the 2024-2025 school year.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer this new option for our USJ students, particularly those engaged in pre-professional experiences downtown such as clinical rotations in nursing, pharmacy and nutrition, and a wide range of internships,” USJ President Rhona Free said in a statement. “Our decision to secure expanded housing in Hartford is a win-win for students and Hartford, as USJ and other institutions contribute to Hartford’s growth as a college town.”
Amenities include on-site parking, theater space with reclining seats, an outdoor seasonal pool, an on-site gym, a private yoga room and a game room with arcade games, pool and air hockey.
The Millennium project has been buffeted by misfortune until now.
A development team of New York City-based Shelbourne Global Solutions and Waterbury-based Alexa Group bought the former Red Lion Inn for $22 million in mid-2021, with plans to finish the previous owner’s plans to convert the building from a 150-key hotel into a 164-unit apartment building. At time of sale, the top eight floors totaling 96 rooms had been converted and leased before cost overruns, construction delays and the COVID-19 pandemic forced the sale. At the time, current tenants had declared their intent to form a union after claiming problems with the workmanship, nonfunctional amenities and crumbling concrete in the underground parking garage.
Two years later, the building was faced with a tax foreclosure sale after Hartford officials announced the building owed nearly $900,000 in back taxes and fees before a last-minute deal appearing to unlock a refinancing deal saved the project from the auction block.
The property’s turnaround was confirmed by the number of local officials present at USJ’s Tuesday announcement: city Chief Operating Officer Shay Ajayi and Director of Development Services Jeff Auker, plus David Griggs, CEO of business group MetroHartford Alliance.
“It will be great to have USJ students downtown where they can visit our restaurants and businesses and take in a Yard Goats game. We’re excited to have a USJ presence in downtown Hartford to contribute to the vibrancy of our great city,” Auker said in a statement provided by USJ.
“This is more than a transformation,” Griggs said. “It’s a realization of just how much of a college town Hartford is.”
