Image courtesy of VHB

What was once a large campus for The Hartford insurance company could become hundreds of new homes under a plan being heard by Simsbury officials tonight.

An affiliate of New Jersey real estate investment and development firm The Silverman Group is presenting plans to Simsbury’s Conservation Commission and Inland Wetlands Agency May 5 that would build 689 units in apartments, single-family homes and semi-detatched duplexes at 200 Hopmeadow St.

The project is dubbed “The Ridge at Talcott Mountain South” in project filings.

The 177-acre site was once home to a 625,000-square-foot, mid-1980s office complex and associated parking lot used by The Hartford. Silverman Group bought the land for $8.25 million in 2015 after the town adopted a new zoning code unlocked possible redevelopment, and after The Hartford consolidated the complex’s workers into its other locations.

Silverman Group demolished the office buildings in 2016 and subsequently built “The Ridge at Talcott Mountain North” on the northern half of the site with 280 apartments, a 120-bed assisted living facility and room for 11,600 square feet of retail and office space.

Plans for this latest phase of the redevelopment show 17 apartment buildings between 3 and 4 stories high closest to Hopmeadow Road, with 616 apartments between them. Behind those would sit 27 duplexes and 19 single-family homes.

Plans also appear to show a clubhouse with a pool, and some residents will have access to covered parking in garages under the apartment buildings and in garages associated with the detached and semi-detached homes.

The Silverman proposal is undergoing Conservation Commission/Inland Wetlands Agency review because there are wetlands on the site. However, filings state that the proposed development is entirely within the footprints of the former office building and its parking lot, and it will be adding vegetative buffers and removing pavement within portions of the wetlands area, and adding infrastructure to reduce stormwater discharge.