The Voice of Reason

I think the tendancy is to hope for the best regarding a project like this. They may be sketchy, but they seem to be doing something right. They pushed this thru Washington. That's gotta count for something. I really hope this project works out in the end, and I hope we get a National park out of the deal, and I honestly don't care how much money a company makes as long as they deliver on the project. Now I will say that before this national recognition, I was getting concerned about the viability of the project, but it seems as though they were making some progress if not with hammer and nail but with red tape. Now I thought their funding a bit sketchy, but hopefully with the rates dropping right now there will be funding opening up all overr the place, and they can get the next phase underway. If the staste moves offfices in order to help a project I dont have a problem with that. I think this is how the governments should help projects out. The difference in rates cant be that much, and in the long run the completed project would bring much more money into the city than the short term loss. additionally, whatever location those workers would be leaving can surely attract new tennants easier than a project that in on the downtown firnge and is anchoring the areas revitalization. Remember if Colt works out, there will be other near by projects that will gain momentum. If the Nail factory had a near by national park condo development success story I would say that they would get all kinds of financing and interest in general. also those hotels etc... and the potential burying of 91 by the state. yes, I am an optomist and yes I do have some concerns, but there has been some progress here, so I will hold off judgement untill I stop seeing progress.

Agreed HT, Its simular to comments about front street being mostly eateries and entertainment venues, and not retail. At this point we take what we can get. the more of anything that there is downtown the better downtown is. and at some point, like HT said there will be a tipping point, and a mad dash to open retail downtown will kick off as new housing starts will skyrocket.

If we get a Brooks Brothers as previously rumored, and a book store to go with an entertainment district I would be Thrilled. I would hope...let me re try that HOPE!!! that the remainderr of the land was used to a higher density. A residential tower on main street would be great, a hotel would be great, and a movie theater would be ideal in a development like this. I am not going to get my hopes up too much, but if something is built and I like the asthetics of what they drew, then I count this a positive. and a small thought 2010 completion? its not that big of a project, what the hell?

I couldnt find anything other than those ones on the ccda web site. I will say that I do really like that old site plan.

what renderings? new or old?

I liked that "thank you for smoking" movie. And since CT has a huge Tobacco industry, and many of the nations largest liquor importers... Not really a family friendly museum ehh? It include a gun range

There was more coverage in the HC today. pictures, some Audio from the Gov. all good press for the "Insurance (and firearm) City". I would also like to chime in that Hartford should have a CT gun museum. and if at all possible possibly include some stuff from our defence contractors as well. If a large enough scale could be reached you could imagine some submarine exibts, Helicoptor Exibits, Colts Guns, a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from Pratt and Whitny etc.

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews...hc_tab01_layout This is great news as it should help fire up a few lagging projects and could lead to the burying of I91 through Downtown! I will say that it is most important that this happened for the purpose of the redevelopment project, because that is real and tangible. But if this also leads to the whole park becoming a national historical park as the plan goes this could be very good news. I suspect the burying of I 91 would gain momentum quite quickly. I also thing the entire area might actually se a rebirth. I am an optimist however

Go look in a mirror. A negative defeatist attitude is what causes failure. There is a build up. Something is getting done. Don't piss on a parade, instead support the potential improvements in the city we all live and work in as it may make a better life for yourself your family and your friends.

OK so thats funny stuff. I didnt even notice that before. What is a steam shovel. I would guess a backhoe or however that is spelled. All this activity means I definately have to swing by there some day soon.

I'm not going to get excited yet. Buy I will throw in a mini Yay! and noq to make my posting hold more merrit, I saw that Cigna bought some company today that MIGHT end up bringing more jobs to their CT operations. Might have to swing by construction the site this week and see whats going on

Of course they are, but the same politicians have controll over both silos. If the congress people can get designation, they can get financial backing from whatever departments they need to in order to make the area what they want it to be. DOT is relatively rich, and every national park has a transportation element. what good is a park if there is no access or if access to the park takes away from its functionality or appearance. And just to re-state, the congressman that wants to bury the highway wants to do so ONLY if NP designation goes thru.

While burying 84 would give Hartford much more land to play with, burying 91 would likely be much easier and cheaper. Also, as the news clip stated, if Colt Park gets National Park status, this opens a whole world of federal funding. and While our national parks may not be cash rich, the DOT can assist NP by helping the area out and giving it riverfront status again. Also the city recently approved a 10 billion 10 year bond that will completely re-do the cities sewar system, and stormwater run off. I have NO DOUBT that this project will affect the old Hog River as most of this water ends up flowing out of that viaduct. If This happens the city would just need to be sure the hog river part of the project were done closer to year 8,9 or 10 and I am sure the plans they have now could be slightly modified at little cost as they are completely re building these tunnels as is. A project like this might be an ideal time to remove the whitehead all together as it would no longer be linked to a highway. It would be part of the local roads built along the river. This part would likely fall on the city more than the state and certainly not the feds. If the city state and Feds all got together on a project like this I would be thrilled. I would love to see something done right here downtown. We COULD and I will repeat, COULD end up with a National Park downtown. A Burried 91 leading to a larger and more usefull Riverside Park. An exposed Park River. The Colt condos would get their funding and be built out. The Whitehead could be turned into surface streets that link up with the riverfront Blvd and funnel people onto the highways. The entire Eastern part of the city would get a boost from this. People would also see the advantages of doing something about 84. Parcels of land along the river and along the whithead would be built on as they are uncovered, and as the highway view is replaced by a river view.

Scuttlebutt? I am wondering how you get scuttlebut like that anyhoo all but the retailer moving into chanel 3 is good news for me. ok well thats good news too, but it would be a shame if that location were taken off the market. it seems that the broadcast house and the hotel together might actually happen under perez based on the things he has said. I suppose its just not in the cards at this time and it will have to fait a few years. and it might as well be retail during that time.

The Houston Dynamo Advanced from the West to play The New England Revolution. The final was a very good match. The pace of the game was certainly on par with any major league from around the world, but of course below world cup level. New England got the early lead, but Houston scored against the flow of the game before half time. In the end Houston scored a go ahead goal, and held on to win the title. This is the third streight year that NE has made the finals and 3rd time they lost. (can ayone say Buffalo bills of the early 90s?) Houston has now wone back to back since being moved from San Jose. The game was played in DC, and attendance looked very nice. On that note this years attendance was the leagues best since its inagural season. The inagural season numbers were thrown off by 90000+ at the first ever Galaxy game in LA and many other cities haveing huge curiosity numberrs in their first home games. Regardless of Beckham I think the league made some major steps forward recently with TV contracts that actually put money in the leagues pocket rather than cost the league money to broadcast games. As for expansion, the only locks are San Jose II and Seattle. The league always names a crap load of cities and nothing ever happens. so dont hold your breath on the other places. I would say its saferr to sit back and wait untill next season, then see how things develop. and to the poster that is tempted to cheer for LA because of Beckham, please dont. Please stick with DC as they have been the pride of the leage from the start. they are classy and I am sure that they will still be a top flight squad in MLS 10-20-30 years from now. Besides you can actually drive to a game if you felt like it, and night games would end at a reasonable time if your watching on tv I am like you and have always had a attraction to DC. I am from NY but never liked the team from Jersey, and like them less now with their new owners. I now live in Hartford, and may very well be a New England fan untill a TRUE New York City team joins the league.

I am wondering if the Marriott being built in some way has a clause making it the only hotel allowed in the Adriaen's landing development. It would not suprise me if this was the case. I also agree that the Hartford Times building would be a nice entrance for a boutique hotel. That being said I would be more supportive of the Mariott expanding as mentioned than a boutique hotel in front street. I think I would rather Goodwin have a few more years dominating that market as downtown comes more to life.

Colechester has a large number of commuters to Hartford. I work with two in my group of 16 at work. I also know that at least 2 are from Canton and 1 from middletown 1 in mansfield, and about 5 in Mass. the rest are closer by like me in Manchester or New Britain. I did find it a very interesting map

I sent them an e-mail. why not ehh?

I am not sure how perez has scared off potential investors. To me, Investors by their nature are forward thinking and they are not worried about current administrations so much. If there were no financial incentives attatched to the property I would maybe agree, but the state is all ready so behind this property that the current mayor is irrelevelt. This project will only have to operate for 2 years under this mayor and 2 years of construction. The 70 Million is guaranteed. The convention center is built and bringing people to the area. The science center is well under way and will be finished no matter who is mayor. Investors tend to look at things in 10-20 year segments. I would love the developers of this project to embrace the water views achieved over top of the convention center. Columbus may never be a great retail street, but that does not mean that front street should house the only retail. Columbus could becon conventioners, and could encourage the convention centers expantion (theoretical as that may be) to include columbus street retail. http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=53corn...-chicago-il-usa is the kind of building I want to see built on both blocks fronting columbus. Each building would house over 100 units. That building on Emporis was to have 96 luxury condos, but I would rather see 120 mid level condos in each building. This would not only fit architecturally, but would be appropriate density and height for this area. just more useless pontificating

This project really baffles me. I know that I am not an experienced developer, but it seems as though my logic is strong regardless of experience. The city and state were offering $70+ Million for this project! The project was projected to cost about $150 Million. Even if construction costs have risen signifigantly since these numbers were published and the total cost somehow rose to $250 Million THE STATE IS STILL CHIPPING IN $70+ MILLION!! I dont know about you guys but if you told me I could invest $250 Million and after two years of construction I would get a refund of $70 Million I would be all over that. As an investment that represents a 19.44% return each year. Once the construction was finished, and you as developer allready made $70 million, you would then continue to make money off of the 200+ housing units, and 150K+ sqft of retail. If you concider 150,000 sqft of retail to be the developemnts footprint I ask you to then think that at 4-8 stories, the project total could easily range from 600K square feeet to 1.2 Million total square feet. I have no idea how this project could be risky. Nitkin putting up 115 Apartments, and 60K retail on half the property seems also like a slam dunk. I mean its free money. Once he gets this thing built, half of the land would still be available for development as well as 41 million is state monies. as per their origonal request the new developer would just need to build 85 housing units and 90k in retail to get those funds. I know thaty if I were a developer I would be all over this project.

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews...hc_tab01_layout Article on Steel Point

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctcol...0,2597373.story More info about the financial hurdles facing the Colt gateway. I really hope this gets worked out. I think the developers are in this for the right reasons, and doing this the correct way, and even though I think they are asking a little too much of the state, it does seem as though the developer is in some way a victim for a failing lender. stalled work is lost money and makes it that much harder for this to succeed. I hope the city/state do a little to help them out as they continue to fight thru this. basically I just want to see this property become all that it could be. and it 10 years hopefully no longer have RT 91 in front of it, just a riverfront Blvd and park.