The Voice of Reason

I wonder if that Motel 8 gets revived if this all comes to pass? I mean there is certainly reason to believe that a hotel would do MUCH better in that location if there was a sweet apartment and brewery across the street.. honestly I hope to see a larger scale hotel proposed over there at this point which brings me to another thought. the Raddison plaza, will need to get in on this revitalization by possibly reconfiguring its lowest floors to better interact with the new built environment. I mean there will be oipportunity for retail and such right?

thanks for the confirmation Esq. I too am extremely interested in what the leasing will look like with the Apartments coming online. UConn is still a long ways out and frankly has a strange retail configuration if you ask me so Im less interested in regards to the strength of the district for entertainment. I suspect we will see some swift leasing in the Apartment retail that faces the Wadsworth and travelers plaza area

Froyo works. not sure if Hartford is ready... or if its overdue

no bank. entertainment districts dont needs banks. aws far as the site plans, the reserved for tag is not new. I think the first plan had a brewery on there,. these were not based on any actual interest, just a concept of the developers/leasing agent to drive interest. Id think that the area has most of what it needs. Movie theater, check live music hall, check high end steak Check high end seafoood, check family burger, check BBQ joint check and then add in the resturant at Infinity hall, Arch st tavern, and the bistro at the theater, three American resturants. add a fast casual option or 2, and a coffee place and I think you are well covererd. Id personally like to see some other things like a nice beer bar, or an Irish pub as they would be a nice contribution to the mix but of Chipotle is real, thats most of what was missing.

I like this pllan more and more. From looking at this, we have a real nice layout here with the reuse of an older building as part of the project. Gotta love when the already large scope is expanded my a proposal. and that it has 650 units, which is more than the reported 600 and of course way more than the minimum required 300 only thing I noticed is that the 225 in the building that would replace the data center might feel a little isolated over there. who knows tho

Chipotle is perfect. and honestly it just makes perfect sense. The lease plan shows it as a cafe, but clearly a lease is a lease and no landlord would turn down a national brand fast casual over principle http://www.blacklinere.com/Flyers/Front-Street-District-Lease-Plan.pdf City hall and wadsworth: A million years ago(marybe 10 years)), it was agreed to and there were even renderings of an expansion. Not sure what all happned or if anything is actually binding, but the building has very few uses other than as a city hall type edifice or a museum. be careful of those "done deal" comments though they might shorten your political career. Regarding the city leaving people at 550 main, It think its obvious that the new building would need to include all offices. the one plan notes 220K SF city hall. This is more than enough for the outlying city offices, and could absorb the current city hall too. the thing about the current hall is that it is terribly inefficient as far as office space because it is so damn nice as a fancy edifice. its a few Hundred K of space but likely much less in terms of actuall useful office space and meeting rooms. The RFP for the replacement said the current rented space costs 4 mill a year, and the bonds required to build a new space would be about 5 mill where is the delta? its the current owned building. Say the city can sell it, and say the annual manitenance on that is factored it. I I gotta think a new city hall might be worth the effort purely on a financial basis, let alone a functional one.

HT, I couldnt agree more. I mean if we are weighing a baseball dimond vs a 50K SF shoprite and 200-300 apartments with additinal retail, I am honestly kind of torn. the apartments and shoprite are a big grab... If however we get what we have now... 2-300 apartments and a shoprite vs 600+ Apartments and a shoprite...... PLUS a brewery, a city hall(220K office) .... oh and a baseball stadium and a littleague field and additional retail.... hard to argue my biggest concern now is this advisory panel. I do not want the city and the loudmouths nitpicking the developers untill this project dies. Im thinking about the people who killed Front Street 10+ years ago. so I should hope they selected a better committe than that. I hope they dont say 600 apartments is too many or that they are pushing out the locals so they need to include affordable housing and section 8. I hope the advisors say that it should be 800 apartments, or that the buildings can be taller... My point being that if that committe makes some reccomendations to the 2 main developers... Im cool. if those reccomendations are absurd and ultimately deter development, Im not. I think Hooker will withdraw their bid once they sign letters of intent with both the other 2 master developers. they were only in the game so they could be included, and it seems as though that is a lock now. Also i think that CV properties needs to secure the housing component sooner rather than later. Leyland was smart to include a littleleague diamond. its terribly out of place though... I mean really are there littleague diamonds in any city center in the world? maybe in a large park, but this is kinda weird. It might be better as a multusport field. no raised mound, and in the dimensions of a soccer field, so it can be used by the entire community including baseball. but its also uneeded with riverside park right across 91 anyways, id love to see a nice lawn park there where people can picnic. there are not many comfortable green spaces so any addition will be nice. this is the thing that CV provides, that city hall park is pretty sweet

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-hartford-rock-cats-0822-20140821,0,4094209.story Here we go folks! Leyland alliance with a $350 million proposal and CV with a $217 Million bid Looks like some site plans too

That video was very encouraging. I as I was watching it I had the thought.... hmmm 35 million is a lot of money... so I guess it makes sense. mind you much of the updates are in system improvements but still when you sepnd 35 mill you will see some improvements. Looking forward to getting to a few games this fall. In a related note, the HBJ did part 3 of the summer series of the rise of Hartford talking a little about what the city will be like in 10 years This week was Arena week first link is to the summer series in general http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20140811/PRINTEDITION/308089967/1043 more detailed article about the stadium decision. http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20140811/PRINTEDITION/308089960

I saw this and found it interesting to fast forward almost 3 years: Of the 14 items I listed here 9 are actually happening or at least looking like they may happen. The remaining 5 (in red) buildings are all still in active use for other purposes, so they are more of a stretch. pretty cool to think how much a few years changed, and I hope that if a new list were made it would show that new construction is almost certainly a requirement for future housing developments over the next 5 or so years. The baseball stadium development being prime evidence to this. (and Front Street and 3 CP of course)

I think that level is still garage though isnt it? its not like there are hotel rooms/apartments at that height. and facing a shaerd wall with a newly planned development

OK, those are new for sure! the openings look to be full floor height, so likely not windows they may well be passage ways between the two buildings. im sure the AI building is going to get started soon and those holes likely integrate into the AI pedestal/garage who knows though

HA you linked this page HT Now imagine a world where this happens to Leyland Alliance levels of vision, and Downtown not only gets a new ball park but also... 600 housing units a grocery store Hooker Brewery and a new city hall that means the Old city hall could become part of the Wadsworth, and it would hopefully lead to their expansion and ascention as one of the best art museums in the country. this easily could lead to additional visitors to the city and increased economic activity my dream scenerio is coming together.... if only it can actually happen.

Here is the HBJ Article http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20140806/NEWS01/140809947 There is some bad news is these positive developments though. The city has received 4 proposals, and one was thrown out as being not qualified. Hooker is counted as one qualified bidder, so that meansd there are only 2 that are bigger broader proposals. that sucks maybe I am reading the articles wrong. I honestly only see one clear acceptable bid. Leyland alliance 600 units of housing is perfect 300 was too few for such a large area, so this is refreshing 210K sf of office space for a new city hall -sounds about right. that a decent sized building but its not oversized at all. plenty of retail including a grocery store and a brewery... check check and check this takes care of the locals and Hooker only thing not highlighted was parking and thats a good thing but I am sure its included this is exactly what they have in Mansfield, and what Front street first looked like too!! the others just dont stack up! CV Properties LLC seems incomplete, but if they identify some good housing partners and have enough scale, I suppose it can count a city hall and a garage with retail in it in addition to the ballpark is kind of a joke though while it may be a catalyst, it is super underwhelming. It would absolutely NEED to have a housing component signed on Hooker totally incomplete no housing, no office, no nothing this needs to be part of another development. Unless they are holding back more info this sounds like its does not meet the requirements

Yeah, that hooker proposal is kinda crap, Id actually fight it and I frekin love the idea of there at that location just not in that context. I am psyched Leyland is in on this and hope someone like them are chozen and that Hooker can be worked into it. Here is the article from HBJ about the specific stadium developer coming with the Leyland group. http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20140806/NEWS01/140809950 These guys are great because I think they have actually exceeded the minimum requirements out in Storrs, so its is clear they understand that density and critical mass are important. I essentially would say there are 3 proposals because that Hooker one can be scrapped as kind of a 3rd party single issue candidate. they will likely be included in any of the other 3 proposals. In fact I am confident that the city will add that as a requirement to the winning bidder.

try working in Farmington.

most recent thing I read was that some penthouses will begin to come available in September I think. Ill have to find that again. it was in the HBJ series on a new Hartford from a week ago might have to re-read but it came from becker himself I think

no clue about the holes you mention. I have not looked since your post, but I do know there have been some holes down there all alone. they are for where the 3 CP development would integrate with the CP garage regarding 3 CP, they have funding and went to the planing board as per a post I put in some thread here. so they were on the city planning agenda a week or so ago

interesting. If you look at the masterplan from 2009 it is not mentioned there and there is a facility master plan that shows the termination of runway 19 but that doesnt show a paralless runway either. I agree that parallell is a good thing for space and such but I dont see how its possible unless they adjust the plans for terminal A to provide additional room. I really did enjoy looking at the new layout plan though. Putting the new cargo terminal where they did makes good sense and I think would help spur that additional development they wanted near by. also seeing the additional parking garage in front of Term A was cool but it doesnt account for the new plan of adding a rotary and such. so its clearly conceptual.

Friday night I had a friend in town and with my wife we walked a bit of downtown from Main street down to Black eyed Sallys and back. We also drove past this building as we left town because thats just the easiest way home for me. A few things. Since this guy is moving to the area and interested in economic development to a degree I pointed out the building projects that we passed by. 777 Main Street, 101 Pearl and then of course this new construction on Front Street (Plus the Uconn Site) as we left town. Mind you these three projects are likely the most impressive ones we have, he was pretty damn impressed and I have to say thats pretty Cool to have a complete out of towner impressed with the potential future of downtown Hartford. Regarding The new apartments at Front Street. WOW!!! this is a massive building. I mean the steel is pretty well topped out and its just frekin massive in scale. as stated before it comes right to the street, but it has no setbacks which we knew. but the result is from sitting in a car kinda oversized. I dont think a 6-7 story building is oversized for this lot, just that in its raw steel form it looks like it might be pushing the edges a bit hard. everything Front street has been done with frugality in mind, so I suspect they are maximizing square footage while keeping costs down. I am optomistic that its going to look pretty good there. the renderings were pretty nice, so I think we have have a decent looking if not a little bland big apartment box here. What I like though is again its size. Its much taller than I thought it would be and for that reason I am pleased. I was concerned that the design looked too short and squat, but the steel has changed my mind. it looks pretty good from a few angles in terms of massing except maybe again, a little crouding of the sidewalk. but to be fair, thats not an issue anywhere else downtown, its just that with this building its not in live with the other buildings on the street. The retail should resolve that nicely

I must have been thinking about the wiide part. I just know I read something about it being kinda special because its size regarding the paralless atrip, I dont see anything about that anywhere. I do see 19 closing and being turned into a taxiway though. do you have a source?

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/courant-250/moments-in-history/explore-44/hc-250-haar-hartford-stadium-20140725,0,3903656.column wow, an actual honest portrait of what the affected residents feel. im impressed Dan Haar Its a shame that the media and the politicos tend to ignore what the actual constituants think. I for one wrote a letter to the entire city council expressing my support of the stadium as a Hartford Ciity tax payer.

Never be appologetic for ambition that plan makes some sense, but Ill say we dont likely have the demand for any new airstrips and likely never will. especially another 12000 footer If I remember right, 24 is ne of the larger runways in America because it was for miliraty use and is exceptionally wide and long. this makes it capable of handling any sized plane and is why it gets so many diversions including 747 777 A380 (I think it even handled the concord no?) Back to more of the reality stuff. the rental car garage I think is going to be a big game changer at the airport. I personally live when airports have this setup. Boston, and ATL are two that come to mind. they are extremely easy to navigate when on business travel and make for a much quicker transition on the road. Once we organize the rental companies I think that leaves considerable room to improve transit options. With the NH-H-S rail coming online in 2016-17 there will be an opportunioty to continue airport improvements. it just seems as through the airport has some pretty good strategic planning going on right now. it has not yet resulted in much new in terms of flights or traffic, but you never know. Back to routes... Again I see Delta to LAX as a winner with AA proving demand at 80% Delta would likely do better as they are a more popular choice in Hartford. Also the old Delta to LAX was popular and is missed by business travelers heading to Asia SFO I am still not sold on. United has not grown at BDL at all so I see SFO as a stretch even if they used to operate it. another thought I had was back to Jet Blue they are entering into partnerships these days and one of those partners is Iceland Air Iceland air could easily open an international out of BDL that would serve prettymuch anywhere in Europe. http://www.icelandair.us/information/travel-guide/routemap/ Im not certain this would be embraced by business travelers however it could serve both companies relatively well. Not saying its ideal but its actually possible as both airlines are expanding

That protest was utter BS less that 50 people. it seemed clearly organized my someone who had ulterior motives also, why was it front page news? we should organize a Pro Stadium march.... problem is all theose supporters are working and dont have time.

The Ted's Bar actually is well designed to be a hangout as well. its not atypical corporate resturant bar, its tucked away and has its own obvious space Im certain they would be open later if demand warrented it