ctman987

Dont take the fact that its not Hartford personally because this project is just another string in the number of new towers (residential mostly) that Capelli and in some cases Trump have constructed in Westchester County and now the two are expanding into Stamford which is still metro New York. These two focused on places like New Rochelle and White Plains (north of Manhattan) so obviosuly the next major city in this market for them is Stamford and now there trying to take advantage of it.

I personally am opposed to this project. And someone earlier mentioned that we need hospitals close to where ALL people live...having a hospital in Farmington is close to where most of the affluent people in Greater Hartford live...the Farmington Valley. If we need hospitals close to people live how come there arent major hospitals like this south of Hartford (Rocky Hill/Cromwell) and east of the river (Glastonbury/Marlborough/Portland)...even though there is an allright hospital in Manchester

Only in CT...geese absolutly amazing. It amazes me that they build a replacement in Farmington...there are a lot of UCONN med students who do work with Hartford Hospital and CCMC doctors...pathetic.

I cannot stress how much something needs to be done with this site. These two properties are located at Constitution Plaza which as we know today could be called a "mistake" but we cant take away our mistakes or go back in time but we can fix them and this is the chance. Some of the major problems with Constitution Plaza are that it is all office space with no retail space to encourage any real pedestrian traffic. If we bring street life to these to vacant properties by possibly as suggested earlier..a mixed use condo/office or even better a condo/hotel we can start fixing the problems created years earlier with Constitution Plaza.

Young professionals and college grads are the ones we want living in downtown Hartford. These individuals have the opportunities to start businesses in Hartford, they need to be drawn to this city. These individuals are also the ones who if they moved downtown would walk around the streets, frequent city businesses, have a date at a downtown restaurant and enjoy a Friday night at a downtown club or bar.

This area has so much potential. I think the city should go ahead and try to get the property by eminent domain. My only fear is that after the city may set out an RFP (Request for Proposals) and hand pick someone and take all this time...and create a similar situation to Front Street. Personally, yes condos would be perfect in this location because the rest of the new residential units in downtown are closer to the park and the Civic Center or by the Colt building...not by Adriaens Landing..yet that is (Front Street). But we need to occupy the residential units that are already coming on board in this city before we make huge new proposals. There is a hotel shortage and the Clarion site could be a perfect place for a botique hotel for the city. An idenpendantly owned and operated one similar to the Hotel Providence near the Providence Performing Arts Center in downtown Providence. This area has potential and we cannot just sit here...

Glad my pictures could help... I havent read through this whole section but I can tell a little bit about those Baltimore pics I took... Urban Big Box Store: That building where the Best Buy is located is an office building located at the Inner Harbor. There is currently a Best Buy there and soon a Whole Foods will be opening up there. It was interesting to see a mid size city incorporate a big box store into an urban area (as opposed to NYC which has been doing it for quite some time...there are countless Staples for example in Midtown) The parking meters: Those systems where everything is on one machine were very helpful. They had them in Baltimore and in Ocean City, Maryland. All I had to do was pay and it printed out a ticket that I put on my car. It also helped the streets look much nicer because there werent hundreds of old falling over parking meters Overhead Street Sign: That pic is from N. Charles Street which is a major north south street in the city. It starts by the Inner Harbor and travels straight uptown through the CBD and into the Mt Vernon Cultural District. These signs signified the crossing streets...similar to a NYC situation.

I was just talking about the tenants in some of his other properties which are: Shops at Somerset Square in Glastonbury (upscale lifestyle shopping center) Greenwich Financial Center in Greenwich Greenwich Avenue Retail in Greenwich Lockworks Square in Brandford Cromwell Square in Cromwell 100 Newtown Road in Danbury 150 Boston Post Road in Orange 116 Boston Post Road in Orange 2600 Post Road in Southport Playhouse Square in Westport 410-420 Tarrytown Road in White Plains 330-360 Tarrytown Road in White Plains

Lets hope he comes through...Nitkin has well reputable national retailers at his other (suburban) retail venues lets hope he can get them into Hartford

Hartford is really at a pivotal point right now where it can add a development similar to the mall in providence, mall in waterbury, times square in NYC and inner harbor in Baltimore and the mall in downtown Stamford that has chain stores and entertainment venues that arent really locally owned and operated. Front Street would be Hartford's thing Do people thing Hartford should have such a thing? New Haven doesn't for example.

Hartford has a lot of theaters and museums which are in my view due in part to the wealth that Hartford had and the strong corporate and business scene it had and still has. Hartford has the Hartford Stage, Bushnell and TheaterWorks - 3 theaters all downtown The Webster - minutes from downtown Meadows & Civic Center - draw big name bands to the city Old State House, Wadsworth, State Capital, Mark Twain, Harriett Beecher Stowe, etc - history and the arts

Smaller cities like Northampton and New Haven have a strong local scene and they like it. If you are good and have the resources to handle NYC then you should go for it. But NYC is very competitive and expensive. I think we should work to make Harford a bit more like New Haven and Northampton and NYC's Greenwich Village

This all brings up a great point that Hartford needs a place that attracts college students. Im a student in NYC so I dont frequent Providence or New Haven or Northampton so I cant talk for them...although I have visited New Haven hundreds of times since im from Hartford and know that New Haven is always filled with activity thanks to Yale, QU, SNHU, Albertus Magnus & UNH. Anyway the areas around Columbia University, Fordham University (both campuses), FIT, Manhattan College, CMSV, etc. do not cater especially to students. But in the city NYU is in Greenwich Village and the village caters to all college students...especially the NYU crowd. There are hundreds of restaurants, bars, clubs, theaters, movie theaters and more that are all filled with NYU students. The village has become one of the hottest areas in the city for the younger crowd. Hartford and yes even Providence, Northampton and New Haven do not have one huge school like NYU that has 40,000+ students who all obviously all need a place to go but nevertheless Providence, Northampton and New Haven have all made niches for there students and Hartford should do the same. The differance in Hartford I think is that we want the students downtown and we also cant forget that downtown is the city's center of business and is becoming a more expensive area with all these new condos and apartments. There is nothing wrong with this but we need to work to incorporate this all into downtown Hartford. For example downtown New Haven has lots of corporations but is not the major center of business that Hartford is so it works out for New Haven. When I meant bigger cities I meant like NYC....Hartford, Providence, etc. are all great smaller cities that can cash in on this other market for smaller bands. Im sure there are places for smaller music in NYC but it is a lot harder to find cheap space and advertise then it would be to go into Hartford and have everyone at UCONN, UHART, Trinity, etc. know about your music

I know many people who go to the concerts at the Meadows and at the Civic Center (Hilary Duff, Dave Matthews, etc) but these music venues that Providence, New Haven and Northampton have feature smaller sometimes not as well known bands. They are not the biggest names in music but have real music. It is something that smaller cities have as opposed to bigger cities mostly. In NYC it would be really hard to support a place that didnt draw in big name bands but in smaller cities it works and so we should make it work in Hartford

I started a new topic after reading in the Trinity newspaper that students travel to New Haven, Northampton and Providence for music venues because there is nothing besides the Webster in Hartford. Granted New Haven and Northampton are more "artsy" cities with more colleges and Providence is a bigger college town Harford could still attract more musical venues for the younger crowd