ctman987

Hi Stephanie. Where in Sicily did your family come from? My grandparents came from Floridia, Siclily (right outside of Siracusa) which is actually one of Hartford's sister cities. They came to Hartford, started a family and owned rooming houses first in the North End and then in the West End before moving to Wethersfield in the early 90's. Middletown is also another great city, just this past weekend I was at St. Sebastion's Church for the Saint Sebastion Feast on Washington Street near Main Street where there many native Sicilians also.

I totally agree....I think that stores and restaurants that are not already in the area are key. For example the D&B would be the only one in CT and the other ones would be in Providence and Buffalo. This is why I think stores like Cabela's and Stew Leonard's are very important.

Heres some pictures I have taken (everyones probably seen them before) that you can use if you want to

They are not having trouble with the residential units. They have had 12 requests for the 4 penthouses and 250 requests for the rest of the units and there are 262 total....not that bad. Check todays courant business section to see a picture from the top of the building

Thats awesome plus I like the fact of brining new things to Hartford. For example the square that goes along with the Plaza Mayor will be awesome and the european feel of Front St will be another plus for the city

Just out of curiosity what is the height limit in Stamford?

I think another news facility would be great downtown somewhere. I definiltly felt WFSB had a location advantage for Hartford news being able to step out their door and bring viewers the capital city up close.

I think thats a great idea. The WFSB building is an eyesore and since they are leaving it might as well go. The city needs to jump on the fact of letting people know that this parcel needs to be developed.

Something does need to be done with the Clarion Hotel and soon to be vacated WFSB Some thoughts 1. The property (clarion hotel) should be seized and the city should send out and RFP and see what developers are intrested 2. Since WFSB and Clarion will both be vacant they could be marketed together 3. NO OFFICE SPACE, either Constitution College, residential w/ retail space would move some residents to that end of downtown, or if the market could support it more hotel rooms since its right near Adriaens Landing but on that note the Marriott can expand to 700 rooms

After clicking on real estate portfolio click on developments and there will be two projects listed, click Hartford 21 The capital city economic development authoritys page on hartford 21 includes numerous renderings also, link below. http://www.cceda.state.ct.us/civiccenter/index.htm

Attended the topping off ceramony today at 2:00 on Trumbull Street Another great ceramony to welcome another great project to the city of Hartford. It was so great to see that so many people came to the ceramony which is just about a month after the grand opening of the Hartford Marriott Downtown (Aug 25). There were loads of business people who work downtown who took time out of there day to come and watch. The event was attended by Govenor Jodi Rell and Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez

That sounds great. I for one sadly do not use public transportation in Hartford because it is not readily available. But I would like to use it more because I know when I go to New York or Boston how much easier and less stressfull it is to use public transportation. Obviously it is very hard to drive into lower Manhattan nevertheless finding a parking space but even in a city like Boston where driving is fairly easy it is much easier to dirve into the city or into one of the suburbs and then take the T (above/undergound at times) subway like system then to move your car around all day to each place you go and worry about parking tickets, parking spaces, traffic, and scratiching your car. It would be much easier to take public transportation in from the suburbs then deal with the traffic on I-84, I-91, Rt. 2, Rt. 9, etc every single day.

There will be 53,000 square feet of retail space and 93,000 square feet of office space in addition to the 262 residential apartments in the 36 story residential tower.

The Hartford downtown circular project will be having a test run starting in late September into October in Hartford. This will be a series of small buses that will start at the Convention Center and make numerous stops through downtown Hartford such as at hotels and attractions and buses will be at every stop within 7-10 minutes. Also the fact is that Hartfords downtown is very small and so just making this circualr was very hard because someone could bike across downtown in 20 minutes.

I agree the inside of the Hilton is beautiful, they did a nice job with the outside of the 1st floor but the upper levels need a facelift. One of the mayors priorities is to bring the Crowne Plaza up to date (4-star standards) as the Hilton was...hopefully they can do more exterior work there then they did on the Hilton

A little while ago Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez wanted to annex parts of Goodwin Park from Wethersfield and Keney Park from Windsor into Hartford. The towns starting fussing and I have not heard anything on it since. The fact of the matter is that the city of Hartford sits on a little more then 17 square acres making it one of the smallest cities (size wise) in the country. Right now Hartfords suburbs are thriving and do not want any part in Hartfords debt or problems. They feel completly fine with competing for Hartford for jobs (lets not forget ING probably bringing 2000 jobs from Hartford to East Hartford and WFSB leaving Hartford for Rocky Hill) when they all should be competing as one to lure jobs to the entire area. Also Hartfords suburbs would not be what they are today without Hartford. Companies that are leaving Hartford for its suburbs were originally lured to Hartford because most companies wanted city offices and so why would they move to Glastonbury or Rocky Hill or Windsor? On a Differant note: Steel rising from the Hartford 21 tower on Thursday from just past the Hilton by the entrance to I-84W and the 12B parcel

I havent heard anything about that rail line or the Hartford/New Britan Bus line either. Everyone complains about the high gas prices but every time CT gets transportation money they set it aside to fix roads and/or enlarge roads and dont set away the correct amount of funds to properly fund more public transportation projects.

Everything at Adrieans Landing can be expanded. The Marriott was supposed to have 700 rooms but a before the hotel was built a market analysis showed that the market could only support around 400 rooms so 409 rooms were built and so ifneccessary there is room in the back of the center for 300 extra rooms and posssibly a ballroom. The green grass and open space in front of the Convention Center and parking lot is in case the Convention Center needs to be expanded as it is easier to build over that then knocking somehting down. Front Street can also be expanded over the Conlan Whitehead Memorial Highway if neccessary whci is why that lot is surface parking so when the first phase is up and running and the state and the developer are ready to pursue phase 11 they can build right on the surface lot.

Hartford Tycoon I noticed you mentioned education as an extremly important thread and on that note I personally think it is great how (1) the regions private and pariochial schools have stepped up the amount of aid they will be offering to bring inner city kids into these exclusive private schools even in Hartford (lets not forget Watkinson School) and in many of the Hartford suburbs such as Kingswood Oxford and Northwest Catholic in West Hartford, Avon Old Farms in Avon, Miss Porters and Westminster in Simsbury and Loomis Chaffee in Windsor. (2) a recent poll from Hartford Magazine ranked the top 20 high schools in the area and allthough Hartford's public high schools were not on there it was made note of the fact that they are in fact improving and also on the list of these schools were East Hartford High School and Bloomfield High School. It is definitly true that many suburbinites have a fear of the city that is put into them at a young age. I have lived in Wethersfield for four years and previously lived in Hebron before then (Exit 13 off Route 2) and am a senior at Watkinson School in Hartford. My mother was raised in Hartford by her two immigrant parents from Floridia, Sicily in Italy. She first lived in a rooming house her parents bought in the North End on Albany Avenue then in another rooming house they bought on Ann Street, then in apartment building on Farmington Avenue in the West End before she finally went to college at Saint Josephs College and Trinity College and so she was not afraid of the city and this has been passed on to me. Although my grandparents beleived in a strong education and so none of their three children ever went to Hartford public schools. They saved their money so they could go to Saint Patrick's School and Northwest Catholic High School. There are many students I go to school with who will not even step a foot farther into the city then they already are (keep in mind the school is on the Hartford-West Hartford line) There are many who will go the long about way to get home to the suburbs just so they dont have to go through the city and I am happy to say if it is 5:00 I am going to go down Albany Avenue till it reaches downtown and pick I-91S by the G.Fox building if it will save me time. There is a bad image that is instilled at times by the parents that needs to be changed as Hartford is changing.

Just this past week the state received an enourmas jump in the amount of money it receives to use for transportation. One of the projects that the state plans to use the money for is the New Britan-Hartford busway Other projects include: -Road improvments at Adrieans Landing in Hartford -Road improvments at Coltsville in Hartford - Road imrpovments on Mark Twain Drive in Hartford - 3.4 million for the Hartford downtown circulator project - Widening and other work on I-84 -Widening and other work on I-95 (widening from Brandford to North Stonington) - Improvments to Route 11 and 82 - Bus transit aid including 5 million for the NEW BRITAN-HARTFORD BUSWAY - Extra 35 million for Quinnipiac River Bridge reconstruction in New Haven

Article on Front Street's new developer: http://www.courant.com/hc-nitkin0717.artju...0,3700842.story Just this past weekend a new developer was made public. The front page of Sunday's Hartford Courant showed that the HB Nitkin Group of Greewnwich had been chosen to replace ousted developer Richard Cohen of Capital Properties. The groups president Bradley Nitkin was featured in this article. The Nitkin group's portfolio includes Cromwell Square in Cromwell, CT which is a 215,000 square foot shopping facility off I-91 and Rt. 9 Shops at Somerset Square in Glastonbury, CT which is a 105,000 square foot lifestyle shopping center off Rt.2 Greenwich Financial Center which is an 80,000 square foot Class A office building with retail space 116 and 150 Boston Post Road in Orange Playhouse Square in Westport which is a 40,000 square foot retail space facility 330-360 Tarrytown Road in White Plains, NY Lockworks Square in Brandford, CT which is a 35,000 square foot historically renovated retail space facility 100 Newton Road in Danbury, CT which is a 50,000 square foot retail space facility The developer is expressing a desire to build 200 owner-occupied condos instead of apartments as previous developer Richard Cohen wanted to do. ESPN is still planning to build an entertainment attraction

June, 2005 The redevelopment of the Civic Center property is well under way in Downtown Hartford. The 36 story residential tower which will be the largest residential tower in New England is currently being constructed. Trumball Street (street of the civic center, major street in downtown Hartford) is seeing lots redevelopment as a result of the Hartford 21 aka Civic Center project. The attached Hartford Hilton Hotel just reopened after a major 34million dollar renovation. The hotel features 392 rooms, 11 suites, indoor pool, fitness center, new restaurant and fully renovated rooms which are all a great asset to the city. Next door to the Civic Center the Goodwin Square property has just been purchased by the redeveloper of the Civic Center for 41million dollars. The property features 330,901 square feet of office space, a 330 space/ 8 level parking garage and the famous Goodwin Hotel.