beerbeer

I agree the natural way to expand the Athenuem is to make the current City Hall part of the arts complex. It is a museum quality building. it would also provide enough space to bring much of the permanant collection out of storage Then a new City Hall could be build in any of a number of locations. It could be added to the Public Safety Complex as part of a government plaza. If the post offece goes out of business, that could be renovated into a new and impressive City Hall.

Map of Front Street with Spotlight and Infinity in place. It also shows how the remaining space is broken up. It doesn't show where Capital Grill will go.

Actually the arena/mall concept was ahead of its time and a very good idea. The Verizon Center in Washington, DC has a mall attached. The Staples Center in L.A. is part of a complex that includes a mall. A propsoal for the new San Francisco 49ers football stadium embraces the stadium/mall concept. Phoenix has a football stadium/hockey arena and indoor/outdoor mall as part of the same complex. I could go on and on. I know some folks make fun of the mall. But if it is such a bad idea why is it being copied all over the country?

I've rented cared cars at dozens of airports from LAX to Brussels. Nothing wrong with Bradley's set up. It is actually pretty fast in and out compared to most.

You would think that attendance would rise as UConn entertained better teams. UConn versus Boston College is a natural draw.

If the state had the vision to build the Griffin Line when it was funded by the Feds in the 1990's we would already have Hartford to Bradley light rail. It was killed by Connecticut's visionary DOT. I noticed there was no timeline on the PDF for the new terminal. I assume the origal building would have to be demolished first.

Progress is progress. Good find. The original finsh date for the theaters was late 2011. Nice to see is moving forward. Eventually Front Street will begin to fill up. It's just a question of time frame. Once again, housing would have made a huge difference. The theaters are a good start. In the original proposal there was a bar/restaurant included with the theaters operated by Spotlight.

For both buildings, parking becomes the problem. If these buildings went up today, 777 and 101 would have parking lots below the buildings. There are too few spaces for 777 and 101 would have to share with Trumbull on the Park. Parking spaces are an ammenity that improve the chances of a building's success. Once again, the parking squeeze is a inhibitor. There is space behind 777 for a garage -and eyesore or not- it would improve both projects.

What map?

250 Main has 214 units 360 Main has 62 units.

What would you consider 250 Main and Adrian's Tower? They are a lot closer to the Old State House (or XL Center, pick your ground zero) than the Colt Apartments.

It only took 52 years to have someone propose apartments at Constitution Plaza ( should have been day one).

Some perspective on the Hartford Civic Center. The Hartford Civic Center was built in 1975 at a cost of 30 million dollars. So it has been open for 37 years and is a good bet to reach 40. In short, it cost about $750,000 a year to construct. Damn that's cheap. For Larry Bird, Wayne Gretzky, Maya Moore, Kemba Walker, Lady Gaga, the Grateful Dead, Ricky Martin, Circuses and Obama the building has enriched the lives of everyone in the state and put Hartford on sports and entertainment pages all over the country. To build a new arena, to do it right, will cost a $150 million But say it lasts 40 years, that's less than $4 million a year. Of course, in 40 years it will cost $4 million to ride the bus. Inflation don't you know. To the good, if the building is run efficiently, it produce a profit, thereby reducing the overall cost of the building. Not to mention the economic impact on bars, restaurants, and stores over 40 years. The the most important reason to build a new arena is not economic. It is the enrichment in the quality of life of the citizenry. To bring the next generation of world class performers to the city. To make the city a better place to live. To keep Hartford relevant as a national city. To be a destination and not a drive-by or fly-over city. Four million a year, it seems cheap to me.

The luxury boxes produce much more revenue than the regular seats. So taking out seats for luxury boxes is a good financial trade. Although I like bigger arenas because they make you feel like you're at a big time event, revenue is the most important number, much more important that total seats.

Almost every U.S. busway has failed. They work pretty well in places like Bogata, Columbia that are teeming with poor people. There is a huge difference between well designed regional mas transit and busways. One works and one doesn't. The Griffin Line was a terrific idea. It was killed. This is a boondoogle. It got approved. The key to any project in Connecticut is how much goes through the DOT to unions to be funneled back to Democrats. it's a sad state of affairs.

The key to any arena is luxury boxes. Sell out the boxes to local corporations and the place is almost bulletproof. How boxes would be refit in the current XL center is a tough and expensive job. I would love to see a floor plan.

Getting Bradley out of the hands of the DOT will pay dividends for decades. Getting a European route should have been a priority for the last 50 years. Great that the commission realizes that.

Is the Colt Firearms Collection to be part of this museum? The Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company Factory Collection was given to the Museum of Connecticut History in 1957. The collection constitutes one of the finest assemblages of early Colt prototypes, factory models and experimental firearms in the world. The collection also includes Colt-made Gattling guns, shotguns and automatic weapons. In 1995 the original "Rampant Colt" statue that had adorned the Hartford Colt factory was acquired by the museum. The Colt Firearms Collection, coupled with historic photographs and other related materials, is a "must-see" for both firearms enthusiasts and students of American history. This is a stunning collection. I believe it is somewhat broken up with the Wadsworth owning part of it.

Why would the city deny these applications? Perhaps the right people were not bribed. Is Abe still breathing? Terrible thing to say, but this is Hartford.

Those numbers basically mean the buildings are full as folks move in and out. They also suggest that the market is nowhere near meeting demand. Conversions of empty properties are cheaper than new stuff. Naturally that is the type of development you would see first. If the Clarion fills up, and I think it will, and the second Hollander fills up, which is very likely given their cost structure, then you still have Pearl Street to convert before someone has to put a shovel in the ground for residential.

I would imagine the retail would be a dry cleaner and a small deli or grocer, something intended for the residents of the building.

New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/realestate/developers-bank-on-young-singles-in-the-regionconnecticut.html It pegs the number of apartments for CCP at 193.

New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/realestate/developers-bank-on-young-singles-in-the-regionconnecticut.html It pegs the number of apartments for CCP at 193.

The Sprint Center in Kansas City is a money maker. " The Sprint Center celebrated its third anniversary by paying $2.1 million to Kansas City as part of a profit-sharing agreement, and by being ranked the second-busiest entertainment arena in the country by a trade publication.The downtown venue opened in October 2007, and though it hasn’t landed a major professional sports franchise, it has exceeded its goals when it comes to financial performance, attendance from concerts and other events. Acting city manager Troy Schulte said the city had budgeted receiving $1.8 million from the Sprint Center profit-sharing agreement,…" If the Sprint Center is an example of the downside, there is no downside.

This guy gets it! Q&A talks with Michael Gallis of Gallis & Associates who will be speaking next week at the Connecticut Venture Group’s Crossroads of Ideas and Capital: Vision 2015 in Healthcare, Digital Media and Energy event June 22 at the Yale Law School in New Haven. Q: You’ve also done some work for Charlotte Douglas, San Diego and San Antonio International Airports. Connecticut has long sought to be a true international airport. What would your recommendation be to get us back on track after losing our direct flight to Amsterdam a few years ago? A: Air service is a direct response to market conditions. There are two international airports near Connecticut — JFK and Boston Logan. JFK is by far the largest and most important, and a short distance away from the state. I should add that I don’t think that we need to always think of only the resources we have within the state, as it is a small state, and resources just across our border can be equally accessible. The problem for air service is that those two airports are in heavily congested areas that can be a real barrier to travelers from Connecticut and while they can provide the service we need, getting there is the problem. This is a perfect example of the growing isolation. The airport is near in miles but far due to congestion and the lack of reliable surface transportation. This is a central issue for the economic future of the state as in the world today there are what we call one-stop cities and two- or three-stop cities defined by how many flight segments that are needed to arrive at you destination. Cities like New York, Los Angles, London, Paris, Tokyo or Beijing and Shanghai are one-stop cities. Connecticut is on the edge between being a one- and two-stop location. The closer it come to being a two-stop destination, the further it gets from the mainstream of global economic growth.