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March 7, 2025

Barnes Group sells sprawling Bristol manufacturing campus to Hartford-based kitchen furniture maker Max Kothari for $6.2M

COSTAR 18 Main St., Bristol
COSTAR 18 Main St., Bristol
By Michael Puffer

A massive and empty manufacturing complex in downtown Bristol will find new life after a recent $6.2 million sale to Hartford-based kitchen furnishings maker Max Kothari. 

A limited liability company headed by Kothari bought the 15-acre property at 18 Main St. from Bristol-based advanced manufacturer Barnes Group through a deed recorded by the city on Monday.  The site hosts a 58,804-square-foot, four-story office and warehouse building completed in 1928; and a 224,977-square-foot, one-story manufacturing building completed in 1970.

Kothari plans to use the vacant Bristol campus as a distribution hub, with “high-tech” manufacturing and corporate offices for his Express Kitchens and New Direct Cabinets businesses. He said he also plans to open a roughly 10,000-square-foot retail outlet on the site.

For now, Kothari is cleaning up the property and renovating the space for his businesses, a process he expects to take about three months. After that, he plans to ramp up to an initial workforce of about 50 employees on-site, with additional hires likely in the future.

The Bristol site will include elements of Kothari’s New Direct Cabinets and Express Kitchens businesses. It will allow him to consolidate manufacturing and distribution out of a 165,000-square-foot New Direct Cabinets facility in New Jersey. And it leaves room for future growth.

Kothari said he has no plans to exit any of his existing Connecticut properties.

“The facilities at 18 Main St. are ideal, and when we visited downtown Bristol, observed new development in the area and met community leadership, we knew that Bristol was the ideal home for New Direct Cabinets-Express Kitchens,” Kothari said.

Bristol Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano said he is excited to see an iconic manufacturing property “reenergized” by a growing company. He said he was particularly happy the property will continue to be used for distribution and manufacturing.

Damon Bowers, managing director with Cushman & Wakefield in Hartford, represented the seller. Nicholas Morizio, president of Colliers in Hartford and New Haven, represented the buyer. 

The property sale comes at a time of significant changes for both the buyer and seller.

Kothari – who also chairs the Hartford Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors – recently listed a 183,000-square-foot industrial building in Hartford for sale. The former Veeder-Root property at 20-28 Sargeant St., in Hartford’s Asylum Hill neighborhood, was listed with a $4 million asking price. Kothari’s Express Kitchens has a presence in part of the building, with nonprofits taking up the other occupied space. 

HBJ FILE PHOTO
Max Kothari is the founder and CEO of Hartford-based Express Kitchens.

In early 2023, Kothari sold four Hartford properties for $25.68 million, including two that hosted his Star Hardware and Express Kitchens businesses. At the time, Kothari said he leased back the properties.

A portion of the 2023 sales proceeds was used to fund Express Kitchen’s purchase of New Jersey-based Direct Cabinet Sales, a deal that also included New Jersey-based Seifer Kitchens and Brooklyn-based Golden Reiss Kitchens.

The acquisition added five showrooms in New York and New Jersey to Express Kitchens' network of 12 showrooms in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It also added a 165,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Dayton, New Jersey. 

Today, Express Kitchens and New Direct Cabinet Sales have 17 retail locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

In addition to its own retail locations, Express Kitchens supplies cabinets to Home Depot, as well as directly to large developers including Toll Brothers and Winn Management.

The Associated Spring property was vacant for some time prior to Kothari’s purchase.

Last April, Barnes Group, a 167-year-old advanced manufacturer rooted in the aerospace industry, announced a $175 million sale of its Associated Spring and Hanggi businesses to private equity firm One Equity Partners.

Earlier this year, Barnes Group announced it had been sold to private equity firm Apollo in an approximately $3.6 billion deal, which transitioned the company into a privately held business.

“The Barnes family appreciates Max and his team’s efforts in preserving the history of what this building means to Bristol,” said Tom Barnes, chairman emeritus of the Barnes Group.

Kothari said he has applied to take part in Gov. Ned Lamont’s “supply chain initiative” to onshore manufacturing into Connecticut. 
 

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