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January 11, 2025

CRDA considers hold on loan interest for struggling Whitney Manufacturing redevelopment in Hartford 

Carlos Mouta
By Michael Puffer

Rising construction costs and financing delays have held up by about two years Hartford developer Carlos Mouta’s massive effort to transform the former Whitney Manufacturing building in the city’s Parkville neighborhood into hundreds of apartments mixed with commercial space.

Now, Capital Region Development Authority officials are pushing for a nine-month hold on interest payments for a $4 million loan to Mouta to help finance the project. The money has already been spent on demolition and environmental cleanup at the languishing project at 237 Hamilton St.  

CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth, on Friday, told the board’s housing and neighborhood development committee that Mouta had anticipated rolling the CRDA loan into permanent financing much earlier. Financing delays mean Mouta is paying interest out of pocket.

“The developer has kind of screamed uncle and said we didn’t expect the loan to run this long and asked for a break,” Freimuth said.

Freimuth said he is “sympathetic” because of a nearly year-long delay in financing caused by rising construction costs coupled with conflicts between different funding programs.

Members of the CRDA committee were similarly understanding toward Mouta, who has been behind most of the recent redevelopment in the Parkville neighborhood. Instead of a proposed six-month hold on interest, members voted to support nine months. The measure still requires approval from the full CRDA board.

Mouta, reached Friday, said he’s confident of locking down financing in time to launch the first phase of the redevelopment this year, perhaps as early as June.

Carlos Mouta has big plans for this former industrial building at 237 Hamilton St. in Parkville.

Mouta said he’s dropped plans to tap state and federal historic tax credits. These funding sources, Mouta said, would have precluded him from using energy efficient heat pumps and dramatically reduced the use of solar panels. It would also have forced him to rebuild a rotten wooden-frame portion of the building rather than rebuilding in concrete.

“It would have cost me $3 million to $4 million to rebuild,” Mouta said. “I could build a concrete building and 10,000 square feet of amenity space with a rooftop deck for $400,000 to $500,000.”

Eliminating historic tax credits and their associated requirements cut about $30 million out of the project budget, which now stands around $70 million, Mouta said.

“What I cannot do is take ‘poison money’ that requires me to increase the costs,” Mouta said. “I cannot take money that will drive costs five, six, seven million (dollars) more. A lot of things come with strings.”

Mouta said banks have been skittish about lending over the past two years, but he’s confident he will find funding, thanks to the support of CRDA and city officials, along with the state’s drive to create badly needed housing.  Mouta said he’s currently in talks with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, seeking backing for his project.

Mouta has increased his planned apartment count from 235 to 260, and cut back on the planned commercial and amenities space from 80,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet.

Once the existing Whitney building is fully converted, Mouta hopes to build a roughly 400-unit apartment building on neighboring land. Mouta said he’s in talks with a potential development partner. 
 

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