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March 6, 2024

Developer: ‘More practical’ vision for massive East Hartford Founders Plaza redevelopment is still grand

Contributed Port Eastside's rendering for the first building of the new Port Eastside mixed-use redevelopment of East Hartford's Founders Plaza. The roughly 50-year-old office park is located along the bank of the Connecticut River.

Developers planning around 1,000 apartments in a mixed-use redevelopment of East Hartford’s Founders Plaza office park will have up to four years to finish a first-phase building of at least 150 units in return for $6.5 million in state demolition funding.

The state Bond Commission, last June, approved demolition funding for the “Port Eastside” development.

The Port Eastside partnership – which includes several prominent area businessmen – plans to use those funds to demolish the 182,890-square-foot former Bank of America office building at 20 Hartland St., which is also known as 99 Founders Plaza, this year. Port Eastside paid $4 million for the property last summer.

Demolition will clear the site intended for the first mixed-use apartment building, scheduled to begin construction in late 2025, said Christopher Reilly, president of Lexington Partners, the Hartford development group spearheading the Port Eastside project.

The first building would include about 40,000 square feet of retail space, Reilly said. While the draft agreement commits Port Eastside to a minimum of 150 apartments in the first building, the aim is closer to 300, Reilly said.

“We have to be careful now, the capital markets are a little bit crazy,” Reilly told Town Council members Tuesday night. “We don’t want to overcommit. There’s going to be somewhere between that 150 and that 300 that is going to be financeable and is going to make sense.”

The tentative agreement would give Port Eastside up to four years from demolition to finish a building of at least 150 apartments, or money spent on demo will be treated like a loan and not a grant, according to Attorney David M. Panico, who is representing the town. The town would have the option to extend the deadline as well.

“One of the things we didn’t want to happen was for the building to get knocked down and just sit there,” Panico said. “If the property lays fallow for four years, that grant money turns into a loan. … It’s kind of like a little penalty clause if it just sits idle.”

On Wednesday, East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin said he is contemplating extending the delivery deadline in the development agreement to five years. 
 

Tax abatement in play
Reilly told the Town Council, Port Eastside “controls” about 30 acres of the Founders Plaza office park and intends to build a series of three- to four-story buildings along the riverfront for 900 to 1,000 overall apartment units. Each building would have a similar amount of retail space, which would orient toward the east, away from the river, activating that side of the project.

Reilly acknowledged the development group expects to approach the town for a tax abatement and would seek state assistance for the project in exchange for making a portion of the development available at “workforce housing” rental rates.

Reilly said Lexington has needed tax-fixing agreements to secure financing for projects in other Greater Hartford communities.

“We will be realistic about our ask, but we will ask for as much as we can get,” Reilly told council members. While no estimates were provided Tuesday, Reilly assured the town would see increased tax revenues from the development.

East Hartford Director of Development Eileen Buckheit said reduced permitting fees, use of surplus demo funds, a tax break and state assistance could come into play to close any financing gap for the project. These are commonly needed for development projects in the Greater Hartford area, she said.

“I can promise you it will be a net benefit to the town,” Buckheit said.


Port Eastside is also asking the town to cede a portion of East River Drive so that it can be turned into a park-setting better connecting the development with the Connecticut River. 

Council members questioned the impact on users of Great River Park, which runs along the river nearby. East River Drive is used as overflow parking on nice days when the park is in heavy use. Reilly pledged to detail parking accommodations at a subsequent meeting, stressing Port Eastside’s commitment to ensuring ongoing river access for the public.
 

‘Phenomenal views of Hartford’
Reilly said the latest version of the Port Eastside plan abandons early high-rise apartment concepts in favor of three- to four-story buildings much like Lexington Partners has built elsewhere, including the recently completed 292-unit One Park apartment development in West Hartford.

One design element – a 20-foot-tall ground floor – will put apartments and common areas facing west above the level of a flood-barrier dike, allowing those units spectacular views of the river and Hartford, Reilly said. The result would be 90-foot-tall buildings, he said. He said architects are also investigating the feasibility and cost of rooftop amenities, possibly including restaurants or retail.

“You are going to have phenomenal views of Hartford that you don’t get if you live in Hartford, so the opportunity for interesting retail, interesting restaurants here is very exciting,” Reilly said.

The shorter building heights would allow for future “mid-rise” developments beyond the riverfront buildings that could also benefit from river views, Reilly said.

This “more practical” vision is still grand and involves “a lot of money” but allows for maximum value while creating an opening for other developers, Reilly said.

Port Eastside is promising a development packed with amenities, including a dog day care, dog wash station, package facilities with freezers, a pool, games courtyard, quiet courtyard, fitness center, community gathering spaces and, possibly, an infinity pool.

After the first development agreement is in place, Port Eastside and East Hartford will work with the Capital Region Development Authority to bid out demolition work on 99 Founders Plaza, Reilly said. Port Eastside is also working with investors and banks to develop financing, something Reilly expects to take about 18 months. That would allow for construction to start in late 2025, he said.

Port Eastside announced a roughly $841 million plan to transform portions of the 50-year-old office park last year. Reilly put the number at $825 million on Tuesday. That plan has subsequently been refined down in scope, with far less commercial space. Reilly said he is working with East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin to pull it into “more understandable, realistic, chunks.”

The first building will cost somewhere between $110 million and $120 million to develop. Each subsequent 300-unit building would cost about the same. With 900 to 1,000 units possible around the river, the investment in the “first tier” of multifamily buildings would be about $300 million to $400 million, Reilly said.

Reilly said Port Eastside is in “advanced discussions” with a nonprofit that wants to locate in the development area “in a very substantial way.”

That could lead to “a phenomenal building.” The nonprofit building would be flanked by a 300-unit apartment building and another mixed-use apartment building, he said.
“We need that mix of live, work, play, so people don’t feel they are living on an island,” Reilly said.

While posing questions about some potential impacts, such as lost overflow parking by the riverside park, town council members and Mayor Martin expressed enthusiasm for the Port Eastside plan as presented by Reilly Tuesday.

“I think overall this presentation and this agreement represent a continued commitment both by Port Eastside and the town to continue to work together, invest in East Hartford and bring much-needed economic development in this area that hasn’t seen economic development in a number of decades,” Martin said. 

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