Developers scale down Berlin Steele Center mixed-use apartment project; gastropub eyes April opening
Contributed
A new Hop Haus will occupy most of the main floor of one building in Berlin’s new Steele Center, which will contain 60 market-rate apartments and more than 80,000 square feet of commercial space over multiple buildings.
Developers of the new Steele Center project in Berlin have scaled down some of their plans.
They’ve revamped one of their buildings, going from four stories to three. They will also build fewer two-bedroom units and remove the ground-level parking area.
The building at 55 Steele Blvd. will be all market-rate apartments, with the original inventory reduced from 60 units to 50 units.
Originally designed with 42 one-bedroom apartments and 18 two bedrooms, the plans now call for 34 one-bedroom, five studios and 11 two-bedroom units.
“The market is definitely talking to us, and it wants to see more one-bedrooms and studios,” said developer Tony Valenti of Newport Realty and Lovely Development, the Southington-based firm that is building Steele Boulevard. “There is definite demand for two bedrooms, but nowhere near one-bedroom and studio.”
The Steele Center complex is a $17-million, 75,000-square-foot commercial and residential development with 70 market-rate apartments planned throughout multiple buildings in the Kensington Village area of Berlin.
Steele Boulevard is a new road built off Farmington Avenue to connect Steele Center buildings to the new Berlin train station on the Hartford Line.
The mixed-use building at 9 Steele Blvd. has 16 market-rate apartments that are now fully leased, Valenti said.
The lower level has commercial tenants, including 4,100 square feet occupied by a Hop Haus gastropub/craft eatery that is on track to open in April.
Developers have signed lease space with Trio Home Care, which relocated from Main Street, Berlin, and two attorneys, Brewer and Sargis, who are relocating from Hartford. Developers are working to secure a lease for the last commercial space, Valenti said.
A building at 10 Steele Blvd. will have four residential units and 8,000 square feet of commercial space, which should be under construction in less than 90 days, Valenti said.
“We continue to be as bullish today as the day we signed the purchase agreement with the town of Berlin to get this project launched and realized,” Valenti said.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments