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February 7, 2025

Downtown Hartford’s Cast Iron Building nears completion of apartments conversion

Contributed The Cast Iron Building in Hartford.
By Michael Puffer

The owner of the century-old Cast Iron Building in the heart of downtown Hartford is nearing completion of a project to convert co-working space into apartments.

The seven-story, 1910-vintage building, at 241 Asylum St., hosts the popular NY Market & Deli on its first floor and eight apartments above. Owner Keith Werner, of Werner & Co., had also used the second and third floors as rental co-working space under his ThinkSynergy brand.

A project to convert that co-working space into three, three-bedroom apartments – one of which could be converted into a four-bedroom unit – began last August and is anticipated to wrap-up in June, Werner said Friday.

“We will find we will pre-lease all of them, like we have done in the past,” Werner said. “This market is good and strong.”

Werner’s larger, townhouse-style units will be a rare offer to the market, which has seen a heavy focus on studio and one-bedroom apartments in new developments in recent years.

Werner this week approached the Capital Region Development Authority to adjust conditions of an existing loan for an earlier apartment-building effort at the Cast Iron Building. The change would ease financing costs of the existing project, which will move ahead in any case, Werner said.

“We have a continued strong relationship with CRDA and we look forward to working with them in the future,” Werner said.

Werner, who has owned the building since 1998, borrowed $200,000 from the CRDA in December 2018 to fund construction of four apartment units on the sixth and seventh floors of the Cast Iron Building, according to CRDA documents.

Werner approached CRDA last May to request a $425,000 loan, which would have paid off his existing CRDA debt and funded his current apartment-conversion project.

That financing package was never realized, however.

Now, Werner is asking CRDA to surrender its second position lien for its existing loan to facilitate a financing package through NBT Bank and the Community Economic Development Fund, a small-business lender based in Meriden.

As proposed, Werner would borrow around $250,000 from NBT, another $207,000 from CEDF and put $23,000 in equity into the deal, according to CRDA documents. With that, he would pay down $85,000 of the $167,000 currently owed to CRDA, pay off $84,000 in real estate taxes and put $311,000 into development costs, according to the CRDA.

CEDF wants the second-position lien and NBT, as senior lender, is the head of the queue for repayment, according to CRDA.
Werner had put the Cast Iron Building up for sale with a $3.2 million asking price in September 2023, but has since taken it off the market. Werner said he hasn’t ruled out putting the building back up for sale after the conversion is complete. 
 

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