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December 9, 2024

East Hartford officials drop grant request to aid Founders Plaza redevelopment

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.
By Michael Puffer

East Hartford officials have decided against applying for a state Community Investment Fund grant in support of a massive, mixed-use redevelopment of its Founders Plaza office park. At least not for the latest round. 

The partnership behind the "Port Eastside" project has spent millions of dollars securing about 30 acres of the struggling office park along the Connecticut River. 

Plans call for about 1,000 multifamily units, mostly apartments but with a handful of condos. The project would also include a 6.1-mile greenway and 400,000 square feet of entertainment, restaurant and retail space, according to a recent statement from Port Eastside LLC.

Port Eastside was initially introduced as an $841 million investment in summer 2023. While plans have been updated since then, the project team has not offered an updated development estimate. 

A request for up to $4 million in state Community Investment Funds to help fund pre-development costs is on the Dec. 10 meeting agenda of the East Hartford Town Council.

East Hartford Development Director Eileen Buckheit, on Monday, said officials haven't had a chance to digest whether the conditions that would apply to the CIF grant are appropriate for the Port Eastside project,  and so willl not seek support for Port Eastside in the CIF application round due Dec. 13. 

Buckheit said the town will, however, continue to seek funding mechanisms to aid the project. It could even return to submit a CIF application in later rounds. 

The Port Eastside partnership includes brothers Bruce and Harris Simons, of Simons Real Estate Group in West Hartford; Manafort Brothers Inc. President Jim Manafort; Peter S. Roisman, head of Houston-based property tech company REV Leasing; Nicholas Michnevitz III, president of West Hartford-based MBH Architecture; Hoffman Auto Group Co-Chairman Jeffrey S. Hoffman; Chris Reilly, president of Hartford-based Lexington Partners; and Alan Lazowski, chairman and founder of LAZ Parking.

East Hartford’s Town Council, in March, approved conditions of a $6.5 million, state-funded grant, which will be used to demolish the 182,890-square-foot former Bank of America office building at 20 Hartland St., also known as 99 Founders Plaza.

In return, Port Eastside agreed to secure a building permit for an apartment building of at least 150 units on that site within four years.

The 7.3-acre property at 20 Hartland St. is one of five secured by Port Eastside for its development. 

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