Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

May 15, 2023

Gas stations and apartments? Noble offers that

HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER The Noble gas station development at 131 Buckingham St., in Hartford includes a mixed-use commercial building with eight apartments (shown in background).

Ice cream shops, upscale Italian delis and electric vehicle showrooms are not your usual pairings with a gas station, but how about housing?

Hartford-based Noble Gas Inc. has done it.

In 2018, the upscale service station developer-operator completed a development on the fringe of downtown Hartford that combined a gas station with a building housing a convenience store, its corporate offices and eight apartments.

A service center that will break ground later this year on Whitney Avenue in Hamden will also include 12 market-rate apartments. Noble recently launched construction of a 22-townhouse development behind its newest service center in New Britain.

Housing is not a standard component of Noble’s business model. But it’s an option if the opportunity arises, said co-owner Michael Frisbie.

The Hartford project on Buckingham Street, for example, fit with the Bronin administration’s desire to develop more downtown housing.

In New Britain, it was a question of making use of excess land on Noble’s 6.5-acre property, Frisbie said.

“We were working with (Mayor Erin Stewart), trying to figure out the highest and best use,” Frisbie said. “She mentioned the city is looking for homes. We came up with owner-occupied townhomes.”

Sign up for Enews

0 Comments

Order a PDF