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January 7, 2025

Hartford’s largest landlord, partner borrow $27.2M to pay back taxes, finish renovation of 18-story ‘Millennium’ apartment building

Contributed The Millennium Apartments in Hartford.
By Michael Puffer

The owners of the 18-story Millennium apartment building in Hartford recently made good on nearly $2 million in back taxes, thanks in part to a $27.2 million mortgage secured on the property in December.

A joint venture of Waterbury-based Axela Group and downtown Hartford landlord Shelbourne Global Solutions in 2021 paid $22 million for the former Red Lion Hotel at 50 Morgan St., near Dunkin’ Park just north of the city center. The plan was to spend about $8 million to complete the property’s conversion into 260 apartments, a process that had stalled under the prior owner.

The Millennium building was placed on a list of properties to be auctioned by the city in mid-2023, with authorities saying the landlords owed about $1 million in back taxes.

The property was quickly pulled off the list. At the time, Hartford Corporation Counsel Howard Rifkin said the city would hold off on an auction, anticipating a refinancing of the Millenium’s debt that fall, which would allow for the repayment of back taxes and interest.

Shelbourne Axela paid the city $1.85 million on Dec. 26, 2024, settling its tax property debt on the Millenium, according to an email from Cristian Corza, deputy chief of staff for Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam.

Zach Feldberg, chief financial officer for Shelbourne, said Shelbourne Axela paid more than $2 million to the city with the close of the loan. That included $253,000 for the taxes due this January, he noted. 

Feldberg, in an email to the Hartford Business Journal said conversion of the floors four through 18 into apartments have been completed. Conversion of the second and third floors is expected to be completed by the end of January, as will repairs to an associated garage. 

More than $19 million in equity has been dedicated to the conversion of the hotel into apartments prior to the new loan, Feldberg said. The partners now have sufficient funding to complete the project, he said. 

“The loan was a refinancing of the construction loan and secured the remaining funding needed to finish the repositioning of the property as a Class A residential building,” Feldberg wrote. “Included in the uses of the loan and the additional equity infusion was the payment of all taxes due.”

Shelbourne closed a mortgage, dated Dec. 19, with Miami-based BI Blue I LLC. The LLC is affiliated with BridgeInvest, a decade-old lender that, according to its website, targets middle-market commercial real estate loans with principal amounts of $10 million to $150 million.

“BridgeInvest seeks to take advantage of inefficiencies in the (commercial real estate) lending industry and capitalize on the growing demand for fast, flexible capital,” reads a portion of the website

Shelbourne is Hartford’s largest landlord and a crucial investor in Hartford’s revitalization aspirations.

Shelbourne is currently partnered with developer Lexington Partners and Hartford businessman Alan Lazowski in the partial transformation of a 324,000-square-foot office-and-retail complex at the corner of Trumbull and Pratt streets into UConn student housing. 

Shelbourne is also working to transform the main building of the former Fuller Brush Co. factory, at 3580 Main St., into 155 apartments.

The post-pandemic embrace of remote work that has drained office demand nationally has hit Shelbourne and other office building owners hard.

Shelbourne is fighting foreclosure attempts on two of its Class A office towers in downtown Hartford, including the 293,639-square-foot, 12-story “Metro Center” building at 350 Church St., and the 420,000-square-foot, 19-story “Stilts Building” at 20 Church St.

 

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