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September 9, 2021

Hartford’s Village at River Park apartment community debuts

Terry Corcoran | Hartford Business Journal From left, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno, Billy Smith, state House Speaker Matt Ritter, Gov. Ned Lamont, Nandini Natarajan, CEO of Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, and Annette Sanderson, executive director of the Hartford Housing Authority.

Hartford and state officials cut the ribbon on a project that replaces one of the city’s last public housing complexes with a new mixed-use community designed as a gateway to Hartford’s North End.

The Sept. 8 ribbon cutting for Phase I and II of the Village at Park River near Albany Avenue and Mark Twain Drive was followed by a groundbreaking for the project’s third phase and a new community building.

The first phase, consisting of 75 attached one-, two- and three-bedroom units, opened last year. The second phase has 60 units. Both phases set aside more than half the units for households with 60% of the area median income. The units are fully occupied and nearly 1,000 people are on a waiting list.

Billy Smith, a retired Hartford assistant fire chief who lives in the new complex, cut the ribbon while flanked by Gov. Ned Lamont and other officials.

“I’ve lived all over in different apartments — Bloomfield, Vernon, the city of Hartford — and this is the best of them,” Smith said. “It’s got the best of everything — construction, heat, cooling. I would recommend it to anybody.”

Lamont said the project is coming to fruition because people worked to make it happen.

“It starts with people who believe in the state, people who believe in the city. That optimism is contagious,” Lamont said. “We have the wind to our back as a state, I really feel that. For the first time in a generation, we have tens of thousands of families moving to Connecticut.”

The project is transforming the former 40-acre Westbrook Village project into a mixed-use community that is being built in seven phases. Once finished, it will have over 400 units of mixed-income housing in townhouse-style homes, and about 100,000 square feet of new office and retail space. There will also be bike paths, community gardens, playgrounds, the community building with a fitness center, and a park.

A mix of state and private tax money, tax credits and subsidies are helping to fund the project.

The quasi-public Hartford Housing Authority is overseeing the project, which is being developed by Pennrose LLC and The Cloud Company LLC.

The project was personal for developer Sanford Cloud Jr. of the Cloud Company.

“Having lived in Westbrook Village growing up, I can’t begin to express how exciting it is to see the community we envisioned taking place,” Cloud said.

Sen. Doug McCrory (D-Hartford), who also grew up in Westbrook Village, said the project is about equity.

“Yes, we want the same things that other communities have and now we have an opportunity to do it led by good people and good leadership,” McCrory said. “We’re here for the people who live there. We want to make sure that you have a quality education in your schools and places to shop. This project is transformative.”

Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said the state has committed $4 million to the project’s fourth phase and has invested $28 million so far.

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