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December 1, 2022

Historic downtown Hartford office building sells for $1.25M

COSTAR The Crosthwaite Building at 100 Allyn St. in downtown Hartford.
By Greg Bordonaro

A historic downtown Hartford office building formerly held by Northland — once the center city’s most prominent landlord — has sold for $1.25 million, according to the brokerage firm involved in the deal. 

The 24,000-square-foot Crosthwaite Building at 100 Allyn St., which was listed for sale in April without an asking price, has sold to OBL LLC, according to real estate advisory firm CBRE, which brokered the deal. 

OBL LLC is controlled by John and Donna Sennott of Simsbury, records show. The LLC is registered in the state of Massachusetts.

The four-story brick and beam office building dates to 1911 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It received multiple bids and the property closing was concluded Thursday, according to CBRE. 

The mixed-use office property was 85% leased at the time of the sale, according to marketing materials, with tenants that include Consigli Construction, Shepley Bulfinch and Mexican restaurant Agave Grill.

The Hartford Business Journal is also a tenant in the building.

The seller was Northland, which originally bought the property in 1998 for $850,000, property records show. The Massachusetts-based real estate investor and developer was once downtown Hartford’s largest landlord owning many of the city’s

Class A office towers, before it lost several buildings to foreclosure in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. 

Shortly after it listed 100 Allyn St., Northland also put up for sale another one of its downtown holdings: 242 Trumbull St. The 304,413-square-foot mid-rise office/retail complex, located across the street from the XL Center and abutting Pratt Street, was listed for sale in May without an asking price and remains on the market, according to CBRE. 

242 Trumbull has significant office space vacancies and is being marketed as a potential opportunity for a “prime ... residential conversion.”

Northland also still owns the 260-unit Hartford 21 luxury apartment complex and the vacant former YMCA property on Jewell Street.

The Crosthwaite Building sale comes at a time of  uncertainty for Hartford’s office market, which has faced pressure from post-pandemic office space downsizing from some center-city employers that continue to embrace remote or hybrid work arrangements. 

Downtown Hartford’s office vacancy rate at the end of the second quarter was 17.9%, according to CBRE. Downtown’s 15 Class A office towers had a vacancy rate of 20.1% at the end of the second quarter.

CBRE Executive Vice President John McCormick represented Northland in the sale of 100 Allyn and procured the buyer. CBRE Vice President Anna Kocsondy was also involved on the investment side of the deal. 

McCormick said 100 Allyn “was very well received by both local and regional investors,” and that the property’s “strong historic occupancy” was a key appeal. 
 

 

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