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August 26, 2024

Landlord won’t fight foreclosure of 19-story East Hartford office tower

Photo | Contributed The founder and CEO of 1st Alliance Lending LLC announced Thursday the firm has permanently ended operations at 111 Founders Plaza in East Hartford.
By Michael Puffer

The owner of a 19-story office tower in East Hartford has agreed not to fight its foreclosure by a limited liability company that has plans for a massive, mixed-use overhaul of the Founders Plaza office park.

The building is currently owned by a limited liability company tied to First Merchants Group, a Massachusetts-based company that floated big plans for redevelopment of the roughly 50-year-old Founders Plaza office park before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those plans have since fizzled and, last year, a new group involving prominent area businessmen stepped in to begin pursuit of their own mixed-use vision for the office park along the Connecticut River. 

A limited liability company whose principal – real estate executive Harris Simons – is a partner in the “Port Eastside” development has acquired a note and mortgage on the 270,106-square-foot, 1971-vintage high-rise at 111 Founders Plaza and moved to foreclose.

Last week, attorneys for both sides signed off on a stipulated agreement in Hartford Superior Court, asking a judge to sign off on the foreclosure at “the earliest law date the court is willing to set.” The stipulation also notes that the current owner, Merchant 99-111 Founders LLC, has no equity in the property.

According to the stipulation, there is an unpaid $17.49 million debt on the property. The current owner waived the right to appeal, the affidavit of debt and need for an appraisal.
An attempt to reach a representative of the building’s current owner was not immediately successful Monday morning.

Attorney Richard P. Weinstein, representing the plaintiff, said the agreement will allow the property to transfer as soon as the case goes before a judge.

Office tenants within the high-rise were recently notified that new owners will take control of the building sometime in August. The building had faced possible closure for not meeting state fire code due to the absence of sprinklers.

East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin has previously acknowledged that Port Eastside representatives have spoken with him about a desire to convert office space in the tower into apartments.

Harris Simons is a principal in West Hartford-based development and real estate services company Figure 8 Properties, as is his brother, Bruce. Both are also partners in the planned “Port Eastside” redevelopment of Founders Plaza.

Other Port Eastside partners include: Hartford-based developer Lexington Partners, Hartford-based investor and businessman Alan Lazowski, Hoffman Auto Group Co-Chairman Jeffrey S. Hoffman, Manafort Brothers Inc. President Jim Manafort, Nicholas Michnevitz, president of West Hartford-based MBH Architecture, and Peter S. Roisman, head of Houston-based multifamily investor REV.

The Port Eastside partners, last year, announced plans to transform much of the aging office complex on the eastern side of the Connecticut River into a development blending roughly 1,000 apartments with commercial spaces, cultural amenities, a transportation hub and new pedestrian connections.

They have begun acquiring properties for development.

Last summer, Port Eastside LLC – which names Bruce Simons as principal – paid $4 million for a 182,890-square-foot office building on 7.34 acres at 20 Hartland St. (also known as 99 Founders Plaza).

In late July, another LLC whose principal is Harris Simons paid $7 million for a vacant 70,350-square-foot “flex” office building on 6.5 acres at 300 East River Drive.

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