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December 17, 2019

Shelbourne launching another downtown Hartford pop-up hall to fuel Pratt St. activity

HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper Pratt Street in downtown Hartford is home to numerous small business owners.
By Joe Cooper

A prominent Hartford landlord plans to roll out a pop-up table tennis hall Wednesday to jumpstart part of its vacant downtown retail space on Pratt Street.

New York's Shelbourne Global LLC on Tuesday said the so-called “Pop!” play hall in an 1,800-square-foot space at 55 Pratt St. is equipped with three ping-pong tables, paddles and other amenities. Players can pay by the hour or by monthly membership, it said.

Shelbourne says it's partnering with Blue Haus Group to develop new ways to increase foot traffic on the south end of Pratt Street. Blue Haus Group hosted the same pop-up table tennis hall in September.
 
The temporary play hall marks Shelbourne's latest attempt to transform one of Hartford’s “most dynamic streets” into a work, live and play destination.

“Pratt and Trumbull streets are the epicenter of downtown Hartford’s revitalization,” said Chief Operating Officer Michael Seidenfeld. “Adding a creative space, a place where people can socialize and play, is a way to ignite that energy and generate excitement about what’s happening downtown.”   

Shelbourne also held other pop-up events earlier this year.

In March, when the XL Center held games for the 2019 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, Shelbourne hosted a pop-up lounge in vacant retail space at 196 Trumbull St. The lounge featured free WiFi, phone charging stations, a digital photo booth, live tournament games and food for sale provided by Chick-Fil-A.

The company has significantly grown its Hartford presence in recent years as it’s invested more than $200 million in downtown real estate since 2014.

Shelbourne is part of a development team that's started a $100 million mixed-use project to transform Hartford’s Pratt Street retail corridor into a vibrant neighborhood.

The first phase of the project is expected to include several hundred new apartments, retail space and 1,300 parking spaces that would be mostly located in a repaired and reopened Talcott Plaza garage, located one block north of Temple Street.

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