Squire Village’s new owner plans $24M ‘green’ makeover
PHOTO | Contributed
The 379-unit Squire Village in East Hartford.
One of Connecticut's and the Hartford region's biggest rent-subsidized apartment complexes that recently sold is undergoing a major, $24 million facelift, its new owner says.
Manchester's 379-unit Squire Village Apartments sold in mid-May for $70 million to a realty partnership involving New Jersey realty investor-developer Jonathan Rose Cos. LLC (JRC) and New York retirement-services behemoth TIAA-CREF. The partners announced their tentative deal last December.
The seller was Squire Village Associates.
All total, the Rose/TIAA-CREF partnership obtained $62 million of Freddie Mac tax-exempt financing via Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. Combined with a basket of low-income affordable housing tax credits and an unspecified equity contribution from one of JRC's funds, the total purchase-redevelopment investment in Squire Village is $94 million, said Nathan D. Taft, JRC's acquisitions director.
To facilitate the Prudential loan and finalize the property's purchase, the Manchester Housing Authority issued $62 million of tax-exempt bonds, Taft said.
Built in 1972, Squire Village is about 99 percent leased with nine out of 10 residents who qualify for the federal Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent-subsidy program, Taft said. The rest are households that, if they meet affordability guidelines, pay $900 to $1,100 monthly in rent.
Rose Cos. also signed a new contract through HUD's Housing Assistance Payment program that extends Squire Village's federal rent subsidy through 2025, Taft said.
Green Improvements
Although the previous owner not long ago completed interior makeovers of all one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, JRC, which manages the property, plans other improvements aimed at “greening'' the property and building a much-needed community center on site, officials said.
The community center will include a fitness room, as well as gathering and meeting spaces that local support-services agencies can use from time to time share information with residents.
Roofs on all Squire Village's 32 buildings will be replaced, said David McCarthy, JRC's Stamford-based senior project manager.
Seventeen of the buildings will be equipped with rooftop solar panels that will generate about 250 kilowatts of electricity — enough to power lights in hallways and common areas, the leasing office, community room and the complex's boilers, McCarthy said.
One of the buildings will be “repurposed'' to house a Manchester police substation, he said. Meantime, storage areas in some buildings will be converted into five apartments; 10 units will be fully remade to be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
In addition to the housing authority bonding, the town of Manchester was helpful to Squire Village's new landlords in other ways, McCarthy said. For example, the town expedited zoning approvals and permits so construction and renovations could get started right away. Everything is set for completion by yearend.
The town and JRC also hammered out a “tax-certainty pact,'' McCarthy said, in which JRC will pay Squire Village's current annual property tax, plus a 4 ½ percent annual escalator, through 2031.
Haynes Construction of Seymour is general contractor. Paul Bailey Architects of New Haven is the project designer.
Also recently, JRC paid $8.3 million for the 121-unit Fairbank Apartments in New Haven, Taft said. Counting individual apartment units it already owns plus others under contract to acquire, JRC has 13,400 units around the country.
MacLean’s Vernon expansion
MacLean's Mechanical Contractors LLC has doubled its leased commercial footprint in Vernon Industrial Place, brokers say.
The heating, ventilation, air conditioning installer-servicer expanded into 2,000 square feet at 77 Industrial Park Road, where it had previously occupied 1,000 square feet since 2015, according to sole lease broker Sentry Commercial.
Vernon Industrial Place is a 52,000- square-foot, multi-tenant industrial facility on six acres that The Mel-Pet Realty Co. owns.
Deal Watch wants to hear from you. E-mail it, along with contact information to: gseay@HartfordBusiness.com.
Gregory Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
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