201-unit apartment complex planned in Windsor

A Pennsylvania-based development team looking to make its mark in Connecticut is a step closer to building its first multi-building housing complex in Windsor, which would bring more than 200 apartments to town.

Pennsylvania-based A.R. Building Company Inc. has won approval from the town Planning and Zoning Commission on conceptual plans for Dunfey Lane Apartments. The $20 million project includes four new buildings on now-vacant parcels at 450 and 462 Bloomfield Ave., and 60-80 Dunfey Lane.

The design calls for 201 one- and two-bedroom mostly market-rate apartments, with 10% deemed affordable. All buildings would be four stories high, and three would contain 51 units. 

The fourth building would have 48 apartments along with offices and a clubhouse. The complex would also include an outdoor pool, surface parking for 300 vehicles, sidewalks, outdoor space and open space. 

This would be A.R. Building’s first Windsor development, although the company has done several projects in Connecticut, including The Docks and 60 Mansfield, both in New London, and Pleasant Valley Apartments in Groton. 

Projects are also in the works in Meriden and Newington, and the western part of the state including Brookfield, said A.R. Director of Development Emily Mitchell.

The company has more than 370 open or constructed units, Mitchell said, with more than 500 to 600 under construction or in the planning phase, and another planned 200 at the Windsor site.

The company does primarily residential developments, and owns, builds and operates all its properties, which are also found in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama. 

Mitchell said A.R. is looking to grow in Connecticut, and that Windsor was an ideal location with highway access, close to retail sites and within walking distance to the bus line. The company is under contract to buy the Windsor land from owner Joseph Cicero Jr., pending all town land-use approvals, Mitchell said.
 
The approval is the first in a two-step process in Windsor for any design development district, which allows for more flexibility and time and cost savings for the developer by bringing conceptual plans to land use boards for feedback before the full site plan application, Economic Development Director Patrick McMahon said. 

It also allows the town to have a more complete package brought for review and approval, he added. This plan is in the Highway Interchange Development District, for which residential is allowed.

Several housing or mixed-use projects have been built in Windsor under the design development district concept, McMahon said, including the Founders Plaza project and Bowling Green.