Alan Lazowski is best-known as a parking magnate but he’s increasingly become a major player in downtown Hartford’s real estate and economic development scene.Martin Kenny is known as one of the most prolific apartment developers in Greater Hartford.Together Lazowski and Kenny have been a force in helping redevelop downtown Hartford and building new multifamily apartments […]
Alan Lazowski is best-known as a parking magnate but he’s increasingly become a major player in downtown Hartford’s real estate and economic development scene.
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Martin Kenny is known as one of the most prolific apartment developers in Greater Hartford.
Together Lazowski and Kenny have been a force in helping redevelop downtown Hartford and building new multifamily apartments in the suburbs as part of their Lexington Partners real estate development joint venture.
Marty Kenny
Lazowski’s corner office recently moved to Hartford’s Gold Building at 1 Financial Plaza, which he and business partner New York realty investor Shelbourne Global Solutions purchased in 2019 for $70.5 million.
He’s also trying to push forward with the conversion of his now-empty 15 Lewis Street office building into a boutique hotel.
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And in December Lazowski and Kenny acquired a 50% ownership stake in four large Class A apartment buildings in downtown Hartford, known as the Spectra apartments. They contain a combined 554 mostly market-rate units.
If that wasn’t enough Lazowski is also rethinking how to better utilize parking space his company, LAZ Parking, manages, leases or owns. That pivot includes opening entirely new business lines within his parking properties like parcel delivery and ghost kitchens.
But the biggest project the duo is currently working on is the $100 million redevelopment of Hartford’s Pratt Street corridor, which also involves a partnership with Shelbourne.
Hartford's Pratt Street corridor. HBJ FILE PHOTO
Once fully complete, the partners say their ambitious redevelopment will count several hundred new or refurbished apartments; 45,058 square feet of retail on Trumbull/Pratt/Main streets; and about 1,000 parking spaces for residents and shoppers.
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The project has been slowed by the pandemic, but some progress is apparent.
For example, last summer 32 apartment units debuted at 196 Trumbull St., as part of an $8 million office-to-residential conversion.
And construction is underway on 97 apartment units at 99 Pratt St.
Besides Hartford, Kenny has also built, or is building, multifamily developments in various nearby towns including Glastonbury, Windsor, Bloomfield and Wethersfield.
Another major project the partners are involved in is the $70 million conversion of the Sisters of St. Joseph convent in West Hartford into a 292-unit multifamily community.
