A nearly $22 million mixed-use development proposed for the corner of Woodland Street and Albany Avenue in Hartford is in limbo, after the city has questioned the developer’s project financing and overall design.
Development Services Interim Director I. Charles Mathews has recommended the city postpone signing a land lease with developer 7 Summits Realty LLC, which had proposed building a mixed-use development at the site that would contain up to 75 mostly affordable apartments and retail space.
Mathews made that recommendation in a February memo that was reviewed Thursday by the Capital Region Development Authority, which committed $5.5 million to the project last year.
A CRDA subcommittee voted Thursday to reserve the funds for the site in the hopes a modified project proposal — likely scaled down and with fewer apartments — emerges in the coming months. Its full board will vote to finalize the move next week.
Mathews’ decision comes after the city council had authorized the lease deal last year.
Mathews wrote that since December, “a number of issues” have surfaced that may “adversely, and materially, affect the successful completion of the proposed development project.”
That list of potential problems, according to Mathews, includes the proposed funding stack, the mix of affordable vs. market-rate units, and “the ability of some funding sources to co-exist with other proposed sources.”
The city now plans to hire a mixed-use consultant to study options for the property.
7 Summits CEO Rohan Freeman declined comment for this story.
However, in a February email to Mayor Luke Bronin, which was recently obtained by HBJ, Freeman disputed the notion that he didn’t have project financing in place.
In fact, Freeman provided a list of funding commitments totaling over $31 million, which he wrote “greatly exceeds the estimated cost of the project.”
In the email, he also said the project is ready to move forward.
“The Albany and Woodland project has been studied several times in the past, we have our own financial consultant and the community is happy with the current programming and is eager to move forward. There’s no need to further delay the project,” he wrote. “We’re confident that we can meet a 2021 construction start date and have all the pieces of the project currently in place to accomplish this.”
Mathews did not return a request seeking comment.
Exactly how long CRDA can hold the funds is unclear. Executive Director Michael Freimuth said Thursday that the state Bond Commission, which approved the funding last year, may eventually want to repurpose the money for other needs.
Randal Davis, deputy director of development services for the city, told CRDA the site remains a priority.
“We wouldn’t ask to hold this if we didn’t think it was strategically important,” Davis said.
