🔒5 to Watch 2022: Salvatore will transform Hartford’s Downtown North neighborhood

These are exciting times in Hartford’s Downtown North area.

Dunkin’ Donuts Park has become a civic gem.

Years of talk and litigation have given way to meaningful redevelopment efforts.

Now developer Randy Salvatore, the man behind resurrecting The Goodwin as a boutique hotel, is promising 2022 will bring earth-shaking change.

Literally.

His company’s earth-moving equipment is prepping to make real progress on his grand $200 million plan for his North Crossing mixed-use development.

The 328-space parking garage is up and the first building’s 270 apartments should be ready for occupancy about the time the Yard Goats throw out the first pitch this season.

What comes next isn’t quite as clear, Salvatore explains. There are plans for 550 more apartments to be built in two phases. Plus lots more parking.

There is going to be a grocery store, but just where and when remains in flux. Would-be operators balked at the original site and Salvatore is now shopping a site with adjacent parking. If an operator steps forward, that project could move ahead quickly.

If not, he’s ready to start on more residential units as soon as the city signs off on the final plans. The second phase of North Crossing recently gained momentum after the state Bond Commission approved a $13.6 million loan for the project, which will be funneled through the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).

Somewhere not far downstream is more commercial space, featuring restaurants and entertainment venues.

By any measure, it’s a major undertaking and not one either Salvatore, the city or the Downtown North community could afford to see damaged by the impending financial collapse of the nearby Hilton Hotel.

So, armed with the promise of funding support, Salvatore has agreed to take over the top dozen floors of the 22-story hotel and convert them into an additional 147 new apartments. The Bond Commission also recently approved an $11 million loan to help fund the conversion.

“I have a huge investment in the DoNo project, which we are building right next door [to the hotel], and reputationally if this hotel were to close it would be a huge black eye to the city of Hartford and it would have ripple effects throughout,” Salvatore said. “So, I got involved to try and figure out some way if we could keep this together.”

Special sauce

Converting hotel rooms into residences isn’t a new concept for Salvatore and the Stamford-based RMS Cos. Yes, those are his initials. RMS has projects — condos, apartments, hotels, even UConn dorms — across the state. It’s an operation that’s grown incrementally, success after success.

After graduating from The Wharton School with a degree in economics, Salvatore thought finance was his field but a year at Coopers & Lybrand convinced him he needed to shift gears.

Three years in commercial real estate gave him the underpinning to relaunch as a developer. It also provided an unusual opportunity that started his career as a builder.

As a broker, he had leased some office space but the would-be tenant was on the verge of backing out after bids for the build-out came in high.

Faced with the prospect of losing his commission, Salvatore jumped in and assembled a team of subcontractors to do the job at a reasonable price. The project turned out well and everybody walked away happy. Then other tenants in the building started asking Salvatore if he’d bid on their build-out projects.

Today, his crews do much of the work — from excavation to steel work — on RMS projects. The organization is vertical, Salvatore explains. From design to construction, sales and leasing to management, RMS wants to handle as much in-house as possible.

As a developer, his first project was a modular home on a $70,000 plot of land. His first loan officer had been his youth basketball coach. Another modular home led to some single-family residential and condo projects.

In 2008, the Stamford YMCA was in dire financial shape, not unlike the Hartford Hilton today. Salvatore thought he saw a way to turn the Y’s residential tower into a condo project. He couldn’t get it to pencil. But a colleague’s idea of a hotel made sense and RMS was suddenly in the hotel business.

The RMS hotel portfolio now includes The Blake in New Haven, The Lloyd in Stamford, Hotel Zero Degrees in both Danbury and Norwalk and The Goodwin. It also has a set of residences for UConn students in Stamford.

Its rental communities stretch from Canter Green in Union Township, New Jersey, to four properties at City Crossing in New Haven — Aura, Parkside, The Pierpont and The Maddox. There are townhomes at Sleepy Hollow in Stamford, Mayfair Square in Danbury. There is also an age-restricted complex, Simeon Village, in Bethel. And then there is North Crossing in Hartford.

The special sauce for RMS is amenities. As Salvatore explains it, today’s renters crave social interaction. So North Crossing will include yoga space, bowling lanes, a golf simulator, grilling pits, pool and common areas with a mix of coffee bars, and quiet work areas.

A rooftop deck will offer entertainment space with a view of the baseball games. Pets are important to renters so the buildings and grounds will cater to their special needs.

Marketing of the first residential units will gear up early in the new year when the North Crossing website adds floor plans, video tours and all-important pricing information.

Salvatore would only say that prices “will be competitive” with similar properties in the area.

Units will range from junior one-bedroom units at about 550 square feet, to one-bedroom units at 750 to 900 square feet and two-bedroom units at 1,000 to 1,250 square feet. Floor and corner locations will factor into pricing. He expects in-person tours to be available in March with move-in starting in April.

Then it’s on to the next phase, whatever that becomes. Momentum is important in bringing the kind of density that will create the community buzz he envisions.

For Salvatore, the positive experience of working with city officials on The Goodwin was an important factor in his decision to tackle North Crossing. He knew the combative history of redevelopment efforts in Downtown North, but that was not what he found.

Negotiating inclusion of 10% below-market-rate units went smoothly, he reports. The CRDA is helping finance the project.

“It is the wish of the community to get this done,” Salvatore said.