The state’s announcement Tuesday that it would hand over historic office buildings on Trinity Street to the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) likely means one thing for the quasi-public agency: more residential housing downtown.
“It’s likely those buildings will go to some sort of residential use, and be converted,” CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said referring to state offices at 30 and 18/20 Trinity St., which the Lamont administration will shed in order to consolidate office space leases and save $7.1 million in five years by moving about 160 workers mostly downtown to renovated spaces on Capitol and Farmington avenues.
“It’s likely they will be redeveloped as part of a larger puzzle that includes the properties on Capitol Avenue around the corner,” Freimuth said of redeveloping the buildings as part of the nearby Bushnell Park South project.
Converting adjacent state offices on Trinity St. into apartments would continue an ongoing focus for CRDA, which is charged with revitalizing the city and in recent years has backed development of 1,500 or so units downtown. Another 400-plus rental units are expected to debut in 2020.
Before CRDA can begin marketing the properties to prospective investors, the state will need to relocate workers there between September and the early months of 2021. The state is expected to formally transfer the property to CRDA during next year’s legislative session under a real estate conveyance bill, Freimuth said.
CRDA at that time would seek bids for redeveloping the Trinity Street buildings, the longtime home of the Secretary of the State and the Freedom of Information Commission, and additional land on Capitol Avenue and West Street.
“That’s the thought at this hour, but it’s still coming together,” he said. “It could go a variety of ways.”
[Read more: Hartford’s office market in limbo as COVID-19 uncertainty delays expansions, renewals]
New rental units on Trinity Street, Freimuth said, would compliment the mixed-use conversion of a historic office building at 55 Elm St. that has been used in recent decades by state workers, including the Attorney General’s office.
Norwalk developer Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and West Hartford’s Simon Konover Co. are leading that project, but it’s not yet clear whether they would be interested in renovating the Trinity Street properties that the state estimated would need an investment of up to $80 million over a decade. Spinnaker officials could not be reached for comment.
“I imagine they would be [interested], though I haven’t spoken to them about it,” Freimuth said. “I think they [Spinnaker] have quite a bit to chew on with 55 Elm, as well as some land that’s around it.”
In the early 19th century, the 18/20 and 30 Trinity St. buildings served as one of the epicenters for the city’s insurance industry.
The Orient Insurance Co. in 1905 built and launched the 18/20 Trinity St. office near the corner of Elm Street and across the street from the state Capitol. The building, designed by Davis and Brooks, originally featured a large dome, which was later taken down. It currently houses offices for the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, the Commission on Children, the Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission, and satellite offices for the Auditors of Public Accounts, among other state agencies, state records show.
The Phoenix Insurance Co. built the adjacent 30 Trinity St. office, and it was later owned and used by Hartford health insurer Aetna in the 1950s.
