The State Bond Commission on Friday approved tens of millions of dollars worth of grants and loans for redevelopment projects in Greater Hartford, including office-to-apartment renovations in the Capital City and the planned demolition of the former Ames department store headquarters in Rocky Hill.
The 10-member commission voted to authorize two loans totaling $13.5 million to help Spinnaker Real Estate Partners convert the office building at 55 Elm St. in Hartford into 180 apartments, with a co-working space and restaurant.
The money will come in the form of a $7 million construction loan and a $6.5 million bridge loan.
Spinnaker, which is based in Norwalk, bought the historic, six-story office building in 2020 for $6.8 million and plans to spend about $63 million on renovations.
Efforts to convert student townhomes on Temple Street into 88 conventional apartments units got a $2 million boost from the commission.
That project is part of the second phase of the broader Pratt Street Initiative Partnership, which is also converting buildings on Pratt and Trumbull streets into new housing.
The Capital Region Development Authority serves as the funding conduit for both the Elm Street and Pratt redevelopment projects.
CRDA also got $1.5 million to replace waterproofing systems, pavers, and protection membranes at the plaza and esplanade connecting the Connecticut Convention Center and the Connecticut Science Center.
Nonprofit developer Sheldon Oak received loans amounting to $4 million to support the conversion of the Martin Luther King Apartments on Van Block Avenue into a mixed-income apartment community.
The commission allocated $500,000 to the town of Rocky Hill to help finance the demolition of the long-vacant Ames corporate offices on Main Street and Silas Deane Highway. The project has an estimated total price tag of $1.2 million.
Officials in Rocky Hill are hoping to clear the 180,000-square-foot site for a future mixed-used development.
The complex has sat empty since 2002, when Ames went out of business.
CTNext, a program overseen by Connecticut Innovations, the state’s venture capital arm, received the $7.3 million it requested to fund entrepreneurial support and higher education initiatives.
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