A restaurant that had been a staple of the Capital City before closing its Franklin Avenue location during the COVID-19 pandemic is seeking to reopen at the site of a closed movie theater in the Front Street Entertainment District downtown with $2.3 million in government loans.
Carbone’s Ristorante closed its location at 588 Franklin St., in 2020, ending, or at least interrupting a history stretching more than 80 years in Hartford.
Now the restaurant wants to open a new Hartford location downtown at 39 Front St., where the Apple Cinemas movie theater and restaurant used to be located. The Capital Region Development Authority’s Regional and Economic Development Board will, on Thursday, consider a $1.7 million loan toward the anticipated $3.75 million fit-out of roughly 11,000-square-foot space.
That loan, which would also fund equipment purchases, would use $1.4 million in CRDA funds and another $300,000 in city redevelopment money entrusted to the economic development agency.
The restaurant’s project budget would also make use of a $500,000 small business loan from the state and $1.55 million in private equity.
Landlord HB Nitkin Group is expected to spend nearly $450,000 more investing in the building, according to the CRDA.
Meanwhile, Carbone’s former Franklin Avenue location – owned by members of the family behind the restaurant – is the target of a planned $5.5 million to $6 million mixed-use development blending 21 apartments and 4,600 square feet of commercial space. The CRDA anticipates hearing a grant request for that proposal shortly.
The CRDA said the restaurant project and the mixed-use development represent nearly $9 million of new investment in, respectively, the downtown and the South End.
