Developer Randy Salvatore said demand for the 270-unit apartment building he has nearly finished next to Dunkin’ Donuts Park has been stronger than anticipated, and the red-hot rental market has led to higher rents than budgeted.
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Developer Randy Salvatore’s ongoing effort to build around 1,000 apartments just north of Hartford’s downtown was buffeted in 2022 by labor shortages, supply chain difficulties and interest rate hikes.
A court challenge has stopped him from breaking ground on the next phase of development.
Still, Salvatore said, demand for the 270-unit apartment building he has nearly finished next to Dunkin’ Donuts Park has been stronger than anticipated, and the red-hot rental market has led to higher rents than budgeted. Combined, these factors make him more upbeat than ever on the Capital City’s prospects, he said.
“The fact that we rented 190 to 200 apartments in the first five, six months at rates exceeding what we thought about tells me that if you build it, they will come,” Salvatore said. “If you build a great product they will come. I was bullish before. Now we have actual experience telling us that demand has outpaced what I thought it would be, so I’m more bullish now than I ever was about Hartford.”
Salvatore started 2022 as one of the great hopes for Hartford. Mayor Luke Bronin and other city officials are counting on the addition of thousands of market-rate apartments to pump new life into a city center that has seen its corporate presence sapped by the pandemic and resulting exodus of office workers to remote or hybrid work schedules.
The first phase of Salvatore’s broader North Crossing development around the ballpark was initially expected to debut before the first pitch of the Yard Goats’ 2022 spring season. Instead, supply chain holdups and labor shortages delayed the opening of the first 270-unit apartment building — dubbed “The Pennant” — until August.
In a mid-November interview, Salvatore said he expected to put finishing touches on the last of those initial apartments by the close of the year.
As The Pennant was readying for occupancy this summer, Salvatore anticipated rolling right into the next phase of construction — a 522-space parking facility attached to a structure with 528 apartments — on a lot just southwest of the stadium.
That hope was put on hold by a twist in a lawsuit filed by Middletown-based Centerplan Cos., the original developer of Dunkin’ Donuts Park and surrounding development. Centerplan was fired in 2016 by the city of Hartford after being accused of doing shoddy work that was late and over budget.
The city subsequently hired Salvatore to build apartments on vacant lots around the ballpark.
Centerplan’s suit — which contends it was unjustly fired and still has rights to build on the lots — gained new life in May, when the Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Centerplan has sought an injunction against additional construction, at least temporarily delaying further progress on the North Crossing development.
