🔒Developer seeks $3.5M CRDA loan to add 47 apartments to former Hartford factory

Over the past two decades, Hartford developer Carlos Mouta has reshaped a century-old, 225,000-square-foot former tire factory in the city’s Parkville neighborhood into a mix of apartments, retail, restaurants, galleries, light manufacturing and offices. Now, Mouta is preparing to expand the residential side of the property by converting upper-floor commercial space at 1429 Park St. into 47 apartments. To help finance the $4.6 million project, he is asking the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) for a low-interest loan of up to $3.5 million. “The commercial space is absurd,” Mouta said Thursday. “I rent, they leave. I rent, they leave. I haven’t made progress in 20 years.” The plan calls for repurposing portions of the building’s second and third floors, which have struggled to hold commercial tenants. A few businesses, including the Parkville Art Gallery, will remain on the second floor, though other spaces could be converted to apartments as tenants move out, Mouta said. The ground floor, about 55,000 square feet, will continue to house restaurants, retail, shops and offices. Current tenants include brewery The Dead Language Beer Project, coffee shop Petrolhead Cafe, a commercial kitchen restaurant incubator and more. Mouta has already developed 96 apartments in the building, filling parts of the third floor and all of the fourth and fifth floors. The new plan would add 47 more units — 34 one-bedrooms, 10 two-bedrooms and three three-bedrooms — averaging 600 square feet at a projected rent of $1,750. The existing apartments, which average 1,200 square feet, are more than 95% leased. The new apartments will feature polished concrete or hardwood floors, high ceilings, access to a fitness center, and use of 175 parking spaces across a garage and surface lot. Completion is targeted for mid-2026. The proposed CRDA loan would carry 3% interest and a five-year term, with the first two years requiring interest-only payments. Mouta is already one of Hartford’s most prominent developers. He led the conversion of a former lumberyard into Parkville Market, a food hall and event space backed by a $3.5 million loan from the Capital Region Development Authority. CRDA later provided $4 million from a revolving loan fund to support environmental cleanup at the former Whitney Manufacturing building, which Mouta is redeveloping into a large residential and commercial complex.