While work on the striking Connecticut Science Center neared completion, the Northland Investment Corp. said in November that it would shut down the historic Goodwin Hotel on Asylum Street at yearend. The city will gain another Fortune 500 company when Northeast Utilities moves its headquarters from Berlin into a Phoenix Cos. building downtown. And engineering/tech entrepreneur Abul Islam, founder of AI Engineering in Middletown, said he planned to build a 13-story “green” headquarters building on Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford, across the street from the Science Center. He faces challenges lining up the financing to accomplish his goal, but he’s confident his tower will go up by 2010. And even the Front Street project finally had its groundbreaking, though lofty initial plans that included residential housing and a major ESPN presence were scaled back. Retail downtown has struggled. Prominent storefronts along Pearl Street have been vacant for months, and Northland hasn’t managed to land the downtown grocer it promised or even fill the high-visibility street level space beneath its glitzy Hartford21 apartment high-rise.
Downtown: A Mixed Bag
