A downtown New Britain office building formerly occupied by the Connecticut Bar Association has sold for $1.64 million to a young New York-based developer who plans to complete a stalled apartment conversion.
Developer John Mariolis last week purchased the 26,324-square-foot, three-story building at 30 Bank St., according to Mariolis and his broker, Vanguard Private Client Group, who confirmed the sale this week.
The Connecticut Bar Association sold the property in mid-2023 for $900,000 to 30 Bank Street LLC, whose principal is Myer Kahan, head of New Jersey-based Bluemark Realty Group. That prior owner secured land-use approvals for an apartment conversion and completed interior demolition, Mariolis said.
Mariolis, a 28-year-old real estate attorney living in Queens, said he is now in the process of securing building permits for a roughly $3 million renovation that will convert the former office building into 32 apartments, along with coworking space, a fitness center, storage units and other amenities. Two of the units will be two-bedroom apartments, with the remainder split between studios and one-bedroom units, he said. The project will be known as “The Lex.”
Mariolis said he expects to begin framing next week and complete the project within about eight months.
The redevelopment site sits next to two recent projects by Jasko Development: “The Brit,” a 107-unit mixed-use apartment building completed in 2024, and “The Highrailer,” a 114-unit mixed-use apartment building that is nearing completion. Jasko, led by developer Avner Krohn, announced the sale of The Brit in early January, with records showing the property traded for $31.07 million.
“I’m on a pretty good block,” Mariolis said. “It’s going to be three fun buildings all on one side. I think it will be the main part of downtown.”
Apartment development has been a major focus in downtown New Britain in recent years, particularly under the administration of former Mayor Erin Stewart, who left office in November. Her administration actively courted apartment developers and conversions of vacant buildings and underutilized lots, often signaling openness to tax relief packages.
Mariolis said the pace of change downtown helped draw him to the city, though finding a building of sufficient size took time.
“I’ve seen the progress over the past three years, how it’s developed, so I was happy to jump in,” Mariolis said.
Mariolis’ family has been involved in small-scale apartment development in Connecticut since late 2021, initially concentrating in downtown Waterbury before expanding into other municipalities. The family currently owns about 150 apartment units statewide, with roughly 100 more expected to be completed within the next six months, John Mariolis said.
More recently, Mariolis has begun pursuing projects on his own. He recently completed the conversion of a downtown Waterbury law office into 22 apartments and, in December, paid $770,000 for a 137-year-old, five-story commercial building in Manchester that he plans to convert into apartments, with construction expected to begin within the next two months.
Mariolis said he is also negotiating the purchase of two additional buildings for apartment conversions, one in central Connecticut and another in the greater New London area. Together, those projects would add about 93 more units to his portfolio, he said.
New Haven-based Vanguard Private Client Group represented both the buyer and the seller in the 30 Bank St. deal. Vanguard Vice President Andrew Stein said tenant demand in New Britain remains strong, even as some parts of the state experience saturation from new apartment construction.
Stein pointed to Vanguard’s own recent conversion of an industrial building into 30 apartments near downtown New Britain, which he said was fully leased within six months of completion last year. That property includes parking and a mix of unit types, with rents ranging from $910 per month for a studio to $2,450 for a three-bedroom, four-bathroom unit. Twenty percent of the apartments were set aside at affordable rates.
“As long as you have a value proposition for the user, I think the demand is still there,” Stein said.
