A little more than a decade after it was built, the 39-room Waterbury Big Apple Motel has been listed for sale at $2.4 million.
Harrison, New Jersey real estate investor Aijaz Ahmed paid $155,000 for a dilapidated auto-repair shop on nearly one-third of an acre at 428 West Main St., in early 2014. Ahmed gutted the building and rebuilt it. Waterbury dignitaries helped him cut a ribbon on the resulting 14,990-square-foot motel in late 2015.
The property was listed by Coldwell Banker Realtor Carmelina Riccitelli on Monday. A second Ahmed-owned property in Waterbury — a three-story, mixed-use apartment building at 33 Willow St. — has also been listed for sale.
The nine-unit Willow Street apartment building hosts King Pizza on its first floor, and features a small, attached events space. It is listed for $1.5 million.
The motel is a “rare investment opportunity” that could continue as a hospitality offering, or be converted into a new use, possibly apartments, Riccitelli said.
“I’m excited to see who will acquire this property and how they will transform it to maximize its value in the market,” Riccitelli said.
Waterbury Economic Development Director Joseph McGrath said a conversion to apartments might be a good fit, given the property’s location in downtown Waterbury and proximity to the Freight Street industrial corridor. It sits next to an existing apartment building, he noted.
The city is pushing a long-range plan to clear, clean and redevelop about 70 industrial acres along the corridor, much of it polluted, and underused or abandoned.
