A developer picked by the town of East Hartford for the tricky redevelopment of a historic, but rundown downtown building into a modern 24-unit apartment building can now access $760,000 in state grant funds.
That’s what remains of a $2.5 million state grant the town received in 2022 to advance redevelopment efforts for the Church Corners Inn building at 860 Main St.
East Hartford’s Town Council, on Tuesday, unanimously agreed to grant access to those funds to developer Parker Benjamin – who was selected as a development partner on the project last year. The Unionville-based developer specializes in adaptive reuse.
Church Corners had once been a lodging house with a high-end restaurant, but devolved into a board house that was an epicenter for drug use and petty crime, resulting in thousands of police and emergency calls every year.
Town officials used a portion of the 2022 grant to buy the property, move tenants out and perform some pre-development work. Now, Parker Benjamin has access to the remaining $760,000 to advance the project, even before it takes ownership of the property.
Parker Benjamin’s plan calls for 24 apartments built over retail space. The company wants to install a restaurant on the first floor, but the retail space could be carved up in various ways, noted Dimitri Karouta, the company’s director of development. He estimated the Church Corners project could take up to 18 months after construction begins, with a budget estimate of $5 million.
“Church Corners, historically, was an integral part of downtown East Hartford,” Town Council Chair Richard Kehoe told the Hartford Business Journal Wednesday. “This new project will restore Church Corners to its former glory and is a harbinger of what we hope will also occur with downtown East Hartford.”
