Developer Grava Properties has completed the first phase of its mixed-use redevelopment of a dated retail strip mall in downtown Windsor, close to the town’s passenger rail station.
As Grava President Gregory Vaca prepares to celebrate a ribbon-cutting with local and state officials Tuesday, more than half of the 70 apartments that became available in August have been leased, as has all five retail spaces in two new buildings.
“Now that it’s there and the retail is tenanted, people walking by it realize how well it is designed,” Vaca said Tuesday morning. “The state has put a lot of effort into putting transit-oriented development in village centers and near transit. If anybody is wondering what that looks like, come to Windsor center and see what it looks like and what it can do for your town.”
Ground-floor retail tenants in the new buildings include a real estate office and gift shop that had been in the previous retail plaza, among others. New to the 150 Broad St. site are a bakery and plant shop. A café-bistro has leased the fifth storefront and is expected to open when buildout is completed in December.
Twenty percent of the new apartment units are reserved as “workforce housing,” available to households earning up to 80% of area median income.
The buildings’ amenities include coworking spaces and meeting rooms, a fitness center, saunas, dog park and other common areas.
Work is already underway on the second phase of “Founders Square,” which will include a third, 50-unit building with an elevator and rooftop deck. The phase also includes modernizing 5,700 square feet of the original retail plaza.
Vaca expects the second phase to be completed sometime next fall.
The project received a $3.2 million state grant, as well as a 10-year tax relief package from the town worth about $3 million, Vaca said.
Windsor Federal Bank was the lead lender on the $35 million project, with Freedom Credit Union and Savers Bank also participating in a loan package that supported 70% of building costs, Vaca said.
