Two of downtown Hartford’s biggest, vacant office buildings — 101 and 111 Pearl St. — continue to defy efforts to recast their decaying shells into new uses.
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Two of downtown Hartford's biggest, vacant office buildings — 101 and 111 Pearl St. — continue to defy efforts to recast their decaying shells into new uses.
The last proposal from Hartford developer Martin J. Kenny and his partners — including Hartford parking magnate Alan Lazowski — to convert both buildings into upper-floor apartments, accompanied by street-level retail space appears all but dead.
Kenny, who in 2005 opened the 100 Trumbull St. apartments and a companion parking garage in the shadow of 101 and 111 Pearl and is an active suburban housing developer, says his partnership has had difficulty obtaining supplemental funding from the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) to go with their financing to completely rework both towers.
Indeed, as recently as Dec. 2013, after obtaining title to seven-story 111 Pearl from the city for $500,000, Kenny, Lazowski and then co-partners Sanford I. Cloud and Philadelphia housing developer Pennrose Properties LLC, announced that a $43 million conversion of both buildings was to begin the following spring. Later, Kenny and partners acquired 11-story 101 Pearl from the state.
They even released captivating artists' sketches reimagining both with big windows, even a rooftop outdoor lounge for one of them.
Instead, three years later, no rehabilitation work on either has begun, and Kenny has indicated the partners may be looking to unload both. He confirmed fielding inquiries from potential buyers.
“We're exploring all options,'' Kenny said. “Without state funding, we can't do it.''
Meantime, CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said both buildings — commercially vacant for several decades, except for a period when 101 Pearl housed the Hartford city police museum — pose a catch-22 for the developers and the quasi-public state promoter of the Hartford region.
The longer it takes to assemble financing to rehab the towers, the greater the toll on them from climate, lack of maintenance and vandals, Freimuth and other observers say.
Kenny said New York City developer Jeff Ravetz, who with his partner recast the former Clarion Hotel in downtown's Constitution Plaza into the 190-unit Spectra Boutique Apartments, is among those who have expressed an interest in the Pearl Street properties.
Ravetz did not respond to requests for comment.
– Gregory Seay
