After years of negotiation, a veteran Farmington builder has acquired a 136.5-acre farm in Berlin, where he plans to develop up to 50 upscale homes.
“It’s a great site, a beautiful site,” said John A. Senese, president of Farmington-based Calco Construction. “We are excited to work with Berlin. I think it will be a nice residential subdivision for the community.”
In a sale recorded June 12, Senese paid $2.27 million to the executors of Dean Petow Sr. and Judith Reeve. The siblings had owned a mix of wooded property and fields at 680 Kensington Road. The property also comes with a 1774-vintage, 2,862-square-foot colonial house.
Petow had raised beef cattle on the property in the past, sources say.
Senese hopes to begin building a subdivision of 45 to 50 houses next spring. While plans are not yet finalized, he plans to build houses of about 2,500 square feet, on half-acre lots, serviced by public water and sewer.
Pricing will depend on building costs and other factors, but Senese predicts the houses will sell in the “$700,000-range.”
He aims to begin construction next spring.
The development has cleared the town’s Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission, Senese said, but still requires approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Senese has more than 35 years of experience as a builder of residential and commercial properties. He is currently redeveloping a 12.2-acre industrial building in Berlin, at the corner of Deming Road and the Berlin Turnpike. He was approved to build a 3,690-square-foot McDonald’s building with a drive-through, and to convert two existing industrial buildings into a mix of warehousing and retail spaces, for a total development of nearly 60,000 square feet.
“I’m excited he will be coming back and investing in Berlin,” Economic Development Director Chris Edge said. “I know he puts up a really nice product.”
Jim A. Neckermann, of Commercial Real Estate Group, who marketed the property, said efforts to close the sale had been complicated by deaths in the family that owned the property.
“We had quite a bit of interest and put it under contract years back,” Neckermann said. “As people passed away, it took some time to close.”
