A little more than four years after a car veered into the former Bloomfield Hardware Store in the center of town and caught fire, the building’s shell has been repaired and is ready for reuse.“We built a fabulous design that looks to the future and complements everything else that is going on in town, with […]
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A little more than four years after a car veered into the former Bloomfield Hardware Store in the center of town and caught fire, the building’s shell has been repaired and is ready for reuse.
“We built a fabulous design that looks to the future and complements everything else that is going on in town, with a huge infusion of multifamily apartments,” said Robert Schwartz, a Bloomfield-based real estate investor. He also owns the nearby 100-unit Ramblestone Estates apartment complex, as well as retail space in West Hartford and Granby.
Schwartz, now 65, spent his adolescence and teens working around the Tunxis Avenue store his father purchased in 1952. He stocked shelves, worked the register and, as a teen, drove the delivery truck.
His father, Nathan Schwartz, was a “larger-than-life” character and people would gather in the store to socialize on Saturdays. There, they could buy ice skates to use at nearby Filley Park. The store sold firearms. Patrons could visit to pay their electric bills and return empty milk jugs.
Schwartz said his father closed the store in the late 1970s as he drifted away from retail to focus on real estate. Schwartz followed his parents into that trade as well. His company, Naro Realty, had its office in a 1,700-square-foot addition to the rear.
Schwartz was finishing a workout at his gym around 6 pm. on a Wednesday in September 2018, when he noticed he had about 22 missed calls on his cellphone.
His assistant and two maintainers had called him repeatedly. Schwartz quickly learned a car had veered across opposing traffic, slammed into the building and caught fire.
By the time Schwartz arrived at 9 Tunxis Ave., the fire had been burning for 20 minutes.
There was heavy damage to the store, even holes cut in the roof. The rear office was untouched by flames, but smoke had traveled through the vents, covering everything with black soot.
Schwartz said he began contemplating the building’s future that evening, knowing if he chose to renovate rather than demolish, he would have to modernize.
“I wasn’t going to restore what I lost because what I lost was something from the 1970s and 80s,” Schwartz said.
New energy
Schwartz decided to rebuild, partially because Bloomfield has long been the nexus of his business ventures. Originally, he expected repairs to last just a few months. Instead, it took two years to complete restoration of the building and landscaping, as well as creation of a parking lot on a neighboring property that used to host a gas station.
Schwartz partially blames pandemic-related supply chain issues for the extended rebuild. He also said it was difficult to coordinate his work with an environmental cleanup ExxonMobil was conducting on the gas station property, which Schwartz also owns.
ExxonMobil was generally a good partner, but it wasn’t easy to coordinate construction with the giant corporation, Schwartz said.
“I couldn’t just say: ‘I’m doing my sidewalk next week,’ ” Schwartz recalled. “We worked well together but imagine a company like ExxonMobil. There were attorneys. There were more attorneys. … More attorneys.”
Four years after the fire and $1.4 million later, Schwartz is about ready to move back to his restored office and is advertising 4,861 square feet of storefront retail space in the center of Bloomfield. He is hoping for a restaurant, retail or medical office user. He’d be willing to split the space but would prefer a single tenant.
Schwartz said insurance covered about 40% of rebuilding expenses; he covered the rest out of pocket.
The interior is rough. The electrical, plumbing and heating systems have not been installed. New flooring is needed. Schwartz said the interior will be left bare until a tenant is secured, so the space can be molded to fit a specific need.
With more than 500 apartments added to Bloomfield’s center over the past three years, it is a good opportunity to capitalize on new energy, Schwartz said.
“Things are really changing,” Schwartz said. “You get here in the morning, and you see people walking through with their dogs or families. You didn’t use to see that.”
