Downtown Hartford civil engineer Rohan Freeman has chosen as his firm’s new home the historic former South End firehouse that for years was the inspirational headquarters for children’s author Linda Cheverton Wick and her photographer-husband Walter Wick.
Freeman said his 7 Summits Realty LLC paid the Wicks’ Lightspace LLC about $800,000 for the 12,168-square-foot office/flex building at 36 John St., in the city’s South Green neighborhood adjacent to Hartford Hospital.
He said he also is investing $200,000 more in “mild upgrades” to the building’s interior so that his Freeman Companies LLC, of which he is founder and chief executive, and most of his 22 employees can occupy the full 6,000 square feet on the second floor to ply their civil engineering, land surveying and environmental and geotechnical engineering services.
A seasoned climber, Freeman says he canceled a two-week climbing excursion to Peru at month’s end so he can oversee his firm’s move by June 2 into its new quarters from its temporary station in about 4,800 square feet at 10 Columbus Blvd., also known as the “Candy Cane Building.”
With business booming for his five-year-old firm, Freeman says his 22-person payroll likely will hit 30 by yearend, with the hiring of more structural and transportation engineers.
Three or four tenants will occupy the rest of the two-story building, officials said.
Built around 1920, the Neo-Classical-style building was once an equipment maintenance shop for Firehouse Engine Co. 1. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Its design elements include brick walls with stone and rows of 16 over 12 casement towering windows. Inside, it features exposed brick, high ceilings and abundant natural lighting.
Reese Commercial was Freeman’s broker. William Pitt Sotheby’s was Lightspace’s broker.
The Wicks last year publicly declared their intention to resettle to Florida.
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Bella Nail’s Rocky Hill spa
Bella Nail & Spa LLC has leased 1,250 square feet for its new personal-care operation opening later this summer in Rocky Hill’s Cold Spring Plaza.
With Bella set to open in August, the shopping center at 945 Cromwell Ave. is fully leased for the first time since 2008, according to broker Dale Reese, who represented landlord Cold Spring Plaza LLC.
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Sustainable’s E. Hfd. relo
Alternative-energy promoter Sustainable Innovations LLC has consolidated and relocated its former Glastonbury light manufacturing, research and development, administrative operations and 21 employees to leased quarters in East Hartford.
The maker of hydrogen-separation and energy-storage systems and other related technologies leased 4,351 square feet at 111 Roberts St. from landlord 111 Roberts Street LLC.
Chemical engineer Trent Molter, Sustainable’s founder, president and chief executive, said his company had been subletting space at the rear of the Habco building at 172 Oak St. for its production and R&D operations. Across the parking lot, at 160 Oak St., were Sustainable’s administrative offices, Molter said.
For efficiency’s sake, Molter said he chose to consolidate everything into a single location.
Broker Sentry Commercial represented Sustainable in lease talks.
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Wallingford tenant renews
Third-party benefit trust administrator Insurance Programmers Inc. renewed its long-term lease for offices at Wallingford’s 10 Technology Park.
Insurance Programmers occupies 15,360 square feet, or roughly one-sixth of the research and development facility’s 98,703 square feet.
IP serves more than 60 benefit trusts in New England and New York.
Sentry Commercial represented landlord Proton OnSite in the lease.
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Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.