🔒Growing brokerage arm of downtown Hartford’s largest apartment landlord has vital mission: Fill city center’s empty retail, office space

It wasn’t easy for Mark Bean to find a space where he could transform his lifelong love of video games into a business mixing gaming, food and a bar.

Some real estate brokers didn’t return phone calls. Others canceled appointments, said Bean, a 48-year-old nurse and first-time entrepreneur.

NAI Lexington Commercial President Kevin Kenny invited Bean to his office in Hartford’s Gold Building office tower. There, Bean pitched his concept of a bar/restaurant catering to gaming enthusiasts to Kenny and Christopher Reilly, president of development firm Lexington Partners, downtown Hartford’s largest apartment owner.

Now, Lexington Partners is committed to fitting out a 4,200-square-foot, ground-floor retail space for JoyStiX at 111 Pearl St., a 101-unit apartment building in the center of Hartford.

Bean aims to open in September or October.

“When I showed them the idea, they immediately saw the vision and they have been super encouraging, reliable and responsive,” said Bean, who, along with his family, is investing about $800,000 into the venture. “It has been smooth sailing since then.”

Born out of necessity

Lexington Commercial LLC was launched in 2021, born out of Lexington Partners’ need to reverse the pandemic-induced tidal flow of restaurants and retailers out of the firm’s downtown Hartford mixed-use apartment buildings.

“When the pandemic hit, all of our collective downtown retail locations had emptied out,” 37-year-old Kenny said. “During that time, a lot of the brokers we would have used were down in Florida, or just not interested in the assignment because you could hear a pin drop in the streets.”

At the height of the pandemic, 21 of 28 — or nearly 75% of 75,320 square feet — of downtown retail spaces owned or managed by Lexington Partners were vacant, Kenny said.

Today, Lexington owns or controls 50 downtown Hartford retail spaces totaling 157,020 square feet, with nearly 78% leased, Kenny said.

Lexington Commercial registered with the state in 2021. Kenny, a vice president at Lexington Partners, secured his Connecticut real estate license in 2022, and became president of the venture. He recruited Joseph DeLuca, a friend he met at Johnson & Wales University who had since prospered at tech companies, including LinkedIn.

“The intention was never to start a brokerage, but once we started getting reached out to by tenants and property owners who were looking for brokers that were having success in retail, that’s when we realized we had something,” Kenny said. “We had a business.”

Lexington Partners founder Martin Kenny, before his sudden death in September 2023, advised his son that the brokerage would need to join a larger network. They decided to go with NAI Global, a national network Martin Kenny used for a brokerage arm of his development business in the 1990s.

“My father told me, if you are going to compete with Cushman & Wakefield and (CBRE) and some of these other big names, you need a flag to get respect and to service clients from all over,” Kenny said.

Lexington Commercial was accepted as an NAI Global affiliate as of June 1, 2023. The network provides leads, support from affiliates in other states, a website and other technical infrastructure. Membership dues are around $40,000 a year, plus it charges commission on deals completed with other NAI affiliates.

Kevin Kenny said he owns 40% of the brokerage venture. DeLuca owns 10% and Lexington Property Management owns 50%. Prominent Hartford-based businessman Alan Lazowski — founder of LAZ Parking — is involved through his ownership stake in Lexington Partners.

With the launch of the brokerage, Lexington now has its development, construction, property management and commercial leasing efforts entirely in-house, Lazowski said.

The brokerage has grown well beyond the Lexington portfolio, he noted.

“Their work is absolutely critical to show people something that we already know … that Hartford is a great Capital City and a tremendous place to work, live and play,” Lazowski said.

For Kenny, helping other Hartford landlords fill their retail space is good business. Beyond fees and commissions, a vibrant downtown is key to attracting and retaining tenants at the more than 950 Hartford apartments that Lexington owns, wholly or in part.

Today, NAI Lexington Commercial represents 801,177 square feet of Lexington Partners’ owned office and retail space in Hartford, West Hartford, Wethersfield and New Haven. And since January 2024, the firm has picked up another 851,610 square feet of office and retail listings in downtown Hartford from other landlords.

The five-person brokerage is housed in a corner of Lexington Partners’ offices on the 12th floor of the Gold Building. Kenny said it has developed annual revenue of about $2 million.

Over the next two years, Kenny envisions the brokerage growing to a dozen employees, with its own office. He also plans to push beyond Hartford and central Connecticut.

“Our aspirations are to grow this outside this region and eventually get throughout the state,” Kenny said. “But I am stubbornly obsessed with filling the retail in downtown Hartford first. We have picked up just about every listing you can think of on that front.”

Downtown grocery store

NAI Lexington Commercial was recently enlisted to represent about 32,000 square feet of Northland-owned retail space in a structure surrounding downtown’s XL Center. These spaces range from 487 to 8,474 square feet, fronting Ann Uccello, Trumbull and Asylum streets.

Most of Northland’s XL Center space has been vacant for more than 15 years. Kenny says he’s confident he can help fill it, given an ongoing $145 million state-funded renovation of the sports and entertainment arena, and a new management contract with Los Angeles-based Oak View Group that’s expected to greatly increase the number of events there.

Another reason for optimism, Kenny said, is a Lexington Partners-led project that will transform a 144,644-square-foot building at nearby 64 Pratt St., into dormitory space for up to 200 UConn students. That project is expected to debut in August 2026.

Kenny said his firm is close to recruiting a long-sought grocery “superstore” to downtown Hartford, as well as a grocery to another spot in north Hartford.

He declined to provide further details until the deals are finalized.

Positive feedback

Hartford Economic Development Director Patrick Pentalow said few brokers reach out to him as often as NAI Lexington Commercial to consult on possible new retail businesses.

“They have been instrumental in our efforts to revitalize the downtown,” Pentalow said. “I think they share the collective vision that the (city) administration is trying to create downtown. They are very ambitious, very aggressive and they want what is best for the city.”

Landlords working with NAI Lexington Commercial say they appreciate the firm’s tenacity and optimism. They also acknowledge a vibrant retail and restaurant scene is key to a healthy downtown Hartford office and apartment market.

NAI has recruited nine new office tenants to the 17-story “Stark Building” at 750 Main St., and renewed two other leases.

Adam J. Stark, president and founder of Stark Office Suites, was the lead investor in the group that paid $4.3 million for the roughly century-old, 130,547-square-foot office tower in 2017. Since then, the ownership group has invested significantly in new elevators, fiber optic cable and other upgrades, while maintaining the antique building’s charm, he said.

Stark signed on with NAI Commercial after Kevin Kenny approached him with a potential tenant for one of two ground-floor retail spaces. That deal fell through, but it wasn’t for lack of effort on Kenny’s part, Stark said.

“We never did the deal, but I really liked Kevin’s approach,” Stark said. “He was clearly smart and had a very proactive approach. He was very much about looking at different angles and following up. I was just very impressed. I find a lot of people waiting for things to happen, and I found Kevin and his team were not waiters, they were proactive doers.”

Stark said his building is over 75% occupied, down from over 80% pre-pandemic, but still full enough to remain comfortably profitable.

NAI also helped recruit Insomnia Cookies, known for its late-night delivery of warm baked goods, to a 1,500-square-foot ground-floor retail space at 247 Asylum St.

Insomnia, which opened in March, has been so busy that it has brought in extra equipment to keep up with demand, noted Lisa A. Perfito, who, with her husband, Nicholas, owns the mixed-use apartment building hosting the shop. The Perfitos had not previously engaged a broker for 247 Asylum.

Kenny cold-called them and eventually signed the building as a client.

“They are extremely responsive and extremely motivated,” Perfito said of Lexington Commercial. “I think the fact they have a real passion for what they are doing, that’s what gets results.”

Developer Bruce Becker, in May, signed NAI Lexington Commercial to represent about 60,000 square feet of retail space available in his 285-unit luxury apartment tower at 777 Main St.

The 26-story building lost a major retail tenant in March, with CVS’ departure from a roughly 12,000-square-foot, ground-floor retail space.

Becker said he was compelled by NAI Lexington’s narrative about the affordability of Hartford relative to neighboring West Hartford. Becker said he keeps his retail space rents just high enough to cover taxes and upkeep, which means commissions aren’t huge for brokers.

Like Kenny, he’s motivated to activate retail spaces to create a more appealing environment for his residential tenants.

“I get a sense Kevin understands that, and understands the owners’ perspective,” Becker said. “I don’t have to see a huge return on investment from the retail spaces as long as they get occupied. It makes the apartments more valuable if we have some good retailers downtown.”