The owner of two Hartford Nissan-Infiniti showrooms paid $1.25 million for a former Wallingford landscape nursery on which to build a new Infiniti dealership.
Harte Auto Group bought the 2.3-acre former Vinnie’s Home and Garden Center at 1076 South Colony St. as the new home for its West Haven Infiniti franchise, Harte Auto Vice President Greg Harte said.
One of the first Infiniti dealers in the U.S., Harte Auto’s West Haven store has outgrown its cramped ¾-acre lot at 442 Derby Ave., Harte said.
The new site is close to rivals Mercedes Benz/BMW and Audi/Porsche sports-luxury dealerships in the area.
Construction is expected to start shortly on a pre-packaged showroom design supplied by the Japanese luxury marque. Opening is set for later this year.
Meantime, interior demolition and reconstruction also is slated to get underway at Harte Infiniti’s 150 Weston St. dealership that was gutted by fire back in September, Harte said. The blaze did an unspecified amount of damage primarily to the showroom.
The third-generation auto retailer also has dealerships in Mt. Kisco and Newburgh, N.Y.
Press/Cuozzo Realtors represented Harte Auto in the Wallingford deal. Arnold Peck’s Commercial World represented seller the Vinnie Gloria estate.
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MotoPhoto’s new home
Avon MotoPhoto is moving into a 4,300-square-foot storefront in Avon Village on East Main Street/Route 44, about two miles from its former Avon Marketplace home.
MotoPhoto owner Joel Miller signed a seven-year lease at 11 E. Main St. Miller’s portrait studio, art and gifts shop was at 380 W. Main St. for 11 years.
RM Bradley represented landlord Avon Village Associates, a partnership of Carter Realty and other local investors who bought the retail property last May.
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Enfield retail plaza sold
Enfield’s Stop & Shop Plaza is one of 11 U.S. shopping centers recently acquired by Ohio investor Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc.
Cincinnati-based Phillips Edison didn’t specify how much it paid in December for the plaza at 54 Hazard Ave., between Palomba Drive and Freshwater Boulevard. However, it said it paid an aggregate $156 million for three centers, including ones in Arizona, California, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
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New Horizons’ Fairfield lease
Windsor computer trainer New Horizons Computer Learning network is opening a training center in Fairfield.
New Horizons recently leased for seven years 10,622 square feet at 777 Commerce Drive, a building next door to the new Fairfield Metro train station.
New Horizons operations chief Tynan Fischer said the building’s proximity to transportation arteries, restaurants and shopping was the reason for locating its corporate-employee training center there.
In the same building, Total Care, an in-home care provider for seniors and other healthcare services, inked a five-year lease for 5,556 square feet, brokers said.
With those tenants, the 62,000-square-foot office building is fully leased, they said.
Rand Commercial was New Horizons’ broker. CBRE New England represented landlord Abbey Road Advisors.
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Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
