Hartford city officials identified CV Properties Inc. as among three proponents who have met city criteria to redevelop downtown’s northern edge into a ballpark and other commercial development. Two of the three also envision a new municipal building next door, the city says.
A partnership of landlord Leyland Alliance and Middletown developer, Centerplan, as well as Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. were previously cited as interested in redeveloping the city parcel that would house the stadium. Owners of the New Britain Rock Cats have said they are interested in leasing the ballpark to house their minor-league ballclub.
City of Hartford Director of Development Services Thom Deller said only three of the four proposals submitted satisfied all the criteria in its request for proposals (RFPs).
Southport-based CV Properties LLC, Leyland Alliance of New York, and Bloomfield’s Thomas Hooker Brewing Company are the three lead developers on the RFPs.
CV Properties wants to build a new municipal office building, a ballpark to house the New Britain Rock Cats, and a garage to support both uses and support retail. The proposal is meant to be a “catalytic project” that would help open additional development in the Downtown North area. CV Properties also wants to partner with other developers for the housing and retail components of the project.
Leyland Alliance, which is partnering with Middletown’s Centerplan Cos., Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh, Penn. and Hartford’s JCJ Architecture, wants to build a new ballpark, retail, (including a grocery store) restaurants, a brewery, municipal office space, and over 600 residential units. The proposal also anticipates the implementation of street improvements recommended in the downtown master plan to create balanced streets that better accommodate pedestrians, bicycles, on-street parking and landscaping.
Finally, Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. wants to build a new brew-pub on a small parcel of the Downtown North development area.
“We’ve begun our analysis of the proposals and will work with the City Council to determine the appropriate course to proceed that best serves the City of Hartford and the Downtown North area,” Deller said in a statement.
A recommendation could be presented to City Council in early September with a vote later that month, officials said.
“After decades of neglect, we’re excited about the real opportunities to successfully redevelop the entire Downtown North area,” Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra said in the same statement. “We believed that the ballpark could be the catalyst and spark needed to drive interest and development of the property, and we’re seeing exactly that with the responses to the RFP.”
Meantime, as part of a separate RFP process, JCJ Architecture said it has teamed up with Martin H. Dinitto of Kansas City-based Ballpark Design Associates to design the stadium.
Theirs is one of a number of architectural design proposals received by the city, which have not yet been made public.
The stadium design RFPs are separate from the four proposals for the overall development of Downtown North.
Dinitto was design director for BB&T Ballpark in Charlotte, N.C., home of the Charlotte Knights, a AAA team affiliated with the Chicago White Sox, according to his online biography. The stadium opened in March.
He also designed TD Ameritrade Park in Nebraska and was project director for Class AAA, AA and A parks in Indiana, Arkansas, Michigan and Kentucky, among others.
