Hartford landlord Larry Gottesdiener, once one of the city’s most prolific property owners and boosters, is diversifying his portfolio with a new type of asset ‒ a WNBA franchise.
The Atlanta Dream WNBA team announced Friday that Gottesdiener, founder and chairman of Northland Investment Corp., is the lead investor in a three-member group that purchased the women’s professional basketball club for an undisclosed price.
The ownership group also includes former UConn women’s basketball star and Dream player Renee Montgomery and Northland President and Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Abair.
“It is a privilege to join a team of inspiring women who strive for excellence on the court and equity off the court,” Gottesdiener said. “I would like to express my gratitude to Commissioner Engelbert, Commissioner Silver, and the WNBA and NBA Boards of Governors for the opportunity.”
The team was purchased from former GOP U.S. Sen Kelly Loeffler who became a polarizing figure over the past year, in part due to her resistance to the league’s social justice initiatives, according to ESPN.
The deal thrusts Gottesdiener, a Connecticut native whose grandfather was a Hartford mailman, into the national spotlight, but his desire to own a professional sports team wasn’t necessarily a hidden secret.
During the prime of Northland’s Hartford empire, Gottesdiener expressed hope to bring back to the Capital City an NHL hockey franchise.
That never panned out.
At his peak, from the late 1990s through the 2008 near-global financial meltdown, Gottesdiener was downtown Hartford’s top land baron, amassing more than a $350 million realty portfolio, including four trophy downtown office towers: CityPlace II; Goodwin Square and its adjoining hotel; Metro Center; and Trumbull Place, 242 Trumbull St., directly opposite Northland’s Hartford 21 apartment high-rise — built from the ground up in 2006 for $200 million — and the adjoining XL Center arena.
Things started out well for Gottesdiener in Hartford and he became one of the city’s top cheerleaders. In fact, a 2007 New York Times article called him “Hartford’s Booster in Chief.”
He espoused the notion of turning the city into a “24-hour neighborhood” where people “live, work and play.” He even expressed a desire to buy and bring back to Hartford an NHL franchise and lead development of a new downtown arena. Northland also managed the XL — formerly the Civic Center — for a number of years.
Following the Great Recession, which ravaged the state’s and city’s economies, things soured for Northland in Hartford. It lost three downtown office buildings to foreclosure — limiting its appetite for future investment here — and shifted its focus and investment capital to high-growth markets, like Boston, Austin, Texas and Florida.
Northland still owns significant properties in Hartford, including the Hartford 21 apartment high-rise, 100 Allyn St. (where HBJ is now a tenant) and 242 Trumbull St.
He also owns the mothballed former YMCA property on Jewell St.
