Hartford officials, on Tuesday, announced 15 grants of up to $150,000 to help open new retail and restaurant businesses, or expand new ones.
The city announced its “Hart Lift” grant program in December, using $6 million in federal stimulus funds to revive a retail and restaurant scene ravaged by the pandemic.
Under the program, property owners can qualify for up to $150,000 to outfit first-floor spaces for retail and restaurant businesses.
The grant requires matching funds. Inside the downtown, property owners need to match 100% of city funds. Outside the downtown, only half of the grant needs to be matched by outside dollars.
So far, the Hartford Chamber of Commerce, which is administering the program, has approved 25 grants totaling nearly $2.5 million.
“It’s exciting to see the amount of demand for this Hart Lift partnership,” Mayor Luke Bronin told a small crowd of city business leaders and grant recipients gathered in the closed V’s Trattoria restaurant on Trumbull Street for Tuesday’s announcement.
Much of the culinary and bar equipment in the space is gone. The subfloors are exposed. A pile of metal railing is stacked behind what remains of the bar. By June, however, the location will host “Raw,” a raw bar seafood restaurant under
Hartford-based hospitality entrepreneur Gjinovefa “Gina” Luari.
“This was a restaurant that was not able to make it through the COVID pandemic,” Bronin said of the trattoria. “But, because of this partnership, because of the American Rescue Plan funds, because of our work together – the city and chamber’s work together – and because of Gina’s commitment to the city as an entrepreneur and growing restaurant after successful restaurant, this place will be brought back in new form, re-imagined and I can’t wait to try it.”
Luari currently operates three Place 2 Be restaurants – two in Hartford and one in West Hartford. She plans to open five more restaurants this year, including three in Hartford outside the hip, brunch-all-day, model of Place 2 Be. Her three new
Hartford restaurants are all recipients of the new grant.
Luari said it is encouraging to have the city backing.
Connecticut Lighting Centers President David Director and his two sons were among the crowd Tuesday. Director is using the grant to help consolidate his business from three buildings on Brainard and Murphy roads to the former Classic Restaurant and Supply location on Murphy Road.
Director is selling his three buildings in favor of leasing a single, nearly 40,000-square-foot space for his showroom and warehouse. It will mean less time worrying about maintenance and more focus on the business.
“It allows us to consolidate and focus on core competency,” Director said. “In the long run, it allows us to perform better at what we do.”
Sisters Alex Pilon and Monica Beaudoin are using the grant to help move the Bloom Bake Shop into a 2,100-square-foot storefront at 80 Pratt St. in early June. The sisters had been filling online orders, catering and participating in pop-up retail from a roughly 500-square-foot incubator space in Hartford.
Richard Beaudoin, father to Pilon and Beaudoin, said the grant was a big part of the decision to expand in downtown Hartford, he said.
“We had our eye set on a couple different places,” Beaudoin said. “But we heard about this opportunity and it attracted us in here. It was definitely one of the major factors that drew us downtown.”
Grants announced Tuesday
- All My Sons Moving Co., 40 Airport Road, $150,000
- Four Dad’s Pub, 114 Asylum St., $104,950
- Aroma’s Café, 100 Constitution Plaza, $80,000
- Frenchie’s Creole Grill, 485 Main St., $90,000
- Tropix Caribbean Grille, 3229 Main St., $150,000
- Connecticut Lighting Centers, 312 Murphy Road, $150,000
- La Casita De Sabor Express (take-out Spanish cuisine), 1200 Park St., $62,500
- Rinzed Laundromat, 1605-1607 Park St., $75,000
- Yardpoker Clothing and Design, 1631 Park St., $50,000
- Parkville Sounds, 1800 Park St., $150,000
- Taste 111 (grab-and-go market), $93,800
- Rundown (upscale sneaker shop), $150,000
- Bloom Bake Shop, 80 Pratt St., $54,850
- State House Distilling Co. (bar, restaurant and events), 30 State House Square, $150,000
- RAW (raw bar seafood restaurant), 280 Trumbull St., $150,000
Grants announced previously
- Kenney’s Restaurant, 379 Capitol Ave., $100,000
- Story & Soil, 389 Capitol Ave., $50,000
- Capitol Ice Cream, 389 Capitol Ave., $50,000
- Pretty Girl Inventory, 207 Garden St., $55,000
- Brother Johnson Hat Co., 213 Garden St., $20,000
- Cantina Hartford, 900 Main St., $150,000
- B.O.P, 16 New Park Ave., $12,000
- Charred (pizzeria), 275 Pearl St., $150,000
- Lyons Den (bar and live entertainment), 77 Pratt St., $102,100
- Corner 3 (sports bar), 103 Pratt St., $99,400