Hartford’s city council has cleared a path for local kitchen cabinet and countertop retailer Express Kitchens to expand its presence at the Veeder Place office-building on Sargeant Street.
The council on Monday night voted 7-1 in favor of a resolution that will allow Express Kitchens to buy the city-owned property’s tax liens worth $1.6 million.
According to the deal, Express Kitchens will pay $639,766 over four years for the property, or 40 percent of the value of the outstanding liens. It will also pay $128,655 in taxes for 2018. The building is currently owned by MJB Corp. of Bristol.
A tax lien is typically a legal claim against a property for unpaid property taxes. It also prohibits land from being sold or refinanced until the outstanding taxes are paid and the lien is removed.
Express Kitchens is acquiring the 3.63-acre property to use a portion of the 183,490-square-foot building for storage. The property previously housed the former Veeder-Root factory. Express Kitchens will also continue to rent office space there for existing tenants, including not-for-profit Our Piece of the Pie and affordable housing consultancy Co-Opportunity, city records show.
The purchase will add to Express Kitchens’ growing footprint in the Capital City.
Led by founder and CEO Max Kothari, the retailer is headquartered in a 130,000-square-foot warehouse on Weston Street, and operates a showroom and warehouse on 3080 and 3030 Main St., respectively.
Express Kitchens is currently in the midst of investing more than $5 million to launch eight new showrooms in Greater Boston by summer 2020.
The company has nearly 150 Connecticut workers and operates 12 showrooms in the state and three in Massachusetts.
