The quasi-public Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) has selected a Hartford-based commercial brokerage and property management company to help with oversight of the aging Hartford Regional Market.
CRDA’s board of directors voted Thursday afternoon to approve a lone bid from RM Bradley Management Corp., headquartered at One Financial Plaza, to provide management services at the market in the city’s South Meadows.
The three-year contract comes months after CRDA took over full management of the market from the state Department of Agriculture, and began soliciting bids for a commercial operator to help both manage and promote leasing activity at the property, home to hundreds of employees and more than a dozen businesses receiving and distributing food to supermarkets, restaurants and stores across the region.
Under the deal, RM Bradley Management will provide monthly accounting and property management services, and will prepare service contracts with third party vendors, among other general oversight of the property.
RM Bradley Management will receive 4% of gross revenues, or $3,000 a month. A state estimate in recent years showed the regional market records approximately $165 million in annual gross sales.
Several vendors operate year-round at the regional market, which launched its seasonal farmers’ market on Saturdays and Sundays earlier this month. Foodshare in recent weeks has also been using the regional market to distribute free food to individuals amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the spring-fall farmers’ market, shoppers can find a variety of fruits and vegetables, flowers, honey, eggs and maple syrup, among other items.
CRDA in recent years hired a local real estate consultant to develop ideas on how to revitalize and modernize the rundown 32-acre regional market property, which debuted in the early 1950s. But a subsequent conceptual plan that proposed space for food trucks, live music, winter use, a community garden and gathering areas has not moved forward.
