More new apartment units are coming to downtown Hartford.
The foundation of Stamford technology entrepreneur Milton B. Hollander and his wife Betty Ruth has donated the Capitol Center property at 370 Asylum St., to the Northeast Neighborhood Partners, Inc., a Hartford-based nonprofit development firm that aims to turn the now vacant office building into an apartment complex.
Sharon McLaughlin Gowen, a spokeswoman for Northeast Neighborhood Partners, said it’s too early to tell the type or number of apartments that will be developed, but the organization plans housing units.
The units will not consist of condos, Gowen said. She said the property was donated just in the last few weeks and they are still in the process of developing final plans.
Northeast Neighborhood Partners, Inc., is the same group that is planning to redevelop the historic Swift Factory property on Love Lane into an affordable workspace for craftspeople, artists and other businesses.
The organization’s founder Rosanne Haggerty is also the founder and president of Common Ground, the New York-based nonprofit development entity that successfully rehabilitated Hartford’s Hollander Building into affordable apartments and retail space.
That property was also donated by The Hollander Foundation.
The 75,000-square-foot Capitol Center property, which is located next door to the Hollander Building, is a former office building purchased by Capitol Center LLC from 150 Washington St. Inc., in 1995 for $2.8 million.
The 29-year-old edifice was built in 1982 will be renamed the Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Friendship Center.
City officials have said that downtown Hartford is in need of about 1,000 more new apartment units. New York development firm Wonder Works Construction and Development recently purchased the former Clarion Hotel for $500,000, with plans to spend up to $20 million to convert the property into about 180 apartment units.
