Downtown Hartford’s State House Square is getting new life in its fourth decade of operation.
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Downtown Hartford’s State House Square is getting new life in its fourth decade of operation.
More than $12 million is being spent to upgrade elevators, lobbies and a food court in the three-tower office and retail complex located across the street from Constitution Plaza.
“Many of these office buildings in Hartford were built around the same time in the mid-to-late 1980s,” said David Jakubowski, the tower’s general manager. “They are all at the point in their life cycle where they need a capital injection.”
The installation of new elevator cabs and interior and dispatch-system improvements are the most expensive upgrades, costing owner-landlords FBE-State Square LLC and MAC-State Square LLC approximately $7 million.
Half of the newly revamped Otis elevators at 90 State House Square will begin operating by Thanksgiving, with the other units coming online by February. The remaining elevators at 10 and 50-58 State House Square will be worked on in 2020, for completion in early 2021.
An overhaul of 90 State House Square’s lobby will be finished in the coming weeks as construction crews turn their focus to adding similar chic improvements to the lobby at 10 State House Square in the first quarter of 2020.
The three-year renovation project was originally slated to kick off last summer with a $1.5 million overhaul of the 478-seat food court at State House Square, but a pipe break delayed physical work from beginning until August this year.
Upgrades to seating, lighting and flooring at the 22,000-square-foot food court, home to Moe’s Southwest Grill, Dunkin’ Donuts and other fast-food vendors, will be completed by year-end, Jakubowski said. The project also includes retail-unit improvements.
The renovations, he said, will significantly improve the dining experience for both office tenants and downtown consumers.
“I know that the owners and tenants are very excited about the renovations,” said Jakubowski, who recently signed a lease with a high-end hair salon and is in negotiations to add several other non-food vendors to the complex. “We are looking forward to showcasing them to the Hartford community when they are all done.”
Built in 1987 for $250 million, the lower level of State House Square was originally designed as an urban shopping mall, with a food court located on the second floor of the complex. It was later moved to its current location on the ground level in 2000.
About 85 percent of State House Square’s office space is filled with lead tenants including Travelers Cos., Pullman & Comley, UBS Realty Investors and Jackson Lewis PC. Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Greater Hartford YMCA are among the retail tenants on-site.
The 844,000-square-foot complex also houses a U.S. Post Office and a parking garage with 445 spaces. A fitness club and pool, now leased by Greater Hartford YMCA, was improved through a $6-million renovation project in 2015, Jakubowski said.
A year earlier, the owners invested $8 million in an on-site central and heating cooling plant to reduce operating costs. It recorded savings from that project in less than four years, he said.
The office-retail complex has had several owners in recent decades.
That includes Hartford health insurer Aetna, which had a major presence at the complex and acquired it out of foreclosure in 1996 from a partnership led by developer and former Hartford Whalers owner Richard Gordon, and the defunct Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Aetna then sold State House Square less than a decade later to Virginia’s Harvard Group International, which then sold the property to its current owners.
In 2016, FBE-State Square LLC and MAC-State Square LLC, both based in New York City, modified their original $87.5 million mortgage obtained in 2007 to acquire the complex.
Deal Roundup
A Danielson-based nonprofit has acquired an office building in Avon for $870,000.
The Supported Living Group (SLG), which provides disability support services to patients across the state, recently purchased the 14,400-square-foot building at 147 Simsbury Road, from 147 Associates LLC, led by principal Frank von Holzhausen, according to land records. That amounts to about $60 a square foot.
The three-story office building was built on 3.15 acres in 1979.
Founded in 2006, SLG also operates a rehabilitation center in Plainville.
• • •
The vacant former home to Connecticut Furriers in New Britain has sold for $275,000, brokers say.
Brothers Leo and Harry Sitilides sold the 10,804-square-foot building at 111 West Main St., which has retail, warehouse and cold-storage space, to Pavan Kumar Alapati of Bhuvaneshwari Realty LLC.
Farmington broker Amodio & Co. Real Estate represented the seller in the deal.
Joe Cooper is HBJ’s web editor and real estate writer. He pens “The Real Deal” column about Greater Hartford’s commercial real estate industry. Send him real estate tips and deals at jcooper@hartfordbusiness.com.
