A family of Long Island investors continued a string of downtown Waterbury commercial real estate purchases in September, buying two long-vacant office buildings for conversion into apartments.
“We really like the center area of Waterbury,” said John “Gianni” Mariolis, a representative of the buyers. “We just see it as a really good investment.”
Mariolis, his father and siblings are behind limited liability companies that paid $310,000 for an 18,630-square-foot office building at 95 North Main St. and $615,000 for the 23,797-square-foot “Broadcast Center” office building at 101-115 South Main St.
These purchases, recorded in September, followed two earlier acquisitions in Waterbury’s downtown.
The family paid $300,000 for a 111-year-old, 15,984-square-foot office building at 132 Grand St. in a sale logged in July. The building had once served as corporate offices for Webster Bank. The plan is to lease it as office space.
The Mariolis family paid $190,000 for a century-old, 11,040-square-foot building at 111 Bank St. – which previously hosted Tony’s Men’s Shop – last December. The plan is to keep the first floor for retail and renovate the upper floors into apartments.
That’s a lot of square footage for a seemingly bargain price, but the buildings have been long empty and will need extensive rehabilitation.
The Broadcast Center Building has been empty for a decade or more, said Brian Godin, of Godin Property Brokers, which handled the sales. The building at 95 North Main St. has been vacant for closer to 30 years, he said.
“It’s great to see people investing money in Waterbury and helping Waterbury as it is changing,” Godin said.
Waterbury’s downtown has languished for decades as retail and office users drained away. A growing number of buildings went vacant, suffering from either deferred maintenance or outright neglect and abandonment.
Current Mayor Neil O’Leary has made downtown revival a pillar of his 11-year administration. In that time, the city has secured tens-of-millions of local, state and federal dollars for upgrades to parks, infrastructure and municipal buildings in the city center, as well as millions more in incentives to lure development to key buildings.
Mariolis said his family is “very interested” in making additional investments in downtown Waterbury.
“Any building we can get there that we can see has value, we would like to buy it and like to fix it up,” Mariolis said.
