🔒New Britain green-lights development team planning 64-unit downtown affordable housing apartment building

Two experienced developers have been chosen by the city of New Britain to build a 64-unit apartment building on a corner of downtown near a CTfastrak rapid busway station. Stamford-based RMS Cos., Heritage Housing Inc. of Norwalk and Paul B. Bailey Architects were announced Thursday by New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart as the team that will develop the second phase of Columbus Commons at 125 Columbus Blvd., a city-owned site that previously hosted a city police station. The team’s $23 million plan calls for a five-story, 64-unit apartment building for residents earning between 30% to 80% of area median income, according to Stewart. Construction is expected to take 2.5 years and wrap up by late 2027. RMS has been one of the busiest developers in Connecticut in recent years, adding thousands of apartments to the state in New Haven, Stamford, Hartford and elsewhere. Founded in 2017, Heritage has pursued large-scale affordable developments in Connecticut and beyond. In 2021, for example, Heritage acquired a portfolio of five Section 8 apartment buildings in Hartford with 204 units, and then rehabbed them with federal financing in a $35 million project completed in 2023. Kyle Salvatore, director of multifamily asset management and development for RMS Cos., said Heritage comes with a wealth of knowledge navigating affordable housing funding sources. RMS Cos. development efforts have largely focused on market-rate and luxury apartment projects in the past, but the company is interested in branching into the affordable housing market. State and federal funding for affordable housing is on the rise to meet a growing need for affordable housing, Salvatore noted. Diversifying into affordable housing will help RMS expand while also fulfilling a public need, he noted. “There is just such a large need everywhere in Connecticut and in the country, and the state has committed a lot of funding to it,” Salvatore said. “It makes sense because we have capabilities in construction management. It’s an avenue for us to continue to grow.” The team of RMS, Heritage and Bailey were one of four that submitted responses to New Britain’s search for a development partner for the Columbus Boulevard site. “Phase II of the Columbus Commons development project will turn a currently empty lot in the heart of our city into yet another wonderful option for those looking to call New Britain home,” Stewart said. The project is slated for a site that once hosted the New Britain Police Department headquarters, before its demolition in 2015. Even earlier, the site hosted a Stanley Works factory. According to Stewart, Xenolith Partners completed the first phase of Columbus Commons in 2019, but did not apply to pursue the second phase. In early 2020, Massachusetts-based Dakota Partners and New York-based Xenolith Partners LLC announced they had completed an 80-unit, mixed-use building as the first phase of Columbus Commons. Paul B. Bailey Architects was part of the development team behind phase one of Columbus Commons. “We are thrilled to be selected and to continue our great work in New Britain,” said Susan B. Odell, senior associate with Paul. B. Bailey. “The first building we did dramatically changed the site, and we look forward to further dramatic change.”