With an $85 million multifamily conversion of a roughly 225,000-square-foot New Britain industrial complex nearly complete, Boston-based affordable housing developer WinnCompanies began welcoming the first tenants to The Ellis Block on March 31.
By Thursday, 70 of the apartment property’s 154 units were occupied, and more than 1,100 applications had been received from prospective tenants.
Sections of the former factory complex at 321 Ellis St., range from one- to six stories and are all connected. They were built between the 1910s and 1930s, according to Matthew Robayna, a consultant leading the project for WinnCompanies.
The property housed small appliance manufacturer Landers, Frary & Clark until about 1965. After that, most of the building was vacant.
“It wasn’t totally abandoned, but if you drove by, you would think it was,” New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said during a tour of The Ellis Block apartments Thursday. “You could tell it was an old, run-down factory before. Now, it just looks completely different. This is what I want to see. You want to talk about bringing an old factory back to life. This looks incredible.”
The project was designed by Hartford-based JCJ Architecture. Massachusetts-based Keith Construction served as general contractor. They cleaned and repointed the building’s bricks and replaced all the windows.
Inside, apartment units mix exposed brick and drywall with soaring ceilings of 14 to 16 feet. The project will also include a field of solar panels, and roof-mounted panels, with the resulting power generation providing credits against renters’ monthly payments.
The construction was significantly subsidized by local, state and federal contributions. Accordingly, the complex is reserved for tenants earning between 30% to 80% of the area median income. Rents vary by income level.
One-bedroom apartments are available for a single tenant earning between $23,486 and $59,486 per year, at monthly rents ranging from $625 to $1,675.
Jaimie Stewart, property manager for The Ellis Block, said there are waiting lists for the 101 apartments set aside for renters earning 30%, 50% or 60% of the area median income. Those units have seen the highest demand.
The only apartments not claimed, or with a backlog of applicants, are the 53 set aside for renters earning up to 80% of the area median income, she said.
The complex has 11 units set aside for Connecticut Department of Housing clients, and 10 more earmarked for renters referred by CCARC, a New Britain nonprofit dedicated to helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
As of Thursday, workers were still putting the finishing touches on 13 apartments. Jaimie Stewart expects those to be completed within two weeks, and the entire complex to be occupied before June 30.
New Britain City Council Minority Leader Sharon Beloin-Saavedra, who joined Thursday’s tour, said she is touched that people with disabilities and those paying affordable rents have access to such a fine building.
“It’s emotional for me because it is bringing people in who this is probably their first time living in a place like this,” Beloin-Saavedra said.
Mayor Stewart noted there had been three prior development proposals for the site that had failed to gain funding. It made her initially skeptical about the prospects for this one. She said she was glad to see those early misapprehensions overcome.
“To have a place like this for low-income people is incredible,” Stewart said. “It’s uplifting. Just because people are low-income doesn’t mean they have to live in subpar living conditions.”
Stewart and Beloin-Saavedra expressed interest in attracting similar housing projects to their city.
And perhaps, they might get it.
Robayna said WinnCompanies has had tentative conversations with the owner of the 213,000-square-foot industrial building across the street at 322 Ellis St., about potentially acquiring that property for an apartment conversion.
That building had once been part of the same industrial complex as 321 Ellis St., and the two properties are connected by a skybridge over Ellis Street.
