🔒New downtown Hartford UConn student housing debuts

Nearly 40 University of Connecticut students have moved into a newly converted apartment building in downtown Hartford, filling about two-thirds of the units set aside for them. It marks an early milestone in UConn’s effort to expand student housing in the Capital City, where it operates a growing campus of about 3,000 graduate and undergraduate students, said Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, a chief administrative officer with UConn and dean of its Hartford campus. Overmyer-Velázquez, speaking Tuesday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new apartments at 525 Main St., said the university is eager to support Hartford’s push for vibrancy while providing students with access to the cultural, retail and entertainment amenities downtown offers. “All of this is about connecting our students and their learning with opportunities in the city, which … has so much to offer,” Overmyer-Velázquez said. Students living in the building said they are happy for a chance to be close to their campus and connected with their academic community on a deeper level. “When I heard they were opening, I was like: ‘I have to get in,’” said Aleysah Ortiz, a 20-year-old freshman from Hartford planning to study political science. “It’s a city where I go to school, and a city I grew up with, so it’s a city that I love and I guess it’s nice to be closer (to campus). It’s a very nice place to live in.” The 33,000-square-foot brick building, at 525 Main St., was transformed into 42 apartments over the past year-and-a-half by developer Daniel Klaynberg, president of Spectra Construction & Development, and his partners, Matthew and Evan Levy.

UConn is leasing 33 of the apartments for students, offering a mix of single- and double-occupancy units. The remainder will be rented at “workforce” rates to the general public. So far, 38 students live in the building, which can accommodate 57 student residents overall. The $7.8 million conversion was supported by a $2.1 million low-interest loan from the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA). Klaynberg and the Levy brothers are also close to completing a $9.5 million redevelopment of the upper floors of the former city firehouse at 275 Pearl St., into 35 apartments, a project aided by a $2.86 million CRDA loan. The building will include a first-floor restaurant space to be finished later. At 30 Laurel St., Spectra is spearheading a $9.8 million effort to transform a former office building into 47 apartments. The project, backed by a $3.52 million CRDA loan, is slated for completion by year’s end. In addition, the CRDA is backing a $20.8 million plan by Klaynberg and the Levy brothers to build an 84-unit apartment building on a parking lot behind 525 Main St. Construction is targeted to begin early next year. That project has qualified for a $7 million CRDA loan. Klaynberg said demand for Hartford apartments remains strong, with Spectra’s local portfolio of 554 units consistently 95% occupied. “We really love developing here in Hartford and we have a lot of confidence in the city,” Klaynberg told the Hartford Business Journal. “We love seeing the transformation (of the city) and being part of the transformation.” The housing expansion comes as Hartford and UConn step up efforts to increase the university’s footprint downtown. Developers are converting office space on Pratt Street into a dormitory for about 200 UConn students, expected to open in fall 2026. This year, UConn is also leasing 51,000 square feet of space at the PeoplesBank Arena (formerly the XL Center) for new research and clinical programs.

Meanwhile, the university is preparing to open a new dining hall at its Hartford campus in the former Hartford Times Building on Prospect Street. The facility will serve both students and the public, and is expected to open within a week. “Much like New York, much like Cambridge, this is going to be a college town more and more,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said at Tuesday’s ceremony. “You are going to see the presence of UConn filling this street, creating vibrancy, creating life in this corporate city, transforming this into a vibrant college town.”