🔒New mixed-use apartment developments aim to ‘catalyze’ downtown Windsor

A new mixed-use development proposal could be a key component to Windsor’s burgeoning downtown that aims to offer the popular “live, work and play” concept, all in one central location, town officials said.

The Planning and Zoning Commission last month approved preliminary design plans from the Sachdev Real Estate Development Group. Property owner Dr. Mohan Sachdev plans to build a mixed-use residential and retail complex on two vacant sites totaling 2.3 acres at 109-125 Poquonock Ave. It’s a former brownfield auto site that has been remediated.

The development would feature 6,900 square feet of first-floor retail space, with 77 market-rate housing units above, consisting of 28 studio apartments, 41 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom units.

Windsor Economic Development Director Patrick McMahon said, if approved, the multilevel residential and retail development — dubbed The Residences at Bowfield Green — would enhance the town’s downtown, which is booming with new apartment, retail, restaurant and transportation development.

The project is aimed at attracting young professionals who can work remotely or commute, and who might be looking for an all-inclusive area in which to live. The hope is they fall in love with the town and buy a home there in the future.

McMahon said another key demographic is “empty nesters” who are looking to downsize in Windsor and appreciate the nearby amenities such as public transportation, shopping and restaurants, or walking or bicycling right outside their front doors.

Market demand

Projects like Bowfield are growing, with another mixed-use development in the works for downtown Windsor.

Developer Greg Vaca has plans to revitalize the Windsor Center Plaza from an outdated strip mall into a multiphase mixed-use residential development. Phase one would create a large new building in front of the existing strip mall, and include 6,000 square feet of retail storefronts and up to 60 apartments — six studios, 44 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom units. Phase two includes plans for an additional 36 one-bedroom apartments in a new building on the north side of the property, town officials said.

Vaca will get a boost with $2.5 million in state funding from the new Connecticut Communities Challenge grant program. The initiative stems from Gov. Ned Lamont’s five-year, $750 million Economic Action Plan that seeks to encourage developments that incorporate transit-oriented projects, revitalize existing properties, and provide community space and areas for walking and biking.

Such developments aim to “catalyze” the downtown area, McMahon said, and fit into the town’s plan of conservation and development.

The Hartford rail line and CT Transit buses are easily accessible from these planned complexes, and allow residents to expand their spending power downtown, McMahon said.

Town Planner Eric Barz said Windsor’s transit-oriented master plan “calls for exactly what these two projects are doing,” which is to revitalize the town center and support the infrastructure investment the state has made, including upgrades to Windsor’s rail line platform.

McMahon said there has been other residential development in Windsor in recent years.

In 2017, Hartford-based Lexington Partners debuted its 130-unit Windsor Station Apartments. Also, the Corporation for Independent Living built 50 condominium units by the train station called the First Town Square.

A couple of additional empty parcels downtown are prime spots for future multifamily or mixed-use development, McMahon said, adding that the time is right for these types of projects.