A New York housing developer is proposing to buy and convert a century-old West Hartford convent into Chambery Estate — at least 400 units of apartments targeted at singles and active adults in what some town officials say would be the biggest commercial project ever for the town’s Park Road corridor.
Center Development Corp., which built midtown Hartford’s twin 26-story, 430-unit Park Place Towers apartment/townhomes in the late ’80s, said Monday it has submitted an offer sheet to The Sisters of St. Joseph.
The Sisters since 1898 have owned the 20-acre tract at 26 Park Road, at the corner of Prospect Street, across from Prospect Café and Lena’s Pizza, town officials say. The main convent tower opened in 1936.
Center Development Executive Vice President John Scobie declined Monday to disclose the offer price for the land and associated buildings, including the 185,000-square-foot convent and a chapel. A call to the Sisters of St. Joseph wasn’t immediately returned.
There is no timetable for the Sisters to accept or reject Center’s offer sheet, Scobie said.
“Hopefully, we’ll have something soon,” he said.
According to a preliminary artist’s sketch submitted to the town and recently reviewed by Deal Watch Today, Center proposes to incorporate several buildings on the site, including the convent, into a four-story masonry and concrete structure. Below the building would be several levels of parking, plans and town officials say.
Northeast Collaborative Architects is listed on the rendering.
Town Planner Todd Dumais said Monday no formal filing for the project has been made with his office.
Rob Rowlson, whose many hats as West Hartford’s director of community services includes overseeing planning and zoning, building permits and economic development, said a development of that scope would be biggest in Park Road’s history. It also would rank among the 10 largest development in the town’s history, excluding Blue Back Square (2005) and Westfarms mall (mid-’70s).
“A very exciting economic development for the town,” Rowlson said.
It, too, would be a boon to Hartford’s West End, whose Park Street retail corridor has undergone a renaissance of streetscape and building-façade improvements in recent years.
Hartford developers, too, have lately been jumping through hoops to shuffle plans to build or convert existing downtown structures to apartments. Scobie said Center Development so far hasn’t been lulled into that scrap.
“We like the idea of West Hartford at this point,” he said.
Outside Connecticut, Center Development built the University Towers housing adjacent to Long Island University, also in the late ’80s, Scobie said. Center invests and builds for its own portfolio.
The Hartford Courant first reported the Sisters’ interest in selling last December.
