The nine-inch-thick, poured-in-place concrete skeleton of the old Hotel America/Sonesta/Clarion in downtown Hartford’s Constitution Plaza has held up well the last half century.
So well, in fact, that with 98 percent of the interior demolition and asbestos-removal done, work crews have begun installing steel framing for apartments on several upper floors of the 12-story structure. All new windows are in place, with sweeping views of downtown and beyond in some of the best-placed units.
Barring unforeseen hurdles, the $26 million transformation of a building largely vacant the past two decades into the 193-unit On The Plaza apartments is on schedule for its May 2015 debut, if not sooner, say New York developers Jeff Ravets of Girona Ventures, and Joseph Klaynberg, a principal of condo-builder Wonder Works Corp.
The developers, who are collecting $6 million in state assistance to go with a $15 million Webster Bank construction loan to convert the building, said the hotel is amazingly well preserved for its age and for having sat vacant for so long.
“The building is strong,” Klaynberg said. The partners paid $500,000 for the building in January 2011.
The first phase involves building out living spaces on floors four through 12. The first three floors are reserved mostly for commercial space and common areas, including a 49-seat movie theater, a 12,000-square-foot health/fitness center and a library.
New heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems are being installed. Each one- and two-bedroom apartment will have a 50-gallon hot water tank, washer-dryer and stone kitchen countertops. Rather than closets, Italian-made armoires in the entryway and bedroom built-ins will provide storage.
Units will range from a 650-square-foot studio to two-bedrooms as large as 1,300 square feet. Rents will run about $25 a square foot, pegging that monthly studio lease at about $1,600. The property is wired for all the multimedia bells and whistles, including cable-TV.
The site averages about 80 workers daily, said Project Manager Charles Duffner of Wonder Works, which also is general contractor. Hartford’s Crosskey Architects LLC is designer.
Also next door, at 200 State St., is the cleared former Broadcast House site on which Middletown engineer-entrepreneur Abul Islam plans 48 apartments, offices and retail in a 10-story tower. Ravetz welcomes the competition that and the half dozen other office-to-apartment conversions underway downtown pose.
“The more the merrier,” Ravetz said. “Nobody’s moving to downtown Hartford to be alone.”
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Middletown area spaces taken
Trevor Davis Commercial Real Estate was sole broker in a series of Middletown area office and retail spaces.
In Middletown, two tenants leased at Sanseer Mill Office Park, 282 Main St. Extension, between Downtown and Stop & Shop.
The Village for Families and Children leased 2,673 square feet, and The Eighth leased 1,403 in the former brick mill.
At downtown’s Main Street Market, 366-386 Main St. the Middletown Press leased 5,300 square feet of office space, plus 1,159 square feet on the retail first floor from landlord Main Street Market LLC.
At Middletown Business Park, Long Island Ophthalmic Service leased 1,752 square feet 442R Smith St. from landlord BostonMiddletown LLC.n
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Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
