Developers have completed the second-phase of a mixed-use, residential development in Meriden near the city’s Hartford Line train station.
The Meriden Commons II project on State Street, which broke ground in July 2018, includes a four-story building with 49 residential units, and two buildings consisting of 27 townhouse-style units, and more than 1,500 square feet of commercial space.
The new apartment buildings abut Meriden’s train station, which could both attract tenants who want easy access to public transportation, and add more riders to CTrail’s Hartford Line, said Sanford Cloud, chairman and CEO of The Cloud Company, which worked with Pennrose LLC to develop the project.
Meriden Commons II represents the second phase a multi-part project. Meriden Commons I, which was completed in the summer of 2018, includes 75 residential units and 5,400 square feet of commercial space on 161 State St.
Most of the residential units (120 out of 151) are designated as affordable housing — meaning tenants pay a percentage of their income for rent. The rest are market rate.
The residential units at Meriden Commons I are fully leased, and residential units in Meriden Commons II are between 80 and 90 percent leased, Cloud said.
NY Deli & Krispy Krunchy Chicken is the first business to set up shop in the retail space. The total cost of the two projects is about $55 million, which was largely financed by the state, Cloud said.
“We’re hoping this can become a role model of what can be done [with transit-oriented development],” Cloud said. “The more people you have in a development like this, the more people are going to be using the transit district venues.”
With the two affordable housing projects complete, Cloud said his company and Pennrose are in the early design phase of a mostly market rate apartment building project dubbed Meriden on the Green, which would add 120 residential units across two buildings. Eighty percent of those would be market rate, and 20 percent would be affordable, Cloud said.
Cloud did not reveal that project’s estimated cost, but said developers have some initial architectural renderings, and are working closely with Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati and the city council on the buildings’ design.