Savings Institute Bank & Trust has broken ground for a Tolland branch office, on Merrow Road.
The 1,496-square-foot building set to open in December will be at 159 Merrow Road, said officials for the Willimantic lender.
Designed by Solidus, of Rocky Hill, also the general contractor, the full-service branch will offer a pair of drive-thru lanes and a drive-thru ATM.
The branch will house four employees, plus videoconferencing capability to tie into extra support staff, bank officials said.
Savings Institute has 26 branches in eastern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island.
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Jared’s W. Hfd. store
National chain Jared-The Galleria of Jewelry is building its second Connecticut retail showroom in West Hartford’s Corbin’s Corner Shopping Center.
The slightly more than 6,000-square-foot free-standing building is going up on a pad site, fronting New Britain Avenue, directly across from Westfarms mall, Jared spokesman Frank Cirillo said.
The showroom is aiming to open this winter, perhaps in time for the peak Christmas retail season. Staffing for the West Hartford showroom is being determined, Cirillo said.
The Ohio chain’s other Connecticut store is in Waterford’s One Dayton Place.
Jared is an affiliate of Akron, Ohio, retailer Sterling Jewelers Inc., itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Britain’s Signet Jewelers Ltd.
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HAI’s $10M Cheshire build
HAI Group, which provides insurance and other services to public housing authorities, is closing in on finishing a new, larger Cheshire headquarters.
The 40,000-square-foot building is going up at 189 Commerce Court, next door to its current home. Operations spread over two other locations will be consolidated into the structure when it is completed around November.
The extra space is necessary, HAI spokeswoman and branding executive Courtney Rice said, due to rapid growth in recent years. The insurer has added about 40 jobs in the past year alone.
Claris Construction, of Newtown, is designer-builder of the $10 million structure.
Cheshire has been HAI’s hometown since it began in 1987. After outgrowing other office spaces around town, Rice said, HAI began building its present home at 189 Commerce Court in 1992.
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E. Hfd. fitness lease
Fortitude Fitness leased 3,745 square feet at 775 Silver Lane in East Hartford for a fitness center.
Pearce Real Estate Co. represented landlord BEBY LLC in lease talks. Coldwell Banker represented Fortitude.
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S. Windsor sale
AD&M Associates LLC sold a 30,570-square-foot industrial facility on 1.2 acres at 1390 John Fitch Blvd. in South Windsor for $600,000 to RDB LLC.
Sentry Commercial was the sole broker in this transaction.
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Precision’s Meriden space
Precision Pipeline Solutions Inc. leased 5,000 square feet at 172 Golden St. in Meriden.
Press/Cuozzo Commercial Services represented landlord PH & RS Mull LLC in lease talks.
Drubner Commercial represented Precision in the multi-year lease.
Deal Watch wants to hear from you. E-mail it, along with contact information to: gseay@HartfordBusiness.com.
Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
