🔒Small realty investor goes on buying spree in long-neglected Hartford commercial corridor

A family-owned real estate company recently chosen by Hartford officials to redevelop a fire-scarred, half-acre site on Albany Avenue has already amassed an impressive portfolio in an area long-starved for investment.

The Hartford City Council, in late February, authorized Mayor Luke Bronin to lease 270 Albany Ave., and three adjacent properties to Bloomfield-based Andaleeb Enterprises LLC for up to 98 years. In return, the Andaleeb family agreed to pursue a $10.7 million development transforming the blighted corner into 40 apartments with 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space in two buildings.

Today, the property hosts two retail properties gutted by fire, and a boarded-up, brick building intended to house a mix of ground-floor retail and apartments.

The Andaleeb family has — either independently or with investors — committed more than $6.3 million buying at least a dozen commercial and mixed-use apartment properties in Hartford over the past three years.

Eight of the properties are on Albany Avenue, a well-traveled thoroughfare that serves as a gateway to downtown Hartford, but has also been plagued by extensive blight.

The family got its start on the turnpike in 2008, when Amber “Ace” Andaleeb, who handles the real estate investments, opened a small convenience store with his mother, Kavita Ahmed, and sister, Neha Andaleeb, at 690 Albany Ave.

The 2,858-square-foot retail building was one of several Andaleeb managed for a New Jersey landlord. Over time, the store evolved into a Boost Mobile location, one of several owned by the family.

The Andaleebs bought that property in 2020, along with an adjacent 10,572-square-foot, mixed-use building for $950,000.

“We have been here for so long that, over time, you kind of fall in love with the neighborhood,” said the 37-year-old Amber Andaleeb. “That’s one factor (in why we are investing in Albany Avenue). It’s where we made everything. It’s where we got everything. So, we want to contribute to the area.”

The 2020 purchase represented the Andaleebs first foray into larger multifamily and commercial property investments. Prior to that, they owned a handful of two- and three-family rental homes in the Hartford area and beyond.

Over the last three years, the Andaleebs have remained active Hartford buyers, with a focus on Albany Avenue, where they could find attractive prices on commercial properties in a familiar area with little competition.

Other properties were acquired on nearby stretches of Maple and Farmington avenues and Park Street.

“When people come from out of state, they go to West Hartford to develop, where you get a lot of money for your investment,” Andaleeb said. “Or, you go downtown. There is nobody going in here. Nobody does it. So, it has to be small guys like us who can take smaller projects and take support from the city and whatever other places we can get it, and put (deals) together.”

Changing the neighborhood

Andaleeb has upgraded several of his buildings, tapping into city resources to defray costs. Those investments have been boosted, Andaleeb said, by the recent $30-million upgrade of a portion of Albany Avenue’s streetscape, and larger-scale projects that have added thousands of new apartments to downtown Hartford.

Andaleeb last year began renovating the exterior of 690 Albany Ave. Plans call for new awnings, windows and replacing roll-down security shutters with more attractive retractable ones.

Renovations have also begun at 696 Albany Ave., with the help of a $500,000 grant from a portion of Hartford’s annual funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The Andaleebs bought the building, which has eight apartments over first-floor retail space, in June 2020.

Exterior upgrades are nearly complete at the 15,738-square-foot “Magnolia Building” on the opposite corner of the intersection of Albany Avenue and Magnolia Street. The family paid $775,000 for the building in September 2020, and received a $200,000 HUD grant for renovations.

A dozen interior apartments are being upgraded and the HVAC system has been replaced.

Several blocks west, the Andaleeb family has received a $500,000 HUD grant to help restore the Weaver Building, a 1920-vintage, 23,786-square-foot, mixed-use building at 1154-1170 Albany Ave. The family paid $840,000 for the property in late 2020.

It hosts 18 apartments, with rents ranging from $930 monthly for a studio to $1,400 for a two-bedroom apartment. The ground floor has a money transfer shop, Caribbean restaurant, cell phone store, mini-market, pharmacy and fashion boutique.

Andaleeb hired veteran attorney and real estate investor Coleman Levy to help him navigate Hartford’s redevelopment processes, including land-use approvals and grant applications. Levy said he enjoys Andaleeb’s enthusiasm and vision, comparing the young investor to Carlos Mouta, a developer who has made a big impact in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood.

“I think he’s modeled his approach after Carlos Mouta in understanding if you are going to upgrade the neighborhood, you can’t do it with one building, you need to concentrate in the area,” Levy said. “I think this is starting to have an impact with other people starting to take a little more pride in their properties. As a result, the community and the city benefits, especially Albany Avenue, which is really the gateway into the city from the west.”

Andaleeb has also hired Enfield consultant Housing Enterprises and Hartford-based architecture firm LifeCare Design Inc. He said city staff have been supportive.

Andaleeb said his main focus now is launching the 40-unit, mixed-use residential project at 270 Albany Ave. He still must finalize designs, a lease agreement with the city and his funding stack, which will include historic tax credits, affordable housing credits and other public support.

The city might also pitch in by demolishing two fire-ravaged retail buildings on-site, he said.

“The plan right now is to stay focused on 270 Albany and wrap that up,” Andaleeb said. “And, obviously, if other opportunities arise in the neighborhood, we will always look at them.”

Upward trajectory

Hartford’s Albany Avenue/Main Street corridor has seen a fresh infusion of public investment in recent years, with the Bronin administration pumping resources and attention into what the mayor describes as a vital city artery.

The city and state jointly funded a $30 million reconstruction of a roughly mile-long section of Albany Avenue with improved road designs and streetscapes. The Bronin administration has also directed funding to various redevelopment projects along the corridor.

Philadelphia-based developer Pennrose is nearly halfway through a 412-unit apartment development at 1550 Albany Ave. Construction began in 2019, made possible by a long-term lease of 40 acres through the city’s Housing Authority. Plans call for 80,000 square feet of commercial development, predominantly retail with some offices.

The city is angling to incentivize private development of a 38,000-square-foot commercial building and 2,502-square-foot retail building on four vacant lots at the corner of Albany Avenue and Woodlawn Street. The plan calls for a restaurant, community room, retail shops and relocation of the city’s health department to the site.

At the corner of Main and Ann Uccello streets, a partnership between the nonprofit San Juan Center and Carabetta Development LLC is pursuing a $17.4 million development of 43 apartments and 7,300 square feet of retail space in three buildings.

The project is centered on a building that formerly hosted the Arrowhead Café. The city helped secure a $6.3 million state grant for this development.

“Albany Avenue is a vital artery that connects multiple neighborhoods, and it’s also the most heavily-used corridor in Hartford, so we’re taking a comprehensive and aggressive approach to economic development up and down Albany Avenue,” Bronin said in a statement to the Hartford Business Journal. “Too often in the past, the city has scattered its economic development efforts rather than concentrating them for maximum impact, and while we’re doing lots of work all over the city, we’re really focused on making sure that we reinforce the work we’ve already done on Albany Avenue and make a lasting change — filling in the gaps, bringing blighted properties back to life, and creating a vibrant corridor where people can live, work, shop, play and walk.”

Hartford City Council member Shirley Surgeon said there has been a tangible uptick in development interest on Albany Avenue following decades of decline. She remains a bit guarded, saying she’s seen too many absentee landlords, but is hopeful the Andaleeb family proves good stewards of their recent acquisitions.

“It’s great to get those properties back online,” Surgeon said. “We need to increase our taxes. These newly renovated apartments for low- to moderate-income people continue to be needed in the city.”