Wethersfield developer Martin Kenney is ready to take the wraps off his latest housing project — 55 luxury apartments in a converted Glastonbury textile mill.
The $12 million Addison Mill Apartments, 64 Addison Road, off Hebron Avenue, has leased 22 of the units with floor plans ranging from one-bedroom studio to two-bedroom units and rents from $850 to $2,800 a month.
Kenney, who two years ago opened his $40 million Trumbull Centre commercial and 100-unit Trumbull On The Park apartment complex on Trumbull Street in downtown Hartford, said Addison Mill adds to a Glastonbury housing market that until now has lacked upscale rentals.
“There’s a lot more people renting these days,’’ he said. The property is marketed at young and middle-aged adults.
When Addison Mill hit the drawing boards in 2004, Kenney planned it as condominiums. But that concept was shelved once the housing market hit the skids, he said.
Entrepreneur Addison Clark opened his Glastonbury Knitting Co. mill in the early 19th century, producing wool “long john’’ underwear first for Union soldiers and, later, GIs in World War I, according to the property’s Web site. After changing hands several times, the mill by the late 1950s was being used primarily for storage.
In the last decade, the mill had fallen heavily into disrepair. The worst sections were demolished to make way for an extensive renovation of the rest of the building and its nearby dam, Kenny said.
“This has been one of the most challenging and most rewarding things I’ve ever been involved in,’’ he said.
An open house is set for Sept. 9.
Magnet High School Ready
The new $41.6 million home for the University High School of Science and Engineering is ready for the start of Aug. 31 classes.
General contractor The Pike Company, of Rochester, N.Y., began work on the 85,000-square-foot, three-story high school in August 2007. The project is overseen by Diggs Construction, of Wichita, Kan., which is the program manager for all building projects of the Hartford Board of Education.
The school sits on about 20 acres of land that the University of Hartford is leasing to the city. University High School had been temporarily housed on the college’s Asylum Avenue campus.
In addition to providing state-of-the-art laboratory and classroom space for 400 students, the construction also created for a new motorway to the University of Hartford.
Mark Twain Drive now runs from Albany Avenue, past the Annie Fisher Elementary School and the University High School, into the college campus. Previously, the only way in or out of the campus was via Bloomfield Avenue.
East Granby leases renew
Two manufacturers have renewed leases totaling more than 33,000 square feet in the Airport Business Center in East Granby.
Valve and control manufacturer Oventrop Corp. has recently expanded its operations from 4,080 square feet to 8,160 square feet at 29 Kripes Road and signed a long term lease with landlord Airport Business Center III LLC.
Italy based Trevisan USA also renewed for 4,080 square feet of office and industrial space at 29 Kripes Road.
Sentry Commercial represented the landlord in the leases.
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Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal Web editor.
