The University of Connecticut on Monday celebrated the $28.9 million conversion of an empty Hartford office building into a dormitory, a project expected to connect students and local employers while aiding ongoing downtown revitalization efforts.
With an Aug. 29 move-in date fast approaching, all 202 beds in the new residence hall at 64 Pratt St. have been matched with students. Even so, a waiting list has grown to 75 students.
The residence hall occupies floors three through six of the former office building and includes 45 furnished apartments, along with study rooms, classrooms, a fitness center, game rooms and other student spaces.
At an opening ceremony Monday, city, school and business leaders repeatedly emphasized the potential impact of hundreds of college students living downtown.
“For years we’ve talked about Hartford as a college town,” said James Woulfe, chief of staff to Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam. “Thousands of students coming to this city every day to study. But there’s a difference between going to school in Hartford and living in Hartford.”
Woulfe said the city expects the students to patronize restaurants, attend Hartford Yard Goats games, explore neighborhoods and potentially develop longer-term connections to Hartford.
“Hopefully, they’ll begin to see Hartford not simply as the place they went to college, but as the place where they can start a career and a life,” Woulfe said.
Travelers Cos. Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Andy Bessette, who is also a UConn trustee and vice chairman of the Capital Region Development Authority, said the residence hall strengthens connections between the university, downtown and major employers.
Travelers hires between 50 and 70 UConn graduates each year and employs more than 1,000 UConn alumni in Hartford, Bessette said.
“Downtown Hartford is critical to Travelers,” Bessette said. “And having a dorm here is phenomenal.”
The connection could continue during the summer.
UConn and its partners intend to make rooms available to interns working for Hartford companies after students leave at the end of the academic year, helping keep the building occupied and generating downtown foot traffic year-round.
Bessette said Travelers expects to take advantage of that opportunity.
Arielle Crichlow, 22, a senior who will serve as a resident adviser at 64 Pratt St., said Hartford’s urban environment is a big part of the appeal.
“I really love the diversity and culture of Hartford,” Crichlow said. “I also think that it’s beautiful to have everything so close to your residence hall.”
Developer Lexington Partners, Hartford businessman Alan Lazowski and Brooklyn-based Shelbourne Global Solutions partnered in the conversion of a portion of the office complex at 242 Trumbull St. into student housing. UConn has master-leased the residence hall, which will operate much like traditional university housing.
The project was funded with a combination of private financing, public assistance and a 15-year tax-fixing agreement with the city.
UConn Trustee Thomas Ritter said Monday the financing was structured so the university could enter into a master lease at rates affordable to students without requiring a subsidy from UConn. He credited the city, state and Capital Region Development Authority with helping make the financing work.
Patrick Kenny, vice president of Lexington Partners, said converting the older office building presented unexpected construction challenges, complicated by a deadline tied to the beginning of UConn’s fall semester.
“This was a complicated renovation of an old building and there were plenty of unforeseen challenges along the way,” Kenny said, crediting Lexington’s InnoConn construction arm with overcoming those hurdles.
Kenny said the construction team worked Saturdays and adapted as problems arose to ensure the building would be ready for students.
The residence hall is only the first phase of a potentially much larger transformation of the property.
Shelbourne and its partners are planning to convert the remainder of the 324,000-square-foot mixed-use office complex into at least 145 apartments. Lexington Partners President Chris P. Reilly said in late July that the development team expects to seek zoning approvals and additional CRDA financing this fall.
