The West Hartford Town Council on Wednesday unanimously approved an application to demolish a nearly 2,400-square-foot, two-story office building on Albany Avenue.
The application was filed on behalf of the owners, 2258 Albany Avenue LLC, by Glastonbury-based attorney Meghan Alter Hope. During a public hearing before the council vote she stated the proposal seeks to amend an existing special development district to allow the owners to demolish the existing building.
Hope said the applicants originally submitted a more comprehensive plan that included regrading the 1-acre property, but instead was seeking approval of a scaled down plan.
“We got, I would say, strong encouragement from the planning staff to sort of pause on that until we really knew what the end user was,” she said.
While there currently is no interested tenant, Hope said the goal is to eventually make the site more attractive for redevelopment.
The building at 2558 Albany Ave. sits on the north side of Albany Avenue just west of the Staples shopping center, also known as Bishops Plaza. It is also bounded to the north by residential homes on Farmstead Lane.
Hope said the building has been vacant since 2005, and that numerous attempts to lease it over the past 20 years have failed.
In addition to approving the demolition application, the council also voted unanimously to accept a motion to withdraw a separate application filed by Bishops Plaza LLC, which is owned by Eliot Gersten of West Hartford, who also owns the building and property at 2558 Albany Ave.
The Bishops Plaza application sought to amend a special development district that would allow for developing an alternative entrance and exit for 2558 Albany Ave. by connecting the properties.
Hope said the owner of both properties intends to file a more comprehensive plan soon.
“Ideally, in the future, what we would like to do is to find a way to connect the 2558 Albany Ave. parcel with the Staples parcel, so that they have access out to the light with Albany and Flagg (Road),” Hope said.
No members of the public spoke against the application.
