🔒Zaleski aims to expand riverfront’s economic impact

Michael Zaleski, the new head of Riverfront Recapture, is no stranger to Hartford or the Connecticut River, but even he was impressed by the nonprofit group's breadth of events and attractions — discovery he hopes other residents and visitors can share.

“I've been working in Hartford for 16 years now and I didn't fully appreciate that we had a regatta — one of the largest in New England,” he said of the Head of the Riverfront Regatta that began in 1998 and attracted rowing crews from nearly 60 clubs and schools for this year's Oct. 4 event.

It's just one of 40-plus events Riverfront Recapture, now in its 34th year, conducts annually among its four riverfront parks — Charter Oak Landing, Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, and Great River and Riverside parks — anchoring the organization's riverwalk.

“One of my priorities for the future is to make sure that people fully appreciate what Riverfront Recapture does,” said Zaleski, who took over June 15 as president and CEO, replacing Joseph Marfuggi, who retired with a legacy of accomplishment after joining the organization in 1987.

Zaleski, 44, helped found the Hartford Business Improvement District in 2006, where he was executive director before joining Riverfront Recapture.

Riverfront Recapture's next chapter will be outlined in a five-year strategic plan to be drafted next year.

“I'm hopeful that we'll emerge from this strategic planning process with a much more entrepreneurial organization that puts the organization on a stable financial footing, that increases our earned revenue,” Zaleski said.

Riverfront Recapture's annual budget is about $2.5 million. Among operating revenues, 34 percent are from earned income sources such as program and vendor fees and private events at the Riverfront Boathouse, according to its latest annual report. Other revenue sources are government, 23 percent; foundations, 15 percent; corporate, 13 percent; individuals, 10 percent; and fundraising events, 5 percent.

“I think we have the capacity here to generate additional revenue using our existing assets, whether it's our events or our programs or a wider array of programs that will expose our offerings to more and more people,” Zaleski said.

Bringing more existing and new visitors to the riverfront is key for Zaleski. He's examining how to expand the adventure program at Riverside Park, which now includes a ropes course and climbing tower.

He wants to explore all options, from ideas like a zip line over the river to possibly kayak rentals on it.

“One of the things that I truly want to do is get more people actually out onto the water,” he said, citing the popularity of the annual Riverfront Dragon Boat and Asian Festival.

Adding an adjacent boathouse could be an option to keep pace with the growing popularity of the organization's community rowing club, which offers lessons and competitions and attracts more than 600 people annually.

Events are a huge draw and Zaleski wants to explore new ones while building on the already diverse base of popular mainstays like pop concerts, Pipes in the Valley Celtic Festival, Hartford Latino Fest and Riverfest.

“I'd like to develop some new events that are interesting to new audiences that may be niche events or niche constituencies that attract a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand new people to the riverfront,” he said. “Not all of our events have to be 20,000 to 30,000 people.”

A new event this year was the Bear's Smokehouse New England BBQ Championships, which brought more than 1,000 people to the river over Labor Day weekend and which Riverfront Recapture hopes to build on, he said. Also new was the Riverfest Food Truck Festival.

The new events and favorable summer weather helped most events break attendance records, Zaleski said. The parks attracted almost 900,000 people last year, a figure he expects to break this year when final numbers are tallied.

While Zaleski can't yet reveal possible new events for 2016, a guided mobile tour of the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk will launch next spring.

More than $150 million in public and private money has been invested in the riverfront park system over the years, but Riverfront Recapture still has one more piece of the riverwalk to finish: the riverwalk south project connecting Mortensen Riverfront Plaza to Charter Oak Landing. Once completed, it will allow people to make the entire loop of the system on both sides of the river.

The leg will provide a connection to Coltsville, which was recently designated a national historical park and also connect downtown with the Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood, Zaleski said. Riverfront Recapture proposes building the riverwalk segment similar to the northern riverwalk, with an opening in the dike at Coltsville for passage between it and the river that can be opened and closed as river conditions warrant, Zaleski said.

The project would take a couple years and funding needs to be raised, but Riverfront Recapture proposes doing the work in conjunction with federally required dike repairs.

Zaleski also sees potential to some day connect to other existing and proposed trails in the region.

“To the north, there's an opportunity to extend the riverwalk project to downtown Windsor,” he said, envisioning bikers using the path as an alternative form of transportation to downtown or East Hartford.

“There's significant potential for expanding our trail system both to the north and to the south,” to create a regional trail system, he said.

Options include connecting to the Hockanum River trails from Great River Park, linking Goodwin College, Main Street area of East Harford, Pratt & Whitney and Rentschler Field; a link to Manchester; and linking the William H. Putnam Memorial Bridge, which now has walkways, and Charter Oak Bridge.n

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