Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • July 9, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Gregory Seay and Greg Bordonaro gseay@HartfordBusiness.com, gbordonaro@HartfordBusiness.com L arry Gottesdiener just wants to talk. The CEO and chairman of Newton, Mass., developer and major downtown Hart- ford landlord, Northland Investment Corp., boasts about his lavish 36-story apartment tower, Hartford 21. He talks about the lack of retail de- mand as the primary reason so many of his downtown storefront retail spaces, contrary to public opinion, are vacant. And, he certainly wants to discuss what he sees as the dismal prospect for a revitalized downtown arena. If Hartford officials and residents really want an XL Center replacement, he says they ought to consider relocat- ing it next to the ballpark. Shutting and bulldozing the arena to make room for more apartments and a central public amenity — like a Rockefeller Center-like ice skating rink — could also be a game-changer for the city, he says. But most of all, Gottesdiener wants to talk about what he insists is an ongoing pattern of poor communica- tion between him and several city and state offices, including the Capital Region Development Authority, the quasi-public financier and economic development arm that rebuffed North- land's planned apartment conversion of the mothballed former YMCA site on Jewell Street and is considering us- ing eminent domain to take control of Northland's XL Center stake. He's also bitter about what he says are unwarranted potshots lobbed at him by public officials. The latest oc- curred in May, when it was disclosed the city was threatening fines of $100 a day until certain blight conditions were resolved inside and outside Northland's 11-story former YMCA tower. Mayor Luke Bronin, in a statement at the time, called Gottesdiener an "absentee landlord'' and insisted that city blight enforcers were "absolutely right'' to pursue action. Gottesdiener responded that Bro- nin had "his facts wrong" and that he and Northland have been active in Hartford for 15 years, much longer than Bronin has been mayor. And, there's been no discussion be- tween Gottesdiener and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy since an inaugural, get-to- know-each-other session years ago in which Gottesdiener said he was met with hostility. Gottesdiener, 59, recently sat down with the Hartford Business Journal for a rare, wide-ranging interview, discussing myriad issues, including why he chose Hartford (his grandfa- ther was a mailman here), to invest in office space (his biggest mistake), and build apartments (Hartford 21 is his crowning achievement despite an admission it was over-designed and over-engineered). He held back few punches, saying Hartford's and the state's economies have floundered over the years from a lack of vision and focus on job creation — rather than retention — and from government leaders who largely assume an adversarial stance toward business. "Hartford could be on the verge of a very exciting period now," Gottes- diener said. "For better or for worse, Hartford has been bailed out. It's on fairly solid (financial) ground. It has all these new amenities. Where is the vision to pull all this together?" Not everyone agrees with his as- sessment, of course. A Malloy spokesperson defended the governor's Hartford economic track record. The two-term Demo- crat has been a major advocate for investing in the city and has advocated for funding for housing, transportation, transit-oriented development and a fully renovated XL Center. "From invest- ment in new transportation options — includ- ing a new rail line and bus service — and associated transit-oriented development, to the upcoming improvement of Dillon Stadium, to hundreds of new units of housing, to companies like Infosys bringing jobs and economic opportunities to the Capital City, Malloy's vision and commitment to Hartford is paying dividends that will be felt not just today, but by future genera- tions," the gover- nor's spokesper- son said. Gottesdie- ner says the city and state should partner with Northland, rather than be antagonists, to press Hartford's revitalization. His critics note that communica- tion is a two-way street and that he and Northland must step up their involvement in Hartford. Gottesdiener, they say, can pick up the phone and set up meetings to discuss his realty holdings. A long history At his peak, from the late 1990s through the 2008 near-global finan- cial meltdown, Gottesdiener was downtown Hartford's top land baron, amassing more than a $350 million realty portfolio, including four trophy downtown office towers: CityPlace Larry's Take Hartford's most prolific landlord airs his frustration, optimism for the city Larry Gottesdiener has kept a low profile in Hartford since he lost several office buildings here to foreclosure earlier this decade. But he recently sat down with HBJ for a wide-ranging interview about Northland Investment Corp.'s future in the Capital City. He's shown here standing in front of his most prized Hartford asset, the Hartford 21 luxury apartment tower. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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