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8 Hartford Business Journal • August 6, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Gregory Seay | gseay@HartfordBusiness.com Real Estate, Economic Development/Construction, Banking & Finance and Manufacturing BANKING & FINANCE Amid shakeup, rebranding, Wellness FCU debuts new Hartford home S ixty-three years after opening its doors, serving the sav- ings and borrowing needs of Hartford Hospital employees, Wellness Federal Credit Union, former- ly Hartford HealthCare Federal Credit Union, is moving now to become a lender to all members of Connecticut's healthcare community. The $35 million-asset credit coopera- tive recently relocated from smaller space in Hartford Hospital's shadow in the South End, to bigger quarters in Colt Gateway's office-residential neighbor- hood, on downtown's southern edge. The move, in conjunction with its recent name-change and rebranding, is part of an upgrade of its headquar- ters and back-office IT systems, with an eye toward increasing its member- ship by 50 percent within 18 months, says acting CEO Raymond Kowalski. Federal credit-union regulators last year approved Wellness' application to expand its member field to include all healthcare workers in Connecticut. According to Kowalski, state labor data counts some 275,000 people directly engaged in providing in- and out-pa- tient health services at hospitals, nurs- ing homes and other locations — all potential Wellness members, he said. "It's where our members come from,'' Kowalski said. The goal, he added, is for Well- ness to become the leading, member-owned credit coopera- tive serving the state's healthcare- working commu- nity. That would put it in the crosshairs of its main New Haven rival, $59 million- asset Healthcare Financial Federal Credit Union, which serves about 8,700 employees and their families of the Yale New Haven Hospital and its affiliates. Disruption amid changes Kowalski served three decades as a Wellness director before a board-led management shakeup last fall elevated him to his CEO post. Amid fallout from the shakeup, Wellness' former CEO, Carol Bayreuther, is suing Kowalski and her former employer for allegedly defaming her character. Bayreuther, who was ousted from the credit union after a more than three- decade run as its CEO, claims in court papers she was fired in Sept. 2017 with- out cause and that Kowalski spread false rumors about her. Wellness is also suing Bayreuther for unpaid debts. Kowalski, through Wellness' attor- ney, denied Bayreuther's defamation allegations, but declined further com- ment. Attempts to contact Bayreuther through her lawyer were unsuccessful. In late July, Kowalski and his 20-per- son team relocated Wellness' offices from a cramped, converted house at 4 Wethersfield Ave., to 10,000 square feet of office space on the ground floor of 15 Van Dyke Ave., in Colt Gateway. A grand opening is set for Aug. 15. The old building lacked adequate parking, had limited wheelchair acces- sibility and other drawbacks that put it out of compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act rules, Kowalski said. Wellness has a branch inside Hartford Hospital and a Newington branch, at 181 Patricia M. Genoa. It also has 11 ATMs stationed at various locations in Greater Hartford. "We did not want to leave the city of Hartford,'' said Kowalski, a Bristol resident, for the convenience of mem- bers, many of whom live and/or work in the city. Meantime, Wellness is in talks with landlords about space for two more in-state branches — one in Hartford County and one outside, Kowalski said, declining to elaborate until the leases are set. Its new Hartford headquarters has enough space for borrower confer- ences, plus room for a larger teller counter and more office space for staff, Kowalski said. Also, fiber-optic cabling was in- stalled to link Wellness' technology systems. Costs tied to the relocation are around $200,000. In addition to upgrading its quar- ters, Wellness has invested some $350,000 in new data-processing and information-technology hardware and software in a bid to expand its cloud- based offerings of savings, credit and other financial products. DEAL WATCH Developer bares revised Great Pond vision Great Pond Village, the long-delayed proposed redevelopment of a Windsor brownfield site, is being recast by its Massachusetts developer into a more commercially focused project than originally envisioned nearly a decade ago. David Winstanley, a principal and patriarch of Winstanley Enterprises, of Concord, Mass., one of Connecticut's biggest commercial landlords, recently laid out a revised vision for the initial development phase on the 633-acre tract fronting Windsor's busy Day Hill Road corridor. Winstanley is a partner in redeveloping Great Pond with ABB Group, owner of the former Combustion Engineering nuclear- production site. Originally bared in Dec. 2010, David and son, Adam Winstanley, envisioned Great Pond as a $750 million project that included a mix of single-family and multifamily housing aimed at a wide demographic. Fully developed, it also would include hundreds of thousands of square feet for neighborhood retail, office and research and development space. But some of that vision has shifted and narrowed. Winstanley recently presented Windsor zoning officials a modified Great Pond plan that no longer includes single-family homes and scales back the number of residential units from 4,000 to 1,500 multifamily apartments. On acreage where houses were planned, Winstanley now proposes to erect warehouse-industrial space that would be in the shadow of Amazon's 1.4 million-square-foot fulfillment facility, and where Griffin Industrial is erecting a 270,000-square-foot distribution facility for an unidentified local commercial tenant that has committed to relocating there. Griffin Industrial declined comment. David Winstanley did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The retail and office component of the project would remain, Windsor Town Planner Eric Barz said. Winstanley has tapped Fairfield residential developer Eastpointe LLC to oversee apartment development in the first phase, according to the Windsor Planning & Zoning Commission's July 10 meeting minutes. Eastpointe has been active in Greater Hartford. It currently owns Simsbury's 168-unit The Pointe At Dorset Crossing luxury apartments. Barz said Eastpointe and Winstanley are working to close on the purchase of several parcels along Day Hill Road. Soon after, construction is expected to begin on roads, curbing and other horizontal infrastructure, followed by apartment construction. Winstanley and Eastpointe, along with its engineering adviser Stantec, are due to resume discussions with the town P&Z commission Aug. 21 about its proposed Great Pond changes. Why the long delay in the project? According to the P&Z meeting minutes, financing the development has been a problem, particularly in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Artist's sketch for Windsor's proposed Great Pond Village development. RENDERINGS | CONTRIBUTED Raymond Kowalski, acting CEO of Hartford's Wellness Federal Credit Union. HBJ PHOTO | GREGORY SEAY