Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • January 13, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 19 Landlord to invest $14M in UConn off-campus housing upgrades By Joe Cooper jcooper@hartfordbusiness.com T he largest landlord of off- campus housing at UConn is slated to begin a $14-mil- lion renovation project on two of its student-housing complexes in Wil- lington and Storrs. Axela Group, a national real estate development, construction and property management firm head- quartered in Waterbury, has already spent almost $1 million to upgrade Willington's Cedar Ridge Town- homes and Storrs' Hunting Lodge Apartments since buying both prop- erties for $15 million in spring 2018. Now, it plans to invest another $13.9 million to spruce up both sites, which were built in the early 1960s, officials say. The renovations, to start in the coming weeks, will transform the 100-unit Cedar Ridge and 40-unit Hunting Lodge properties into luxury apartments for more than 300 UConn students, said Vicky Bui, Axela's senior vice president of busi- ness development. As part of the renovations, Axela is upgrading all flooring, kitchen cabi- netry and countertops, bathroom fix- tures and appliances at Cedar Ridge, which is home to some 250 students occupying 1,000-square-foot, two-bed- room units, Bui said. Similar upgrades will also be made at Hunting Lodge, a one-story building with about 95 stu- dents living in 600- and 700-square- foot, one- and two-bedroom units. Standard two-bedroom apartments at Cedar Ridge are being leased at $1,500 a month, and premium two-bed- room units are going for $1,800. Three bedroom units cost $2,000 a month. At Hunting Lodge, standard and premium single-room apartments are being leased between $1,300 and $1,650, and two-bedroom units between $1,500 and $1,800. Axela is also continuing to work with the Connecticut Department of Public Health on a long-term plan to connect Cedar Ridge to city water. Students living at Cedar Ridge, located on Burt Latham Road, were without clean water during parts of 2016 and 2017 as tenants reported discolored water gushing from their faucets. Bui said Axela has been address- ing the water issue since it took over the property more than a year ago and it is currently safe to drink. "We understand the frustration from the tenants," said Bui, whose firm owns and operates some 370 off- campus housing units near UConn's flagship Storrs campus. "Hearing the feedback from the tenants helped us speed up the pro- cess with the Department of Public Health." Axela is also looking to overhaul two of its other off-campus properties: the Knollwood Apartments in Mansfield and the Maple- wood Apartments in Storrs. A price tag and construc- tion timeline for that project has not yet been an- nounced, according to Bui, who expects the improve- ments to be completed sometime later this year. Deal Roundup Greater Hartford's 2019 top 20 commercial property deals fetch $501M Investors in Greater Hartford commercial real estate properties spent more than $501 million in the 20 largest deals of 2019, an analysis by Hartford Business Journal found. Many of the deals drew headlines last year, including the $70.5-million acquisition of downtown Hartford's Gold Building, and the $89-million takeover of J.C. Penney's former Manchester distribution center. However, there were several major purchases that went largely unnoticed. That includes the $53.3 million ac- quisition of Bloomfield's Hawthorne at Gillette Ridge apartments by Charger Ventures LLC, a Washing- ton, D.C.-based multifamily invest- ment and management company. The roughly 250-unit apartment complex on Cigna's campus, located at 2 Francis Way, has changed hands several times since the units were built in 2004. Another multifamily housing complex in Windsor at 1 Phaeton St., was sold to Ohio investment firm The Embassy Group LLC for $47.2 million. The so-called Rivers Bend Apartments sit on 88 acres near Farmington River Park. Also in Windsor, Kentucky-based hospitality firm Columbia Sussex Corp. spent $39.4 million on five acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the Marriott Hartford/Windsor Airport at 20 Day Hill Road. The land is immediately off Interstate 91 and is part of the steadily growing Day Hill Road corridor. Other notable Greater Hartford property sales in 2019 included: • Moshe Wechsler acquired down- town Hartford's "Candy Cane Building," 10 Columbus Blvd., for $16.8 million. • Hart Realty Advisers Inc. acquired Middletown's Stonegate Apart- ments, 1150-1160 South Main St., for $15.6 million. • Medical Properties Trust Inc. acquired a medical- office building in Man- chester, 945 Main St., for $15.2 million. • Capstone Properties LLC acquired a Glastonbury office building at 455 Winding Brook Drive for $12.2 million. A full list of Greater Hartford's top 20 com- mercial property sales can be found in HBJ's 2020 Book of Lists. Joe Cooper is HBJ's web editor and real estate writer. Hartford's Gold Building sold last year for $70.9 million. PHOTO | HBJ FILE PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED THE REAL DEAL Waterbury's Axela Group is revamping two of its off-campus housing complexes near UConn's flagship campus in Storrs.

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