Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • August 10, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 5 Hartford seeking redevelopment bids for former firehouse HQ The city of Hartford says it's seeking buyers to redevelop the former three- story fire department headquarters on Pearl Street. Hartford's department of development services recently invited developers and investors to submit proposals to buy and redevelop the city-owned firehouse at 275 Pearl St. that was decommissioned in January. The deadline to submit bids is Oct. 20. Possible uses for the property include apartments, a restaurant or craft brewery. Apartments the likely target for redeveloping downtown Trinity Street offices The state's plan to hand over historic office buildings on Trinity Street to the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) likely means one thing for the quasi-public agency: more residential housing downtown. "It's likely those buildings will go to some sort of residential use, and be converted," CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said referring to state offices at 30 and 18/20 Trinity St., which the Lamont administration will shed in order to consolidate office space leases and save $7.1 million in five years by moving about 160 workers mostly downtown to renovated spaces on Capitol and Farmington avenues. Converting adjacent state offices on Trinity St. into apartments would continue an ongoing focus for CRDA, which is charged with revitalizing the city and in recent years has backed development of 1,500 or so units downtown. CT's largest-ever renewable energy investment nears final approval Connecticut ratepayers are one step closer to funding the state's largest- ever purchase of renewable electricity, an offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts that is expected to provide 14% of Connecticut's electricity once it's completed in 2025. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) recently granted initial approval to key contracts between state utility companies Eversource and Avangrid and the owners of the proposed 804-megawatt Park City Wind project, which would be located 23 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and provide enough energy to power 400,000 homes. The 20-year power purchase agreements could be worth around $3 billion to the developer of the project, Vineyard Wind, which is a joint venture between Avangrid's renewables business unit and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. UConn Health signs research deal with rare-disease biotech A New York biotech company developing treatments for a rare neuro- genetic disorder that leaves patients unable to live independently will license genetic sequences developed at UConn Health. Publicly traded Ovid Therapeutics, whose lead investigational drug candidate for Angelman Syndrome, OV101, is currently in a Phase 3 human trial, is hoping that studying the proprietary sequences and working with UConn molecular geneticist and Angelman Syndrome expert Stormy J. Chamberlain will help it develop genetic therapies, including those that may be used in conjunction with OV101. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. LATEST HEADLINES A rendering of an operations hub Vineyard Wind will build in Bridgeport to support its Park City Wind project. Continued on page 6 >> An aerial view of the former Hartford fire station on Pearl Street. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | HBJ FILE

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