Hartford Business Journal

8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 18, 2021 GCI's senior vice president of consulting services. GCI, which celebrated its 45th year in 2021, recently opened an office at 1 American Row, known as the Boat Building, after operating a temporary office in Hartford. The company leased 4,700 square feet for five-and-a-half years. Burghoff said GCI operates through a client-proximity model that ensures local resources are able to deliver the quick response and local accountability demanded by clients. "With our local team in Hartford, we will have better access and opportunities to the diverse set of companies that call Hartford home including top insurers, manufacturers, educational institutions and state and local governments," he said. Although GCI plans to eventually base almost 200 employees downtown, many will be working on a home/office hybrid schedule and at client sites. Burghoff said he hopes employees find the new downtown location attractive. "CGI employees look forward to taking advantage of all downtown Hartford has to offer," he said. "Our new office is located near to restaurants, the Front Street area, downtown events, hiking/biking paths, and museums — and closer to our clients for more opportunities to collaborate." At some points during the pandemic, downtown Hartford resembled a ghost town as thousands of workers who usually came into the city each day were working from home, causing restaurants and other businesses to struggle or close from the lack of foot traffic. But more people are returning to the office at least a few days a week and some companies recently traded their suburban address for one downtown. Assured Partners recently announced it was expanding its presence to 17,800 square feet in the Gold Building downtown and plans to move additional workers to Hartford from a Rocky Hill location when the new lease takes effect in Feb. 2022. And Sun Life pools, fitness center, courtyard and event spaces. He'll also add a new coffee shop and restaurant that will be open to the public. Schlesinger declined to discuss the status of his project, which has already received town zoning approval and met no opposition from town residents. In Meriden, a developer proposed earlier this year to convert the former Baymont by Wyndham hotel at 275 Research Parkway into apartments. It has 110,000 square feet and was built in 1985. The developer, Adam Haston of New Haven, said earlier this year a majority of the 150 guest rooms would be converted into smaller 300-square-foot apartments with a few larger one-bedroom units. Community spaces would include a coworking office, library, indoor pool, gymnasium, basketball courts and game room. It will also have a coffee shop and restaurant-microbrewery open to the public. The apartments would rent from $950 to $1,100 a month. A limited liability company Haston controls purchased the former hotel in August for $5.6 million but it was unclear when he would submit development plans. Neither Haston nor Meriden planning officials responded to requests for comment. In Manchester, Paredim Partners of Elmsford, N.Y., recently received permission to convert the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham hotel at 191 Spencer St., into apartments. That project may be easier for the developer than a typical hotel conversion because it consists of efficiency units in six separate buildings. David Parisier of Paredim said his firm received approval for up to 110 units. He declined to say how much the company is investing. Helping homeless While the projects in Connecticut seek to convert hotels into luxury apartments, elsewhere the conversions are being considered to address homelessness. Deal Watch Optum Services, Inc. Senior Data Engineer. Hartford, CT. Perform the full development cycle of a Data Warehouse including requirements gathering, design, implementation and maintenance. Mail resume: UHG GMI Recruitment at 9900 Bren Road East, MN008 R120, Minnetonka, MN 55343 and indicate applying for 21- CT-3803. Elan Gordon Scott Burghoff By Terry Corcoran tcorcoran@hartfordbusiness.com P roviding better client service was the main reason behind the decision by GCI, a Montreal- based global management and technology consultancy, to open a permanent office in downtown Hartford. But the global company, which employs nearly 78,000 people across 80 offices worldwide, hopes to reap other benefits from the move, according to Scott Burghoff, GCI's Hartford move aims to improve client service, attract new talent Financial recently signed a lease for 47,000 square feet, also in the Gold Building, and will leave its Windsor location, bringing 300 employees downtown. Dan Fishbein, president of Sun Life U.S., said he views the new location as a magnet to draw people into the office and said it will also allow the company to expand its recruitment efforts. "We were recruiting from only a part of the area but being downtown puts us right in the middle," Fishbein said. "So now we can recruit from all four directions and not just largely from north of the city." Burghoff agreed the downtown location could help GCI attract new talent. GCI joins other global IT companies that have established Hartford offices in recent years, including Infosys, HCL Technologies and GalaxE.Solutions Inc. "Having an office in downtown Hartford puts us in a great position to attract diverse candidates since the location is accessible to all throughout the greater Hartford region," Burghoff said. "A downtown location also allows us to partner with and recruit talent from the local and community colleges and universities, like the University of Hartford." In Williston, Vermont, a housing group plans to turn a hotel into 72 affordable housing units. In Dallas, the Gateway Hotel Dallas is being converted into 180 efficiency units for the homeless, and New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams has called for converting failing city hotels into housing for the homeless. There are two types of hotel-to- apartment conversions, according to Elan Gordon of SHIR Capital of Austin, Texas, which has done several of them. Converting an extended-stay hotel, like the one in Manchester, is cheaper, he said. "Those look and feel like a multifamily development when you walk in," Gordon said. "It's more of a renovation than a construction project." But regular hotel rooms without a kitchen require complete overhauls, he said. "These are small hotel rooms that become small studio apartments with full appliances," Gordon said. The conversions allow people who otherwise could not afford an apartment to get one, Gordon said. "It happens to be market driven and solves a few issues at once: empty hotel rooms and shortage of apartments," he said. "A new apartment building might take two to three years. Our conversion takes one year from the time we purchase to the time we deliver." The lobby of The Millennium, a former hotel at 50 Morgan St. in Hartford that's being converted into apartments. The exterior of The Millennium. PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER

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