Hartford Business Journal

33 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 28, 2022 of a building in a former lumberyard into the Parkville Market in 2020. The indoor food bazaar hosts rows of interesting food stalls and has become a draw for the area. In 2021 Mouta built financial and political support for a $4.6 million expansion of the Parkville Market and a planned $72.8 million conversion of the former Whitney Manufacturing site on Hamilton Avenue into 189 apartments and 86,000 square feet of commercial space. Mouta continues to seek financing for the larger project. Kenny – CEO of Lexington Partners – is working with Shelbourne Global on an ongoing $100 million redevelopment of the Pratt Street corridor in downtown Hartford that will lead to hundreds of new or refurbished apartments. The project includes a $12 million redevelopment of dozens of apartments on Temple Street. Hartford parking magnate Alan Lazowski, who frequently partners with Kenny, is a junior partner in that development. Kenny and Lazowski are also working together to build 292 apartments and commercial space at the 20-acre Sisters of St. Joseph convent property in West Hartford. Construction began in June and is expected to last two years. Kenny and Lazowski are partnered again in plans for a $100 million mixed-use development on a 12- acre Cromwell property hosting the shuttered Red Lion Hotel. Kenny plans to knock down the hotel to make space for 265 apartments, 24 townhomes and 30,000 square feet of retail. David Griggs David Griggs was hired as CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance in 2018 to be a disrupter. And he's been just that. Since joining the organization, he's implemented a new strategic direction: The Alliance, traditionally viewed as a regional chamber, has become more of a private economic development agency with a primary mission to lure jobs and talent to the region. The restructuring included a new leadership team and beefing up recruiting strategies. The Alliance also spun out its chamber function, bringing back the old Hartford Chamber of Commerce name it hadn't used for nearly two decades. There was also a plan to kick-start an unprecedented level of travel to sell Greater Hartford across the country. However, the pandemic interfered with that, while also Jason Jakubowski Jason Jakubowski is CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, the new, rebranded nonprofit created as a result of the 2021 merger between Foodshare and Connecticut Food Bank. The combination represented one of the biggest nonprofit mergers in recent memory. Both entities operated as regional food banks, and Jakubowski was chosen to lead the combined organization that now has a statewide focus. Despite some early growing pains, Jakubowski told HBJ in October that the merger had been going well and has helped the newly-formed organization focus its mission. Aside from the merger, Jakubowski had to lead through the pandemic, which led to increased demand for food banks as some people lost jobs or were forced to leave the workforce to care for family. Jakubowski was named president and CEO of Foodshare in July 2017, after working as the vice president of external relations at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. Prior to that he was director of corporate and community development at Charter Oak State College. He's been involved in the state through much of his adulthood, formerly serving as a city council member in New Britain. Martin Kenny & Carlos Mouta Developers Martin Kenny and Carlos Mouta contin- ued to grab headlines in 2021 as they forged ahead with some of the most ambitious apartment development projects in Greater Hartford. The two men — who have not to date collaborated on any projects — have been in real estate for decades, and between them control well over 1,000 residential units in Hartford County. Mouta is the driving force behind efforts to revitalize Hartford's Parkville neighborhood. Kenny has focused on the central business district and nearby suburbs like Glastonbury, West Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor. Mouta has won accolades from city leaders for his $5 million conversion 39 38 Martin Kenny Carlos Mouta David Griggs Jason Jakubowski creating other challenges in the effort to recruit companies to the region. But Griggs — who came to Hartford from Minneapolis where he was vice president of business investment and research at the Greater Minneapolis St. Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership — said he's bullish on the region's ability to attract investment in the year ahead. In fact, he told HBJ in December that the Alliance had 53 companies in some stage of conversation about potentially establishing a presence here. "I'm highly confident you are going to see a lot of great wins in 2022 when companies start to really pull the trigger on moves and investment," Griggs said. "That's been our challenge in 2020 and 2021, companies trying to understand what the post-pandemic world looks like for them." Gina Luari As the COVID-19 pandemic forced untold numbers of restaurants to shutter or cut back to survive in the past two years, Gjinovefa "Gina" Luari expanded her hip "Place 2 Be" restaurant from one to three locations. Even as the lingering virus continues to shake the prospects of pandemic- weary restaurant entrepreneurs, 30-year-old Luari has ambitions to open five more restaurants in 2022. Luari's family fled a society in upheaval in Albania 24 years ago, when she was 6. Her father began washing dishes in a Rocky Hill diner the day after arriving in America. A decade later, he bought the place. Even as a teenager, Luari was a big part of her parents' success, using her proficiency in English to help manage the restaurant and its business relations. She shares her parents' immigrant drive, coupled with a keen millennial sensibility, keeping her Place 2 Be restaurants attractive to a diverse crowd. Heavy investments in the restaurants' culture and online marketing kept her Hartford and West Hartford locations busy through the pandemic. Now, Luari is working to replicate that success in New Haven and Springfield, Mass. She also plans to open three restaurants outside the Place 2 Be brand in Hartford this year. Rohan Freeman If you haven't seen press coverage of Rohan Freeman in recent years 41 Gina Luari 42 40 you haven't been paying attention. Freeman, founder and president of engineering firm Freeman Cos. LLC, operates one of the largest minority-owned companies in Greater Hartford and he'e been an increasingly influential business leader, having been named in 2019 to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association's board. When Gov. Lamont last October wanted to publicize efforts made to streamline the state's supplier diversity program, he held a press conference at Freeman's business in Hartford. A few months earlier in May, when Lamont was urging business leaders to return their workers to the office to boost local businesses, the governor was once again flanked by Freeman. "Psychologically, we need to get back to work," Freeman said at the May 26 press conference. "Economically we need to get workers back in the city spending their time and dollars helping to revitalize restaurants, shops, services and neighborhoods." Freeman, with partner Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, is also behind the $26 million project that redeveloped longtime blighted Hartford properties at the corner of Park and Main streets, into a mixed- use facility — called Park & Main — with 126 apartments and retail space. Freeman, a Jamaica native, founded Freeman Cos. in 2009. The firm specializes in land development, engineering design and construction services. His development company is called 7 Summits Realty LLC. Freeman is a popular motivational speaker and adventurer. He has reached the summit of Mount Everest and was the first African-American to climb the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. David Fay Performing-arts venues took a beating during the global health pandemic and The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts was no exception. It was forced to close its doors from March 2020, through Sept. 11, 2021. David Fay, The Bushnell's CEO since 2001, led the charge in urging state and federal policymakers to provide government aid to the industry. Congress, in fact, a little more than a year ago allocated $15 billion in grants to support theaters and other venues nationwide. Fay had given testimony to a U.S. Senate committee on the topic. 2022 POWER 50 Rohan Freeman 43 David Fay

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