Hartford Business Journal

8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | July 4, 2022 DEAL WATCH What's Sold Here's a list of recently sold commercial properties. Properties are listed in order of sales date. Property address City Sale price Property type Building sq. ft. Year built 10 Northwood Dr Bloomfield $700,000 Industrial 10,000 1982 141 Broad St New Britain $550,000 Multi-Family 8,538 1910 213 Chase Ave Waterbury $2,050,000 Retail 2,666 2020 128 Garden St Farmington $1,000,000 Office 10,000 1950 199 W Center St Manchester $320,000 Retail 2,590 1925 51-53 Russ St Hartford $300,000 Office 4,752 1898 55 Graham Pl Southington $10,000,000 Retail 160,000 1975 661 Main St Torrington $4,500,000 Retail 8,872 1998 683-709 Winsted Rd Torrington $1,350,000 Retail 17,818 1989 68 Tariffville Rd Bloomfield $390,000 Industrial 5,316 2000 41 Sandscreen Rd Avon $330,000 Industrial 6,175 1980 606-608 Franklin Ave Hartford $320,000 Retail 3,085 1930 241-243 Zion St Hartford $530,000 Multi-Family 6,567 1910 150 North Rd East Windsor $1,378,627 Office 2,650 1930 Source: Costar largely vacant, except for a small cabinet maker, since 2000. Machine oils and hazardous manufacturing substances might have seeped into the ground through cracks or discharge into pipes, the report said. There had also been illegal dumping of waste oil and paint in January 2006 and July 2007. Riaz Hussain said he hired two architectural firms to work on designs, including Hartford-based Robert B. Hurd of The Architects, which specializes in adaptive reuse of historic buildings. Carlos Mouta, a developer who has heavily invested in Parkville, recently met with the Hussain family to offer encouragement, advice and even a bit of caution. Mouta also hopes to tap into the city's potential Innovation Corridor grant funding to help his planned $72.8 million transformation of the 236,000-square-foot blighted industrial complex at 237-245 Hamilton St., into 189 apartments, along with retail and commercial space. The building sits next to the Hussain property. Mouta said he warned the Hussains that contamination could be significant within their Bartholomew Avenue building, which he also placed a bid on in 2020, with hopes of converting it into a mixed-use apartment complex. Mouta said his brothers used to work at Hanson & Whitney Co. and he personally saw pollution on the site. He advised the Hussain family to spend carefully until they know the extent of pollution, which will translate into cleanup costs and could affect design plans. "I would love nothing more than for them to build it," Mouta said. "But I told them don't get ahead of yourselves." Riaz said he anticipates an updated hazardous materials report on the building in August. Remediation could start soon after. Development experience Riaz Hussain, 74, said he has the experience and drive for a major redevelopment. He was born in a Pakistani village without electricity in 1948, but still earned a pharmacy degree before moving to New York City in 1973. He was working as a pharmacist at Katz Drugstore in Brooklyn in 1975 when he met Gladys, a dental hygienist who worked in the same building. They were married five years later and would go on to have four daughters and four sons. While courting, they started investing in real estate on the advice of friends. They started with two, three-family apartment buildings and a small warehouse in Brooklyn. They expanded to a string of pharmacies in New York. In 1990, they moved to Ridgefield and began buying gas station convenience stores. They later demolished a Brookfield gas station and oversaw cleanup of subsurface pollutants to make way for a roughly 23,000-square-foot retail plaza. Today, the Hussains' real estate portfolio has 144 apartments, including 129 units in Hartford. They have four other commercial properties in the Capital City. Their first Hartford bet came in 2004, when Riaz and Gladys Hussain paid $160,000 for a 16- unit apartment building on Rockville Street. The following year they paid $400,000 for a 20-unit apartment building on Sigourney Street. Both required extensive rehabilitation. Gladys was initially hesitant to invest in Hartford, but Riaz recalled the transformation he saw in Brooklyn and believes Connecticut's Capital City will follow the same trajectory. "My dad has an eye," Michael Hussain said. "He likes to say he thinks 10 years into the future." Hussain's four sons — Andrew, Steven, Michael and Daniel — took a greater hand in directing the family business while their father recovered from a stroke and fall about two years ago. Over the past year, Hussain's sons and a friend have also begun developing a separate real estate portfolio of 35 apartments in eight buildings in Hartford and New Britain. The sons also are deeply involved in the effort to transform the Hanson- Whitney factory. "I am so proud my kids look up to their father and want to do the same thing," Riaz Hussain said. "They'll take this one and turn it into something good. Nobody else is going to do it. I'm proud of my kids." The former Hanson-Whitney Factory at 169 Bartholomew Ave. PHOTO | COSTAR

• Cover