Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | July 18, 2022 23 POWER 25 REAL ESTATE FOCUS ances, among other things. She also handles a variety of land use-related litigation, including prosecuting/ defending land-use approvals, ease- ment disputes, nuisance actions and eminent domain. Her land-use team — led by Gomes' colleague and mentor Tim Hol- lister — has a particular niche in affordable housing. And multifamily development is where the action is, Gomes said, particularly with an affordabil- ity component. "With rents rising everywhere, demand for diverse housing options is up, and the demand is outpacing the supply," she recently told the Hartford Business Journal. "Where possible, developers are repurpos- ing and building upon existing, often vacant or underutilized buildings. If these communities can be built near public transportation hubs, even better, as municipalities are empha- sizing the need and desire for tran- sit-oriented development." One of the most important deals Gomes said she has worked on recently is securing land-use approvals for the redevelop- ment of an outdated municipal housing authority property into a state-of-the-art, affordable residen- tial community. The applicants started working on the development in 2015 and it took several years of navigating the local land-use process, two success- ful appeals to the Superior Court, and then a lengthy post-approval process to get to the closing stage for the low-income housing tax credit financing. "Land use literally takes a village," said Gomes, who began practic- ing law in 2014. John M. McCormick John M. McCormick is one of the top brokers in Greater Hartford. He's the executive vice president of CBRE Hartford, which annually tops the list of largest local deal activity. One of the big- gest deals he and his team were involved in over the past year was the sale of the Class A, 142,000-square- foot Windsor office building at 200 Great Pond Road, which was com- pletely renovated and re-tenanted during COVID. Corporate commit- ments from GE, Milliman USA and MassMutual brought occupancy from 0% when the property was acquired by EIP in 2019, to 96%, John M. McCormick which created a competitive bidding process and final sale price of $15.6 million, McCormick said. McCormick said hybrid work mod- els and permanent work-from-home strategies will continue to impact the market, increasing supply in both the downtown and suburban markets. "A disproportionate amount of leasing activity has taken place in spaces where existing [furniture, fix- tures, and equipment] and contem- porary space designs are available," he said. "However, as companies continue to re-evaluate their space needs in the coming year, there will likely be additional vacancies on the market." Concerns with supply chain, inflation and interest rates will also continue to impact the market over the next 12 months, said McCormick, who added he is still seeing a number of adaptive reuse opportunities, as well as a flight to quality. "Highly-amenitized buildings are garnering a disproportionate amount of leasing activity and will continue to be a differentiating factor in both the [central business district] and suburban submarkets," he said. McCormick has been in the business for 30 years and his largest career deal involved the past sale of down- town Hartford's 845,000-square-foot State House Square office complex for $97 million. Arunan Arulampalam Arunan Arulampalam isn't afraid to try new career paths. A lawyer by trade, the Quinnipiac School of Law grad got his start in 2014 performing cor- porate finance work at Hartford law firm Updike, Kelly & Spellacy P.C. Two years ago he was appointed deputy commis- sioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection, putting him second in command in an agency that oversees every- thing from business licensing to the state's marijuana industry. His latest gig is running the Hart- ford Land Bank, a still relatively new organization that is trying to revital- ize the city's neighborhoods. He was named CEO in July 2021. The land bank is a nonprofit that identifies and acquires abandoned, tax-delinquent and otherwise dis- tressed properties in the city to facil- itate their rehabilitation and return to productive use. Its mission is to not only increase homeownership in the city (at 24%, Hartford has the lowest homeownership rate in the state), but also develop a pipeline of Hartford-based developers who have the skills and capital to turn run-down properties into owner-oc- cupied dwellings. To that end, Arulampalam last November helped launch a new training program aimed at minting a diverse group of developers to tackle home redevelopment projects in the Capital City. He also wants to create a revolving loan fund that will offer low-interest construc- tion loans to help redevelop land bank properties. The main focus for now is residen- tial properties, but redevelopment of commercial buildings could be part of the long-term plan, Arulam- palam has said. The land bank got its start with $5 million in state funding, but one of Arulampalam's tasks is to create a long-term business model. Cor- porate and private-sector dona- tions and state dollars will be part of the equation. It's estimated there are hundreds of distressed buildings in Hartford and it will require tens of millions of dol- lars to revitalize all of them. Arulampalam, 36, is a married father with five children who lives in the city's Frog Hollow neighborhood. Sandy Cloud Jr. Sandy Cloud Jr. is a well-known local lawyer and businessman whose firm, The Cloud Co. LLC, is currently co-redeveloping Hart- ford's old, rundown Westbrook Village housing complex. The Village at Park River complex will eventually include about 432 new rental housing units and homeownership opportunities and retail/commercial space in the city's North End. Over 100 units have been completed and tenants have moved in. Cloud has also worked with Phila- delphia realty developer Pennrose Properties on several mixed-use residential developments in Meriden and Torrington. According to his bio, Cloud during his career played a major role in the development of the Upper Albany Shopping Center and Crown Gar- dens housing development in Hart- ford. He also led Aetna's national Neighborhood Development Pro- gram in the 1980s, and oversaw investments exceeding $100 million, which transformed several urban neighborhoods across the country. Arunan Arulampalam Sandy Cloud Jr. Cloud is also active in the com- munity. He served two terms in the state Senate, became an Aetna executive and chaired or served on the boards of UConn Health, the Connecticut Health Foundation, Eversource and MetroHartford Alliance. Larry Dooley Larry Dooley is the developer behind one of the most significant redevelopments in Hartford over the past decade-plus. He has spear- headed the Colt Gateway proj- ect, the redevel- opment of Colt Firearms' former 600,000-square- foot manufactur- ing complex into a mixed-use residential, office/com- mercial and retail development. This 17-acre property features 10 distinct buildings that were histori- cally used as industrial properties from the 1860s through 1930s. Dooley's CG Management Co. partnered with Chevron Corp. on the multiphase redevelop- ment that has depended on significant public subsidies and included three separate apartment projects to date. The South and North armories contain 129 and 48 apartment units, respectively, while the property's U-Shaped building debuted 28 new rentals at the end of last year. In October, Dooley told the Hartford Business Journal that "all the units are leased with the exception of the handful in the new building." Colt Gateway is a mix of 60% commercial and 40% residen- tial space. Commercial tenants include architectural firms and Insurity, a software company serving the insurance industry. Thomas Hooker Brewery is also located within the property. Colt Gateway is steeped in history. Samuel Colt built his first factory in 1847, then in 1855 established the Colt Armory, the site Dooley is redeveloping. The factory burned to the ground in February 1864, two years after Colt died, but his wife, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, had the factory insured after her husband's death and was able to rebuild within three years. Dooley has a bachelor's degree in economics from UConn and a master's degree in technology management from Central Con- necticut State University. Larry Dooley

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