Hartford Business Journal

10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 21, 2022 DEAL WATCH East Hartford hotel property to reopen following renovations S huttered for several years, the former Hartford Hotel & Convention Center in East Hartford could soon reopen under the Marriott banner. The New Jersey-based Kautilya Group paid $3.4 million for the hotel on 5 acres at 363 Roberts St., in a deal recorded in August. The group operates 12 hotels in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio and is moving ahead with plans to renovate and reopen the East Hartford property. The buyer's principal is Vinita G. Patel of Millington, New Jersey. Patel's husband, Gaurang "Gary" Patel, has applied to East Hartford for a zoning text amendment that would allow "extended stay" hotel rooms on the property, as well as a special permit that would allow a drive-through for an attached restaurant, possibly a Starbucks. Gaurang Patel, who is asset manager for Kautilya Group, said the plan is to create 80 rooms under Marriott's "Towneplace Suites" brand. Rooms offer a kitchenette, dishwasher and micro-refrigerator for people planning to stay multiple days or weeks. Another 64 rooms will run under Marri- ott's "Fairfield Inn & Suites" brand, geared toward short-term stays. BERLIN Tasca Ford is enroute to be the first auto dealer in Connecticut and among a small number in the region with a Ford Pro Elite Commer- cial Service Facility, set to open in mid-2023. Company representatives recently joined town officials from Berlin for a groundbreaking ceremony for the 32,600-square-foot facility that Tasca is building at 250 Webster Square Road. The sales and service center, next to the existing Tasca dealership, will service the growing fleet of large trucks used by drivers, municipalities and commercial operations. Tasca Ford President Robert Tasca III said many Ford dealerships face limitations when it comes to servicing large trucks since they have facilities that were built more than 40 years ago for smaller cars. The new facility will be dedi- cated to the heavy-duty truck customer, commercial industry and municipalities. Tasca bought and razed a dilapi- dated manufacturing building next to the existing dealership to create space for the new facility, which he called "a multimillion-dollar investment." WEST HARTFORD After being rejected in his home- town city, a cannabis entrepreneur's plans to open an adult-use dispensary in West Hartford is moving forward. Derrick Gibbs, CEO and founder of Middletown-based homecare and behavioral health provider Change Incorporated, said his equity joint venture cannabis retailer Budr Hart- ford LLC received a letter of approval from West Hartford allowing him to move forward with his business. Gibbs said he's renting the building at 1037 Blvd., West Hart- ford, and is currently finalizing site plans with his team and the town's building department before going out to bid for local construction contractors to outfit the site into a cannabis dispensary. West Hartford wasn't Gibbs' first choice when it came to the business — a few miles east in Hartford was. Gibbs and his business partners were initially under contract to purchase 89 Arch St., Hartford, a 2,500-square-foot building, which was put up for sale at the end of last year after Blind Pig Pizza closed. But the Capital Region Develop- ment Authority (CRDA) opposed having a cannabis business in the Adriaen's Landing area, and the city's Assistant Corporation Counsel Richard Vassallo in July wrote to the city's Planning and Zoning Commis- sion that the CRDA has authority over the property. The plan's for the downtown Hart- ford site eventually fell through. MANCHESTER A cannabis micro cultivator is hoping to open in Manchester after filing an application with the town. RAD Holding Corp., which names Hartford resident Shawn Devon Howell and Suffield resident James L. Daddario as principals, filed a special exception permit with the Manchester Planning and Zoning Commission to operate an indoor cannabis micro cultivator facility at 82 Colonial Road. In August, RAD Holding Corp. was named one of two social equity micro cultivators moving ahead with the state's provisional licensing process. RAD is one of several prospective cannabis businesses trying to open in Manchester, which has been welcoming to the industry since town officials drafted zoning guide- lines for cannabis last year. Fine Fettle received zoning approval from the town to open an equity joint venture recreational cannabis dispen- sary at 91 Hale Road. Multistate oper- ator Curaleaf applied to open a hybrid dispensary at the former Friendly's restaurant on Buckland Street. WINDSOR A large Windsor logistics center that was being constructed on spec has signed a national tenant to occupy the entire property. Columbus, Ohio-based Safelite Group, parent company of the well- known Safelite AutoGlass brand, has signed a long-term lease to occupy 165,625 square feet in the Baker Hollow Logistics Center, at 105 Baker Hollow Road. Safelite will be the property's sole occupant. It will use it for its wind- shield-replacement operations and support office, according to Condyne Capital Partners, the logistics center's Massachusetts-based developer. Condyne paid $1.65 million for the 15.8-acre Baker Hollow Road site last December. The logistics center is still under construction but should be completed by the end of the year. After that, Safelite will make some improve- ments to the property. The lease starts in April, according to Shawn McMahon, a broker with Jones Lang LaSalle's Hartford office. He and Daniel McGil- licuddy brokered the lease deal. Indus Realty has $11M deal to sell remaining office/flex properties in CT By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com M ajor Connecticut landlord and developer Indus Realty Trust has a deal in place to fully exit its office/flex building portfolio in the state, according to the company's third quarter earnings report. New York-based Indus, formerly known as Griffin Industrial Realty, said it signed a definitive agreement in September to sell eight office/flex properties in Bloomfield for $11 million. The portfolio includes seven build- ings totaling 175,000 square feet and an 18,000-square-foot storage facility. Indus said it expects to close the deal in the fourth quarter. A buyer was not identified. The pending sale falls in line with a strategy Indus Realty announced several years ago when it sold two suburban office buildings in Windsor and Bloomfield as part of a larger effort to focus solely on developing, managing and leasing industrial/warehouse space. Even with the pending deal, Indus remains active in Connecticut. It recently received land-use approvals for a 248,000-square-foot distribu- tion center on 59.6 acres at 105 International Drive in East Granby. It's the last piece of industrial- ly-zoned land available in the New England Tradeport. Indus also still holds more than 450 acres zoned for industrial devel- opment in Bloomfield, Simsbury and Windsor, as well as in Massachusetts. • The publicly-traded company is also focused on growing its hold- ings in other high-growth industrial markets with access to strong and/ or rapidly growing populations and economies, including central Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina. The 57,500-square-foot flex office/industrial building at 29-35 Griffin Road South is part of a larger portfolio of properties being sold by Indus Realty Trust. PHOTO | COSTAR The Bloomfield properties involved in the pending $11 million sale include: • 29-35 Griffin Road South, 57,500 square feet, 54.4% leased, built in 1977 • 204 West Newberry Road, 22,331 square feet, 30% leased, built in 1988 • 206 West Newberry Road, 22,826 square feet, 100% leased, built in 1989 • 310 West Newberry Road, 11,361 square feet, 100% leased, built in 1990 • 320 West Newberry Road, 11,137 square feet, 100% leased, built in 1991 • 330 West Newberry Road, 11,932 square feet, 100% leased, built in 1991 • 340 West Newberry Road, 38,113 square feet, 76.1% leased, built in 2001 • 210 West Newberry Road, 18,000 square feet, built in 1988 BUYERS & SELLERS

• Cover