Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1489717
him more visibility, and perhaps a little more leverage with city officials. "Carlos Mouta is one of those rare people who combines vision with the ability to get things done," said Mayor Luke Bronin, who was present for the ribbon-cutting on the market back in 2020. "We're very fortunate to have a partnership where a private property owner, investor and developer shares the city's vision for what's possible in the neighborhood." He credits the market with becoming in a short time not just a citywide institution, but a regional draw for Hartford. "When you have somebody who's got energy and vision and experience, and on top of that is willing to put skin in the game, and assemble capital and make personal investments, it's a game changer," Bronin said. "Getting difficult projects done, especially in this economic environment, requires tenacity, forcefulness and stubbornness." Big dreams So, what's next for the Parkville change-maker? He has plans to expand the market, attracting a new brewery and building a rooop garden. He also has big dreams for another vacant property at 237 Hamilton St., a mill building that once housed the Whitney Manufacturing Co., a block or so from the market. Here he's planning 189 apartments along with 80,000 square feet of commercial space, including plans for a beer garden and commercial kitchen, function space, gym and electric car charging. But lately it's event space that's captured his imagination more than anything else. Music has become a big theme for the future, as Mouta continues to build the Parkville he wants to see. "I love jazz, I love art, so I want artists here," he says, envisioning a haven for the arts. "Parkville is the location. You wanna come seven days a week, we've got music somewhere." Already struggling before the pandemic, the wider city of Hartford now faces severe challenges as hybrid work prompts big corporations to retreat from downtown. And Mouta warns that creating a vibrant neighborhood in Parkville or anywhere else also relies on a downtown revival. But he does remain bullish on the future of both the city and Connecticut as a state. "We're like, an hour-and-a-half from Boston and New York. We've got the best of both worlds," he says. "We're 45 minutes from the shore, we have the casinos, we have everything. I mean, what other place do you want to live?" Mouta says he'll continue to create the Hartford his 14-year- old self might have liked to have seen — but perhaps not forever. Hinting that his developing days may be numbered, he thinks three or four more years of big projects may be what he has le in him before he says enough is enough. "I'll have done what I wanted to do and that's it," he says. "More is not better." "I've been underestimated all my life — I've been proving people wrong all my life. Not on purpose, but it kind of becomes fun after a while." – Carlos Mouta I Continued from page 13