Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1494972
8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 20, 2023 DEAL WATCH SUSTAINABLE FACILITIES COMPETITIVE. EFFICIENT. PRODUCTIVE. The company that builds and installs the critical systems in virtually every type of facility is the same company you can rely on to maintain them. For over 50 years, our clients have trusted us to provide sustainable, more effi cient, greener facilities. Experts in: Energy Systems & Incentives, Building Automation Technologies, Sustainable Design & Operation 860.871.1111 Toll Free: 800.741.6367 nemsi.com MECHANICAL | ELECTRICAL | PLUMBING | SHEET METAL | BUILDING AUTOMATION | FACILITIES SERVICES License #'s: E1-197483 S1-406020 P1-290301 SM1-975 MC-1134 DORO Marketplace eyes new Wethersfield location W ell-known West Hartford restaurateur Dorjan Puka is looking to expand his European-inspired cafe and bakery DORO Marketplace to Wethersfield. He's got a proposal in front of the Wethersfield Planning and Zoning Commission to open a new DORO Marketplace with an outdoor seating area, replacing the former Chip's Family Restaurant along the Silas Deane Highway. Puka's DORO Restaurant Group opened its first DORO Marketplace in 2020 in West Hartford, and debuted a second location in Windsor Locks late last year. DORO Restaurant Group also owns three other restaurants in West Hartford Center, including Treva, Àvert and Zohara. It also operates Artisanal Burger Co. in Manchester. Owned by the Goff Brook Shoppes of Wethersfield, the former Chip's building at 1301 Silas Deane Highway was erected in 2014 and sits in a plaza covering 8.4 acres with more than 470 parking spaces. Chip's Family Restaurant closed its Wethersfield and other locations last year. EAST HARTFORD East Hartford's Town Council has agreed to sell the 25-acre former Showcase Cinemas site for $1 to developers planning to build at least 300 apartments. The council also signed off on a series of conditions that ease the expectations of developers Brian Zelman and Avner Krohn by reducing the minimum number of apartments from 360 to 300. The change is intended to allow the long-simmering project to continue despite rapidly rising interest rates and a tightening lending market. Zelman and Krohn said they still want to build more than 400 units but need flexibility should financing prove elusive. WINDSOR LOCKS/SOUTH WINDSOR A father and son real estate investing duo recently paid $1.45 million for a retail strip in Windsor Locks and an office building in South Windsor. A limited liability company run by Jeffrey Harbey, of Agawam, Massachusetts, sold the 24,000-square-foot retail plaza at 5 National Drive, to Doug and Jesse Schneider of Ellington. Jesse Schneider said he and his father intend to make significant repairs to the Windsor Locks property, which was built in 1984 and sits on 3.3 acres. "At this point the plan is to fix this place up and make it a nice property," Schneider said. Schneider said he and his father were able to get a bargain on the Windsor Locks property because they concurrently paid $600,000 for a 5,768-square-foot South Windsor office building at 1209 John Fitch Blvd., from another LLC run by Harbey. Schneider said he has a party interested in leasing the 57-year-old South Windsor office building. BERLIN Developers of the new mixed-use Steele Center project in Berlin have scaled down some of their plans. They've revamped one of their buildings, going from four stories to three. They will also build fewer two-bedroom apartment units and remove the ground-level parking area. The building at 55 Steele Blvd., will include all market-rate apartments, with the original inventory reduced from 60 units to 50 units. Plans initially called for 42 one-bedroom apartments and 18 two bedrooms; now there will be five studios and 34 one-bed- room and 11 two-bedroom units. "The market is definitely talking to us, and it wants to see more one-bedrooms and studios," said developer Tony Valenti of Newport Realty and Lovely Develop- ment, the Southington-based firm that is building Steele Center. When complete, the overall $17-million project will include 75,000 square feet of commercial and residential space with 70 market-rate apartments spread throughout multiple buildings in the Kensington section of Berlin. A sketch of the new DORO Marketplace planned for Wethersfield.