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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 12, 2023 25 GENERAL CONTRACTING • CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT • DESIGN BUILD PARTNER 21 DEMING ROAD, BERLIN, CT 06037 • (860) 610-1093 • WWW.OLSENCS.COM NEW CONSTRUCTION • TENANT FIT OUT • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE • HEALTHCARE POWER 25 | REAL ESTATE Ker started his career with a 15-year run at CBRE, where he reached the level of senior vice president before his departure in 2018. He spent three years working for New York City's nonprofit economic development arm before founding Snowball. According to its website, Snowball is planning additional ventures in Norwich, South Windsor, Hartford and Wallingford. Today, Mouta continues to build momentum for the struggling neighborhood. He's made great gains gathering support for a plan to transform a massive decaying former Whitney Manufacturing factory on Hamilton Avenue into 235 apartments and 45,000 square feet of commercial space. The state Bond Commission, in April, agreed to provide an $8.5 million loan to support the $91.7 million project, which has strong backing from the Capital Region Development Authority. Mouta is most often introduced as the developer of the popular Parkville Market, a former lumber- yard on Park Street that he trans- formed into a popular indoor food hall bazaar. The $5 million project wrapped in 2020, and has been met with wide acclaim ever since. Mouta is currently working on an expansion of the market. His Parkville portfolio of revitalized and repurposed properties also includes Pope Commons, 360 Main, the Hartford Design Center and the Design Center Lofts. Mouta spent most of his childhood in the city of Beira in Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony. When the country declared independence in 1975, his Portuguese parents immigrated to the U.S., ending up in Hartford. Mouta graduated from Central Connecticut State University to study business and marketing, and then took a job at the Hartford Courant in the newspaper's circula- tion department. His first forays into real estate were buying up distressed proper- ties in the wake of the Savings and Loan Crisis of the late 1980s and early 90s. A key part of his focus has been development along the heavily traveled Berlin Turnpike, where a special development district was established in 2019 that has encouraged numerous mixed-use projects. The formula "preserves the commercial frontage on the Berlin Turnpike," but gives the opportu- nity for residential units to bring new people to Berlin, Edge said of the strategy. Projects include the 72-unit Turnpike Ridge apartments at 196 Berlin Turnpike; 200 units at 404 Berlin Turnpike with a commercial site for a gas station, retail center and hotel; Deming Ridge by Farm- ington-based Metro Realty with 88 units over multiple buildings; and the Deming Road Business Park with 20,000 square feet of special- ized industrial lease space and two more commercial buildings planned. Also taking shape are the first buildings in the multiphase, mixed-use Steele Center project on Steele Boulevard by Newport Realty Group and Lovely Devel- opment. Edge said the town supports development and housing options for families, new workers, profes- sionals and empty nesters, with Carlos Mouta C arlos Mouta has spent decades investing and developing in Hartford's Parkville neighborhood, seeing value in its vacant facto- ries and aging housing stock long before others. Chris Edge C hris Edge has helped launch several major development projects, with an eye toward mixed-use residential, along with municipal marketing strategies in his eight years as Berlin's director of economic development.