Hartford Business Journal

40 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 4, 2024 Candelora was quick to point out the proposal mirrored a plan the GOP put forward earlier. Candelora said he wants to see additional tax cuts in 2024. His party recently proposed a $2,000 state child tax deduction. Candelora has been a major proponent of safeguarding fiscal guardrails that were adopted in 2017 and have helped the state maintain budget stability. He's voiced support for a constitutional amendment that would make some of the guardrails, including volatility and revenue caps, permanent. Candelora also led the GOP's pushback against the Lamont admin- istration's efforts to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Outside the legislature, Cande- lora, who lives in North Branford, helps run two family-owned busi- nesses — a manufacturing company and sportsplex. 45 Randy Salvatore R MS Cos. President and CEO Randy Salvatore is arguably the most impactful real estate developer in Hartford. Salvatore completed a 270-unit apartment building next to Dunkin' Park in 2022, and is just beginning work on the second of several additional multifamily properties that will add about 1,000 market- rate units around the minor league baseball stadium. In November, Salvatore paid $3.8 million for the 12.7-acre former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus, located just north of the baseball stadium. He is seeking the city's approval to redevelop the site in multiple phases. The first $125- million phase, spread over 3 acres, would add 473 apartments in two buildings, and a 507-space garage. Meanwhile, Salvatore is partnered in a plan to redevelop the faltering Hilton Hotel in downtown Hartford. A renovation of the 12th through 22nd floors into 147 apartments is nearing completion. Salvatore is also preparing for a large-scale renovation of the iconic 124-room Goodwin Hotel, a project he expects to launch around the close of this year. 46 Carter & Adam Winstanley I t would be hard to find a development firm with a bigger or more consis- tent impact on Connecticut than Winstanley Enterprises. The Concord, Massachusetts-based developer, headed by brothers Adam and Carter Winstanley, for years has been a major force in logistics development north of Hartford and in the creation of a growing bioscience sector in New Haven. The firm continued investing in new warehouse and logistics sites in 2023, even as interest rates soared and economic jitters prompted lenders to tighten their purse strings. Under the direction of Adam Winstanley, the company paid $122.3 million for a 1-million-square-foot Windsor warehouse housing an Amazon fulfillment center. Two months later, it paid $4.6 million for a 133.6- acre Enfield site already approved for 600,000 square feet of logistics space. Winstanley is partnering with Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development to build a roughly $135 million, 819,000-square-foot warehouse on Bacon Road in Enfield this year. In the center of New Haven, Winstanley is putting the finishing touches on a 10-story, 525,000-square-foot life sciences tower, an effort led by Carter Winstanley. The building is welcoming its first tenants, including Alexion Pharmaceuti- cals and BioLabs, at the start of 2024. In October, BioCT, a trade group representing the state's bioscience industry, welcomed Carter Winstanley to its board, a reflection of his impor- tance to the sector. 47 Mark Greenberg L ong a force in Connecticut commercial real estate, devel- oper Mark Greenberg is having a major impact on the town of Windsor, where he's assembling a sports and retail complex. Greenberg is part-owner of an 80-foot-tall sports dome that opened Dec. 1, at his roughly 150-acre property assemblage along Day Hill Road. The $11 million, 95,000-square-foot facility is attracting interest from teams and leagues across the Northeast. The Day Hill Dome joins 11 fields (soon to be 12) of FastPitch Nation – a for-profit softball facility on Greenberg's property. Last year, the 16,500-square- foot Dudleytown Brewing Co. debuted as one of several new tenants in Green- berg's 106,568-square-foot commercial building at 1001 Day Hill Road. And there's plenty more to come. Greenberg is angling to build dormi- tory space at the 1001 Day Hill Road building for professional soccer players with the Hartford Athletic, which prac- tices at the neighboring dome. Greenberg is also scheduled to begin site work on a $9 million, 90-room Microtel hotel at the sports complex in February. Greenberg, who lives in Litchfield, is also part of a team advancing plans for a 100,000-square-foot, 3,000-seat velo- drome for indoor team-track cycling, with an attached 40,000-square-foot field house. Meantime, he expects to shortly submit plans for a 150-unit apartment building at 1095 Day Hill Road, a property he owns within sight of the sports-centered development area. Elsewhere in Windsor, Greenberg is hoping to turn two vacant office proper- ties – one of which he owns – into 200 to 300 apartments. Greenberg is also advancing plans for separate large-scale developments in various towns. He's eyeing a 200-unit, mixed-income apartment development on 35 acres on the Canton/Simsbury town line. He expects to sell 11 acres in Avon to a Boston-based affordable housing devel- oper with plans for 172 apartments. Greenberg is also seeking approval for a mixed-use, 150-unit luxury apartment development with ground- floor retail space along a main artery in Southbury. 48 Scott Smith & Steven Abrams M ax Hospitality has provided Greater Hartford with a bedrock of quality dining establishments for nearly three decades, including the popular Max Downtown restaurant in the center of the Capital City. President and CEO Scott Smith and Vice President Steve Abrams have steered the 10-venue, 900-staff restaurant group through the bruising COVID-19 pandemic back to sales of about $60 million, topping pre-pandemic revenue. Together, they lead a group of eight operating partners. Max Hospitality sold a far-flung Florida restaurant in November and is now expanding once again, taking on a bar and events space in the iconic Goodwin Hotel in downtown Hartford. The company is also readying for the spring launch of a simulated golf lounge at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Abrams and Smith, in a recent interview, said Max Hospitality never seeks to expand for the sake of expansion. Instead, it waits for great opportunities and the right time to seize them. POWER 50

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