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30 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 24, 2024 POWER 25 | REAL ESTATE Ann Catino M ost quality developers have a great lawyer or two to help guide them through the thicket of regulations that exist in trying to redevelop or build something new in Connecticut. One influential attorney is Ann Catino, an environmental lawyer at law firm Halloran Sage LLP in Hartford. Catino's influence is reflected in some of her statewide leadership appointments. For example, she has co-chaired the state's brownfield working group, overseeing Connecti- cut's brownfield programs for over 15 years. During that time, the group has proposed to the legislature new brownfield funding and liabili- ty-relief programs, with a particular focus on brownfield prevention and remediation. She was also named a member of the release-based working group, which was created in 2020 to help craft new regulations to replace the state's burdensome system — known as the Transfer Act — that governs environmental cleanups of potentially contaminated properties. Additionally, Catino is working on several significant brownfield proj- ects, including the redevelopment of a former gas station in Hartford into an office and retail building. She's also involved in the transformation of an agricultural property into a vine- yard with an expanded tasting room and entertainment features; and a transit-oriented development along the I-95 and Metro-North corridor. There's been a major push in recent years, she said, to transform old mills into mixed-use apartment projects. "Polluted properties affect many of the state's downtown and inner- city properties — old mills and manufacturing facilities to smaller gas stations, print shops and dry cleaners," Catino said. "It's part of our manufacturing past, dating back over 100 years ago. But they also exist in every town. All these sites require expertise, balancing and translating the environmental requirements … and navigating what can be a very daunting and frustrating myriad of regulations. Clients want projects to have achievable goals, manageable risk, reasonable and financeable costs and meaningful time frames." Mark Duclos M ark Duclos is a commercial real estate industry veteran and a go-to resource on the region's industrial sector. He typically represents southern New England companies that are in the manufacturing, warehouse and service industries. Connecticut, over the last four to six years, has seen a significant rise in massive new warehouse properties for e-commerce giants like Amazon. But that activity, according to Duclos, has begun to slow, and he's seen a much more active leasing and sales market for properties in the 50,000- to 100,000-square-foot range. "Part of this is due to the fact the developers have significantly curbed speculative, big-box development," Duclos said. "Most big box is not built with a tenant commitment." Duclos has been involved in several major recent deals, including the $7.45 million sale of Carling Technologies' 129,506-square-foot Mike Goman & Tom York M ike Goman and Tom York are two stalwarts in Greater Hartford's commercial real estate industry, having teamed up in 2011 to start their own firm, Goman+York Property Advisors LLC. Goman oversees the firm's advisory and development services practice and does work in Connecticut and around the country. Most of his focus over the past year has been working with a number of communities on extensive updates to their town center master plans. These are often year-long assign- ments that involve reviewing and updating zoning regulations and re-imagining town center conceptual designs, he said. There is increasing interest from communities looking to attract new commercial real estate investment, Goman said, as cities and towns look to increase and broaden their prop- erty tax base and offset a decline in the assessed value of some of their existing commercial properties, like office buildings. "This interest shows up in marketing efforts, meaningful entitlement reform, and a generally more positive reception to developer proposals," Goman said. He added that new development continues to be concentrated in the multifamily residential and warehouse/logistics sectors. Additionally, there is extensive activity in studying the economic and design feasibility of re-purposing larger retail and office properties that have been impacted by lower market demand. York has been in commercial real estate for more than a quarter-cen- tury, formerly serving as a broker for CBRE, before hanging his own shingle. He oversees Goman+York's transactional and advisory services. York said the office market continues its "flight-to-quality" trends with tenants gravitating to the higher-quality, amenity-rich buildings and locations. Consequently, Class A properties in popular suburbs, like West Hartford and Glastonbury, "are realizing disproportionate demand with some achieving pre-pandemic occupancy and rent levels." "On the contrary, there are numerous Class B and C office buildings that are effectively John McCormick T he sales price may not have been big, but the plans to redevelop the shuttered Rens- selaer Polytechnic Institute campus north of downtown Hartford are. The 12.7-acre Rensselaer site, at 275 Windsor St., sold in late 2023 for $3.8 million to developer Randy Salvatore, who plans to redevelop the property into hundreds of apartments. A key cog in helping make that deal happen was John M. McCormick, who brokered the sale. McCormick, executive vice president of CBRE Hartford, is one of the top brokers in Greater Hartford. His main focus over the years has been office market leasing, which was significantly disrupted by the pandemic and the embrace of remote and hybrid work. Many companies are designing collaborative "non-addressed" space, which means offices with unassigned workstations that provide more flexi- bility and require less square footage, McCormick said. In addition, increasing construc- tion costs have impacted deci- becoming economically obsolete," York said. "As a result, many owners are considering redevelopment concepts, including office-to-apart- ment conversions. Our sense is that this trend will continue and grow for several years as tenant leases expire and the new post-pandemic market realities continue to set in for office property owners and lenders with lesser-quality properties." sion-making and led to a higher lease-renewal probability for tenants, McCormick said. "More plug-and-play opportunities, increased renewal activity and short- er-term leases are having a big impact in the local market," he said. "There are several examples of downtown and suburban lease transactions that have recently been completed for one- to three-year lease terms, with minimal construction required. Suites that have modern, low-height workstations and a flexible design offer significant value to both landlords and tenants. This trend also takes the potential obsta- cles of construction risk and timeline for delivery out of the equation." McCormick said he's seeing a disproportionate amount of activity in buildings that are highly-amenitized. Go-to office markets continue to be the Hartford central business district, West Hartford Center, Glastonbury and Rocky Hill, he said. "With the market constrained by increasing vacancy rates, higher construction costs and smaller office requirements, it will continue to be a tenant's market for most of Greater Hartford, and landlords will need to be aggressive and accommodating to attract new tenant activity," he said.