Hartford Business Journal

16 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 10, 2025 Developer Dan Bertram, outside a 99-unit apartment building at his Brainerd Place development in Portland. It is the first of three apartment buildings planned in the mixed-use development. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Project Catalyst Portland seeks to ditch reputation as 'drive- through' town with spurt of new development Growth spurt The mixed-use project is Port- land's biggest development in recent memory, but there has been other recent significant activity. International marine defense contractor Birdon USA bought side-by-side marinas, totaling 31 acres, along the Connecticut River in 2022. The company has since outfitted the property to help fulfill a $211 million contract to refurbish 47-foot-long rescue boats for the U.S. Coast Guard. In early 2024, Canadian hospitality company Pomeroy Lodging paid $2.5 million for a 6.3-acre piece of a Portland brownstone quarry dating to the 1600s. Chris Puchalla, Pomeroy's executive vice president of real estate, said construction of a $50 million Nordic spa will begin in February. The company is targeting a late- spring 2026 opening. That facility will include a 20,000-square-foot main bathhouse, 6,000-square-foot bistro, steam room, cold-plunge pools, saunas, fire pits, saltwater relaxation pools and more. Pomeroy Lodging's design incorpo- rates the natural beauty of the vertical rock wall that rings the quarry, as well as a waterfall and flooded section of quarry below. "Portland and Middletown have that Main Street Connecticut Yankee feel — not too big, but growing," Puchalla said. The location is also within an hour's drive of more than a million people, creating a day-trip opportunity, he noted. Bertram declined to disclose By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com W hen Danbury developer Dan Bertram got his first glimpse of the former Elmcrest Hospital campus in Port- land, he was struck by the sorry state of the nearly 15-acre property located just off the Arrigoni Bridge over the Connecticut River. It was 2015 and the former psychi- atric hospital had been shuttered for nearly a decade. Bertram heard rumors of it being haunted. And it looked "spooky," at first glance, he said. Residential and clinical buildings on the campus were boarded up and graffiti-stained, obscured by vegeta- tion so thick it was hard to explore the grounds. But Bertram, a second-generation developer, also saw a promising site. He was encouraged by the town's Plan of Conservation and Devel- opment, which made redeveloping Elmcrest a priority. A decade later, Bertram's company, Bright Ravens, and a partner, Rochester, New York-based builder DiMarco Group, are putting the finishing touches on the first of three large apartment buildings approved for the site, located at the corner of busy Marlborough and Main streets. The first tenants of this 99-unit building — part of what's known as the "Brainerd Place" development, which will have 348 market-rate apartments once fully complete — are scheduled to move in this February. A Starbucks located in a new, two-unit retail building near Brainerd Place's northeastern corner is also slated to open this month. Bertram is hoping to recruit an eatery to an empty 1,500-square-foot space next to Starbucks. Meanwhile, the foundation for a second, 130-unit building is in the ground, with construction underway. "The hope is for this project to be a catalyst, and not all that happens in Portland for the next 15 years," Bertram said. Project overview Brainerd Place is the grandest project in a spurt of unusually robust economic development activity for this somewhat sleepy suburban town of about 9,400, located along the Connecticut River. The first 99-unit, three-story building will charge monthly rents that range from $1,650 for a studio apartment to $3,100 for the most expensive two-bedroom unit. The second, four-story building will host 130 apartments and 10,000 square feet of commercial space. The third phase, which Bertram hopes to launch in the middle of this year, will include a 119-unit, age-restricted apartment building for tenants 55 and older. It will also include a rooftop restaurant over- looking the Connecticut River and downtown Middletown. Each building will have a 130-space underground parking garage. The site will eventually weave in additional commercial development, including a 32,000-square-foot office/ retail building, once tenants are identified, Bertram said. In return for town support, Brainerd Place's developers have promised to refurbish three large, dilapidated antique houses. One is set to become amenity space and a rental office for the complex. Two more could become leasable office space for Brainerd Place residents. PORTLAND FAST FACTS LAND AREA (SQ. MILES) 23 MEDIAN AGE 41 POPULATION 9,422 MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME $116,098 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE 2.3% KEY EMPLOYERS • BIRDON • SPECIALTY LIGHTING GROUP • AIREX RUBBER PRODUCTS CORP • JARVIS AIRFOIL GOVERNMENT MILL RATE 34.3 GRAND LIST (2023) $952,925,062 HOUSING STOCK MEDIAN HOME VALUE (2022) $289,300 MEDIAN RENT (2022) $1,180 ECONOMY TOP EMPLOYMENT INDUSTRIES GOVERNMENT OTHER SERVICES (REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE) RETAIL TRADE (GASOLINE STATIONS & FUEL DEALERS) Source: U.S. Census Bureau/AdvanceCT

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