Hartford Business Journal

8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 10, 2025 Green Hub Development's Joseph Gramando stands outside the Odd Fellows office building property, at 36 North Main St., in downtown Waterbury. Green Hub redeveloped the six-story, former vacant building to accommodate UConn health programs and other tenants. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Skin In The Game With third major project completed, Green Hub Development becomes major player in Waterbury's downtown revival efforts the space into dorms for 92 students as part of a $5 million project. Green Hub next rehabbed the 114,000-square-foot former Howland Hughes Department Store on Bank Street into office space intended for hundreds of Post University staff, a project that wrapped in late 2018. There are other developments in the works. "They've all been transformed into quality work, with a lot of atten- tion to detail and maintaining of historical details where possible," Nardozzi said. "That's a pretty good track record." 'Great partner' Forster is a general partner with San Francisco-based Green Visor Capital, an investment firm focused on early-stage technology. He also chairs the board of trustees at Johns Hopkins University. Gramando started his professional career in the mid-1980s as a union carpenter. He later led redevelop- ment projects for the New York City Housing Authority, before taking a job as director of facilities for health- care provider Kaiser Permanente. Later, he worked for New York State overseeing various public school construction projects. In the early 2000s, Gramando and Forster began investing in smaller-scale construction projects, starting with a focus on high-end homes in Westchester County. An architect friend working on a Waterbury project convinced Gramando to visit the post-industrial central Connecticut city in 2015 for lunch. During that visit, Gramando was introduced to Waterbury Economic Development Director Joseph McGrath. Gramando later returned for a tour led by McGrath, and then a third time — with Forster — for a lunch meeting with O'Leary. "We were so impressed with Neil and his passion for the city," Gramando said. "You knew they were open for business; they were welcoming development." Gramando — who has led the Green Hub projects — said Water- bury continues to live up to this initial impression. O'Leary and his successor, current Mayor Paul Pernerewski, have had open doors. Permitting, inspection and development staff have never left him waiting. The cooperation of UConn leaders was key to creating the dorm and rehabbing the Odd Fellows building. Pernerewski praised Green Hub as a "great partner," and said the city is working with Gramando on additional potential apartment projects. Taking root Gramando has built out a head- quarters office on the sixth floor of the Odd Fellows building. Green Hub's three major projects — the dorm and two office buildings — The renovated Odd Fellows building has mock hospital settings to help train nursing and allied health students at UConn's Waterbury campus. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com W hen James Nardozzi toured the six-story former Odd Fellows office building in downtown Waterbury five years ago, the long-vacant structure was in severe distress. "The last time I was in there it was 2019 and it was raining inside, and there were mushrooms growing on the walls and the ceilings," said Nardozzi, who is executive director of the Waterbury Devel- opment Corp., the city's quasi-public development agency. In another tour this February, Nardozzi saw a clean, freshly reno- vated building, with small-group instructional and research spaces, student lounges and mock hospital settings for nursing, allied health and other programs offered by the neigh- boring UConn Waterbury campus. The city claimed the neglected building, at 36 North Main St., from a New York investor in 2013 for unpaid taxes. With lobbying from former Mayor Neil O'Leary's administration, Gov. Dannel Malloy dedicated $10 million in state bond funding to help defray redevelopment costs. And, in 2023, the city sold the decaying property to Green Hub Development for $900,000. Using the state's money, and about $5 million of its own, Green Hub performed an extensive overhaul of the building. Work wrapped up in December, well ahead of schedule, and UConn began relocating programs there in January. "The only word I can think of is transformative," Nardozzi said after his recent tour. "It's amazing what they have done. The quality of work was very impressive." While impressed, Nardozzi was not surprised. This is the third large downtown Waterbury building Green Hub has redeveloped since 2016. Green Hub Development is a part- nership between experienced builder Joseph Gramando and his longtime friend Louis Forster, both residents of New York. The firm is playing a major role in Waterbury's downtown revitalization efforts. It began with Green Hub's transfor- mation of the top two floors of the nearly 70,000-square-foot "Brown Building" on East Main Street, by the UConn campus. The first floor is set up for retail. Green Hub in 2016 bought the top two floors, and an entryway on the first, and converted James Nardozzi Mayor Paul Pernerewski

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