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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 19, 2025 5 Deal Watch Joseph DeLuca (left) and Kevin Kenny run upstart brokerage firm NAI Lexington Commercial. They recently landed Insomnia Cookies as a downtown Hartford tenant, at 247 Asylum St. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER Filling A Need Growing brokerage arm of downtown Hartford's largest apartment landlord has vital mission: Fill city center's empty retail, office space technical infrastructure. Membership dues are around $40,000 a year, plus it charges commission on deals completed with other NAI affiliates. Kevin Kenny said he owns 40% of the brokerage venture. DeLuca owns 10% and Lexington Property Management owns 50%. Prominent Hartford-based businessman Alan Lazowski — founder of LAZ Parking — is involved through his ownership stake in Lexington Partners. With the launch of the brokerage, Lexington now has its development, construction, property management and commercial leasing efforts entirely in-house, Lazowski said. The brokerage has grown well beyond the Lexington portfolio, he noted. "Their work is absolutely critical to show people something that we already know … that Hartford is a great Capital City and a tremendous place to work, live and play," Lazowski said. For Kenny, helping other Hartford landlords fill their retail space is good business. Beyond fees and commis- sions, a vibrant downtown is key to attracting and retaining tenants at the more than 950 Hartford apartments that Lexington owns, wholly or in part. Today, NAI Lexington Commercial represents 801,177 square feet of Lexington Partners' owned office and retail space in Hartford, West Hart- ford, Wethersfield and New Haven. And since January 2024, the firm has picked up another 851,610 square feet of office and retail listings in down- town Hartford from other landlords. The five-person brokerage is housed in a corner of Lexington Partners' offices on the 12th floor of the Gold Building. Kenny said it has developed annual revenue of about $2 million. Over the next two years, Kenny envisions the brokerage growing to a dozen employees, with its own office. He also plans to push beyond Hart- ford and central Connecticut. "Our aspirations are to grow this outside this region and eventually get throughout the state," Kenny said. "But I am stubbornly obsessed with filling the retail in downtown Hartford first. We have picked up just about every listing you can think of on that front." Downtown grocery store NAI Lexington Commercial was recently enlisted to represent about 32,000 square feet of North- land-owned retail space in a structure surrounding downtown's XL Center. These spaces range from 487 to 8,474 square feet, fronting Ann Uccello, Trumbull and Asylum streets. Most of Northland's XL Center space has been vacant for more than 15 years. Kenny says he's confident he can help fill it, given an ongoing $145 million state-funded renovation of the sports and entertainment arena, and a new management contract with Los Angeles-based Oak View Group that's expected to greatly By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com I t wasn't easy for Mark Bean to find a space where he could transform his lifelong love of video games into a business mixing gaming, food and a bar. Some real estate brokers didn't return phone calls. Others canceled appoint- ments, said Bean, a 48-year-old nurse and first-time entrepreneur. Hartford-based NAI Lexington Commercial President Kevin Kenny invited Bean to his office in Hartford's Gold Building office tower. There, Bean pitched his restaurant/bar concept for gaming enthusiasts to Kenny and Chris- topher Reilly, president of development firm Lexington Partners, downtown Hartford's largest apartment owner. Now, Lexington Partners is committed to fitting out a 4,200-square-foot, ground-floor retail space for JoyStiX at 111 Pearl St., a 101-unit apartment building in the center of Hartford. Bean aims to open in September or October. "When I showed them the idea, they immediately saw the vision and they have been super encouraging, reliable and responsive," said Bean, who, along with his family, is investing about $800,000 into the venture. "It has been smooth sailing since then." Born out of necessity Lexington Commercial LLC was launched in 2021, born out of Lexington Partners' need to reverse the pandemic-induced tidal flow of restaurants and retailers out of the firm's downtown Hartford mixed-use apartment buildings. "When the pandemic hit, all of our collective downtown retail locations had emptied out," 37-year-old Kenny said. "During that time, a lot of the brokers we would have used were down in Florida, or just not interested in the assignment because you could hear a pin drop in the streets." At the height of the pandemic, 21 of 28 — or nearly 75% of 75,320 square feet — of downtown retail spaces owned or managed by Lexington Partners were vacant, Kenny said. Today, Lexington owns or controls 50 downtown Hartford retail spaces totaling 157,020 square feet, with nearly 78% leased, Kenny said. Lexington Commercial registered with the state in 2021. Kenny, a vice president at Lexington Partners, secured his Connecticut real estate license in 2022, and became pres- ident of the venture. He recruited Joseph DeLuca, a friend he met at Johnson & Wales University who had since prospered at tech companies, including LinkedIn. "The intention was never to start a brokerage, but once we started getting reached out to by tenants and property owners who were looking for brokers that were having success in retail, that's when we realized we had something," Kenny said. "We had a business." Lexington Partners founder Martin Kenny, before his sudden death in September 2023, advised his son that the brokerage would need to join a larger network. They decided to go with NAI Global, a national network Martin Kenny used for a brokerage arm of his development business in the 1990s. "My father told me, if you are going to compete with Cushman & Wake- field and (CBRE) and some of these other big names, you need a flag to get respect and to service clients from all over," Kenny said. Lexington Commercial was accepted as an NAI Global affiliate as of June 1, 2023. The network provides leads, support from affiliates in other states, a website and other Continued on next page

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