Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 30, 2025 27 POWE R 25 | RE AL ESTATE Gregory Vaca O ver a 14-year career at New York City-based real estate development firm Tishman Speyer, Gregory Vaca worked on site selection, land acquisition and raising capital for projects in Europe and Brazil. Eventually, he rose to the position of chief operating officer in Brazil, where his grandest project was helping oversee development of a 700,000-square-foot premiere office tower on Rio de Janeiro's waterfront. In 2020, Vaca left Tishman to move back to his native Connecticut with his young family. He has also launched Grava Properties, a real estate investment and development Lewis Brown A fter four years as a land-use attorney and nearly 17 more as an executive with Sims- bury-based multifamily developer Vesta Corp., Lewis Brown struck out on his own in late 2021 to start a new development firm. Brown, now 52, is managing member of Avon-based Honeycomb Real Estate, a firm that is picking up steam after completing in May a roughly $26 million conversion of the West Hart- ford Inn into 44 affordable apartments. Honeycomb is underway with a ground-up development of a 64-unit affordable apartment building in New Haven, on a lot that formerly hosted a dry cleaner. Work there is expected to John M. McCormick J ohn M. McCormick, an executive vice president at CBRE Inc., has long been one of the most active brokers in Greater Hartford. He's been at the center of some major lease and sale deals over the past year, including Connecticut Children's long-term lease, for 70,000 square feet, and the subsequent sale of 300 East River Drive in East Hartford for $7 million. He also brokered UConn's 51,000-square-foot lease at Hartford 21, expanding the flagship universi- ty's downtown Hartford presence. He also brokered the $1.3 million sale of the United Way of Central and Lisa Cozzi L isa Cozzi, one of the region's top-selling multifamily agents, left Berkshire Hathaway in late December to head up a team under the Century 21 AllPoints Realty banner. Cozzi's 12-person team, including herself, deals in multifamily prop- erties, houses and condos, with price tags ranging from $50,000 to $40 million. Most of these deals occur within Connecticut and lower Massachusetts, although she assists in a handful of sales company focused on revitalizing village centers in Greater Hartford. Grava's work has begun with the acquisition of an aging Windsor shopping center on Broad Street that he is redeveloping into a mixed-use project with 124 apartments and office and retail space. Vaca said a plant shop, bakery, real estate office, gift shop and café have been lined up as tenants for five first-floor retail spaces — totaling 5,700 square feet — in the development. The project's first phase, which will include 70 apartments and the retail space, is expected to be ready for occupancy this summer. The project is backed by a $3.2 million state grant, $250,000 in town funds and a 10-year property tax abatement. In Enfield, Grava is seeking local permits to build a 156-unit apart- ment development on a 3.2-acre site that formerly hosted a carpet manufacturing plant. He hopes to eventually launch a second phase with roughly 150 additional apart- ments, along with restaurant and commercial space. Vaca said he's exploring "a couple" of additional village-center projects, but isn't ready to disclose them until they are more developed. "We are very aligned with the state's goals for housing," Vaca said. be completed in early fall. Brown's company is partnered with Windsor-based Grava Properties on a two-phase redevelopment of a former manufacturing site along the Connecticut River in Enfield. Work on the first phase, a 156-unit apartment building, is expected to launch this coming winter. The company is also pushing to launch a 36-unit affordable multifamily development in Chester, although neighbors have appealed local land-use approvals. "Really, the goal here is to create and invest in sustainable and attainable communities," Brown said during a recent interview. While Honeycomb is building a solid record as a multifamily develop- ment company, Brown said he's not interested in getting too large. All the company's projects have some form of partner. And smaller projects can still be "transformational" for communities, he said. "It's not about size," Brown said. "It's about making sure we are delivering and executing on results. As a small business, we are able to manage growth responsibly because we don't have the same overhead of larger businesses. We can be more selective on what we are choosing to work on. I want to grow, but I want to do so in a reasonable way, and at a good pace." Northeastern Connecticut's former Hartford headquarters, at 30 Laurel St., to New York-based Spectra Construction & Development, which plans to redevelop the property into housing. Both leasing and sales volume were lower in 2024, McCormick said, but broker inquiries and office tour traffic have increased so far this year. "Leasing activity and interest continues to be strongest in highly amenitized, Class A properties with ownership that is well-capitalized," McCormick said. "Clients are seeking maximum flexibility and aggressive lease terms from landlords, including increased tenant improvement allow- ances, free rent, and terms of three, five, seven and 10 years." The next six to 12 months will continue to be a tenant's market, McCormick said, "with outside market influences posing addi- tional challenges and uncertainty." "The Hartford central business district market will be particularly challenging with the pending foreclosures of several high-profile office towers, making it difficult to navigate and complete trans- actions," he said. "Hybrid work schedules will also continue to be challenging for large corporate employers, resulting in delayed planning decisions. The high costs of construction are anticipated to remain a headwind in the coming year as well." annually in Rhode Island and New York. Last year, Cozzi and her team were involved in $140 million in transactions. Cozzi said the move to Century 21 will help evolve her use of technology and social media, and is a better fit for a planned push into Florida. "Century 21 made it super clear they work for us and not I for them," Cozzi said. Nine members of Cozzi's Berkshire team made the jump to Century 21, she said. The team remains "extremely busy," even as investors' borrowing ability has tightened. The number of multifamily properties selling with 100 or more units has slowed, she said, but there remains a brisk trade in properties with three to 12 units. "We can't keep up with the leads we have, which is a good problem to have," Cozzi said. Cozzi said there is a bit of a gap presently between buyer and seller price expectations, which has stretched out negotiation timetables. Visit HartfordBusiness.com to read the full profiles.

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