Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | AUGUST 11, 2025 7 DE AL WATCH at Square 10 — was completed six months ago and includes a seven- story, 200-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail and public open space. Already, 72% of those apartments are leased, Fowler said. Future phases will add hundreds of more apartments, additional commer- cial space and a bioscience building. Spinnaker is also pursuing a high-profile redevelopment in Fairfield, where it plans to replace an aging hotel on Post Road with either a 250-unit apartment building paired with a 110-room hotel, or a 478-unit apartment complex. Both options have been approved by the town's Planning and Zoning Commission, but are being appealed by residents. "We very much want to do the 250 units with the hotel," Fowler said. "It's a really good-looking job." The larger 478-unit proposal was filed in December under the state's 8-30g affordable housing statute, just before Fairfield enacted a four-year affordable housing moratorium. Fowler said that project includes more apart- ments to offset the lower rents of the affordable units in the plan. To qualify under the state's 8-30g law, at least 30% of a project's units must be considered affordable, with rents tied to the area's median income. In Hartford, Spinnaker is putting the finishing touches on 55 Elm Club, a 164-unit apartment complex created by renovating a historic state office building at 55 Elm St., and a nearby annex building. The Elm Club began leasing late last year, and includes a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Elsewhere in the state, Spinnaker is working on projects in Cheshire and Norwalk, while advancing separate developments in New Haven and Westport. Its largest recently completed devel- opments include The Audubon New Haven, a 467-unit mixed-use complex on Orange Street, and Sono Central, a 150-unit development in South Norwalk. Both opened last year. Spinnaker also has several proj- ects outside of Connecticut that are either finished or nearing completion, including in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville; St. Louis, Missouri; and Portland, Oregon. Fowler said Spinnaker funds projects mainly through bank loans backed by its own equity, in addition to state and federal loans, grants and tax credits. Spinnaker, for example, has received project financing from the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), which provided the company a $7 million permanent loan and $6.5 million bridge loan for 55 Elm Club. CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said the 55 Elm apart- ments are a key component of a larger plan to redevelop parking lots and vacant blocks around the Bushnell Performing Arts Center into a vibrant neighborhood. "55 Elm is significant in that it is the first housing project to come online within the Bushnell South development area, jump-starting the longer- term vision of converting the vacant buildings and parcels that dominate the area into a new neighborhood," Freimuth said. "55 Elm and the overall Bushnell South area seeks to reconnect the down- town area with its most immediate neighborhood to the south." Inside the Anthem at Square 10 apartments in New Haven, developed by Spinnaker Real Estate Partners. Photos | CoStar Sections of New Britain WWII-era plant to be repurposed with help of $2M state grant By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com D eteriorating sections of a sprawling, World War II-era factory complex in New Britain will undergo a major renova- tion, thanks in part to a $2 million state brownfield grant aimed at advancing industrial redevelopment. The grant will support an $8.5 million cleanup and renovation of about 123,000 square feet of long-vacant factory space within the five-building, 551,218-square-foot New Britain Business Center. The 57-acre complex, at 221 South St., straddles the New Britain-Berlin town line and has been owned by Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty Group since 1997. IRG has gradually restored portions of the property over the past two decades, securing tenants piece by piece. Today, 12 companies operate within the site, employing more than 100 people, IRG said. The $2 million grant will help make the next phase of cleanup financially feasible, said Stuart Lichter, IRG's founder and president. "We're highly confident we'll get a manufacturer with a decent number of jobs, and that is going to be a huge, huge asset for the community," Lichter said. The grant is part of an $18.8 million brownfield remediation package announced in June by Gov. Ned Lamont. The funding will support pollution cleanup projects across 19 municipalities and is intended to pave the way for new housing and commercial development. State Department of Economic and Community Development Deputy Commissioner Matthew Pugliese noted the broader impact of the state's brownfield efforts. Since its creation in 2006, the state's brown- fields program has awarded $170 million to clean up more than 2,200 acres of contaminated land. Shifts in production IRG's New Britain project will prepare three spaces within two build- ings for future tenants. The company's national portfolio spans more than 100 million square feet of industrial space in 32 states. In Connecticut, it controls eight properties. The South Street complex once housed the New Britain Machine Co., which was formed from the merger Gov. Ned Lamont at a press conference announcing a $2 million grant to clean up portions of the New Britain Business Center industrial park (shown left). HBJ Photo | Michael Puffer of a steam engine manufacturer and a woodworking machine company, according to Connecticutmills.org. The company expanded with a second plant on the southern outskirts of New Britain during World War I, making fuses, machine gun tripods and other wartime goods. More buildings were added during World War II as the company began making aircraft parts, and employment jumped from 950 to a peak of 4,100, according to Connecticutmills.org. After the war, the company returned to producing hand, mechanics' and precision machinery tools, along with office furniture. The New Britain Machine Co. later merged with a Cali- fornia-based conglomerate, which then closed the New Britain plant in 1990, according to Connecticutmills.org. Matthew Pugliese

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