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www.HartfordBusiness.com November 26, 2012 • Hartford Business Journal 29 Celebrating 20 Years of Business News REAL ESTATE 20 Years of Blue Back Square worth the trouble L ate one quiet night during the sum- mer of 2004, I was still at the office when I noticed that it was time for the evening news. So I switched on a nearby television and tuned it to one of our local stations, with one eye passively on the news and the other on my work. At the first com- mercial break, I was awoken out of my pas- sivity by a familiar voice – my own. Emblazoned on the screen was my image, though altered to a grainy black and white state. Appropriately so, as it accom- panied my similarly altered and scratchy voice, which sounded like an old LP record played on a weathered needle. This voice — me — was describing the virtues of the Blue Back Square development which my colleagues and I on the West Hartford Town Council had approved a few weeks prior after spending roughly a month in grueling — but generally friendly — public hearings. When my words concluded, the screen turned blood red and issued an omi- nous warning: the project would both ruin and bankrupt my hometown. Fast forward to today. This month, we will mark the fifth anniversary of the open- ing of Blue Back Square. Neither during the approval process in 2004, nor at the rib- bon cutting in 2007, did we ever envision that we were on the verge of entering the most trying economic times since the Great Depression. Fortunately, due to good plan- ning and policy, West Hartford is poised for even greater economic success as our nation heads into recovery. The signs of recovery can be seen all over town, not just in greater West Hart- ford Center, but in the redevelopment of Bishop's Corner, the development of Elmwood Center, and in the continued organic success of Park Road. I was just a few months past my 30th birthday when I voted to support Blue Back, relatively new to politics and yet to lose my political innocence. My colleagues and I voted for it because we thought it was thoughtful, excit- ing, respectful of our community traditions and way to secure our town's economic future. We never envisioned that it would become the subject of not one, but two public referenda. I never dreamt that I'd be sued several times over by a powerful devel- oper, let alone that I'd be featured in nega- tive ads like I had only seen used against presidential candidates. And if you told me that a few years later I'd be sitting alone in a room with a billionaire as he agreed to pay damages to my town for all that pain, I don't think I would have taken you seriously. But when my wife, daughter and I make the short walk from our home to the Center and Blue Back today, I know that it was all real, and it was all worth it. g Scott Slifka is mayor of West Hartford, a post he's held since 2004. T he past two decades have seen a growth spurt in suburban markets, marked by new mixed-use development projects. And some of Hartford's longtime corporate tenants also moved out of down- town to the suburbs in search of more affordable office space. Open air retail centers like Blue Back Square in West Hartford and Ever- green Walk in South Wind- sor proved successful and continued to push retail activity away from the Capital City and into the suburbs. It also created new, unwanted competi- tion for traditional malls like Westfarms and Buck- land Hills, which fought to maintain their stranglehold on the market. The 660,000-square-foot Blue Back Square development added a much needed boost to West Hartford Center, nearly doubling the retail and restaurant footprint there. Its offic- es, shops, restaurants and movie screens are magnets night and day, many of their visitors coming from outside the town. It also added a residential component in the town with apartment and condos aimed at Baby Boomers and millennials. Retail in the Farmington Valley towns of Avon, Canton and Simsbury also emerged with the advent of a Route 44 retail corridor that offers a selection of small shops and big- box retailers like Wal-Mart, Marshall's and Best Buy. While the 1980s saw a movement of corporations out of city centers and into the suburbs, that activity was more muted over the past two decades. Some corporate ten- ants did, however, make the trek out of Hart- ford in search of cheaper office space. Metlife and ING moved operations from Hartford to Bloomfield and Windsor respec- tively. In ING's case, the Dutch insurer built a $100 million U.S. headquarters in Windsor, which has become a thriving business center. The Hartford Financial Services Group also built a strong presence in Windsor. The development of corporate parks in Rocky Hill drew a host of state agencies as well as major private employers like Henkel and WFSB-TV, which moved from down- town's Broadcast House location. Meanwhile, Aetna demolished its 1.4 million square foot campus in Middletown and consolidated its workforce to its Hart- ford headquarters. Hartford's main corporate tenants — Aetna, The Hartford, Travelers, United Technologies Corp., Lincoln Financial and Prudential — continue to have a significant presence downtown. "With downtown having some real bar- gain opportunities, it has created the envi- ronment where these companies could jus- tify spending money on parking downtown and still have it be competitive with subur- ban locations," said Joel Grieco, executive director of realty brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield in Hartford. g — Greg Bordonaro While the 1980s saw a movement of corporations out of city centers and into the suburbs, that activity was more muted over the past two decades. Suburban markets enjoy rapid growth Scott Slifka, deputy mayor of West Hartford, and councilor Chuck Coursey, stand before the Board of Education building (right) that is at the center of much of the controversy surrounding Blue Back Square. By Scott Slifka "Remembrance" ' Fortunately, due to good planning and policy, West Hartford is poised for even greater economic success as our nation heads into recovery. '