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24 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2015 Construction & Real Estate INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › By Carol Latter T he Connecticut Convention Center. e Marriott Hartford Downtown. e Hil- ton Hartford renovation. Hartford 21. In 2005, Connecticut's capital city seemed to have something happening on every corner – major projects that were changing the face of the city. In addition to the $700 million Adriaen's Land- ing project on Columbus Boulevard, numer- ous privately financed condo and apartment projects — 55 on the Park, Sage Allen and the Metropolitan, to name a few — were adding hundreds of new housing units, designed to appeal to young workers and to empty nesters looking to simplify their lives. As in many other cities, the flurry of de- velopment activity ground to a halt with the housing crash and the advent of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Some wondered whether Hartford would ever rebound. But it has. Today, the city has nearly as many construction projects underway, or on the planning board, as it had 10 years ago. Downtown North One of the most high profile projects is Downtown North — a $350 million, two- phase neighborhood redevelopment that will include a $56 million minor league baseball stadium and be home to the Yard Goats, for- merly known as the New Britain Rock Cats. In addition to the stadium, plans call for the new 15-acre neighborhood to include more than 700 housing units, offices, a 50,000-square- foot supermarket, 200,000 square feet of retail and a brewery restaurant, said Mayor Pedro E. Segarra. e conversion of the neighborhood, just north of I-84, will transform an area that for years has been a barren wasteland of run- down buildings and surface parking lots. e year-round stadium, owned and fi- nanced by a newly created municipal stadium authority, will be "substantially complete" by mid-March 2016. e Yard Goats are expect- ed to begin playing there the following month. According to a study by the UConn Center for Economic Analysis, the ballpark will cre- ate more than 1,800 temporary construction jobs and about 1,000 permanent jobs. anks to an expedited permitting process put in place by the City of Hartford a few years ago, permitting for the Downtown North proj- ect was unusually quick — just six months. Tom Deller, director of the Hartford Department of Development, said under the old system, planning review was a slow process. Just 2 percent of projects obtained a building permit the same day; today, it's 50 percent. Only 30 percent were green-lighted in the same month. Now, it's more than 80. "at facilitates the pipeline of conver- sions or construction in the city," said Segarra. Higher Learning Another major undertaking is a new $115 million Hartford campus for the Uni- versity of Connecticut in the iconic Hartford Times building on Prospect Street, opposite the Wadsworth Atheneum. e project, which will include a re- stored Hartford Times façade and a five-story addition, will be part of the Front Street District, which includes a variety of restau- rants, a movie theater and the Infinity Music Hall concert venue and bistro. Campus plans call for 140,000 square feet of classroom and office space, and 20,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space built by lead developer H.B. Nitkin. Construction on the downtown site will begin in late 2015 or early 2016, with classes expected to start there in the fall of 2017. Nitkin is also building a $35.7 million, 121-unit apartment building next door. "e Front Street Los," expected to open at the corner of Prospect and Front Street Crossing in July, will offer market-rate apartments, a fitness center, a roof-top deck and retail space, among other amenities. UConn had a Hartford campus from 1939 until 1970, when it relocated to West Hartford. e university's project website notes that the move back to the city "will create a neighbor- hood campus fully intertwined with the nearby Hartford Public Library, Wadsworth Athene- um, Connecticut Science Center, Connecticut Convention Center, and state and city govern- ment offices. UConn's nearby Graduate Busi- ness Learning Center is also being consolidated with the other programs at the new campus, which will be home to about 2,300 students and Hartford's Revival Connecticut's capital city is making a comeback Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra says the city's plethora of development projects is fueling urban rebirth. PHOTO/CITY OF HARTFORD