Hartford Business Journal

18 Hartford Business Journal • October 31, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com BE PART OF AN ELITE GROUP ® APPLY NOW! Call 860.740.4500 x 102 or visit BBB.org/CT BBB Accreditation puts you with an elite group of businesses who have proven themselves, over time, to be trustworthy. from page 1 prospects not just for his residential prop- erty but the entire Hartford region apart- ment market as a whole. "I'm pleasantly surprised at how quickly we absorbed [them],'' he said. "Given the chance, I'd do more [micro apartments] downtown.'' While a staple in high-priced cities like San Francisco and Chicago, the micro apart- ment concept only started taking hold in the East Coast several years ago, mainly in New York City and Boston. Mouta and others say they are aware of developers' plans for more Hartford micro apartments, but declined to identify them because the projects have either not yet applied to the city or are awaiting city approval. Due to their compact size, Mouta's fur- nished micros rent for $825 and $925 month- ly, including hot water. By comparison, the tower's larger, unfurnished 14 studio units, 84 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom units rent from $995 to $1,400 monthly. All Adrian's tenants share some common elements in the building, located just blocks from where UConn will open its new downtown campus next fall, such as a fitness center and a concierge. But the micros have some particular design and space-saving touches all to their own. Mouta recently led a visitor on a tour of several completed micros. Stepping inside, one immediately recalls a hotel room, with the bathroom and a free-standing storage unit located next to the main entry. Deeper into the unit, the many space-sav- ing elements incorporated into it are instantly obvious. In addition to the pocket-door entry to the bathroom, overhead storage cubicles line one wall, above where the foldaway "Murphy beds'' or convertible sofas sit. Against the opposite wall is a wood table that seats two to four, yet when fully folded could fit easily into a golf bag. Matching chairs fold and are mounted on a nearby wall peg for storage. The "kitchen'' essentially is a countertop along the wall shared with the bathroom. An upright fridge anchors one end of the counter, with a tabletop cooking surface built into the opposite end. Above the cooktop is a convection oven; a conventional stove-oven combination would have taken up too much space, Mouta said. To save money, Mouta proudly boasts of harvesting the kitchen cabinets and storage cubbies from IKEA. All of his units, too, have stainless steel appliances, marble countertops, faux wood flooring, and extra spacious, handi- capped-accessible bathrooms. Mouta first bared his plans for "micro'' apartments in the summer of 2014 before launching in March 2015 into renovating nearly every interior inch of the nine-story building. Since then, he says other developers have expressed interest in creating micros in the Hartford region. Hartford architects Herman Cortes-Barros and Natalie Sweeney, of Life Care Design Inc., blueprinted Adrian's apartments. Sweeney says Hartford's new land-use and zoning regu- lations promoting development of efficiency and micro apartments makes them more likely. She said she is aware of one other local developer interested in putting micros in the city's Parkville neighborhood, but declined to be specific, citing a pending development application with the city. Mouta said a size diversity of living spaces can only be beneficial to the city. "It allows people to afford to live in the downtown area,'' he said. n Interest builds for more area 'micros' (Clockwise) Carlos Mouta points out some space-saving features in his new downtown Hartford "micro'' apartments, such as a sleeper-sofa and overhead storage cubbies. Staffer Maria Martinez shows an overhead convection oven. H B J P H O T O S | G R E G O R Y S E A Y

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