Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com February 20, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 9 In DoNo's shadow, Hartford's other developments take off Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com A lmost unnoticed amid Hartford's booming conversions of older office buildings into housing and commer- cial space and construction of a ballpark and UConn campus, is another wave of development that has been underway in the city's northern section for more than a year. Along the approximately 2 ½-mile strip, stretching from downtown's northern edge along Market Street/Rev. R. A. Moody Over- pass/Weston Street, parallel to I-91, to the North Meadows, several commercial proj- ects worth millions are either done or nearing completion, while plans for more Downtown North (DoNo) development are underway. According to city planners, Hartford's updated zoning rules aim to promote development along this stretch to eventu- ally include apartments, hotels and beds and breakfasts, bars and restaurants, and retail. Candlewood Suites Hartford Down- town, an 81-room, high-rise hotel on Market Street, opposite the taller, roomier Radisson Hartford — both standing in the shadow of Dunkin' Donuts Park — is almost finished and could be open in time for the April 13 opening day game of the Hartford Yard Goats. Further down Weston, New Country BMW is under way on a $5 million expan- sion of its new-car showroom and related facilities. Directly across the road is a $3 million New Country Mini showroom that opened in 2014. On the same side of the road but two blocks away, the former Baronet Coffee property has been sold, realty brokers, business neighbors and city officials say, to make way by mid-2018 for a Land Rover deal- ership run by Avon's Mitchell Auto Group. Opposite the main U.S. Postal Service regional office on Weston, Hartford Toyota some months back relocated from its former showroom-service quarters fronting Weston Street, to a much larger facility fronting on Service Road and the southbound side of I-91. Anchoring Weston Street's northern- most stretch is the 40-year-old Hartford Cor- rectional Center, with four dormitory build- ings and a staff of around 377, according to the state Corrections Department website. This end of the Market/Weston street cor- ridor is zoned industrial, where it is home to a storage yard for towed-wrecked vehicles, and waste-processing services, city planners say. On the northbound side of I-91, at the junction of Jennings and Liebert roads, Pride Convenience Stores has begun framing the main building for its truck-stop/rest area. The site will offer fuel, fast foods and amenities, including lockers and showers for motorists. "The Candlewood Suites is my favorite building in Hartford. Why?'' asked Sean M. Fitzpatrick, Hartford's director of develop- ment services, which includes economic development. "It was built entirely with private money.'' Indeed, none of the commercial devel- opments underway in the North Meadows involved assistance from the Capital Region Development Authority, which has provided funding for many of the office-to-apartment conversions downtown, officials say. Ankit Patel, of Hadley, Mass., who is list- ed in city papers as owner/developer of the hotel that will fly the Candlewood brand- flag, did not respond to repeated phone calls for comment. But Patel has previously been quoted as saying he was drawn largely by Hartford's economic prospects. That his hotel is literally in the shadow of Dunkin' Donuts minor-league ballfield set to open in April, was an extra bonus, he told The Hartford Courant. 'The more the merrier' Chris Counos owns the Midas auto- repair store at 65 Weston St., next door to the Baronet Coffee facility that will make way for the Land Rover dealership. Baronet has since relocated operations to Windsor. Counos, who owns his building but not the land beneath, says no changes are planned for his location. But he welcomes investment in the strip by others. "The more the merrier,'' he said. Hartford Toyota replaced its 16-service bay dealership building, opened in the late 1980s, with a larger one, with 28 service bays, said Sales Manager Richard McAllis- ter Jr., whose family owns the dealership. McAllister declined to specify the invest- ment in the new building. McAllister noted that his new building is neighbors with a pair of strip clubs. However, his old location, he said, was across the street from the Hartford Correctional Center. "I don't think it's an ideal place to have a dealership,'' McAllister said. The plus side, he said, is that his is among or near a half-dozen new- and used-car dealerships, including his Service Road neighbor, Harte Nissan. n developments vital to the city. "I am really impressed with Sean's mana- gerial skills and ability to navigate the cross- currents of public policy and implementa- tion,'' said Freimuth, Stamford's former economic-development director. "It is a pleasure working with him,'' he said. "He has a quick wit, able to distill issues to actionable items, and is very comfortable in working with private-sector as well as other public-sector officials to get a job done.'' Fitzpatrick, a graduate of Amherst Col- lege and Harvard Law, practiced law early in his career. In 1987, he was involved, he said, in creating a Simsbury startup specialty insurer, Executive Risk, that in 1999 was acquired for $1 billion by insurer Chubb Corp. He worked in several capacities at Chubb before leaving to join The Hartford, where he met a young, newly married reserve Navy officer just getting underway with his career — Luke Bronin. Among Bronin's duties at The Stag, he was an aide to Neil S. Wolin, who at the time was its general counsel. "I just remember thinking, 'this is a great young man','' Fitzpatrick said of Bronin. Fitzpatrick says he sensed a future in politics for Bronin and offered to him, that if he ever ran for office, to contact him. Bro- nin later followed Wolin to Washington as his chief of staff at the Obama administration's Treasury Department. "I got to know him,'' Bronin said of Fitz- patrick, "as a creative, strategic thinker with unending amounts of energy and someone who had a passion for the city of Hartford.'' It was a Chubb contact who reached out to Fitzpatrick for his legal advice following the 2013 George Washington Bridge episode — "Bridgegate" — in which political aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were accused of snarling traffic on the Jersey side of the span in an alleged political payback. That led to Fitzpatrick's brief stint as chief of staff to the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, before Bronin's invitation to join his staff as an economic- development aide. Fitzpatrick, who previously volunteered as chair of Simsbury's economic development commission, says he has no regrets leaving the private sector for a municipal post that pays him $145,000 year. He resides in the city's West End. "This is a tough environment. It's very challenging,'' he said. "But I'm honored to be here. It's an honor to wake up in the morning knowing I will do something to help the city I've loved as a kid.'' A history buff and "a voracious reader'' who says he can't wait to attend Yard Goats ballgames, Fitzpatrick also has been an adjunct UConn law professor. He and Can- dace Fitzpatrick, a former Simsbury selec- twoman and a past member of the town finance board, have been married 32 years. They have two grown children — one in New York City, another in Miami, Fla. "And, yes, I do try to pick their brains,'' he said, "about what kinds of economic devel- opment would make Hartford an attractive place to come home to someday." n Bio Box Name: Sean M. Fitzpatrick Age: 58 Title: Director of the Department of Development Services, city of Hartford College: Amherst College and Harvard Law School Sean Fitzpatrick, Hartford's economic-development curator, says the view of Constitution Plaza from his office is a daily reminder of his role – and its stakes. P H O T O | S T E V E L A S C H E V E R Clockwise from upper left: Baronet Coffee's former Hartford site on Weston Street; the soon-to-open Candlewood Suites Hartford Downtown on Market Street; Dunkin' Donuts Park in Downtown North. H B J P H O T O S | G R E G O R Y S E A Y

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