Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • June 12, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com Downtown Retail conversion of outdated office buildings into some 1,500 downtown apartments has made it exciting again to consider living and/or working downtown. Across Ann Uccello Street and Sarah's, landlord Yisroel Rabinowitz owns the build- ing at 225 Asylum St., that houses the city's High School Inc. for pupils preparing for careers in insurance and finance. It also hous- es the student-run branch of Franklin Trust Federal Credit Union, among other tenants. Rabinowitz is happy to see the com- mon-area and tenant improvements being made to Goodwin Square and neighboring buildings. The Brooklyn, N.Y. investor has acquired a handful of downtown office/ retail buildings in the past five years. Still, he says he'd like the city and state to do more promo- tion of Hartford as a destination. "The million- dollar question that keeps coming up is whether it's going to put feet on the ground, to make this a 24/7 city,'' Rabinowitz said. Turning the Capital City into a more vibrant urban center has been getting more focus recently, particularly in the wake of Hart- ford health insurer Aetna announcing it is weighing offers from other cities — mainly New York City and Boston — to move its headquarters. A key reason for the move is so the company can be in a region more attractive to younger talent that increasingly longs for big-city environments with plenty of restaurant, retail and entertainment options. Rabinowitz and other downtown land- lords lament all the attention and focus on the city's Front Street Entertainment District, home to restaurants, a movie theater and the new 121-unit Front Street Lofts. There's also the $140 million UConn downtown campus building in the area that opens in August, and is expected to bring about 2,500 people downtown. Tenant perspective Lack of foot traffic has been a concern for tailor Caryl Wentworth Curling, who opened his Wentworth Clothiers shop two years ago streetside at 241 Asylum St., the Cast Iron Building. "I kind of regret coming downtown,'' Curling said of the move of his shop from East Hartford to 1,200 square feet next door to another Cast Iron tenant, Al's Market. "We don't have the traffic we expected.'' Curling says that in the '80s he opened a tai- lor shop on Main Street, between the G. Fox and Sage-Allen department stores. It closed after he lost his lease when the Sage-Allen building was acquired for conversion to apartments. His Hartford customers, male and female, include bankers, insurance, aerospace and hospital executives and others. However, water leaks and other problems with the building have forced him to consider relocating again, perhaps to the city's South End, he said. Two doors away, Nigel Clarke, owner of Juiced Up Juice Bar, says moving his business from separate locations occupied for nearly a decade in the city's North End, where it was difficult to attract new custom- ers, has improved his sales. Clarke opened a year ago in 750 square feet of streetfront space in the Goodwin Hotel. Peak juice sales occur during lunch hour most days, if weather allows, Clarke said. Still, he said, more customers than he'd like say they previously had no clue he existed downtown. For now, though, Clarke says he plans to stay downtown, perhaps eventually expand. "It's the place to be,'' he said. Directly opposite Juiced Up on Asylum Street, in the retail annex linked to the Hartford 21 apartment tower, sits Spiritus Wines — among the first retail tenants in that decade-old space. Owner Gary Dunn watched Market 21, intended as downtown's first grocery, fold after barely six months. Northland Investment Corp. is landlord. Toasted, a gourmet sand- wich shop, opened two years ago in the annex. TD Bank, too, is a Hartford 21 retail tenant. "I'm very happy to see all the progress,'' said Dunn, who acquired Spiritus in 2006 and relocated it from Main Street to its current 1,900-square-foot home in 2008. "I remain hopeful it will help all the businesses in this block. I can't say I've seen it yet.'' n PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. Trevisan Machine Tool | Suffield, CT PDS served in the role as Design Build General Contractor for the construction of a new manufacturing machine shop in Suffield, CT. Trevisan utilizes this new facility for aviation machinery and office space. The warehouse area is approximately 15,000 square feet and the office area is about 2,000 square feet. 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G r e a t e r H a r t f o r d HEALTH The Region's Quarterly Health Care Magazine // Spring 2017 // nebusinessmedia.com Healthy Investment CT hospitals investing big in new 'patient-centered' facilities Active Seniors Fitness programs for older adults are growing in Connecticut Trials of Hope Cancer research partnerships begin to pay off for CT patients Trials of Hope Cancer research partnerships begin to pay off for CT patients From the Publishers of HEALTH HEALTH The Region's Quarterly Health Care Magazine // Spring 2017 // nebusinessmedia.com Trials of Hope Cancer research Trials of Hope Cancer research Trials of Hope partnerships begin to pay off for CT patients Nigel Clarke of Hartford relocated his Juiced Up Juice Bar into the Goodwin Hotel. P H O T O S | S T E V E L A S C H E V E R Tailor Caryl W. Curling, located at 241 Asylum St., is into his second run with a boutique downtown.

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