Hartford Business Journal

14 Hartford Business Journal • April 23, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com H ousing developer- landlord Roberto Arista struck gold converting a pair of derelict Hart- ford commercial build- ings, 179 Allyn St. downtown and the former Hartford Office Supply in the shadow of the state Capitol, into 175 apartment units now in high demand. Both are close to full occupancy. Now, Arista, principal of Massachu- setts-based Dakota Partners, is bring- ing his Midas touch to a suburban apartment development underway in Suffield, called Brook Hill Village. The first 36 of 84 units for the estimated $40 million, twin-phase development will be ready for occupancy by sum- mer, Arista said. Dakota Partners is also involved with the $58 million mixed-use "Columbus Commons" development in New Britain that will include 160 residential units. Both projects are part of a fresh apartment construction wave under- way in Greater Hartford that will add over the next 18 months at least 500 new "lifestyle'' apartments in a region in need of replacements for its aging inventory of approximately 40,000 units, according to developer-land- lords and realty advisers. Some of those new units will debut just as a fresh crop of job-seekers, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in tow, begin looking for what is per- haps their first full-time jobs — and their initial places to rent. May, June, July and August tend to be prime time for apartment leasing, landlords say. In Glastonbury, Continental Properties is nearing completion of the first units of its planned 145-unit Glastonbury Mews, at the corner of Hebron Avenue and House Street. In the last five years, Con- tinental has built nearly 500 apartment units in Rocky Hill and South Windsor. In Bloomfield, Heirloom Flats, the town's first luxury-apartment develop- ment in decades, recently began leas- ing its first 215 units, located between Bloomfield and Jerome avenues, in the town center. Fairfield developer An- drew Montelli says demand is such that construction of Heirloom's 200-unit second phase could start by yearsend. In Windsor Locks, the $62 million re- development of the former J. R. Mont- gomery Co. mill into 160 apartments is underway in the shadow of what will be the town's relocated rail station. Leaseup is due to start in summer 2019. In Windsor, developer-landlord Martin Kenny watched his $23 million, 130-unit Windsor Station Apartments, across the street from the town's train station, fill up eight months after opening doors in March 2017. Kenny says Windsor Station appeals to Mil- lennials and empty-nesters, as well as commuters into Springfield, Mass., to work at MGM Resorts' downtown casino set to open in September. Kenny, one of downtown Hartford's earliest apartment developers who built Trumbull On The Park and who last spring opened the 230-unit The Tannery in Glastonbury, has another development brewing — The Borden, a $34 million, 150-unit apartment community at 1160-1178 Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield. Driving suburban apartment devel- opment, Kenny and other developers say, is the overwhelming response they have gotten to their newly built, well-appointed units brimming with amenities like large community rooms, pet-grooming stations, walking trails, fitness centers and concierge services such as package and delivery reception, and doorside trash pickup. Brisk demand cut the Hartford region's apartment vacancy rate to 3.9 percent at the end of 2017 vs. 3.5 percent a year earlier, according to the latest quarterly Connecticut apart- ment survey from commercial realty brokers-advisers Marcus & Millichap. In return, apartment landlords have no trouble raising rents — 3 percent on average in the past year, observers say. Yet, Hartford's average effective multifamily monthly rent of $1,315 is far less than Fairfield's average of $2,235, and $1,407 in New Haven, according to the Marcus & Millichap survey. As new, Class A apartment space fills up, older Class B and C units, many of which pre-date the '80s and '70s, too, are finding it easy to pass along rent hikes, said Eric Pentore, first vice presi- dent of Marcus & Millichap's Institu- tional Property Advisers division. New inventory The last major wave of suburban Hartford apartment construction oc- curred in the 1980s, with the buildup of hundreds of units in Middletown's Westlake District, Pentore said. This time, the suburban apartment buildup is happening along a stretch of the I-91 corridor, from Rocky Hill northward to the Massachusetts bor- der. That same corridor also is attract- ing a slew of distribution-warehouse facilities and other employers in search of talent, observers say. Mattress giant Serta Simmons Housing Boom Suburban Hartford apartments sprout along I-91 corridor Bloomfield's newest luxury apartment, Heirloom Flats, recently opened with 215 units and laden with amenities, including a pool, a golf driving simulator and clubhouse. Proximity to the town's center shops and restaurants was a bonus, the developer says. The Tannery in Glastonbury has filled nearly all of its 230 suburban units since opening in spring 2017. Its landlord, Martin Kenny, who has built or redeveloped hundreds of apartments in Greater Hartford, has another project slated for Wethersfield. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS | BILL MORGAN

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