Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • April 23, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Gregory Seay | gseay@HartfordBusiness.com Real Estate, Economic Development/Construction, Banking & Finance and Manufacturing REAL ESTATE Townhome-sprinkler rule has builders feeling hosed N ew townhouses built in Con- necticut could become more expensive — and safer in a fire — if the state co-signs a recently embraced building standard requiring installation of sprinkler sys- tems in these attached living units. Designed and built like apartments and condominiums, but typically sold to owner-occupants, townhomes occupy a relatively small niche in the state's housing inventory. On April 11, the state's Codes and Standards Committee, responsible for setting building, electrical, me- chanical, plumbing and energy code requirements for all residential and commercial structures, voted 11-1, with two abstentions, to require new townhomes be equipped with over- head water sprinklers that would automatically activate in a fire. Next step is for the state Legisla- tive Regulation Review Com- mittee to decide, within 45 days of formal notification of the committee's vote, whether the measure proceeds toward a July 1 implementation. Or, the regulation review panel could direct the mea- sure back to the Codes and Standards Committee for more discussion and/or public hearings, authorities say. Connecticut's homebuilders are up- set about the new requirement, which they say would add at least $10,000 per unit to build new townhouses. That, in turn, says Tolland homebuilder Liz Koivo means she would have to price her units higher, to recover sprinkler- installation costs from buyers. Koivo, co-owner with her husband for 30 years of Nordic Builders of Tolland LLC, says her townhome com- munity, 32-unit The Village At Red Rock in Manchester, has units start- ing at $249,999. She fears a sprinkler requirement would render them less appealing and less profitable. "At that price range, there's not a lot of markup,'' she said. "They're not cheap to build.'' In Suffield, builder Mark O'Neill says he has delayed his planned 70-unit Brook Hill Village townhome project due to the pending sprinkler requirement. O'Neill planned his development in tandem with an adjoining 84-unit apart- ment community being built by Dakota Partners, of Waltham, Mass. Things could have been potentially worse for homebuilders. Initially the Codes and Standards Committee want- ed sprinklers in all newly built single- and two-family houses but they backed off that measure because it would be too costly to builders and buyers. Instead, they settled on townhomes because they share common walls and tend to have more open floor plans. Apartments and commercial buildings are already required to have sprinklers. It is those open floor plans, with wood trusses and other lightweight, man-made materials, that allow shorter "flash-over'' times once they ignite, says West Haven Fire Marshal Keith Flood, who voted for sprinklers as a committee member. Flood said industry data shows that a smoke detector raises to 50 percent the odds of surviving a fire. Combined with a sprinkler, survivability climbs to 80 percent, he said. To counter builders' cost argument, Flood said the sprinkler coalition he chairs, whose members include fire marshals, sprinkler installers, insur- ers and others, hired a construction estimator to verify. A five-unit townhome building with four mandatory "fire-break" walls would realize a $33,000 savings because state law allows for thinner walls in sprin- klered buildings. "That savings would offset the cost, for the most part, for the sprinklers,'' Flood said. DEAL WATCH For $2.1M more, Sky Management expands its CT holdings An East Coast realty investor has deepened its Connecticut holdings with its $2.05 million purchase of four industrial buildings totaling 210,000 square feet on West Johnson Avenue in Cheshire. Sky Management Services LLC, with offices in New York City and Philadelphia, said it acquired 611-617 West Johnson Ave., from seller CT 611 West Johnson Ave. Sky founder Alex Dembitzer said this is the East Coast realty investor-manager's third Connecticut purchase. Previous buys were both in Meriden: The Sports Direct Building, 160 Corporate Court, for $15 million; and The Medline Building, 550 Research Parkway, for $18 million. Dembitzer said Sky is underway with an aggressive capital improvement and marketing program to retain and attract tenants. He said his company plans to add a rooftop solar project to the site. Hartford apts. sold Three Hartford apartment buildings with 50 units sold recently to multiple buyers for a combined $2.1 million, brokers say. At 10-12 Congress St. and 54-58 Maple Ave., Premier Capital purchased 42 apartment units from JR Mullins Co. of Boston for $1.68 million, or $40,000 per unit, according to broker Northeast Private Client Group. At 30 Congress St., Premier Capital Partners, of Brookline, Mass., bought the four-unit building for $175,000. or $43,750 per unit, from Washington D.C. multifamily investor-developer Redbrick Partners. At 19 Morris St., the six-unit property traded for $265,000 to a private Connecticut-based investor. Redbrick Partners was seller. Four buildings at 611-617 West Johnson Ave., Cheshire. 10-12 and 18 Congress St., Hartford. BANKING & FINANCE Bank branch activity The state Department of Banking has received several requests from Greater Hartford banks to open or close branches. They include: • Thomaston Savings Bank plans to open a full- service branch in Wolcott, at 669 Wolcott Road. • Hartford-based United Bank plans to open a full-service branch in Greenwich, 415-417 Greenwich Ave. • Willimantic's Savings Institute Bank & Trust plans to close its full-service branch at 60 Cantor Drive in Willimantic. • Farmington Bank plans to open a full-service branch in Manchester at 299 Middle Turn- pike West. • Rocky Hill's Nutmeg State Financial Credit Union Inc. plans to open a full-service branch at 977 Boston Post Road in Milford. PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED Latest branch design for Farmington Bank. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Nordic Builders of Tolland LLC erected these unsprinklered Manchester townhomes.

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