Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • April 30, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 15 the Farmington Country Club. Wienner say he's deliberating what to do with his leftover strip, but his plans will be consistent with the town's vision for its eastern "gateway." "The town's vision is to turn the vil- lage into a more pedestrian-friendly, walkable area,'' he said. "It's an unusually charming and desirable place. They're really smart and clear-thinking about what they wanted to happen in the Vil- lage, and I wanted to be a part of it.'' Nearby, Newington landlord Reno Properties Group LLC owns a 4-acre parcel, site of a 300-year-old farmhouse, bought 10 years ago for $900,000 to redevelop into a retail cen- ter, anchored with a bank branch, said Reno broker Dan Garofalo. "We felt it was a great town. A great corner. A gateway site,'' Garofalo said. There, state transportation contrac- tors are due to wrap in June their $12 million makeover of the heavily-con- gested Route 4/Route 10 interchange. Crews have widened, repaved and re-signaled a stretch of Route 4, lead- ing from the curve that once housed a Chevy dealership, to the Route 10-Main Street/Waterville Road connector. (The length of the project has frustrated some local merchants who say the add- ed congestion has cost them business). That's atop an earlier widening and rebuild of a Route 4 bridge spanning the Farmington River a few years ago. Also underway is a long-awaited ca- pacity upgrade of the town's sewage- treatment facility, once a frequent source of neighbors' odor complaints. Floating zones To streamline the development pro- cess and respond to market demand, the town's planning and zoning officials, Warner said, adopted an "innovation floating zone.'' It allows, he said, for a mix of uses envisioned in the town's plan of conservation and development, includ- ing expanded corporate headquarters, health- and biomedical-related research and development in a live-work-play environment. A similar "medical office research floating zone'' benefits health- and bioscience-related entities in the health center neighborhood. But a key feature of both, Warner says, is that they give design and construc- tion flexibility to developers to deliver what the market demands while adher- ing to residents' desire to preserve their town's character. The town also has eased its "lot coverage'' requirements for certain types of construction, allowing for denser development, he said. The town has the opportunity to ap- ply one or both. Warner says a 9-acre shopping plaza at 230 Farmington Ave., opposite UConn Health and Jackson Lab, that years ago housed a Loehmann's fashion-clothing store, is targeted for redevelopment into possibly apartments and more retail by area developer-landlord Geoffrey Sager, of Metro Realty, Warner said. The site, Warner said, is targeted for a mixed-use redevelopment of possibly 200 high-end apartments and three multi-story retail/office buildings. Some of the apartments may feature "micro units,'' built to appeal to work- ers at Jackson Lab and UConn, he said. Sager could not be reached for com- ment. Less than a mile west on Farming- ton Avenue is a cluster of newer med- ical-office buildings and health suites Metro has built in recent years. Metro also developed in 2014 its 120-unit The Residences at 299 luxury apartments on Route 6/Colt Highway. Just before that, realty broker-devel- oper SullivanHayes Northeast Co. built the Hampton Suites, located next door to The Residences. SullivanHayes currently is oversee- ing, on behalf of an investor, redevel- opment of a triangular tract at the junction of Route 6/Colt Highway and Birdseye Road, known to locals as "Five Corners." There, the unidentified investor plans an 8,173-square-foot plaza, housing five or six retail and services tenants, said SullivanHayes broker Jack Hayes, who declined to specify the development cost. That the investor and developer settled on a triangular-shaped parcel along one of the town's busiest thor- oughfares points to a growth challenge Farmington faces, officials say. "There's very limited opportunities'' to develop virgin tracts, Hayes said. "That's definitely true.'' For that, he says he expects Five Corners to be targeted for develop- ment beyond what SullivanHayes' client plans for the site. Challenges and opportunities William Wadsworth is a former state representative and ex-member of the Farmington town council, who currently sits on the town's economic development commission. "We've always run on high quality of life, low taxes and excellence in educa- tion,'' said Wadsworth, now a private consultant to commercial builders and contractors. "We tend to focus on those things.'' Wadsworth, who while in the state House voted for the $1-billion state package to upgrade-expand the UConn Health campus that ultimately attracted Jackson Lab, said the biggest challenge facing Farmington is the state's fiscal crisis, which threatens state funding to cities and towns for education and other services. Also, he said the state's proposal to have all 169 cities and towns contribute millions to stabilize the state teachers' retirement fund "is unfair to every mu- nicipality in the state of Connecticut.'' Farmington's fiscal 2018 property tax rate of 26.68 mills is among the lowest in the state, and No. 2 after Windsor Locks for the lowest in the Greater Hartford region, according to the state Office of Policy Manage- ment's online mill-rate data. While the West Hartford church awaits a buyer for its 18 ½ acres near UConn Health, Wadsworth and Warner say the town owns an adjacent former quarry-landfill at 406 Farmington Ave., with road frontage the church site lacks. They say the town hopes a devel- oper will combine and develop both. Opposite the quarry site and the church acreage is Metro Realty's clus- ter of medical offices. "I would love to see that property developed into some similar use,'' Wadsworth said. Demographics is Destiny Farmington is known for its highly educated and wealthy population, making it a popular town for economic development. Farmington Hartford County State Median household income (2015) $91,712 $66,395 $70,331 Poverty rate 5.5% 11.9% 10.5% Residents with bachelor's degree or more 56% NA 38% Median home sale price $327,600 $236,400 $270,500 Source: Connecticut Economic Resource Cener Inc. Farmington's 2017 Top 10 Taxpayers Taxpayer Description Gross Assesment % Taxable West Farms Associates Retail - West Farms mall $175,459,920 4.8 Dunn-Sager Affiliates Real estate development $59,686,210 1.6 United Technologies Corp. Manufacturing $45,746,190 1.3 CL&P Electric $40,633,950 1.1 Trumpf Inc. Manufacturing $33,390,230 0.9 Delfino, William & Thomas Real estate development $28,026,080 0.76 Columbia Prop HTFD LLC Marriot Hotel $27,782,800 0.76 Farmington CT Senior Prop LLC Senior-living complex $21,757,580 0.6 Price REIT Inc Retail shopping center $20,952,120 0.57 NIC 13 Village Gate Senior-living complex $20,022,690 0.55 Source: Farmington Town Assessor's Office PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED HBJ PHOTO | GREG BORDONARO Farmington's medical- office development has mushroomed in the shadow of UConn Health and Jackson Laboratory. The Residences at 299 is one of the town's newest apartment communities.

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