Vernon Commons Plaza

Source: Showcase.com

Vernon Commons on 520 Hartford Tpk, Vernon CT has had its share of troubles keeping the plaza occupied. The most recent failure was Ski and Scuba, a consignment store dedicated to summer and winter sports, most notably specializing in scuba diving training. Also, Charlie's, a family own restaurant serving breakfast and lunch has also shut down.

All is not lost yet, the former site of Ski and Scuba has been renovated for Pedal Power, a bicycle shop based out of Middletown, Connecticut. The move would bring back a bicycle store to Vernon after the close of Vernon Cycle years ago. The new bicycle shop would be greatly welcomed since the Route 30 area boasts a great system of biking trails sponsored by the Rails to Trails Program.

Exit 67 Off 84 May Spark New Opportunities

Friday November 5, 2010- The Planning and Zoning Commission has removed restrictions on exit 67 for big box development. Conservationists who established the restrictions 5 years ago were stunned. The site was originally planned to have a Walmart but the Inland Wetlands Commission rejected the application. 

Trumbull on the Park

Opened: December 2005
Location: Trumbull Street/Lewis Street Historic District, Hartford


Trumbull on the park opened in December 2005 as a traditional 19th Century enclave. The building offers 100 lofts located in three buildings standing 9 stories high, the building also offers 9,000 square feet of retail and commercial space below the apartments. One parking space is provided complimentary in a secure parking garage. 


Here is a list of estimated prices:

For more information please visit: www.trumbullonthepark.com

The Parkview Hilton

Opened: September, 1954
Demolished: 1990


I planned on writing up a piece on the Hartford Hilton building, but someone beat me to it. Please read this great article on the past, present and future of the Hartford Hilton site by: Dennis House Channel 3.

Happy Anniversary Parking Lot!

October 27, 2010 - Leave a Response

The so-called “Butt Ugly” building at the edge of Downtown Hartford will be demolished later this week.  The city says the parcel will be prepared for potential development, but if history is any indication, that plot of land will be empty for decades to come.     Downtown is littered with vacant lots that were once home to buildings razed years ago in the name of development. 
Twenty years ago this week, a spectacular demolition witnessed by thousands of people,  cleared another parcel for development.    That prime plot is now in its third decade of vacancy, used only as a parking lot.  The drivers who ditch their cars there are treated to postcard views of the State Capitol, the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, Bushnell Park, and the skyline.
The Parkview Hilton, formerly known as the Statler Hilton , was a classic example of 1950s architecture.   The picture  above shows the hotel in its glory.   As the city’s most prestigious hotel, the 16 story box played host to conventions, presidents, and celebrities.    By the end of the 1970s it was tired, and despite renovations and a more modern facade in 1981, it was closed by the end of the decade.   On October 28, 1990, it was imploded.
The Hilton lot, with the views and proximity to the park, attractions, highways and train station was considered so desirable, it was called the “Mona Lisa of the Hartford real estate world,” by a real estate expert interviewed by the New York Times.
A World Trade Center for Connecticut was proposed for the site, along with a new world headquarters for United Technologies, but the projects never took off.    I spoke with Cheryl Chase, whose Chase Enterprises owns the property.   She told me never imagined the Hilton lot would still be empty 20 years later.  
Chase would very much  like to develop the property, but there has been little interest in building something in keeping with the caliber of the location.    “It is the first thing you see when drive into downtown,” Chase said.  She  envisions a landmark skyscraper with condominiums at the top, commercial in the middle and retail on the ground level.    
Chase blames the economy for the fact that a prime chunk of real estate is nothing more than a sea of asphalt, but also complained “Hartford is tough.”       Like many, she is hopeful new Mayor Pedro Segarra will help bring new business to the city, but also believes it starts at the top.  “Connecticut needs to be more business-friendly,” Chase said.  
The Chase family tends to be community-minded  big thinkers and very creative, so when the property is developed, I have no doubt it will be a head turner.   Who can forget Arnold Chase’s “Winter Wonderland” and “Haunted Happenings” at the old G. Fox Building?     
Call me a dreamer, but I have a feeling something is going to happen on that site in 2011.   First, as soon as a plan to lower the I-84 Aetna Viaduct is finalized the value of the property will go up.   High speed rail in and out Union Station will also heighten the plot’s appeal.    A new governor and the new pro-development mayor and the stars might finally be aligning for the “Chase Tower.”    I think it should include an observatory along the lines of Seattle’s Space Needle.  Could be a big tourist attraction.
Everyone is in agreement that it is a collosal waste and shame that such land is used for parking.   Can you even imagine such a lot bordering Central Park or the Boston Common?
As for the “Butt-Ugly” property, I think the city should market it for a short time, then if it doesn’t sell, donate it.    Give it to the University of Hartford, Trinity College, or UConn to build housing for students who want to live off campus.   All those young feet on the street could spur development, and with the new public safety complex being built a few blocks away, that whole neighborhood could turn around in a few years.
By the way, the beautiful Victorian building next to the Hilton in the postcard?  That’s the old Hartford YMCA, torn down for…you guessed it, a parking lot. 
I will dig out the old tape of the implosion from the archives tomorrow and post it here.

The Lyric Theatre

Photo from: Sunsentinal.com

Closed: 1979
Demolished: March 27, 2010
Location: Corner of Park and Broad Street


This article by Kerri Provost describes the problems with the Lyric Theatre before it was torn down:


The Lyric Theatre closed in 1979. After thirty years of "demolition by neglect" and a cost of upwards of $400,000 for stabilization and abatement, the City has decided to remove it via "emergency demolition" on March 27th and 28th. The inside of the theater was gutted and cleaned out over three years ago. Geathers claimed that, "no one's ever given us a proposal...for the redevelopment of this." It's hard to believe that the City could not have worked more carefully with potential investors as to encourage a serious proposal at some point over the past thirty years.


The Lyric Theatre has been sitting vacant as property of the City for years. When blight exists for  this long, it can hardly be considered an "emergency." One asks what was being done for the past several decades to maintain this building. What can we expect the City of Hartford to do in terms of other people's blighted properties if it can not even maintain its own?


Full article: http://www.realhartford.org/2010/03/24/lyric-theater-demolition-order-letter-is-official-and-cannot-be-changed/


Update: The building has been demolished on March 27th, 2010.

Highway to Hell: A New Look For I-84?

Photo: The Hartford Courant

Experts are proposing changes made to I-84, more specifically the viaduct that goes past Sisson Ave and the Capitol Area. Citizens say the highway has separated the North End and Asylum Hill from the Capitol Area, and changing the structure of the highway can help resolve this problem. The highway was built in 1965 and has was given a 40 year life expectancy which has already passed in 2005 with no major improvements by the DOT. Goody Clancy bid on the project, a Massachusetts developer and has mentioned a tunnel, another viaduct, or a surface boulevard. Now all that has to be done is the railroad tracks have to be moved north of the highway which is simpler now then in the past since it does not have as much traffic to factories as it once had. 

The Courant mentions: "The city will get to reclaim 15-20 acres of prime land close to Union Station, including developable land along the western edge of Bushnell Park, where the report recommends a new street be built, plus more land in the Sisson Avenue area. There is the chance to reconnect streets severed by the highway and connect Asylum Hill to downtown with a bike/ped path." 

Original article: http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-condon-aetna-viaduct-i84-1024-20101024,0,5019528.column

The Hartford Times Building

The Hartford Times Building located on Prospect Street part of the Front Street Development Project Area- was designed in 1920 and served as the headquarters for a Hartford newspaper publisher. The paper went out of business in 1976 but the building remained and it is now getting a renovation sponsored by the Wadsworth Atheneum. The project will provide the Atheneum with 5 floors of project and office space. Willard Holmes, the executive director of the Atheneum said, ''We didn't want the Hartford Times building to become a condominium high rise,'' he said. ''So it's going to be great for us, it's going to allow us to expand, it's going to allow us to make our steady, determined march into the future and save a piece of architecture for Hartford, too.''