PHOTO/CAROL LATTER

A rising star Hartford 21 changing city's skyline - Hartford Business Journal - OCTOBER 3, 2005

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By Carol Latter

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Eight months after the steel started going up for a 36-story residential tower at the corner of Trumbull and Asylum streets in downtown Hartford, the developer and builders of the $160 million Hartford 21 project last week marked a major milestone: the placing of the final beam atop a structure that has changed the city's skyline. The project's major players, along with the mayor of Hartford and other officials, were on hand for the ceremony, and added their signatures to those of the hundreds of construction workers involved in the project, before the beam was hoisted into place.

The project's major players, along with the mayor of Hartford and other officials, were on hand for the ceremony, and added their signatures to those of the hundreds of construction workers involved in the project, before the beam was hoisted into place.

The event was a momentous one for Hartford. Along with adding a new dimension to the cityscape, the Northlands Investment Corp. project is also poised to change the dynamics of the downtown housing, retail and office sectors.

The complex, adjacent to and interwoven with the Hartford Civic Center, will include 262 luxury apartments, 93,000 square feet of office space, 53,000 square feet of street-facing restaurant and retail space, and a 35,000-square-foot public atrium offering entry to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Exhibition Center. There will also be 400 new and 400 revamped parking spaces.

What impact that new capacity will have on existing housing, office, retail and parking space, however, is still anyone's guess.

Chuck Coursey of Coursey & Company Inc., which provides public relations support to Northlands on the project, says Hartford 21 is slated for completion in the fall of 2006. But he notes that the lease rates for the commercial space, and for the apartments, have not yet been finalized. That begs the question of how quickly the project will lure new tenants, both commercial and residential. If the commercial lease rates are higher than for existing downtown space, for example, will the project's glitz, prime location, and up-to-the-minute amenities be enough to attract the clientele Northland is counting on?

Coursey, for one, seems to have no doubts about Hartford 21’s marketability, saying there is no shortage of interest among potential Hartford 21 dwellers. "We've got a ton of interest on the apartments and the retail," he says.

The fallout in the residential market should prove interesting, says Peter Nowak, a Coldwell Banker realtor who has represented many of the condos on the market in the city over the past two-and-a-half years. While a flurry of condo projects have been gathering steam downtown, The Residences at Hartford 21, as they are called, will be rental units, albeit with ample indoor parking, concierge services, and easy access to the retail and office components of the complex, along with the Civic Center.

As well, the upper-floor units will have perhaps the most stunning views in Hartford. From the 28th floor, for example, you can see for miles in every direction, as far as Mount Tom and Holyoke to the north, and Meriden to the south. The apartment tower, offering 24-hour security, a health club and private theater, a clubroom, a business center and dedicated parking, will be the tallest residential building in New England.

The units will be targeted to young professionals, dual income couples working downtown, and empty nesters wanting to take advantage of Hartford's dining venues, theater, sports events and nightlife. But what will be the extent of potential tenants' interest in renting, as opposed to buying?

Nowak, like Coursey, believes Hartford 21 will have no trouble at all filling its 262 units.

"I really think that Hartford 21 will be successful beyond anyone's expectations," he says. While there are still a lot of naysayers regarding the city's appeal as a place to live, he adds, developer David Nyberg's 55 on the Park project "already proved that it is possible. This is on a larger scale, and it's new construction."

He believes the residential portion will be hugely successful, for several reasons. "First and foremost is the location and awesome height of this building. These units will have some really spectacular views and that will draw in some very affluent tenants."

The project will also offer "a great entry point for potential downtown buyers who wish to test the downtown lifestyle. It will give the young professional and empty nester an opportunity to live downtown in a very nice product," Nowak says. "The empty nester can sell their home in the suburbs, realize the profit from a healthy real estate market and try a new lifestyle. This gives them some time to test the waters before they make the important decision to purchase."

Those who already know they want to buy a condominium at Front Street or Capewell, for example, will have an opportunity to stay in a downtown location while their condos are being built. "Remember, Front Street or any of these future projects will take years to be completed, and this gives someone a temporary solution to this problem."

As well, he believes, corporations will want to rent these units as temporary homes for transferred or new employees. He says Hartford 21 will give employees a home for several months while they get settled in the area.

The project, he adds, will provide what he refers to as the "three pillars of success: security, parking and style, which includes location and views. Hartford 21 has all three, so I'm sure it will be very successful."

Coursey says the lower residential floors of the tower will likely be ready for occupancy before the higher floors are complete, with some units available by the middle of next summer. Floors five through 25 will offer eight units apiece, each about 950-square feet in size. The floors above it will have fewer, more spacious apartments ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet.

The sales office will open next month. Model units, giving prospective tenants a glimpse of what some of the finishes in the apartments will look like, will open around mid-November across the street, in a building on the northeast corner of Trumbull and Pratt.

On the commercial side, Jon Putnam, a senior director with commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, says Hartford 21's office space will likely prove appealing to specific kinds of companies.

"It's very different from other office buildings downtown, in that the floor plates of the second and third floor are 54,000 square feet each, which is an extremely large floor plate," he says. "So while that doesn't work for all tenants, it may be ideal for certain large tenants who want efficient and large floor plates where everyone is together on one floor."

The available parking in the complex will also be a big bonus in a city where parking spaces are at a premium. "The amount of parking that Northland has created there is more than they need to support the residential. And the new garage that they've created is one of the most spacious and easiest to navigate that I've ever seen," he says.

Another as-yet unanswered question is whether the building's commercial tenants will be newcomers to Hartford, or whether they will simply migrate from elsewhere in the city, leaving empty square footage in their wake.

Peter Standish, senior vice president with Northland, told the Hartford Business Journal that his marketing team has been in discussions with all of the major office tenants downtown, as well as with many currently located in the suburbs and outside of the region.

Putnam says the total office space is not large enough to have an impact on downtown vacancy rates, but predicts that most of the new tenants are likely to be local.

"It's always been the norm for much of the growth for downtown to come from the immediate Hartford area, whether it's downtown or just outside the CBD, but still within Hartford," Putnam says. "But every now and then, a tenant moves into the city from the suburbs and, often, it's because they need a large block of space of space that the suburbs doesn't offer."

Coursey says the office space is "just about ready for occupancy." The retail space won't be far behind it, but he says, "we want to make sure we have the right mix of tenants and give them the best chance to succeed."

Targeted retail outlets include bookstores, bakeries, cafés and restaurants, clothing boutiques, a pharmacy, specialty grocers and destination service providers.

Meanwhile, work on the complex is proceeding full-speed ahead. Turner Construction's Joe Casey, who serves as project safety manager for Hartford 21, says roughly 270 men and women are working on the job site from Monday through Friday, with a second shift of 15 people working from 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Adds Coursey, "During the day, they're putting up the steel, and at night, they're putting up the exterior" to try to expedite the project.

So far, more than 400,000 man hours have been expended, Casey notes, adding, "we'll probably go to 600,000 man hours on this project."

The crane will come down in late October, he says. After that, it's down to the interior sheetrock installation, mechanicals, electrical, plumbing and the like, along with the coordination of those trades with city inspectors.

"There's still a lot of work to go here," Casey says.

"A big part of this process is keeping people [workers] happy with all of their materials [conveniently stored], keeping them organized and keeping the work flowing."