Developer Picked For Project

July 21, 2005
By JEFFREY B. COHEN, Courant Staff Writer

The city has chosen a New York developer to move forward with plans to turn a city-owned building at 101 Pearl St. into condominiums, but one of the developers who lost out says he has a right to the property.

The developer that was selected, Full Spectrum LLC, proposed between 30 and 40 units in an "environmentally friendly" building, said Matt Hennessy, the mayor's chief of staff.

"It's a pretty solid project, and it would probably put some of the largest condo units in the Hartford market right downtown," he said. "Within 60 to 90 days, we'll have a development agreement ... and we'll move ahead quickly."

Details of the plan were not available Wednesday.

The city received seven responses from developers interested in the building earlier this month, officials said. Bids were received from: Full Spectrum; College Street LLC, with developer David Nyberg as a principal; Cloud/Samuels Assoc. LLC, which includes Sanford Cloud Jr., former head of the National Conference for Community and Justice; a team that includes Parkville developer Carlos Mouta; Associated Architects; James Vance and Associates; and a partnership with developer Sam Fingold, who maintains he has a right to the property and is planning some sort of action.

"I'm still not going to go away, but I can't tell you what I'm going to do," said Fingold, who contends that he has a right to the building for $350,000 under a deal conceived, but never executed, when Michael P. Peters was mayor. "I'm sure that the city knows that I'm going to get in the way somehow."

Fingold said he also believes the site is poorly suited to a condominium development.

"I just simply don't understand how condominiums would work there," he said.

Developer Martin J. Kenny also has expressed displeasure with the city's plan for the building. Kenny, the man behind the nearby nine-story Trumbull on the Park apartment and retail complex and its parking garage, has argued that the city is wrongfully marketing 170 parking spaces with the 101 Pearl development. Those spaces were supposed to be tied to a building with offices, not condos, he said.