Print

Hartford Housing Scene Getting Livelier

Downtown Hartford Two projects should maintain downtown momentum

The Hartford Courant

May 23, 2011

Though she gained a national reputation as a housing innovator in New York, West Hartford native Rosanne Haggerty wanted to do a project in Hartford. She is poised to score a hat trick.

Ms. Haggerty's nonprofit, Common Ground, executed a lovely renovation of stately 410 Asylum St. into mixed-income housing. It opened with 70 apartments in 2009 and is fully occupied. She initiated another nonprofit, Northeast Neighborhood Partners, that has begun the renovation of the former M Swift & Sons gold-leafing factory in the North End into a mixed-use development. Now she has acquired the Capitol Center office building at 370 Asylum St., which she hopes to convert into mixed-income apartments.

Both buildings on Asylum Street were donated by the generous Hollander family; 410 Asylum is now called "The Hollander."

Given Ms. Haggerty's track record, this is good news for Hartford. It follows the acquisition of the long-vacant Clarion Hotel on Constitution Plaza by New York-based Wonder Works Construction and Development, which plans to convert it into one-bedroom apartments. Both projects push downtown Hartford closer to the critical mass that will make it a 24/7 city. That's the goal.