Fresh off completion of 89 apartments in their Sage Allen development along Temple Street in downtown Hartford, a partnership of three of the city’s most influential development forces is debuting 97 apartments above the historic Pratt Street retail district.
Martin J. Kenny of Lexington Partners LLC, landlord Shelbourne Global Solutions and LAZ Parking CEO Alan Lazowski announced this week they have completed renovations at 99 Pratt St. and are now renting. The partners continue renovating about 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space at the building.
The partners are wrapping up about $59 million worth of joint redevelopment along and around Pratt Street, drawing in new retailers and restaurants; refreshing existing shops; and building out hundreds of apartments.
“All the retail has been accounted for and now, bringing a residential base to the street, that’s really going to solidify the gains and the rebrand of Pratt Street,” said Michael Seidenfeld, chief operating officer of Shelbourne. “Pratt Street has become a destination. It’s vibrant. That’s really changed the pulse of the downtown.”
Renters began moving into 99 Pratt St. earlier this month. Kenny said the building has seen tremendous interest and is already about 70% leased.
That comes a little more than a year after the partners completed 32 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail at nearby 196 Trumbull St.
Kenny said the two buildings previously hosted “functionally obsolete” office space.
The newly completed apartments at 99 Pratt St. feature several styles of studio and one-bedroom units. The apartments range in size from 377 square feet to 572 square feet, at rents ranging from $1,245 to $1,590.
Kenny, Lazowski and Shelbourne also purchased a 78-unit apartment tower at the corner of Main and Temple streets in 2019, in addition to the nearby 42 townhouses that would be transformed into the 89 apartments of the Sage Allen development.
With apartments completed at 99 Pratt St., the partners are working to finish renovations to first-floor retail spaces there and in their other nearby properties. Kenny said the hope is to have all shops open for St. Patrick’s Day, which is an enormous draw for visitors to Hartford.
Kenny said the partners intend to keep existing businesses in place on Pratt Street, including barber and tobacco shops. They will be joined by newer offerings, including the Corner 3 sports bar, a comics shop, Latin American restaurant, live entertainment venue called the Lyons Den, Refuge 33 Tattoo and more.
Independent of Kenny and Lazowski, Shelbourne has begun renovations to a five-story building it owns at 69 Pratt St., which will result in four apartments with a first-floor restaurant.
Seidenfeld said Shelbourne anticipates launching renovations to another five-story building, at 73-77 Pratt St., within “the next few months.” Designs are ongoing, so it is not yet certain how many units the 4,985-square-foot building will yield, he said.
“We are seeing such strong demand for residential,” Seidenfeld said. “So, we really have a lot of wind in our sails.”
