All three of the hidden homes were built in the early 1900s, which makes them a little newer than the properties along the road. The visible homes almost all date back to the 1800s.

These hidden homes all have a very secluded feel even though they’re quite central in Greater Hartford. We’ve been back there a few times and have been impressed by how quickly you forget that you’re in the middle of a City. Part of it is the lot sizes, giving the homes nice spacing from each other, but it’s also due to the large park that is adjacent to the two homes in the rear.

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A Hidden House

What I find interesting about hidden houses is that they each have an interesting story. How did they get there? Are they newer or older than the houses that surround them? If they’re newer, when did they get built and how was the building lot created?

There are many hidden houses in Greater Hartford if you know where to look. Our first example, in the above picture, is in the northern part of West Hartford. It was built in 2002, and is much newer than the 1950s vintage homes that surround it. The lot is just over an acre, large for West Hartford, and is set in the middle of an oversized block just off Main Street. Two other homeowners control an additional 2.1 acres (combined) of undeveloped land adjacent to this property.

It looks like this home is a very private set-up, yet still in a convenient location within town. The lot has its own driveway, which appears to be an easement over the home on the left’s property. And the undeveloped land behind the home probably gives it a really different feel from your typical West Hartford property.

While walking through Downtown Hartford I was once again thinking about how interesting a neighborhood it is becoming. There has been a noticeable change since I moved to town in 2004, with the highlight being numerous projects filling previously underutilized sites with housing.

There are plenty of underutilized sites that remain – many of them are office buildings. What would it take to make an office tower an interesting place to live?

Industrial buildings are frequently converted into loft-style residences. They embrace the exposed structural and mechanical elements, making it their unique style. They restore the heavily used, yet incredibly sturdy, wood floors to add a feeling of age. And they utilize the high ceilings to create interesting lofted spaces.

Is there something inherently “office-y” about an office tower that could be accentuated to create a compelling residential space?

Some of our buildings don’t require much creativity. 777 Main, for example, is a perfect building for a condo/apartment conversion. The footprint of the building is appropriately rectangular for all the main rooms to all have windows. And most of the windows will have terrific views either to the east or to the west. The location is very convenient to everything Downtown, and there is a large attached parking garage. I can easily imagine people wanting to live in that building.

Other buildings are a little more tricky. Many have no defining characteristics that could be accentuated, or marketed, in a residential use. Some have footprints that are more difficult to re-imagine as residential space (interior bedrooms with no windows, anyone?).

How can we work around these challenges?

Maybe we could add a vertical component to the different floor plans. Rather than making the units all on one floor, what if we made two level residences? Have the main living area on the 9th floor with a private staircase up to the bedrooms on the 10th floor … a townhouse-in-the-sky. There are some units like this in Regency Towers on Woodland Street that are interesting. I sometimes see them on Selling New York too.

What else have people seen that make an apartment/condo interesting and might work in an office tower?

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t get through the whole thing in the first sitting, but when I finally did, it seemed worth the effort.

The Next Real Estate Boom: How Housing (Yes, Housing) Can Turn the Economy Around
Patrick C. Doherty and Christopher B. Leinberger
Washington Monthly, November/December 2010

The basic thesis is that a confluence of trends will lead to more large houses for sale in the suburbs than buyers who will be interested in purchasing them. Supply will come from the Baby Boomer generation downsizing to smaller, lower-maintenance housing options.

However, demand for their properties may not materialize. Household size is increasing as multiple generations of a family are more frequently living together. Financially marginal buyers struggle to get a mortgage in the current environment, preventing them from being homeowners. Factors like smaller home sizes, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use environments, and shorter commutes are creeping up to the top of buyer wish lists.

Many interesting questions could be asked using this thesis as the set-up. The first one that jumps to my mind is this, which areas of Greater Hartford will benefit most from these trends?

Some of the winners are obvious. West Hartford Center offers exactly the mix of features that Mr. Condon describes. It is an established mixed-use community with smaller homes, in a walkable setting, that is convenient to just about everything in the region. Slam dunk. The Center is currently one of the hottest real estate markets in the area with basically no inventory available. If you want to buy there, then you need to have your act together.

Other areas seem like logical winners, but there is still considerable work to be done. I see Downtown Hartford as a long-term winner. Right now there is a core group of residents excited about Downtown as a neighborhood. Seven recent apartment developments (The Hollander, The Metropolitan, The Lofts at Temple & Main, 915 Main, Bushnell on the Park, 55 on the Park, and Hartford 21) are generally considered successes. Active planning is underway to rehab another building, the former hotel on Constitution Plaza. There are many additional opportunities to add residents in smaller, apartment-style, homes that are in a mixed-use community with major established businesses and legitimate public transit.

Really, the whole Farmington Avenue corridor from Downtown Hartford through West Hartford Center seems like it has a chance to win big in the coming decades. Asylum Hill and the West End have a lot to offer on the Hartford side of the line. Residential density continues on the West Hartford side of Prospect Avenue with numerous apartment buildings and commercial areas transitioning to single-family housing just off the main road.

In the real estate market, we are already seeing buyers from the Farmington Valley come over the mountain to look at our listings in the Elizabeth Park neighborhood of West Hartford and in Hartford’s West End. If Mr. Condon is right, then this could be the beginning of a trend that will play out for years to come.

We’re excited that the City is taking steps to get these parcels into the hands of developers. If all goes according to plan, the future projects will not only improve the various neighborhoods, but they’ll also add to the grand list. Just getting them off the City’s books will reduce the taxpayers’ collective costs to perform basic maintenance like landscaping and snow removal. Every little bit helps with the budget where it is.

We took a quick look at the City Assessor’s Property Records website to try to figure out just how many properties are owned by the City. Searching for “Last Name” = “City of Hartford” found 9 pages of results at 50 records per page … wow! Many of the random parcels we clicked on are municipal buildings, schools, parks, and open space. We have not attempted to go through the records in detail to estimate how many could be sold. Anyone looking for a project to do at night while watching TV?

The properties available in this round of sales are (info copied from the Property Description page on 2/14/2011):

279 Farmington Avenue (Map 179, Block 406, Lot 043)
This property consists of a 3,500 sq. ft. building containing move in ready professional office space, and required on site parking spaces. The property is located in a B-4 zone.

415 Farmington Avenue (Map 156, Block 396, Lot 024)
Potential uses include office, residential or mixed-use development on this vacant lot. The proposed development should draw upon the principles espoused by the City’s Plan of Conservation and Development – One City One Plan – and blend with the historic character of the neighborhood. The property is located in an RO-2 zone and the lot size is 0.209 acres.

202 Albany Avenue (Map 243, Block 239, Lot 006)
Potential uses for this vacant lot include office, retail, commercial or mixed-use development. The proposed development should draw upon the principles espoused by One City One Plan and blend with the historic character of the neighborhood. The property is located in a B-4 zone and the lot size is 0.458 acres.

445 Zion Street (Map 183, Block 515, Lot 150)
Potential uses for the restoration and reuse of this historic brick apartment house include residential or mixed-use development. HOME funds and other historic preservation funds are available for the restoration of this building. The Property is located in a R-1 zone.

272 Garden Street (Map 221, Block 273, Lot 055)
Potential uses for the rehabilitation of this four-story 9,384 sq. ft brick building include either a 2 or 3 family residence or office space. Parking is available on site. The property is located in an R-2 zone.

1440 Main Street (Map 243, Block 249, Lot 141)
Potential uses for this vacant lot include office, retail, commercial or mixed-use development. The proposed development should draw upon the principles espoused by One City, One Plan, e.g. building to street facing property line(s), and include permeable facades, glassed storefronts and rear parking. This property is located in B-3 zone and the lot size is 0.987 acres.

1540 Main Street (Map 243, Block 249, Lot 139)
The 2.131 acre property, accessed from New Donald Road, contains two structures including a gymnasium and office space. Any proposed reuse or redevelopment should draw upon the principles espoused by One City, One Plan. The property is located in a B-3 zone.

126 New Park Avenue (Map 137, Block 481, Lot 094); 130 New Park Avenue (Map 137, Block 481, Lot 095); 8 Francis Court (Map137, Block 481, Lot 096); and 161 Francis Avenue (Map 137, Block 481, Lot 097)
This property consists of four adjacent vacant lots. The parcels may be combined to create one larger development or smaller separate developments. Proposed development must incorporate at least 50% of the entirety of the parcels. Proposed development(s) should draw upon the principles espoused by One City, One Plan and blend with the architectural character of the neighborhood. The properties are zoned B-4 and R-2 and rezoning will be considered to encourage development. The total combined lot size is 0.521 acres.

For more information on the bidding process and evaluation criteria, visit the City’s sale website.

This is a major step forward, as Cinema Grill, a movie theater and dining complex, will occupy a little over a third of the available Front Street space- 22,500 square feet. Hopefully this announcement will propel others to fill the remaining space in the upcoming months.

Cinema Grill operates several other outlets in various parts of the country. They’ll have popular releases in addition to indie and foreign films. I checked out a few of their local websites and prices seem reasonable, $4 for evening tickets for adults and no minimum on the amount you must spend on food. Their food menu seemed to resemble any number of chain restaurant menus, but I’m not going to complain, this seems like a good anchor tenant. They are targeting a mid-2011 opening.

Most importantly, do you see yourself going to this type of venue? I think we would. Prices are right, it’s easy enough to get to and seems like it would be a slightly different atmosphere than just a standard movie theater.

Steel is rising from the ground at the Hartford Public Safety Complex on High Street. The plan has obviously changed since these pictures from June of 2009, but there is now visible progress in the building phase of the project.

A couple blocks away at 1161 Main Street, it appears as though asbestos remediation may be complete at the “Butt Ugly Building.” We drove by the other day and all the windows were covered with plastic. Since the plastic is down now in some windows, and there is an asbestos truck on site, and David Panagore said they would be finishing remediation about now, we’ll just assume that’s where we stand. If remediation is in fact complete, then the actual demolition isn’t too far away.

Mr. Panagore is a strong advocate for Hartford. He is leading the charge to encourage development in the capital city, and seems comfortable sharing information about projects that are under discussion, but by no means finalized. For example, just last week he was quoted in the Hartford Business Journal as saying the City is once again actively working on redeveloping both 101 and 111 Pearl Street. For much of the first half of 2010 he was prominently involved in the One City, One Plan effort to engage the community in the update of Hartford’s Plan of Conservation and Development.

Before coming to Hartford in late 2008, Mr. Panagore worked for Springfield, MA, and he has additional municipal experience from time in San Jose, Boston, and Chelsea, MA. Urban Compass, a local blog that covers both Hartford and Springfield, interviewed Mr. Panagore back in 2005 (Part 1, Part 2). It also covered the Hartford City Council’s session with Mr. Panagore before he was hired.

The goal of the HYPE event is to keep the session relatively low key, so that we can have an interesting and inclusive conversation about Downtown Hartford – both its current state and its future prospects. Although we’ll definitely get Mr. Panagore’s views on a variety of topics, we’ll also encourage attendees to share their ideas so that we can have a constructive conversation about where Hartford should be going.

If this sounds like it might be interesting to you, HYPE would love to see you there. It is free to both members and non-members, though registration is required, and seating is limited to 25. This is our opportunity to pick the brains of one of our City leaders in a positive and energetic environment.

HYPEd on Downtown Development
Monday, September 27, 2010
89 Arch
89 Arch Street, Hartford
5:30 – 8:00
Register on the HYPE Website