In furtherance of the revitalization of Hartford’s Clay Arsenal neighborhood, the city is in the process of buying the Church of the Sacred Heart on Ely Street from the Archdiocese of Hartford for $480,000.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin is asking the City Council to approve a $480,000 purchase of Sacred Heart Church at 24 Ely St. in Hartford for a broader redevelopment project.
In his letter to Council President Maly D. Rosado, Bronin said he has already signed a letter of intent to buy the parcel from the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Bronin’s letter doesn’t describe a specific plan for the property, but describes the purchase as “a unique opportunity to pursue a creative adaptive reuse that will enhance the overall vision of the community and neighborhood…”
For decades, the area north of Hartford’s downtown was a sea of vacant and surface parking lots dividing the city center from neighborhoods to the north.
“It sat there like a wound in the city for decades,” Mayor Luke Bronin said Wednesday, during a press conference celebrating a $6.3 million state grant for a project closing a portion of that wound.