Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin can tout a long list of economic development accomplishments as he stares down his final year in office, but he still has much to advance before he leaves City Hall.
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…”
In its meeting Monday, Hartford’s City Council will consider giving property and tax breaks enabling two developments in blighted areas north of the city center.
City leaders propose to give four properties at the corner of Main and Ann Uccello Streets to a partnership of the nonprofit San Juan Center and apartments developer Carabetta Development LLC. Using these and four privately held properties, the partnership plans a $17.4 million project resulting in 43 apartments and 7,300 square feet of retail space in three buildings.
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.