When Sami Abunasra acquired the former Puritan Furniture Store on New Britain Avenue in the Elmwood section of West Hartford in 2020, he originally planned to use the site only for furniture retail, as an addition to the Ashley HomeStore locations he owns and operates in Manchester and Newington.
But the longer he looked at plans for the address, and the more he spoke with town officials about how they would like to see the area develop, Abunasra came around to the idea of building a mixed-use residential and commercial project, in which his store would serve as a tenant.
East Hartford on Tuesday approved tax abatements worth more than $15 million for a massive apartment complex proposed for the long-vacant Showcase Cinemas site, the latest in a series of municipal tax incentives for developers around central Connecticut.
Developers of the former Showcase Cinema property in East Hartford discussed their plans to build as many as 420 upscale apartments at the Silver Lane site during a recent special meeting of the Town Council, saying they also plan to seek a nearly three-decade tax abatement on the project.
The Town Council in September voted 6-3 along party lines to authorize the mayor to execute a purchase and sale agreement of $1 for the property, a process that could take up to 18 months.
The transit-oriented initiative is aimed at allowing denser projects than normally permitted elsewhere in town to take advantage of two busway stations on the corridor.