Developers propose 670 apartments for Connecticut town

Developers plan to turn two high-profile parcels in West Hartford into mixed-use, multi-family complexes with nearly 700 units combined.

The first project is the 57-acre site of the former University of Connecticut campus, whose owner West Hartford 1, led by investor and developer Domenic Carpionato, plans to build a 492 apartment, mixed-use “neighborhood village,” We-Ha.com reports.

West Hartford 1’s plans, which are now before the town’s Design Review Advisory Committee, call for 392 of the 492 apartments to be in five, five-story buildings on the 24-acre east side of the property, the outlet reported. The other 100 units will be in eight, three-story, mixed-use buildings on the 33-acre west side of the property, along with boutique retailers, restaurants, a medical office, a spa, and a neighborhood market.

The apartments will be one and two bedrooms between 700 and 1,400 square feet, We-Ha.com says. The proposal will also include existing ballfields and walking trails for public use.

It’s an important project for the town as the former UConn campus is one of the last large open tracts of land in town. Previous efforts to redevelop the parcel include an attempt to turn the campus into a high-tech development called Fintech Village in 2018. Those efforts, by a group called Ideanomics, fell through, and the parcel has laid fallow for over a decade.

The plan must receive various town approvals and recommendations, as well as a likely zone change, as the parcel is currently zoned for single-family use. 

Separately, a developer paid $10.6 million for the 4-acre site of the former Children’s Museum in West Hartford, with an aim to construct a 172-unit luxury apartment complex, the Hartford Courant reported.

New York-based Continental Properties paid $2.7 million per acre for the parcel at 950 Troutbrook Drive. Colliers International in Hartford represented the seller, Kingswood Oxford, in the deal.

Continental plans to build a six-story building with two- and three-bedroom apartments, with amenities including an outdoor pool, dog park, co-work space and rooftop lounge. 

Last fall, the Town Council approved a zone change for the development. 

The sale represents the end of an era at the property, which served as home for the Children’s Museum — and the iconic Conny the Whale sculpture — for decades. The museum has temporarily relocated to the Emanuel Synagogue in town and is searching for a permanent home. 

Conny, meanwhile, moved across the street from the old museum location to the Trout Brook Greenway.

— Ted Glanzer