For years, the 26-story former Bank of America building at 777 Main St. stood as an empty symbol of downtown Hartford's malaise as a hub for employment and urban living.
Today, the skyscraper has been transformed with $85 million in private and public capital into 285 nearly full high-rise living spaces, with a bustling coffee shop and a food market occupying its streetfront commercial spaces. Soon, drugstore chain CVS will relocate its downtown store from across the street, to 777 Main.
Bruce Becker, the New Haven architect-developer who transformed 777 Main from office space to housing, says the building symbolizes something much more positive for Hartford.
"It shows that if something is worth doing in Hartford, it can get done,'' Becker said.
As one of the most complicated office-to-housing conversions ever in this state, it also stands, Becker and others say, as a monument to the deal-making ability and tenacity of the staff at the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), the quasi-public state agency whose roots date to 1998 to spark revitalization of Hartford first, followed by the region.
CRDA has had measurable success in its core mission of presiding over the creation of some 3,000 downtown living units — it's halfway there. But its ever-growing plate has been filled with many more responsibilities, some say too many.
In addition to housing, it manages the state's money-losing Hartford area entertainment/convention venues; oversees 16,600 garage and outdoor parking spaces, plus a central utility plant housed inside the convention center to heat and cool not just that huge building but most of Adriaen's Landing, including the Marriott Hotel and the Connecticut Science Center; oversees the state's investment in the New Haven Connecticut Open tennis tournament; and coordinated and oversaw the rehabilitation of a pair of Hartford office towers the state acquired to relocate several state agencies — 450 Columbus Blvd. and 55 Farmington Ave.
All of that not only adds to the complexity and responsibilities for fulfilling its mission, observers say, but has exposed CRDA to public criticism over plans for a $250 million makeover of the XL Center.
"The workload grows exponentially,'' said Michael W. Freimuth, a former Stamford economic-development director who has been CRDA's first executive director since 2012. "The tasks and responsibilities grow just about every year."
Seeded with two separate $60 million capital infusions, CRDA since its inception has leveraged that money into $373 million in assets on its books against liabilities totaling $149.7 million, according to its fiscal 2016 annual report. Both are up from a year earlier.
Freimuth has a staff of 11 who handle everything from underwriting and vetting redevelopment projects, to ensuring vendors are paid and the lights stay on at the Convention, XL and tennis centers and The Rent. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Jepsen: Letter From Federal Regulators Eases Concerns On Casino Expansion
The operators of Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun got another boost in their push for a casino in East Windsor, this time from the attorney general who had raised concerns that the expansion would danger revenue-sharing agreements with the state.
Attorney General George Jepsen said a letter from federal regulators is easing concerns that an expansion of casino gaming off the reservations of the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans would affect agreements that give the state 25 percent of monthly revenue from slot machines.
The issue has grown sensitive with the state's increasingly precarious budget situation. This year, the slots are forecast to bring $267 million to state coffers.
"The Department of Interior's letter appears to affirm that the department's policy and practice when reviewing amendments is not to disturb the underlying existing relationships among states and tribes," Jaclyn Falkowski, a spokeswoman for Jepsen, said in a statement. CLICK TITLE T CONTINUE