With UConn’s campus now open, Hartford asks, ‘What’s next?’
Hartford — The dust is settling downtown in Connecticut’s capital city.
Dust from construction, that is.
While plenty of smaller projects are still underway, the grand opening of the University of Connecticut’s new branch campus Wednesday means for the first time in about a decade and a half, there is a lull in major redevelopment downtown.
And for the first time in two decades, the city has no concrete vision in place to guide farther development in the years to come.
Downtown redevelopment since the late 1990s has largely been driven by former Gov. John G. Rowland’s “Six Pillars” and the blueprint his administration developed with leaders in the private sector. The bulk of it ultimately became what is now known as Adriaen’s Landing and the Front Street District.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy updated the vision when he took office in 2011, making a greater push for downtown housing, while strongly backing the relocation of UConn’s branch campus from the suburbs to a new home in the city.
With UConn’s move into the once-vacant Hartford Times building on Prospect Street complete, the redevelopment efforts at the Adriaen’s Landing site from the riverfront to Main Street are now largely finished. One last apartment building is under construction on Arch Street, and a handful of retail spaces in the UConn building are still being completed as well.
But what major projects are coming next? That remains unclear.
Mounting challenges
What is clear is that two major projects that would have an outsized impact downtown remain on hold. Of course, this pause in development had not been planned originally.
The first of the two projects is the city’s ongoing major redevelopment of the area just north of I-84. Officials call it “DoNo,” or Downtown North. At its center is the recently completed minor league baseball stadium, Dunkin’ Donuts Park. A second wave of construction – mixed-use buildings surrounding the stadium – was supposed to be underway at this point.
But the city is tied up in a legal battle with the stadium’s developer, Centerplan Construction Co., which has put a hold on the project for months. It is unclear how long it will take for the dispute to be settled in court.
The second project is a proposal Malloy put forward earlier this year to spend $250 million on a top-to-bottom renovation of the city’s aging downtown arena, the XL Center. State lawmakers have yet to decide whether to approve it.
Even if a comprehensive blueprint for broad redevelopment existed, moving forward still would prove difficult, as both the city and state are struggling financially.
Hartford is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy or state takeover, prompting two of the three major credit ratings agencies to downgrade the city’s bonds to “junk” status. This limits the city’s ability to make any significant long-term investments.
The city has spent months awaiting a signal from the state legislature on whether a takeover is in the works or if bankruptcy remains the only alternative should circumstances necessitate action.
The indecision on the part of state officials is a product of the two-year, $3.5-billion deficit projected for this fiscal year and the next. Lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement on a budget despite the state being seven weeks into the new fiscal year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE