Focus on Hartford, January 2004

H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
focus on
Hartford
Capital
Gains
Hartford is revitalizing its
status as the gateway to
New England
by Bob Woods
the state capitol
Bushnell Park provides a lovely and inviting contrast
to the grand architecture of the building (1878).
“I think this is the best built and
the handsomest town I have ever
seen,” wrote the well-traveled
Mark Twain of Hartford
a few years before moving to
the city in 1871 and building
a whimsical mansion on
Farmington Avenue. The
famously mustachioed man
of letters must have taken great
comfort in Connecticut’s capital,
for it was here that he produced
some of his best works.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY: KAREN O’MAXFIELD
U S A I RWAY S
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★ JANUARY 2004
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H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
C A P I T A L
GOINGS ON
Festival of Lights on
Constitution Plaza
The Amistad is a favorite
spot for tourists
A volunteer for the
Hartford Blooms project
Atrium at the
Goodwin Hotel
A R I C H N E S S O F I T S H I S T O R Y , D I V E R S I T Y O F I T S C U LT U R E , A N D T H E S T R E N G T H O F I T S P E O P L E
A R I C H N E S S O F I T S H I S T O R Y , D I V E R S I T Y O F I T S C U LT U R E , A N D T H E S T R E N G T H O F I T S P E O P L E
Hartford is a gold mine of
history, arts, and culture.
The area offers a wide
variety of sights, sounds,
and tastes that mix the
past with the present.
G A I N S
Hartford, like Twain’s inimitable writings, has Airport recently opened a new terminal and
since withstood the test of time and remains concourse. All this activity naturally creates
inspiring and entertaining, as well as sturdy and more jobs.
handsome. Today, in the spirit of Tom Sawyer’s
The improvements at Capital Community
fence-painting exploits, the city is getting a fresh College exemplify ongoing enhancements of the
coat of rejuvenation. Everywhere you look, from region’s so-called Knowledge Corridor, which
the ambitious Adriaen’s Landing building project stretches north to Springfield, Massachusetts. It
downtown to the new season of Broadway plays comprises 32 higher-education institutions,
at The Bushnell, Hartford is teeming with life. among them the University of Hartford and
“We really are in the throes of a renaissance,” says Trinity College, and serves more than 120,000
Harry H. Freeman, Executive Director of the students. There are educational programs to procity’s Economic Development Commission.
mote work-force development, marketing venWhat seems to be
tures to attract certain
ART FOR ALL
the key to Hartford’s
industries and a unitrebirth is that its deep
ed boost to tourism
roots as a Northeast
under the Knowledge
commercial, manufacCorridor umbrella.
turing and cultural
“Universities, colleges,
center never really
and medical centers
died. They withered
play larger and larger
some as the city’s
roles in the civic life
economy struggled
outside their institualong with that of
tions,” says University
other industrial hubs
of Hartford President
in the mid 20th cenWalter Harrison.
tury, but Hartford’s
After work and
infrastructure stayed
school, there are abunintact. So while the
dant playtime opporaddition of a conventunities in Hartford,
tion center and a coltoo. “We have an
lege football stadium
amazing diversity of
certainly strengthens
quality cultural acits core, making people
tivities here,” says Ken
aware of what’s alKahn, Executive Direcready in and around
tor of the Greater
Hartford is driving
Hartford Arts Council.
much of the revitalizaHe points to art at the
Burr Mall Downtown
tion effort.
Wadsworth Atheneum,
The robin is Connecticut’s official state bird, plays at the Hartford Stage, films at Trinity
though the crane—of the construction vari- College, and music of every variety at venues
ety––might as well be Hartford’s nowadays. citywide.
Besides Adriaen’s Landing, featuring the largest
The Arts Council is one of 10 local organizaconvention facility between New York and tions collaborating on the Hartford Image
Boston, a 400-room Marriott hotel and a resi- Project, implemented two years ago to raise
dential, retail and entertainment district, other awareness of the region’s offerings among residowntown projects include sprucing up the dents and visitors. “I guess we’ll call it ‘eclectic,’ ”
Connecticut river front and the relocation of Twain once remarked in trying to describe
Capital Community College. New housing devel- his odd manse on Farmington Avenue. He
opments are sprouting up in the surrounding could easily use the same word to characterize
towns, and ever-growing Bradley International present-day Hartford.
stegosaurus
sculpture
g re a t e r h a r t f o rd i s a n e n t e r t a i n m e n t , m e e t i n g s & c o n v e n t i o n s, t ra v e l , a n d b u s i n e s s c e n t e r
60
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★ JANUARY 2004
M
E
T
R
O
HARTFORD.
one smart move.
  
smart for business. smart for life.
#1 in gross domestic
product per capita in
the world
A place of genius is what some are
calling us. Where the pioneers and
innovators of the past are joined
with the highly educated and
productive workforce of today.
#2 in labor productivity
in the world
#3 in readiness for the
knowledge based new
economy in the nation
#5 in attracting venture
capital in the nation
top 6% of North
American regions
for the arts
www.metrohartford.com
All in one region.
METRO HARTFORD.
the next move
is yours.
For more information, email
[email protected] or call
1.860.525.4451, ext. 284 today.
Ask for John Shemo, Vice President and Director of
Economic Development, MetroHartford Alliance.
H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
Feet on the Street:
a City’s Renaissance
BIZ NOTES
Doings
Downtown
❶ Hartford, Connecticut’s bustling
Capital City is the economic
cultural anchor of southern
New England.
❷ Hartford is building an entirely
new array of facilities, amenities,
and attractions at the stunning
Connecticut river front.
❸ Hartford’s new 550,000-squarefoot Connecticut Convention
Center is scheduled to open
in 2005.
❹ Adriaen’s Landing, Hartford’s
new river front convention
destination will include shops,
restaurants, and entertainment
in the heart of an authentic
New England downtown.
❺ Hartford's restaurants sizzle with
authentic ambiance and diverse
cuisine, including American,
Irish, Brazilian, Afghan, Cajun,
Italian, French, Puerto Rican,
Portuguese, Pan-Asian,
Mediterranean, Middle Eastern,
Vietnamese, and West Indian.
❻ Hartford's downtown and
suburban corporate campuses
are home to diverse businesses
and industries. Financial services,
aerospace and precision
manufacturing, information
technology, distribution and
logistics, and health and medical
industries are all thriving here.
Playing the Blues—
a Holmes Brother
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D E V E L O P M E N T
by Leonard Felson
In many ways, Hartford, Connecticut, 10
years ago–even a few years ago–resembled many
old industrial Northern cities whose economic
base had long moved South, offshore or become
victim to the corporate takeovers of the late ’80s
and early ’90s. And yet civic leaders never
stopped talking about ways to reinvigorate a city
that at the turn of the last century was one of the
most robust centers of commerce in the United
States. Study after study was commissioned.
Ambitious projects were proposed. Nothing got
done. Until now.
Hartford’s time has finally arrived as more
than $2 billion in new developments are underway or about to break ground throughout this
800-square-mile, southern–New England metropolitan region of more than 850,000. (Hartford
itself, Connecticut’s capital, is a compact city of
18.5 square miles with 122,000 population.)
The most dramatic project along the banks of
the Connecticut River is Adriaen’s Landing
(named for a Dutch explorer). It’s the centerpiece of a state initiative led by Connecticut’s
Gov. John G. Rowland who pushed lawmakers to
invest $770 million into a massive downtown
development strategy. Scheduled to open next
year, it will include a convention center, hotel,
and a new urban neighborhood of street-level
shops, restaurants, and apartments, all designed
to put “feet on the street,” as one urban designer put it and create a more vibrant center city.
But that only scratches the surface of
Hartford’s economic revitalization.
About 1,000 more downtown apartment
units in various stages of construction or
planning are scheduled to open over the
next few years. A new community college
campus with more than 3,000 students
opened on Main Street in 2002 in a
restored art-deco building, known locally
as the G. Fox Building, which once was
the department store to shop. Across the
Connecticut River in East Hartford, a
new 40,000-seat football stadium
opened last summer for the University
of Connecticut Huskies. It also
played host to two sold-out Bruce
Springsteen concerts last fall. Fifteen
★ JANUARY 2004
miles north, Bradley International Airport has
expanded with a $200 million state-of-the-art
terminal to accommodate growing passenger
and cargo traffic.
Why all the new interest in Hartford?
Adriaen’s Landing and the state’s financial
commitment partly explain why other private
developers are investing in new projects, as they
sense new opportunities in a region of the
Northeast where older buildings and land are a
relative bargain. Another reason is that a twodecades long effort to restore access to the
Connecticut River, blocked for decades by a
flood-control dike and I-91, has finally come to
fruition with promenades, parks, an amphitheater for concerts, and a plaza that connects the
river front to downtown. As a result, the nearly
$60 million spent so far on river front projects
have not only recaptured a natural and cultural
asset—once literally the gateway to the city—but
they’ve also given acres of nearby land, used as
parking lots, new value as waterfront property,
and developers are rushing to capitalize on it.
Designed by
George Keller, the
Soldiers and Sailors
Memorial Arch
was the first and largest
Civil War monument
built in the U.S.
If you believe that happiness is a way of traveling through life,
Have we got an airport for you.
Bradley International. The convenient gateway to New England.
BDL
E C O N O M I C
Located minutes from Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts, Bradley offers
a new kind of air travel experience. Convenient. Stress-free. And easily accessible to many
destinations. Bradley lands you right in the heart of New England, with everything you need
for business or vacation travel within easy reach. So before you fly into Logan or LaGuardia,
consider Bradley. And take it easy on yourself.
www.bradleyairport.com
H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
E C O N O M I C
Mark Twain Days
Celebration
Free concerts, a frog-jumping contest,
a Wild West Show, and a weekend of fun each July
celebrate Hartford’s favorite literary son.
H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
D E V E L O P M E N T
The city’s economic development commission was revamped two years ago to
be more business-friendly and to help
streamline approval procedures at city hall.
Each of the past two years, the Hartford
Economic Development Commission has
visited more than 2,000 businesses and
about 150 new businesses have opened
over that period.
They include everything from new
kitchen-design centers to light-industrial
factories; new restaurants and bars, even a
hip, new women’s-high-fashion shop called
Fiona Stone behind the historic Goodwin
Hotel that looks more like something out
of New York’s Soho. It’s right down the
street from a trendy panini-and-wine
bistro called bin228 downtown. Last year,
McKinnon’s Irish Pub opened across from
the Hartford Civic Center, a hulking nearly
empty mall downtown that’s about to be
razed. In its place will rise a 32-story
luxury apartment tower with new shops,
restaurants and a fitness center.
“I’m investing in the future of Hartford,”
says the pub’s gutsy owner, Matthew
McKinnon Corey, a 40-year-old window
cleaner of the city’s skyscrapers. Like
several other entrepreneurs, he’s betting
that once Hartford is transformed into a
7-day-a-week, 24-hour city his pub will
become a thriving business and favorite
stop for new city dwellers. That kind of
outlook is a sea change in this region that
was hit hard by the recession of the ’90s,
not to mention changing economic forces
over the past several decades.
“People had really given up on the city,”
says Freeman. “Now people see the cranes
in the sky and say ‘They’re really doing it
this time.’ Firms are calling us.”
To cite a few key examples, Cigna, the
health care and financial-services company
with a large presence in the suburbs,
has moved 900 employees downtown.
Also, Travelers Property Casualty, based
in Hartford, underwent a $35-million
renovation of one of its office buildings
downtown and will be merging with the St.
Paul Companies.
E C O N O M I C
Indeed, with a strategic location almost
equidistant to New York and Boston, at
the intersection of two major interstate
highways, 20 minutes from a major airport
and within access of 100-million customers
within a 500-mile radius, metropolitan
Hartford is quietly becoming an attractive
new address in which to do business.
Just in the past year, for example, TJX
Companies, Inc., the corporate parent of
T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, broke ground on
a 400,000-square-foot, $70-million distribution center in the northwestern suburb of
Bloomfield. Across the street, Pepperidge
Farms opened a new 265,000-squarefoot bakery and distribution center. In
neighboring Windsor, just north of
Hartford, Acumentrics, a fuel-cell maker,
is moving into a new hi-tech-factory space.
In Windsor Locks, next to Bradley airport,
Ford Motor Co., is opening a $10-million
regional parts-distribution center. And in
suburbs throughout metro Hartford,
several real estate and development
firms, including Griffin Land, one of the
D E V E L O P M E N T
largest landholders in Connecticut, the
New Boston Fund, and Casle Corp., are
preparing so-called shovel-ready sites that
already have been granted all necessary
permits so prospective tenants can get fasttrack service and be in new buildings within months.
“There’s a new confidence here,”
says Sandra B. Johnson, vice president
and business-development officer for
the MetroHartford Alliance, a regional
economic-development organization that
works closely with city business leaders as
well as municipal officials in the 34 other
towns surrounding the capital. A dozen
years ago, metro Hartford didn’t even
have a regional economic-development
organization like Johnson’s, a vestige
of New England’s independent everytown-for-itself mentality that no longer
works effectively in a global economy.
Which is another reason why the region is
on the move, says Fred Carstensen, director
of the Connecticut Center for Economic
Analysis. To be a competitive player in a
The Colt
Firearms Factory
The dome atop the Colt Firearms Factory is one of
the most recognizable landmarks in Hartford’s
skyline. Colt’s manufacturing facility opened in 1855
and is being renovated into 300 loft apartments.
We Could Tell You Stories.
artford, Connecticut has always liked a good story.
After all, Mark Twain penned Tom Sawyer and
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while residing in
Hartford. And Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, also lived in Hartford. Of course, all of this
was possible thanks to Noah Webster who compiled America’s
first dictionary, and whose childhood home is located in West
Hartford. These fascinating homes are open to the public for
exploring chapters of historic fun. The fact is, Greater Hartford
is America’s home for literature, art
and history. And if we may brag,
we think we did an extraordinary
job in creating the first written
Constitution.
Call For A Free Vacation Book
1-800-793-4480
www.enjoyhartford.com
Write Your Ticket To A Great Getaway!
H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
E C O N O M I C
ARTS ALIVE
The Bushnell
The Bushnell
SOUTH GREEN NEIGHBORHOOD
is Connecticut’s premier
performing-arts center,
hosting more than 500 events
a year to an annual audience
of more than 600,000 people.
The Bushnell is the
performance home of:
Hartford Symphony Orchestra
Dance Connecticut
Connecticut Opera
The Connecticut Forum
Three-quarters of The Bushnell's
yearly bookable dates are
utilized by local arts and
community productions.
The Bushnell provides leadership
and technical assistance to
community and arts
organizations, as well as rental
discounts of more than
$350,000 annually.
In 2001, The Bushnell completed
a $45 million expansion project
that added a second, 907-seat
theater to the existing historic
structure along with a great hall,
expanded meeting and reception
spaces, and a gift shop and cafe.
D E V E L O P M E N T
global economy, the region has to work as one line is beginning to catch the attention of comunit, he says. Indeed, he notes, when you add pany site selectors who are often for the first time
Springfield, Mass., just 30 minutes north of giving Hartford a look.
Hartford to the economic metro region, the
Besides national brand names like those that
population grows to about 1.6 million, “and that are based here, such as ESPN, Aetna, United
gets you on the radar screen of relocation-site Technologies, and The Hartford, many businesses
consultants.”
are appreciating not only the city’s strategic locaTake, for example, the recent relationship tion, but also its proximity to great leisure
Hartford had with Cirque du Soleil, the activities: two hours from some of the best skiing
Montreal-based circus company that performs on the East Coast; an hour from the shore, close
across the globe. Last summer, for the first time enough to Boston and New York. They’re
it chose Hartford for a
also recognizing that
F
E
S
T
I
V
A
L
S
&
A
R
T
two-week run that
its manageable size
extended into three
can be an asset with
weeks. It nearly sold
commutes below the
out each performance
national average; afwith ticket sales secfordable housing in
ond highest for any
leafy suburbs and
new market in North
quaint New England
America. One of the
villages that are all
reasons the company
close together.
chose Hartford was
But civic boosters
because it saw a marwill be the first to tell
ket of actually 1.8 milyou that Hartford
lion people, not just
itself boasts a surprisincluding Springfield,
ing amount of arts and
but adding the New
cultural offerings for
Haven, Connecticut
any city big or small.
Metro area as well,
Places Rated Almanac
just 45 minutes south
ranked metro Hartford
of Hartford. It also
in the top 10 percent
saw something else
of North American
many national retailers
cities for the quality or
already know: its demquantity of its arts and
ographics and high
culture. That includes
per capita income leveverything from the
Wadsworth Atheneum
els are similar to other
Hartford Symphony
strong markets like New York, Los Angeles, to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the
Chicago, and Atlanta.
Tony-award winning Hartford Stage Company
Hartford boosters always touted what they and The Mark Twain House and Museum.
said were under-appreciated gems and resources.
With the region’s financial-services and insurBut whether it was Yankee reserve or its inferior- ance companies as strong as they’ve ever been in
ity complex in the shadow of New York and recent years, manufacturing growing more efficient,
Boston, that message never went far, even among Fred Carstensen says, “Compared to where we were
residents who live here. That too is changing, five years ago, Hartford looks much healthier.”
thanks to a two-year-old marketing campaign
Peter Gioia, another economist with the
called “Hartford: New England’s Rising Star.” For Connecticut Business and Industry Association,
the first time in the region’s history, all 10 agen- adds, “We’ve got construction cranes going up
cies involved in the region’s revitalization are for the first time in a long time. That’s a bird that
speaking with one voice and brand. And the tag almost looked extinct.”
B U S H N E L L PA R K
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OR
©2003 The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
DINING IN
U S A I RWAY S
Y OUR RETIREMENT PLANS
MAKE Y OU FEEL LIKE THIS?
festival of
trees
places rated almanac lists hartford in the top ten percent of american cities for its arts and culture
66
DO
THIS?
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R E A L
E S T A T E
Return of
the Crane
by Leonard Felson
Constitution
Plaza
The nation’s first written constitution was drawn up
in Hartford in 1639. This plaza was the result of
a major renovation push downtown.
H A RT F O R D / N E W E N G L A N D ’ S R I S I N G S TA R
With more than a dozen residential and
commercial real-estate projects underway
or about to break ground, Hartford is on
the brink of a real-estate boom. As more
people move downtown, urban experts say,
new commercial development will follow,
and that in turn could spur more residential
growth.
What spurred the rush to develop? In
part, it was a $700-million investment by
Connecticut officials who put their weight
behind construction of Adriaen’s Landing,
a complex that includes a convention
center, Marriott hotel and new urban
neighborhood of shops, restaurants, and
apartments. It also was the near completion
of a pedestrian-friendly river front that for
the first time in 60 years links the city to the
Connecticut River. And, say real-estate
developers, it’s the fact that there’s been so
little construction in this southern–New
R E A L
England city for so many years, that there’s
strong demand for downtown housing that
caters to young professionals and empty
nesters who enjoy being close to work and
the vast array of culture here.
But the development is not limited to
Hartford itself, an area of only 18.5 square
miles with a population of 122,000. Indeed,
new real-estate projects—both commercial
and residential—extend throughout the
metro region of close to one-million people
in about 800 square miles.
Last fall, the first new apartment building, “55 On The Park,” opened, renting
quickly. “The excitement is incredible,” says
Fran DeMaio of New Haven, Connecticut–
based College Street, LLC, which developed
the project. Among those renting the oneand two-bedroom units were state employees who work nearby, lawyers from nearby
downtown high-rises, and empty nesters
from the suburbs. A 12-story former
Southern New England Telephone Co.
building that faces Bushnell Park, the new
124-unit apartments features 16-foot ceil-
ings, granite kitchen and bathroom countertops and stunning views. It also offers
something else hard to come by in cities like
Boston and New York: much lower rents—
ranging from $815 to $2,045.
Those rates—what the market commands here—normally would discourage
most developers from even considering
Hartford, but through state funding and the
use of tax credits—in this case, credits for
preserving an historic art deco building—
developers are finding ways to make the
math work.
Less than a block away, also facing
Bushnell Park, a nine-story 88-unit apartment building called Trumbull Centre is
under construction. Occupancy is scheduled for next year. Bounded by the Lewis
Street historic district, the project also
includes the restoration of about a dozen
other existing apartments in three residential buildings that date from the 19th and
early 20th centuries. Street-level shops and
a restaurant will open into an outdoor
pocket cafe facing the park, all features that
E S T A T E
Greenberg recommended to inject new
energy into downtown and put “feet on the
street,” as one urban planner describes one
of Greenberg’s goals.
That concept already is paying dividends
elsewhere. The art-deco G. Fox building, a
former 300,000-square-foot Main Street
department store, opened in 2002 as a renovated downtown campus for Capital
Community College. Today, more than
3,000 students walk through its doors, and
into nearby shops and restaurants. Another
former Main Street department-store building, the Sage-Allen, is about to be renovated as well, but into a 125-unit apartment
complex that will include units for graduate
students and corporate interns as well as
market-rate housing for the general public.
Yet those projects alone don’t begin to
describe the kind of transformation that
Hartford is poised to realize in the next
few years.
At the corner of Trumbull and Asylum
streets, arguably the heart of the city,
Boston-based Northland Investment Corp.,
Trinity College and
The Learning Corridor
Next door to the Trinity Campus are 4 public
schools on 16 acres who opened their
doors in September 2000, a centerpiece of
community revitalization.
AND A ROLLS ROYCE IS JUST A CAR.
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turn-of-the-century ambience, modern conveniences and a downtown
location just steps from everything that’s important to you. For the
discriminating traveler, there’s simply no place else to stay.
68
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One Haynes Street • Hartford, CT • 800-922-5006 www.goodwinhotel.com
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DID YOU
KNOW?
❶ Hartford’s Old State House
is the oldest state house
in America.
❷ The Bulkeley Bridge,
completed in 1905, is the
largest stone-arch bridge
in the world.
❸ The Hartford Courant is the
oldest continually published
newspaper in America.
❹ The first children's magazine
was published in 1789 in
Hartford, under the title
“The Children's Magazine.”
❺ In 1791, the first law book
containing the federal laws
of the country was published
in Hartford.
❻ The first author to submit a
typewritten manuscript to a
publisher was then-Hartfordresident Mark Twain.
vision plus energy
R E A L
❼ The Wadsworth Atheneum is
America's oldest public art
museum.
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Mark Twain made
his home in Hartford,
and once remarked,
“I think this is the
best-built and the
handsomest town I
have ever seen.”
will soon begin work on one of the cornerstones of a $700-million state-sponsored
strategy to revitalize downtown, the transformation of the aging Hartford Civic
Center Mall, a bunker-like structure that
failed as a retail draw. Instead, Northland is
razing the structure and creating what it
bills as a 24-hour neighborhood of apartments, shops, restaurants, and public spaces
called Town Square. It includes a 36-story
tower of 262 luxury apartments, 24-hour
security, parking, an indoor swimming
pool, and a health club. A mix of specialty
grocers, cafes and bakeries, boutiques, and
restaurants will fill 56,000 square feet along
Trumbull and Asylum streets, and another
93,000 square feet of office space will be
available as well.
“This is a tower that would stand out in
Boston or New York,” says Northland CEO
Larry Gottesdiener, “because in our opinion
that’s what people want here.”
Closer to the river front and walking distance to Adriaen’s Landing, work is about to
begin on “Front Street,” a 7.4–acre project
by New York–based Capital Properties.
Intended to create a new urban neighborhood, it will include at least 200 residential
units in five- or six-story buildings, with
retail space, including restaurants and grocers on street level. The project includes a
small plaza to accommodate musicians and
other street life, wide sidewalks and outdoor dining, as well as 1,100 parking spaces
in two garages that will be tucked away
behind restaurants and other buildings.
Richard Cohen, the president of Capital
Properties has already invested more than
$100 million in nearby Constitution Plaza,
a 1960s-era office complex that ironically
was created where the city’s original Front
Street stood.
Just south of downtown, Homes for
America Holdings, a Yonkers, New York–
based specialist in rehabilitating neglected
properties is converting more than 750,000
square feet of the former Colt Firearms
factory into more than 300 loft apartments
and 300,000 square feet of commercial
space. Called Colt Gateway, the $110million project, which is being built with
materials meant to evoke 1905—the apex of
E S T A T E
Colt’s industrial might—is also being
considered by Congress as a national park
that would be showcased in two museums
on the site. That would also make the spot a
tourist destination, advocates of the park
plan say.
Big real-estate projects aren’t all that’s
new in the city. A new initiative from City
Hall is pushing an increase in homeownership from 25 percent, the second lowest in
the United States, to 30 percent over the next
five years. And another program is encouraging new investments in neighborhoods.
Besides new hotels being developed in
Hartford, national chains are building new
hotels throughout the region in part to
accommodate the demand for rooms once
the Connecticut Convention Center is built.
And yet there’s still more; West
Hartford’s center, “the trendiest place in the
region,” according to one architect, is set to
nearly double the amount of commercial
and residential property, if town officials
approve a development called Blue Back
Square, named after native son Noah
Webster’s first dictionary. It would include
more than 200,000 square feet of shops,
restaurants and a Cineplex, 72,000 square
feet of offices above the shops, and 100
luxury apartments also atop the retail.
In Bloomfield, to Hartford’s northwest, Cigna, the nationally known
employee benefits company, is developing
a championship golf course, 150 singlefamily homes, 260 apartments, 200 of
which would be luxury units, a 275-room
hotel and conference center, 2-million
square feet of office space, and several
restaurants as part of a 600-acre redevelopment project, called Gillette Ridge.
And 10 miles east of Hartford in South
Windsor, developers are at work on
Evergreen Walk, a so-called “lifestyle
center,” which will include 14 stores occupying 285,000 square feet.
For more information on Greater Hartford,
visit hartford.com. Hartford Image Project
partners are dedicated to expanding
the Greater Hartford area as a center
for travel, arts, business, and meetings.
four stars
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U S A I RWAY S
Attaché
★ JANUARY 2004
71
Chart a Course
to Portfolio Stability
Wall Street Journal — “A multifaceted
gem in the nation’s insurance
capital, the Wadsworth Atheneum is
a large museum wrapped
inside a small one.”
The Associated Press —“One of the
A VISITOR’S GUIDE TO HARTFORD
finest museums in the country.”
600 Main Street, Hartford, Connecticut
www.wadsworthatheneum.org
The
Man
The
House
The Museum
INSPIRATION
For Generations
The Mark Twain Museum Center
is now open.
Residence Inn by Marriott
100 Dunfey Lane
Windsor, CT 06095
860-688-7474
800-331-3131
residenceinn.com/bdldf
© 1998 Residence Inn by Marriott, Inc.
72
Performance that stays the course
U S A I RWAY S
Attaché
★ JANUARY 2004
And it’s the perfect place to showcase
Twain’s wisdom, wit and times. With over
33,000 square feet, our new state-of-the art
building provides space for lectures and
educational programs. Brush up on Twain’s
biography with a special Ken Burns film.
Tour changing exhibits on Twain’s quotable
and notable contemporaries. Dine in our
new café. Too much for one visit? Do come
back. It’s all in the backyard of the Hartford
home where Twain penned his classics.
For hours and directions,
visit www.MarkTwainHouse.org,
or call 860.247.0998.
Visit the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
in Hartford’s historic Nook Farm for an
inspiring experience.
Take a guided tour of the beautifully
restored Victorian Gothic cottage and
stroll through the gardens, home to the
author of the best selling novel of the 19th
century. See the exhibition, “A Moral
Battle Cry for Freedom: Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
and peruse the Museum Shop.
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HARTFORD, CT
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WASHINGTON, DC
INDIANAPOLIS, IN