With construction at several sites under way or imminent, West Hartford’s town center is on the verge of a housing boom that will bring about 60 ultra-high-end condos along with 265 apartments ranging from affordably priced to luxury.
Most of the action is clustered around the Farmington Avenue and Trout Brook Drive intersection, where contractors have been working for months on three separate projects all within a few blocks of each other.
All five stories of The Byline on Farmington Avenue are nearly completed, much of the heavy construction at The Camelot just a block to the east is done, and the foundation and first-floor framing are emerging at the One West Hartford site just a block south.
Near the other end of the town center, pre-construction work is happening at the Center Park Place property at Arapahoe and LaSalle roads. Developers are pre-selling condos there with prices mostly from $1.5 million to $1.8 million, but ranging as high as $2.8 million.
In a suburb that’s already heavily built up, the new projects represent more intensive development of properties that had been taken up by smaller-scale uses.
The Camelot replaces a wornout low-cost hotel and a long-vacant night club, and The Byline uses land that previously had two non-descript and partly vacant office buildings. One West Hartford is rising where the Children’s Museum once stood; Kingswood Oxford School for decades leased the property to the nonprofit museum, but began looking for prospective buyers several years ago.
Taken together, the projects represent the biggest round of development in the town center since Blue Back Square. Some residents, mostly longtime homeowners, have complained on social media that traffic will get worse with more density. Others countered that new construction is evidence of confidence in the town and will provide needed housing.
Mayor Shari Cantor is firmly among the second group, and predicted benefits for residents and visitors as well as small businesses.
“We are thrilled to support these four new multifamily developments, which represent nearly $180 million of investment in our community,” she said Thursday. “They will provide residents with convenient access to public transportation, jobs, schools and parks, all within waking distance of our center.”
The four projects in the town center are:
The Byline, 920 Farmington Ave.
Avner Krohn’s Jasko Development is nearing the finish of an ambitious bid to build the first new rental housing in the town center in several years. Supply chain difficulties have pushed back completion, but Krohn anticipates finishing the five-floor building this fall. The Byline will have 36 one-bedroom apartments and 12 two-bedroom units, all ranging from 700 to nearly 1,400 square feet. Features include floor-to-ceiling windows, porcelain tile bathroom floors, smart home technology and in-unit washers and dryers. Two units are set aside as affordable; rents for the other 46 are advertised at $3,000 to $5,500.
The Camelot, 900 Farmington Ave.
The Camelot, an affordable housing apartment complex, replaces two longtime West Hartford eyesores: The rundown West Hartford Inn and the troubled restaurant and night club in front of it. The budget hotel building is being gutted with its 52 rooms converted into 24 new apartments; the restaurant that operated as Shish and later Los Imperios has been demolished to make way for a new five-story building with another 20 units. Honeycomb Real Estate Partners and the Vesta Corp. anticipate construction will be done in the spring of 2025. The mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments will be designated as affordable housing, with income limits ranging from 80% of the area’s median income to as low as 30%. Granite kitchen countertops, a state-of-the-art HVAC system and sleek, modern windows are among the features that the developers are promoting.
One West Hartford, 950 Trout Brook Drive
New York-based Continental Properties paid $10.5 million for the former Children’s Museum and its contractors have worked more than a year building the foundation there for the new five-story One West Hartford. Completion is expected in 2025 to early 2026. Continental has not disclosed pricing details or released renderings of the mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, but rents are certain to be hefty: The company describes its project as “the premier destination for modern, sustainable living” with “172 brand new, masterfully crafted luxury apartments … elegance is redefined at One West Hartford.” Nine units will be set aside for people earning no more than 80% of the area median income; the other 163 will be leased at market rates. Amenities will include a clubroom, fitness center, pool with cabanas, a co-working center, a golf simulator room and private dining.
Center Park Place, 2 Arapahoe Road
The only ownership-based project among the four is Center Park Place, envisioned as a mid-rise tower of high-end condos. Even though contractors haven’t begun building, pre-sales of the luxury units got under way this year. Prices that were put out this year raised eyebrows around central Connecticut: Prices were mostly in the $1.3 million to $1.8 million, but the premier apartment a sixth-floor, three-bedroom unit with three and a half bathrooms is listed at $2.8 million.
That unit is 2,685 square feet, and homeowners associations fees are estimated on realtor.com at $1,611 a month. The development team of Lexham Private Investors, Legacy Partners, and the Manafort family indicate that completion is anticipated sometime in 2026. Amenities include a pool, fitness center, and rooftop terrace and lounge. A second phase of the project will add another building, this one with apartments instead of condos
