Hartford Gets $1.15M To Battle Blight, Develop Property: State

HARTFORD, CT — Future development in Hartford this week received an economic boost from the state via two separate grants awarded to help facilitate multiple developments in the city.

Gov, Ned Lamont Wednesday, Dec. 4, announced he has approved a series of state grants totaling $20 million to support the remediation and redevelopment of 21 blighted properties.

Those properties consist of 150 acres of contaminated land in 18 municipalities across Connecticut, including Hartford.

Funding approved for Hartford includes:

• $162,125 to the City of Hartford for the assessment of eight properties across the city totaling 2.36 acres.

Potential end uses for the vacant lots and abandoned buildings include residential development, a public library branch, social service operations through the House of Bread, and a digital inclusion center.

• $987,000 to the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, Inc. to abate hazardous building materials on the properties located at 20 and 30 Trinity St. and remove an underground storage tank.

Plans are to adaptively reuse and repurpose the former state-owned buildings for a 104-unit mixed-income residential and transit-oriented development.

The grants are being released through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program.

These state investments, state officials said, will leverage approximately $530 million in private investments and facilitate the creation of 1,392 units of new housing, as well as the growth of new businesses.

“All of these blighted properties have been vacant for years when we should be using them to grow new businesses and support the development of badly needed housing,” Lamont said in a statement.

“This series of state grants enables us to partner with developers who will take these zombie properties and bring them back from the dead, cleaning up contaminated land and bringing life back to these neighborhoods.”

“Under the leadership of Gov. Lamont, Connecticut continues to make impactful investments in our communities that are building vibrancy, creating jobs, and improving the lives of our residents,” said state Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Daniel O’Keefe.

“This latest round of brownfield investments is noteworthy for the high amount of private investment it is leveraging and for how it is helping to address one our state’s most pressing needs – increasing the supply of quality housing.”

For more information on Connecticut’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program, visit ctbrownfields.gov.