A decade ago, Alyssa Kent worked on the apartment conversion of a 26-story office tower in downtown, but she always knew driving into the city that 55 Elm St. — then the offices of the attorney general and other state officers — was destined one day for housing.
“It was just a pretty perfect location,” Kent, now senior development manager at Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, said, with Bushnell Park across the street and the heart of downtown Hartford just a short walk away. “These things just take time.”
Norwalk-based Spinnaker hosted a grand opening marking its $67 million conversion of the 1926 structure into 160 apartments, rechristened “The 55 Elm Club.” The name is meant to encourage the early formation of a neighborhood community while the area around the 5-story building — known as “Bushnell South” — evolves and develops in the years ahead.
Clayton Fowler, Spinnaker’s chairman and chief executive, said Wednesday he remains bullish on housing development in Hartford, and he hopes to break ground on new apartment buildings on the parking lots surrounding The 55 Elm Club in the next year.
“Hartford — it’s got a really wonderful downtown,” Fowler said, in an interview. “It’s a baby Boston. It has been somewhat depopulated by office vacancies, for sure, and that’s a problem. But some of them are coming back.”
Clayton Fowler, chairman and chief executive of Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, outside the front entrance of The 55 Elm Club in downtown Hartford across from Bushnell Park. Spinnaker’s $67 million conversion of the former state office building marked a grand opening Wednesday. (Photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/Hartford Courant)
Fowler said projects like conversion of 55 Elm are shrinking the amount of office space in the city and shifting it to housing — more of which is anticipated in the next few years, aided by low-cost loans from the Capital Region Development Authority. Demand for apartments in the downtown area remain strong, with projects developed in the last decade, generally remaining at occupancies of 90% or better.
But more housing is needed, Fowler said.
“We need to put people downtown,” Fowler said. “People like the downtown amenities. People like to walk to get a coffee. They like to walk to a restaurant. Bushnell Park is an incredible urban amenity. We’re trying to knit together the business district in town and the government and the health district in town, and this is a key piece.”
‘Long-and-winding road’
State taxpayers have a significant stake in the conversion of 55 Elm with a $13.5 million, CRDA loan. CRDA also has approved $8 million in loans for each of the next two phases around 55 Elm, new construction that has price tags of $63 million and $71 million, for a total of nearly 240 apartments.
The timing of development on the largest parking lots in Bushnell South — a 20-acre area near the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and bisected by Capitol Avenue —are uncertain while decisions are made about potential housing conversions of huge blocks of vacant office space in the heart of downtown.
Leasing agent Tiia Carter adjusts a candle on a dining room table in a one-bedroom apartment at The 55 Elm Club in Hartford. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
But some projects in Bushnell South, including the conversion of two, historic buildings near the corner Trinity and Elm streets into residential rentals are moving ahead.
The grand opening at The 55 Elm Club showed off the history of the buildings in its majestic lobby with its soaring classical columns. The building was designed by James Gamble Ross, a major contributor to the architecture at Yale University. The façade off 55 Elm was rendered to resemble a 15th-century Florentine palace for its original insurance company owner.
In his remarks at opening ceremonies Wednesday, Fowler pointed out the architectural appeal of the building, but noted its age also provided complications in the conversion, with unexpected surprises lurking, as apartments were fashioned out of former offices.
“This was a long-and-winding road,” Fowler said. “Facetiously, I say, this was a tooth pull with no novocaine.”
The Great Hall at The 55 Elm Club in Hartford. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Fowler declined to provide details of the complications, but the conversion was delayed at least a year. Late in 2024, for instance, an explosion and electrical fire under Elm Street limited the power provided to the building for an extended period of time.
Podcasts in a vault
As of last week, 26 of apartments were leased, according to Spinnaker.
Studios start at $1,440 a month for 460 square feet. One-bedroom apartments range in size from 484 to 1,021 square feet, and start at $1,620 a month. Two-bedroom untis range in size from 1,064 to 1,490 square feet, with rents starting at $2,695. Three-bedroom rentals also will be available, but information about them was not available on the building’s web site Wednesday.
Rents do not include additional fees for such services as trash collection and cable service.
Alyssa Kent, senior development manager at Spinnaker, stands inside a former vault being converted into two podcast recording booths in the basement of The 55 Elm Club in Hartford, (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Of the total apartments, 20% are reserved at below-market rents for tenants with low- and moderate-incomes.
The apartments, most of which vary in layout because of the conversion from office space, include quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances and pendant lighting in the kitchens. The ceilings soar, with some as much as 20 feet high.
As part of the design, original ribbed radiators were kept as a nod to history but no longer operate. Wall-mounted units provide both heating and cooling.
Kent said the large, “Great Hall” a few steps up from the lobby will eventually host a restaurant and serve as a space where tenants and the public will mingle, creating the feel of a hotel. There also are a dozen co-working spaces, some of which could be leased by the month by people who don’t live in the building, Kent said.
A billiards room has been shaped in what was once the attorney general’s office.
The front desk at The 55 Elm Club in Hartford. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
In what was once the basement of the building, a speakeasy-style lounge is now being created, along with two podcast spaces carved out of what was a vault. In addition, there is a fitness center and additional laundry space, though the majority of apartments have their own washers and dryers.
During Thursday’s grand opening ceremony, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said the 55 Elm Club project is the birth of a new neighborhood around Bushnell Park that has long held for potential for housing.
The addition of more housing will help place the park — the crown jewel of the city’s expansive park system — more centrally in downtown. That’s especially true, Arulampalam said, especially as development extends to the south, connecting the park in a more walkable way to the hospital district, Park Street and beyond, Arulampalam said.
“It has sat on the edge of our downtown for far too long,” Arulampalam said.
Gov. Ned Lamont said projects such as the conversion of 55 Elm will bring more people back to Hartford and other cities in Connecticut.
A ceremony marked the opening of The 55 Elm Club in downtown Hartford, part of Hartford’s Bushnell South redevelopment and across from Bushnell Park. From left to right are Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority; Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam; Christian Von Ancken, senior vice president, M & T Bank; Clayton Fowler, chairman and chief executive of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners; Gov. Ned Lamont; David Griggs, president and chief executive, MetroHartford Alliance. (photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/Hartford Courant)
“Our cities used to be 30, 40, 50% bigger, going back 50-plus years ago,” Lamont said. “But they are coming back. We’re growing. People want to be here. This looks like it is going to be a remarkable building.”
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
