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CRDA Approves Funding For Two, Smaller-Scale Apartment Conversions

by KENNETH R. GOSSELIN

March 22, 2013

Two of the smaller-scale apartment conversions planned for downtown Hartford — on Allyn and Ann streets — were approved for funding late Thursday by the Capital Region Development Authority.

The CRDA approved $6.5 million for the conversion of 179 Allyn St. into 63 market-rate apartments — half in an equity investment and half in a below-market rate, second mortgage.

The conversion is expected to cost $14.7 million and take a year to complete. Dakota Partners, of Waltham, Mass., is purchasing the 1880s building out of a foreclosure and expects to start construction later this year.

Financing for the project also includes a $3.5 million bank loan, $2.4 million in state historic tax credits and $2.2 million in federal historic tax credits, according to CRDA documents.

The CRDA also backed a $3.5 million construction loan for creating 20 market-rate apartments at 201 Ann Uccello St., a former Masonic Hall. The loan would be refinanced to a second, below market-rate mortgage of $750,000 once the conversion is complete and leasing is well underway, CRDA’s executive director Michael W. Freimuth told me today.

The $4.1 million project, by owner Universal Enterprise LLC, is expected to take 12 months to complete.

The State Bond Commission must still approve the CRDA funding for the projects.