The interior of the second and third floors have already gone through demolition and the first floor’s exterior façade is in process of being spruced up. Thanks to $500,000 given by CL&P toward the rehab project, the three-story, blond-brick building at the corner of Ashley and Garden Street (207-213 Garden) is now moving closer to completion.
The rehab project, sponsored by the Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, INC. (NINA), was acquired in 2010 from what NINA is calling an “absentee investor.” Except for a pizza shop and package store on the first floor, the entire building (11,000 square feet) was vacant.
Moving forward, the plan is to maintain retail on the ground floor, while creating apartments on the second, and commercial space on the third. David Corrigan, the Program Manager for NINA, says the organization anticipates construction on the apartments will begin early in 2013. He says the apartments should be available to rent in early 2014. Rental rates will be determined closer to the date of completion.
This location in Asylum Hill is a short walk from Downtown and from several major employers, including The Hartford and Aetna.
What is being called the Zunner Building is only one of a dozen NINA projects. NINA says it “offer[s] beautiful, solid homes to low- and moderate-income families and individuals” in Asylum Hill.
Josh LaPorte
Does it not seem strange to put the residential sandwiched between commercial uses? I have always preferred to live on the top floor, for better views and more quiet.
I live on Ashley Street (in a home renovated by NINA) and support the idea of rehabilitating this building. I do hope that NINA will be careful to do a thorough and careful renovation on the structure. Our home has had numerous problems since we bought it, and while NINA has been cooperative about helping us straighten many of these issues out, it has still sullied the ownership experience.
My real concern about the retail level is the relative isolation of this location from a retail point of view. While the numerous offices in the vicinity would lead one to assume that the location has a lot of potential customers, many of these office workers won’t even walk to the parking lot where their cars are parked, and I’m not sure they will suddenly decide to patronize a restaurant or coffee shop located on Garden Street.