Amid development frenzy, Farmington could get hundreds — or perhaps 1,000 — new apartments
With recent approvals for large residential developments near UConn Health and close to the Big Bird bridge on Route 4, Farmington has slightly more than 750 apartments that could be built in the next year or two.
And if long-stalled plans for a complex in Unionville are revived, the total would top 1,000.
The wave of apartment construction that has hit central Connecticut for the past year is driving new projects in every town from Southington to Granby, but Farmington is among the communities where developers are showing the most interest.
The town has approved four separate, large-scale projects in the past year, with developers looking to construct anywhere from 131 to 224 apartments at each one. A fifth complex — at 268 units, even bigger than the others — was OK’d seven years ago, but builders haven’t broken ground yet.
Plans to build 131 apartments near the UConn Health Center and 224 in the former Marriott near I-84 won approval last year, and most recently Farmington planners gave the go-ahead for 204 on Batterson Park Road and another 199 on property surrounding the warehouse that houses Auto Plus, sometimes called the McCallum Building, near the Big Bird bridge.
For the McCallum project, attorney Peter Alter told the planning and zoning commission that developers JRF Management LLC and Kaoud Real Estate Development LLC plan a mix-used project that will have more than 50,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.
The project will have 22 apartments in the mixed-use section on the western end of the 15-acre property, and 177 more in a series of new buildings that will be built fronting the Farmington River.
“These are only approximate numbers but we are projecting 94 one-bedroom and 105 two-bedroom units,” Alter told commissioners.
Developers will try to attract a bike shop for a 1,200-square-foot shop they plan in the commercial section. The project is directly along the Farmington River Trail, a popular Canton-to-Farmington bike and walking path. It links to the much longer Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, which is eventually expected to link New Haven and Northampton, Massachusetts.
Cycling advocates would like a bike shop with repair and parts services near that section of the trail, but Alter said the developers cannot promise it.
“A bike shop would be very good. We can’t guarantee if that tenant that will make itself available to occupy that space. We don’t want someone to think there will automatically be a bike shop in the development,” he said.
Alter said the developer have spent about four years looking at ways to reuse the McCallum Building, a nearly century-old grain storage building. Kaoud Real Estate Development has experience with mixed-use buildings, Alter said, and operates a four-story building on West Hartford’s South Main Street with first-floor retail and three floors of apartments.
The commission approved the McCallum project, and last week gave Pond LLC the go-ahead to build 199 apartments on 34 acres behind the Pond View Corporate Center near Batterson Park.
Last spring, a developer won approval to convert the Hartford Marriott Farmington on Farm Springs Road into apartments. In October, GF8 Farm Springs LLC led a partnership that bought the property for more than $20 million; so far, it has sought no revision to the previous developer’s zoning approval.
A 10-acre parcel on Perry Street in Unionville was approved for 268 apartments in 2015. Property owner Robert Landino said this winter that he has the land under contract to sell to a new developer, but it’s unclear whether the buyer intends to modify Landino’s original plan.
And Farmington-based Metro Realty Group is waiting to resolve court challenges to its 131-unit plan. The company intends to build apartments on the opposite side of Farmington Avenue from the UConn Health Center; nearby landowners are trying to block that project in court.
