New condos coming to edge of Batterson Park in New Britain

A mix of two- and three-bedroom condominiums are about to be built in New Britain near the southwestern edge of Batterson Park.

The wooded field behind Frisbie’s Dairy Barn along Farmington Avenue will be cleared this summer, and new housing will be built starting later in the year and continuing through late 2024, according to property owner and developer Michael Frisbie.

The 22 new units will be the city’s first new large-scale or moderate-scale condominium project in years. New Britain is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of new apartment construction, but the condo market has been unchanged.

“This is adding to our housing stock, providing a little more of a variety beyond just the (new) apartments being built,” Jack Benjamin, the city’s director of planning and development, said Tuesday at a groundbreaking for the project. “There will be condominiums, town home style, here.”

Called Alexander Place at Batterson Park, the new development should be completed in a year to a year and a half, Frisbie said Tuesday.

Based on the economy this month, the two-bedroom condos will be priced from the mid-$200,000 range to the low $300,000s, while the three-bedroom units will range from the mid-$300,000s to the high $300,000s, Frisbie said.

But as with most developers in this time of construction inflation, economic uncertainty and supply chain disruptions, he acknowledged that could change in the next year. The company will build each unit at 2,300 square feet, he said, and will determine from market reaction how many will be configured with two bedrooms and how many with three.

Nine years ago, Frisbie built the Frisbie Dairy Barn and Noble gas station on the corner of Farmington Avenue and Alexander Road. He and his business partner, Abdul Tammo, have since built nine other Noble service stations around the state, and envision seven more this year.

As part of that small commercial complex, Frisbie is clearing a small parcel between the ice cream shop and gas station; it will become a car wash, he said.

The condo complex will be directly behind the gas station. Noble plans a new road with both ends on Alexander that will curve through the property and serve the driveway of each condo.

The undeveloped condo land is part of the corner parcel that Noble bought at Farmington and Alexander for $1.6 million in 2014.

“We’ve been talking a lot lately about the transformation our city is undergoing and the way we’re purposefully creating opportunities for growth in every single neighborhood,” Mayor Erin Stewart said at the ceremony. “I keep saying we’re rebuilding our city block by block.

“Alexander Place at Batterson Park will give those looking to live here in New Britain a unique opportunity to purchase their own beautiful home in a beautiful area of our city,” she said.

Stewart said she thinks the units will appeal to single, young people as well as young families who want to own but don’t want the maintenance demands of a single-family house. Older residents who want to downsize and get away from yard maintenance could also be buyers, she said.

“With the apartments that we’re adding to our downtown, we need somewhere for people to graduate to, have homeownership. It’s a very common theme I hear, ‘Do you have any more condos?’ There’s going to be more options than Brittany Farms,” Stewart said, referring to the large condo complex about 2 miles to the northeast.