$367M Connecticut Children’s Hartford expansion stirs debate with $47M parking garage

HARTFORD — An expansion of Connecticut Children’s in Hartford that would roughly double the size of the hospital could come with an equally imposing $47 million parking garage on the opposite side of Washington Street, rising as high as 8 stories with 900 parking spaces.

The proposed parking garage, at the southwest corner of Washington and Lincoln streets, would accompany a new, $280 million tower now under construction across the street on Connecticut Children’s campus.

The garage, which would be connected to the hospital via a pedestrian skywalk, is critical to the expansion, the hospital says, and will provide parking for hundreds of new employees Connecticut Children’s expects to hire and convenient access for an increased number of patients.

Currently, the hospital leases parking in multiple places. The new garage would give patients, visitors and employees a dedicated parking option, Connecticut Children’s said.

But the garage also is stirring debate in the city’s surrounding Frog Hollow neighborhood, not only for its size but for a design that doesn’t do enough to add life to the streetscape and better blend into the neighborhood.

The project illustrates the tension that exists between hospitals in urban areas that want to expand and innovate, and the older, sometimes historic communities that surround them. In Hartford, the proposal also comes as parking throughout Hartford — particularly downtown — is increasingly being debated and whether its existence is holding back more mass transit alternatives.

Neighborhood leaders in Frog Hollow are quick to acknowledge the contributions to medicine made by Connecticut Children’s. They strongly supported the 195,000-square foot tower, which will get a ceremonial groundbreaking April 28.

But some of those leaders are equally fast to point out that existing parking garages in the hospital district along Washington Street that encompasses Connecticut Children’s and Hartford Hospital already present a physical barrier of sorts to the surrounding neighborhood.

“To further that, i.e. just build a pure parking garage that will further wall off their community from ours does nothing, in my mind, to benefit the neighborhood nor does it help them become a more integral part of our neighborhood and community,” Aaron Gill, a longtime Frog Hollow resident and activist, said.

Connecticut Children’s said it has worked with the Frog Hollow Neighborhood Revitalization Zone since last fall to improve its design, adding more storefront space and cloaking the garage with a mesh that would mask the parking decks that could be covered with murals designed by local artists.

The hospital said it also has made concessions on reducing the height of the structure on Lincoln Street to better blend with its residential nature. Residents of that street also would be able to park for free during snowplowing and trash collection.

“The reality is: we, one, can only afford so much,” Bob Duncan, Connecticut Children’s chief operating officer, said, noting that the most recent designs have evolved from discussions with the NRZ. “We’re in the hospital business. We take care of kids. That’s what we do.”

The cost of the parking garage already has grown from an initial $28 million, pushed higher not only by design changes but also the higher cost of materials and persistent supply-chain troubles, Duncan said.

More can be done

Frog Hollow’s Gill and others in the neighborhood argue more can be done with the facade of the structure, perhaps adding office space on a third upper floor that could also be used by the hospital.

In addition, measures could be taken to reduce overall parking, such as eliminating free parking for employees to encourage other transportation alternatives. An overall reduction in parking demand could help chip away at poor air quality and higher childhood asthma rates, they say.

Duncan said imposing parking fees on employees would put Connecticut Children’s at a recruitment disadvantage. The hospital’s two main competitors in Hartford — Hartford Hospital and St. Francis Hospital — don’t charge employees, Duncan said.

“I’m sure you’re well aware of the recruitment wars and the shortage of staffing that we have in health care at this given time,” Duncan said.

Duncan said air pollution is just one part of a complex mix affecting asthma rates that also includes cigarette smoking, animal dander, dust, mites and indoor pollution.

“The idea of a car driving, pulling in and parking versus driving around the neighborhood, looking for parking at street level,” Duncan said. “You’re using more energy and creating more pollution.”

The garage proposal is still in the early stages and would require approvals from the city’s historic preservation commission and its planning and zoning commission. If approved, construction of the garage would not begin until early next year, to be timed with the completion of the new tower, expected in late 2025.

In an unusual move, the NRZ recently voted neither to offer a letter of support nor to oppose the garage. Instead, the NRZ decided to draft a letter with the pluses and the minuses of the garage project, clearly signaling it wants more discussion with the hospital.

“There is opportunity for discussion, and maybe if we can move the needle a little further, we can actually get to where the NRZ may support the project,” Carey Shea, co-chair of the NRZ in Frog Hollow, said. “But I don’t think we’re there right yet. But I also don’t think we’re ready to cease discussions. We’re still open to bringing good ideas forward.”

‘Not just put up, but kept up’

The parking garage proposal — and Connecticut Children’s new tower — also are part of a larger plan by the city that envisions the Washington Street corridor as a health and innovation corridor, anchored by Connecticut Children’s and Hartford Hospital. The corridor was listed in the plan as one of the 10 projects that could transform the city by 2035, Hartford’s 400th anniversary.

At the center of Connecticut Children’s expansion is a move into fetal care from its traditional pediatric care roots. Fetal care often includes surgery inside the womb to improve chances of survival. The hospital also seeks to build on specialized treatments for rare bone diseases. Both aim at raising the hospital’s profile nationally.

For Frog Hollow, the expansion and parking garage project also has a third component: a mixed-use development on the site of a former car wash on the northeast corner of Washington and Lincoln. The hospital purchased the property last year and is now using it as a staging area for construction. Connecticut Children’s has committed to securing a developer for the property, after the new tower and garage are completed.

But to build the parking garage, there is a cost to neighborhood.

The structure would encroach on a historic district, requiring the acquisition and demolition of four houses on Lincoln Street. Lincoln Street is part of a historic district created in 2003 of mostly two, two-family structures built between 1890 and 1915.

The project also would include buying and razing the J Restaurant and Bar building at 297 Washington St., a fixture for more than 50 years. J Restaurant and its predecessor, Pizza Plus, have been operated by two generations of the Dikegoros family.

Jordan Dikegoros, the restaurant’s owner, declined to comment on the project. But hospital officials told a recent meeting of the Frog Hollow NRZ that Dikegoros is considering moving into some of the storefront space in the proposed garage.

The garage would be built, owned and operated by LAZ Parking Realty Investors, an arm of the Hartford-based parking giant. The hospital will lease it and through those payments will eventually pay for the construction, Duncan said.

At a recent NRZ meeting, even those who support the parking garage still have concerns.

Andrea Richardson, a property owner on nearby Madison Street and an employee at Connecticut Children’s, observed that the existing garages aren’t that attractive, and she wondered, as time passes, what would happen to the proposed garage.

“We’re talking about this happening now,” Richardson said. “But then, 5, 10 years from now, what is that structure going to look like? It just needs to be, not just put up, but kept up.”

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.