Where is Hartford headed? Suzanne M. Hopgood walks and talks the city as she leaves influential Capital Region Development Authority board.

Pick an intersection in downtown Hartford, turn in almost any direction and there’s bound to be one building touched by the stewardship of the Capital Region Development Authority.

On a recent morning, Suzanne M. Hopgood stands at the corner of Ann Uccello and Allyn streets waiting for a reporter who wants to talk about her decision to step down after a decade serving as the first board chair of the influential quasi-public agency.

Visible behind her are four apartment conversion projects totaling $45 million that added 183 rentals, with CRDA financing nearly $20 million in low-cost, state taxpayer-backed loans. But this morning, what is capturing Hopgood’s attention is the ear-splitting sound of a jackhammer truck pounding away at the rear of the XL Center arena.

“We’ve waited for this for 10 years,” Hopgood said.

The construction — the addition of a sports-betting venue — is the first change in decades to this side of the arena. The project also is part of a much larger vision for making the aging XL viable long term and financially independent, a challenge that has been among the toughest of Hopgood’s tenure at CRDA.

But Hopgood, 73, never shied away from rugged business terrain.

In 1979, she relocated to Hartford to take a job at insurer Aetna, managing a $1 billion portfolio of real estate investments. In the mid-1980s, Hopgood formed The Hopgood Group, which focused on hotels and restaurants, her roots deep in the business. Growing up, her parents ran a historic, 60-room hotel and 300-seat restaurant in her native Littleton, N.H.

Hopgood’s company evolved into one serving a broad array of companies in legal and financial trouble, with Hopgood sometimes acting as a consultant and at other times, a board member. At one point, Hopgood became chair and chief executive of a chain of family restaurants, whose stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

All the while, Hopgood challenged male-dominated board rooms and senior management. She developed an outspoken, straight-to-the-point style that earned her the reputation of a maverick.

In Hartford, Hopgood served as chair of the city’s economic development commission in the early 2000s. The experience helped shape her views about economic development. In the city’s North End, for example, she was shocked to see developers making money in projects that did nothing to improve the lives of residents, Hopgood said.

“I thought, ‘This is not my idea of economic development. This is maintaining poverty,’” Hopgood said.

Since Hopgood was appointed chair of CRDA in 2012, the agency has invested in nearly 2,900 rentals that have either been added or are now in construction in and around downtown Hartford. Those apartments are building up the residential population that is seen as a key component to the city’s revitalization.

CRDA has invested nearly $160 million in public loans and other investments, attracting about $650 million in private investment.

In the neighborhoods, CRDA provided crucial funding to the renovation of the former Swift factory into entrepreneurial space aimed at providing jobs for residents of the surrounding Northeast neighborhood.

CRDA also has increased its emphasis on communities surrounding Hartford, including East Hartford, Newington and Wethersfield.

Hopgood said she spent most of her professional career working with companies facing serious challenges, even for survival. She said she chose now to step down as CRDA chair because the agency had made significant strides in, among other things, converting long-vacant buildings into apartments.

“Now, it’s a different city,” Hopgood said. “It’s time to let CRDA transition to somebody with a different perspective who’s not working with a city who’s like, ‘Whoa, do we have a lot of work to do,’ but a city that’s like, “Let’s keep the momentum going.’ That’s a different perspective.”

The Courant walked around downtown with Hopgood and talked about CRDA and where the city might be headed in the next few years. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: When you were appointed by then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to be chair of CRDA, what challenges did the city face?

A: Certainly housing, and the amount of space downtown. There was an inability to identify the housing needs in the city because you can do studies on occupancy, you can’t do studies on pent-up demand. You can’t track how many people called up, and there was nothing available.

The first study we did said, ‘You’ll never rent more than 10 apartments a month.’ And how many rented the first month at [the converted] 777 Main [tower]? Fifty. So much for that study.

You couldn’t get anything going because you didn’t have the base. You couldn’t get something like Pratt Street going because they, at that time, there was a big push to get people from the Farmington Valley to come to the city. That was a big mistake.

We needed to engage the people in the city first. And, I think, that’s pretty much what has happened.

Q: How well has the city balanced the addition of market-rate apartments and “affordable” rentals?

A: Pretty well. Our goal is 20% affordable. There’s a big difference between affordable and low-income housing. Hartford has, I want to say, 40% of its housing stock in low-income.

Affordable is a different measure. Affordable is a percentage of area median income.

When one of the very first apartment projects — 777 Main — was coming on, there had just been an article in the paper in New York that people who had affordable units had a separate entrance and weren’t allowed to use the exercise facility.

So that was the very first question to [developer] Bruce Becker. He told me there were no designated units. What a terrifying thought that was. I have no idea who is an affordable unit who is next door to one that looks exactly the same and is market rate.

Q: What has been the toughest project?

A: XL!

I think the lack of understanding of what a core economic engine that is. Five years ago, we had 600,000 people at events at XL. You bring 600,000 people to downtown Hartford. Tell me that doesn’t make a difference to a city. Really and truly. This is a huge economic engine. Talk to any of the restaurants downtown.

Different communities around the state just see Hartford as a place that just sucks money and investments. So they are not willing to make an investment in the city, and there are objections from the legislature.

One of the things that gets left out about the XL is the contribution to the state coffers — payroll taxes, sales taxes. That gets left out of the formula. That’s huge.

Q: The pandemic has dramatically altered the workplace, with many more employees dividing time between home and office. What challenges does that pose for downtown office space?

A: I think more of the office buildings may end up converting to apartments because offices are going to need less space. They are already giving back space, but that process had already started before the pandemic. It’s not a huge surprise and not anything that can’t be managed.

The biggest plus is the train to New York. If you need to be in New York one day a week, you can do it. You don’t need to live in New York. You can work virtually.

Q: Why does it always seem that Hartford is on the cusp of revitalization and never quite gets there?

A: Our expectations that there is going to be a solid line that one day Hartford is going to be it. Where does that happen? It’s a steady progression. It’s bringing people in that care, that have a good reason to live here, that want to live here.

Q: Where do you see the city in five years?

A: All the pieces are coming together. The ballpark is a huge plus. That is bringing in people from all around. The XL Center. The Convention Center is going to be back up and running so people are coming into the city for events. Xfinity and Infinity are huge plays. Pratt Street is going to be completely different.

The Bushnell South redevelopment [near the Capitol] is going to make a big difference in that neighborhood, not having all those empty parking lots. So the groundwork has been laid, and it keeps improving and improving and improving.

And you get less people with the nonsense of ‘Who would ever go into the city?’ For the most part, you are getting less of that, and the city is acting more and more like a community.

Living in the city is getting increasingly attractive. I think there is too much to do on the weekend. I can’t get to everything. Who thought you would be saying that 20 years ago?

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