148 Roberts Street 148 Roberts Street .....
Property Type: Industrial/Mixed Use 23,956 sq ft Find out more
What’s New in East Hartford
On November 10, 2009 a Ribbon Cutting ceremony was held for Shafa Medical Center and Hartford Heart (478 Burnside Ave). The Center houses the offices of Drs. M. Yetka, S. Basu, R. Adiraju, N. Bayan and A. Jha, Adult Primary Care and Pulmonary Medicine Specialists; while Hartford Heart is the home of Dr. A. Yetka, Cardiovascular Specialist. Mayor Melody Currey was present to cut the ribbon, and Commissioners from the East Hartford Redevelopment Agency were on hand to view the culmination of their redevelopment plans for this address – formerly the site of a neglected apartment building. Dr. Mahmood Yetka’s proposal to create this medical office building was accepted as consistent with the Redevelopment Agency’s Burnside Avenue Corridor Redevelopment Plan, and construction got underway in the spring of 2008.
Now that the building at 478 Burnside Ave is completed, it is home to the above-mentioned medical offices on the second floor, as well as the East Hartford Social Security Administration (SSA) on the first floor, where an Open House was held in June 2009 to showcase the SSA’s new home. The office was originally located at 647 Main St, when it opened its doors to the public for the first time on April 17, 1972, with a staff of just 13. After 23 years, the office relocated to 580 Burnside Ave, where it remained for another 14 years, until January 2009. The new location at 478 Burnside Ave provides more space for the staff, as well as a much larger interviewing and reception area for an office that sees an average of 650 visitors per week, and in 2008 alone processed over 13,500 Social Security Card applications, handled over 37,000 post entitlement actions, and took over 6000 claims for new benefits.
2009 also saw Ribbon Cutting & Grand Opening ceremonies for PetSmart (5 Main St); Aaron's Rentals (720 Silver Lane); Cellu Tissue (2 Forbes St), where a new Co-Generation plant was added; Hair Academy on Main (36 Main St); Wachovia Bank (18 Main St); and InterCommunity Outpatient Clinic (287 Main St), which expanded its services by opening a Children’s Clinic.
What’s Approved in East Hartford
In May 2009, Englewood Tire received Planning & Zoning approval for their plans for the industrial property at 166-200 Prestige Park Road. The company, a distributor of new passenger vehicle and light truck tires with headquarters in New Jersey and facilities throughout the tri-state area, chose to relocate to East Hartford in order to facilitate an expansion, and the Prestige Park industrial area appears to be an excellent fit for them.
In September 2009, Goodwin College's Special Permit Application was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The application seeks permission for the college to use the properties at 403 Main St & 2 King Court as an incubator for a magnet high school. This space is intended as a 2-year, temporary home for the high school, and if all goes according to plan, the Connecticut River Academy will have a spanking-new home on the banks of the Connecticut River by Fall 2011
In June 2009, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved a Municipal Fire House use on land located at 141 Brewer Street. A $3.39 million grant through the American Reinvestment Recovery Act will go towards the building of this new Fire House, as Vice President Joe Biden pointed out in his speech on December 11, 2009, when he visited the East Hartford Public Safety Complex. In his speech the Vice President highlighted the importance of this Town project as well as the incredible courage of firefighters nationally and locally, all the more poignant coming just days after the East Hartford Fire Department battled a terrible inferno at 71 George Street.
What’s Developing in East Hartford
In February, 2009 the Development Office, in collaboration with the CT Economic Development Fund (CEDF) held a Coffee with the Mayor in the Community Room at Goodwin College. The early-morning event was an opportunity for East Hartford small business people to learn more about what the Town of East Hartford and the State of Connecticut can do to assist entrepreneurs, with discussion ranging from small business training classes to alternative funding sources. By the end of the year, three of the East Hartford small business people who attended this event closed a total of five business loans through the CEDF loan program.
As a further result of that Coffee with the Mayor, the CEDF Small Business Training Institute classes in Business Finances, Tax Related Issues for Small Business, and Introduction to QuickBooks saw an increase in enrollment of East Hartford businesses; in fact, thus far 53 East Hartford small business people have completed one of the three. Development Office staff worked closely with CEDF to find a home for the courses right here in East Hartford, and successfully housed them first in the East Hartford Community Cultural Center in Spring 2009, and then in the Baccalaureate Academy in Fall 2009. The courses continue to be well-attended and will run again this year starting January 19, 2010 (for which another 35 East Hartford business people are enrolled). For more information about the Small Business Training Institute, please visit www.cedf.com.
The Economic Development Commission (EDC) made a Business Visitation to Popcorn Movie Posters (1 Cherry Street) in March 2009. David & Annette Graveen, the owners of the company, were gracious hosts, showing the group around the space where they make not just movie posters, but prints, pins and other curios for wholesale customers. As is the case with any successful business visitation, we received excellent feedback on some of the concerns facing this small business, and have been able to work with the company to find some lasting solutions.
The EDC also made a Business Visitation to Event Resources in December 2009. Ed Woodward, the company’s General Manager, took the Commissioners on an eye-opening tour of their facilities at 333 Park Ave, by pulling back the curtain, so to speak, and allowing us to see just how much hard work Event Resources puts into some of Connecticut’s largest events, such as The Connecticut Forum, the Connecticut Veteran’s Day Parade, the Black Eyed and Blues Festival, and any number of Pratt & Whitney events. Said one of the Commissioners after the tour, “I’ll never look at any event I go to in the same way again!”
Development staff assisted Ze-Vo, LLC (14 Eastern Park Road); and Ardent Displays (95 Leggett St) in applying for Railroad Depot Zone Incentives from the Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD).
Several EDC Commissioners as well as Development staff attended workshops on Economic Development sponsored by the Community Builders Institute at Northeast Utilities.
October 2009 marked the launch of the Housing for Economic Growth Project. Housing consultants began collecting and analyzing housing data in order to develop a long- term funding strategy that will preserve our existing historic housing stock and maintain our community as a choice for young people, young families, and entrepreneurs. East Hartford is ideally suited to take advantage of the growing need for workforce housing as in-fill to our major employment centers and traditional retail areas. Further, the town is fortunate to have some beautiful older neighborhoods that would qualify for substantial rehabilitation of units under new federal legislation. The Housing for Economic Growth Project will target areas that could be utilized for said in-fill and will develop a concept plan for Incentive Housing Zones.
The Town of East Hartford is partnering with the Community Economic Development Fund (CEDF) on a Main Street Initiative to revitalize downtown East Hartford. This initiative is envisioned as a multi-staged, long-term community development process – a collaboration of both the businesses and the neighborhoods of Main Street to create a vibrant and bustling downtown area. East Hartford is one of only three model cities in Connecticut to partner with CEDF to launch such a strategy, and members of the public, especially Main Street stakeholders, were canvassed from September through December 2009 to solicit their ideas on project priorities and implementation strategies. Already a Business Stakeholders meeting has been held to discuss the results of the surveys and the up-coming Resident Meeting will be held on January 13, 2010 at 7:00 pm in the Second Floor Conference Room of Town Hall (740 Main St, East Hartford).
We are delighted to announce that the East Hartford Works Brochure won the Northeastern Economic Developers Association's (NEDA) 2009 Literature and Promotion Awards Best of Class Award in the General Purpose category, and the East Hartford Works Internet Home Page won the Excellent Award in the Internet Home Page category! Now that we’ve received the NEDA stamp of approval, we hope that you, too, will find our site to be ‘excellent’. Please visit us at EHworks.com.
