The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority next month will vote on whether to issue nearly $20 million of tax-exempt and taxable multifamily housing bonds to help finance the Sage-Allen redevelopment project in downtown Hartford.
The $40 million project to convert the long-vacant Sage-Allen & Co. department store building to residential use has become part of Gov. John G. Rowlands $771 million commitment to revitalizing downtown Hartford, the bulk of which has been dedicated to the Adriaens Landing waterfront redevelopment project.
Originally slated to be only partially reliant on public financing, the Sage-Allen project under the latest plan would be 90% funded through public subsidies.
In addition to the $19.6 million of bonds sold by the quasi-public CHFA, the Capital City Economic Development Authority, which has $35 million in state money to put towards the development of 1,000 units of housing in downtown Hartford, would provide $3.6 million. The developer also would receive $1.3 million in federal tax credits and $11 million in city assistance, mostly in the form of tax abatements.
The developer would provide about $4 million.
The historic downtown building would be converted to housing for University of Hartford students and corporate interns working for a short-term basis in the city. It also would include apartments for rent at market rates. The proposal calls for the construction of housing for 132 students, another 56 units for corporate interns, and 78 loft-style apartments.
The plan is premised on a fall 2005 opening, but with the CHFAs vote coming so late in the year, groundbreaking is unlikely to begin until early 2004.
The original Sage-Allen redevelopment plan, which did not include the dormitory housing, called for only $11 million in government subsidies.
If the Sage-Allen project is approved by the board of directors at the CHFAs October board meeting, the authority would provide two loans funded by bond proceeds to Temple Street LLC, the developer of the project.
The lions share, $14.4 million, would be funded by tax-exempt bond proceeds. The remaining $5.2 million would be funded with taxable bond proceeds and would be loaned out at a slightly higher rate. The bonds would likely be sold early in 2004.
Distribution of the loans would be dependent on Temple Street LLC maintaining funding from CCEDA and from the city of Hartford.
If the loan is not approved by October, or at the latest November, the University of Hartford says it may need to pull out of the project and find other means to house the influx of students expected in the fall of 2005.
