The long-awaited grand opening of Hartford’s new sports betting venue last week was cause for celebration but talk at the event also turned to something more sobering: the sudden death two days earlier of prominent downtown developer Martin J. Kenny. The real estate company founded by Kenny, Hartford-based Lexington Partners, quickly reassured Hartford and other towns and cities where it has active projects that it would not only continue with those developments but it expected new ones in the future. “We will be moving full steam ahead with all the projects we have in the works,” Alan Lazowski, chief executive of Hartford-based LAZ Parking and a longtime business partner and friend of Kenny’s, said. Those include the $70 million conversion of a former convent in West Hartford into nearly 300 apartments, a project that is now nearing completion. To the east of the Connecticut River, there is an massive $850 million redevelopment of Founders Plaza in East Hartford — now in its early stages — that could include as many as 1,000 new apartments, restaurants, entertainment venues, medical offices and a new pedestrian bridge across the Connecticut River.
A prominent CT developer’s legacy and how his company now sees the future. ‘He never pulled a punch’