CRDA, created a decade ago to help finance housing projects in the downtown area, has been in discussions with family-owned Chase since last fall about the future of the parking lot at 10 Ford St., Freimuth said. Last fall, Chase withdrew the Ford Street parking lot as a potential location for a new federal courthouse. Chase said it was looking at developing “a bigger project on the property” and the courthouse would have eliminated “co-development possibilities.” The first of the new wave apartments around Bushnell Park to come up for lease is likely in the converted former office building at 55 Elm St., most recently the headquarters of the state’s Constitutional officers, including the Attorney General. South Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners expects the first of 160 apartments to be available in late spring in the 4-story annex. The annex was a later addition to the main, 7-story structure rising above Pulaski Circle and the park. How quickly development around Bushnell Park unfolds in the next few years will depend largely on the trajectory of overall downtown apartment leasing. Even with the addition of thousands of new apartments to the downtown since 2013, occupancy in the new projects has remained steady, above 90%. Hartford-based Lexington Partners plans to convert former, outdated office space at 15 Lewis St., which borders Bushnell Park, into apartments in a nearly $27 million project.
Apartment development around CT park set to boom. See the projects, what you might pay to live there