HARTFORD — A three-decades push to redevelop blighted properties at the corner of Park and Main streets near downtown Hartford finally ended Tuesday with ceremonial shovels in the ground and the promise of 126 apartments over storefronts in less than a year.
The corner is considered the southern gateway to downtown, and the $26 million project is viewed as a key pedestrian link between future development south of Bushnell Park and the Colt manufacturing complex, where a national historical park is planned.
The two properties “are part of a broader effort, both to reconnect our neighborhoods by filling those empty spaces, those blank spots that create a physical divide and physically connect our neighborhoods back as well as part of the effort to reinvigorate Park Street,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said, in remarks before prior to ceremonial groundbreaking.