Bye Cuts the Ribbon on New Workforce Housing Adjacent to CTfastrak Station
WEST HARTFORD—In another Connecticut win for affordable housing, millennial and veteran housing, and environmentally sensitive mass transit, state Senator Beth Bye (D-West Hartford) today helped cut the ribbon on a new $22 million mixed-use, transit-oriented apartment and retail complex at 616 New Park Avenue in West Hartford, directly north of the Elmwood CTfastrak station.
The mix-income 54-unit development, on the site of an abandoned automobile dealership, was built with a $5 million in state Department of Housing funding that Sen. Bye made a priority two years ago. 616 New Park was also built with a variety of other Connecticut state funding, including $11.6 million in tax credits, a $2.1 million state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) brownfield remediation loan, and $110,000 in energy rebates.
“Today is an example of what the state and the Town of West Hartford can accomplish when we work together for the benefit of our residents and our businesses,” Sen. Bye said. “This is about affordable housing first and foremost, and about housing for veterans. But it’s also about giving people easy access to a bus line and a rail line, keeping cars off the roads and bringing people to the thousands of jobs that are located along these mass transit routes, with more jobs and more opportunities to come. This is a sustainable housing development, both economically and environmentally, and I’m proud to have played a role in getting it off the ground.”
616 New Park includes 54 units of market-rate and work force housing and is expected to attract young, working professionals in their 20’s and 30’s. The development also includes eleven units of supportive housing specifically for veterans and will have a commercial use on the first floor of the building.
616 New Park is owned by Trout Brook Realty Advisors and managed by the West Hartford Housing Authority. In addition to the massive state aid, private financing partners include Trout Brook Realty Advisors, National Equity Fund, TD Bank, Farmington Bank, Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Eversource.