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A developer has bought the closed Hartford Marriott Farmington for $10.5 million and plans to convert it to a 224-unit apartment complex with indoor and outdoor pools, a two-story fitness center and a public restaurant and bar.
Contractors will do extensive remodeling, but all of the sprawling three-story brick hotel will be retained, said Jason Schlesinger, a principal in CLP Farmington LLC.
If the town provides a zone change, the company plans to complete construction in six to eight months so it can begin leasing in early 2022.
The plan is for market-rate apartments including studios renting for $1,100 a month, one-bedroom units around $1,400 to $1,500 and two-bedroom apartments at $1,800. There will be a few three-bedroom units as well.
“This building has good bones, and the opportunity is unique with the courtyard and all of the amenities,” Schlesinger said Wednesday. “If developers came along to building from scratch, they couldn’t afford to do this.”
The hotel was unusual when it opened in 1981: Unlike Marriott’s traditional mid- or high-rise concrete and glass towers, the Farmington property was built as four long wings encircling a spacious, tiered courtyard with a pool and deck.
CLP Farmington intends to keep that as the social center of its new project; it will upgrade the deck and pool, improve the landscaping, and add a fire pit and barbecue area. The company also plans a pickleball court and dog wash stations for pet owners.
On a tour of the building, Schlesinger said the hotel’s office area will become a two-story fitness center with a glass wall overlooking the courtyard. The indoor pool area also will be refurbished, he said.
A new restaurant and bar will be built along along a what’s currently a corridor wall between the lobby and exhibition space. That wall will be replaced by a massive retractable glass door, providing inside and outside seating.
“We’re going to repurpose this asset and use every inch of it. And the amenities are what will set us apart,” Schlesinger said. “This courtyard is unique. It will be the focal point of our community.”
The E wing, a 1987 stand-alone addition, will mostly be converted to studio apartments.
Chuck Coursey, a West Hartford consultant working with CLP Farmington, predicted the apartments will appeal to a wide range of tenants, but particularly to workers from nearby employers like Raytheon and even ESPN.
The hotel sold for just under $23 million in 2005, but struggled in many of the years since then. It had been one of central Connecticut’s premiere gathering places in the 1980s and ’90s, when its bar and restaurant attracted big crowds even on weeknights.
The hotel continued to host seminars, job fairs, corporate meetings, school reunions, wedding receptions and more up until its closing, but its banquet business and its room occupancy rate both suffered as nearby employers like United Technologies reduced local staffing.
At the same time, new competitors have been appearing in Southington, Plainville, Bristol and West Hartford, and in recent years hotel management had been reducing maintenance.
Most of the hotel still appeared immaculate Wednesday, but outdoor stone stairways leading from the courtyard needed repair. The hotel had long since removed its hot tub, and the indoor pool locker area had been showing wear for years.
“Big properties like this — hotels, malls, apartment projects — are like living, breathing ecosystems,” Schlesinger said. “This property had been deprived of oxygen. Now we have a beautiful opportunity to reuse it.”
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