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September 15, 2023

Former LAZ Parking HQ building in downtown Hartford targeted for $25.7M, 78-unit apartment conversion

A rendering of the planned conversion of 15 Lewis St. in Hartford into apartments.
By Michael Puffer

Hartford-based real estate investors Martin Kenny and Alan Lazowski are seeking public financing for a $26.7 million transformation of LAZ Parking’s former Hartford headquarters on Lewis Street into 78 apartments.

The five-story, 1925-vintage building at 15 Lewis St., near Bushnell Park, has been vacant since LAZ Parking moved to the Gold Building in 2020. The property is owned by Kenny, head of Hartford development firm Lexington Partners, and Lazowski, CEO and co-founder of LAZ Parking.

Initially, Kenny and Lazowski considered turning the roughly 43,000-square-foot building into a boutique hotel, but those plans never materialized.

Instead, Kenny said he and Lazowski plan to pursue conversion of the building’s top four floors into apartments, with the bottom floor renovated into restaurant and tenant amenity space. The project would result in 51 studios, 24 one-bedroom units and three two-bedroom apartments.

Kenny and Lazowski are seeking $7 million in assistance from the Capital Region Development Authority, including a $5 million low-interest loan. The remaining $2 million would be a CRDA equity stake in the project, Kenny said.

“We’ve been trying to make this work for a long time,” Kenny said. “The building has been empty for four years. With CRDA’s participation, I think the project works.”

Kenny said he is also trying to close on historic tax credits as part of the project financing.

Kenny and Lazowski are longtime friends and business partners who have been deeply involved in several apartment projects in Hartford and other Connecticut towns in recent years. 

They recently joined a broader partnership attempting to build an estimated $841 million development at Founders Plaza in East Hartford, which would bring about 1,000 apartments and office and commercial space to the bank of the Connecticut River opposite downtown Hartford.
 

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