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July 6, 2022

Developer buys former Ames Rocky Hill HQ for $2.3M; $60M redevelopment now underway

HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER Developer Michael Belfonti stands in front of the defunct former Ames headquarters in Rocky Hill, which he plans to convert into a sprawling mixed-use apartment development.
By Greg Bordonaro

The Hamden developer who plans to covert the former Ames headquarters in Rocky Hill into a mixed-use residential community has purchased the property for $2.3 million, property records show. 

Michael Belfonti of Belfonti Cos. said an LLC he controls – Rocky Hill Gateway LLC – closed on the property last month and remediation on the 12.1 acre site has already begun. The property includes a 225,000-square-foot building that will be knocked down and replaced with  213 apartments in 11 buildings, 5,000 square feet of office space and 15,000 square feet of retail.

Nine of the buildings will contain apartments; one will be for commercial use; and the remaining property will be mixed-use residential, Belfonti said. 

Remediation and demolition will take about eight months, Belfonti said Wednesday morning, and construction will start soon after. No completion date has been set yet, he said.

“We are excited about the closing and happy that the project is underway,” Belfonti said. 

The former Ames headquarters went from a bustling office building with hundreds of workers to an abandoned hulk over two decades.
After years of planning and negotiation, officials voted in February to approve Belfonti’s mixed-use development plan.

Town leaders say the Ames redevelopment could be the start of building a true downtown center for Rocky Hill, a central-Connecticut bedroom community of about 21,000 that has been the fastest-growing municipality in Hartford County over the past decade, according to U.S. Census figures.

The Ames property sits at the end of a commercial stretch of Silas Deane Highway populated by small to midsize shopping plazas and freestanding stores. Visitors drive in on a 40-miles-per-hour road to visit individual businesses.

Town officials hope, over time, to create a more traditional, walkable New England-style town center.

They also want to connect this downtown to amenities along the Connecticut River about a half-mile away, including a town park, the historic Rocky Hill-Glastonbury ferry and a seasonable restaurant – possibly with more riverside development to come.

Belfonti’s plans will help by creating additional street-facing retail, along with public spaces including a parklet on one 
corner of the property and a public gazebo on another. 

Belfonti’s plans include sidewalks, trees and lighting along the front of the property, which borders Main Street and Dividend Road. These improvements will mirror $2.5 million in streetscape work recently completed in the area, officials say.
 

HBJ staff writer Michael Puffer contributed to this story. 

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