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April 8, 2021

In North Hartford’s ‘food desert,’ grocery prospects remain uncertain

Rendering | RMS. Cos. The first phase of Hartford’s North Crossing development across from Dunkin’ Donuts Park is set to feature 270 apartment units, 11,000 square feet of retail space and a 330-space parking garage.
By Matt Pilon

The developer building $200 million-plus worth of apartments, retail space and parking garages around Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford says he remains on the hunt for a grocery operator to commit to a store at the Downtown North development now known as North Crossing.

RMS CEO Randy Salvatore, leader of the Stamford firm the city chose as its development partner for a handful of key parcels surrounding the minor league ballpark that debuted in 2017, told a city council committee Wednesday evening that he may switch up the planned location for the grocery store in order to accommodate feedback and concerns expressed by grocery operators he’s talked to in recent months.

The store, if he is able to ultimately attract one, could end up on a different parcel of land, known as Parcel A, than initially envisioned.

The store has been slated for a ground-floor location of an apartment building to be built on the adjacent Parcel B at the intersection of Main and Trumbull streets as part of the second phase of North Crossing, which could begin in 2022 and will also include more than 530 apartments.

Parcel A, surrounded by Ann Ucello and High streets, has been considered to be the third phase of the project, but Salvatore said he doesn’t intend to delay the timeline for opening a grocery store. Parcel A could be built out before Parcel B, should RMS land a grocery tenant for the former, he said. It may even end up being a faster path to a grocery store, he said.

“If tomorrow a grocer came in and said they wanted to do Parcel A, we could start on that right away,” he said. 

One reason RMS is expanding its grocery store location options is that some grocers have expressed concern about the need for customers to park in a parking garage if the store ends up located on Parcel B.

An outline of the various parcels slated for redevelopment as part of the North Crossing project near Dunkin' Donuts Park.

Meanwhile, Parcel A would accommodate surface parking, which is more desired by some grocers, and it could also potentially allow for a larger 50,000-square-foot store, rather than a 30,000-square-foot store on Parcel B.

Salvatore said some operators have also told him the neighborhood remains unproven and that they’d like to see lease-up of the pending apartments before making any commitment.

RMS has been on the hunt for a grocer for more than a year. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the effort, Salvatore said.

The low-income Downtown North area around the ballpark is considered a food desert, where residents have to travel -- often by bus -- to reach a sizable grocery store.

Efforts to secure a grocery store have been unsuccessful for years, but hopes have been high that RMS’ development, leveraging the ballpark, can seal the deal. 

Meanwhile, Express Kitchens CEO Max Kothari has also been working, separately from RMS, to bring a grocery store to a different location in Downtown North. He confirmed that his efforts were still ongoing.

Several city councilors expressed disappointment Wednesday that Salvatore had not yet landed a grocery tenant. 

“What I promised and continue to actively do is go out there and find any grocer that might want to be in this place and try to construct something that works for them,” Salvatore told councilors. “I’ve told any retailer I’ve talked to that we will make the economics work if you want to be here. There are ways for us to do that.”

“If it was as simple as just building a building and someone would come, we would have already done that,” he added.
 

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