$64M CT housing redevelopment called a ‘capstone’ to revitalization

Linda Nelson was relocated from her rental in the Martin Luther King Apartments more than a year ago but the passing of time hasn’t changed her mind about returning once the 1960s-era complex is redeveloped.

On Monday, Nelson didn’t attend a groundbreaking for the $64 million Hartford project in the shadow of the blue, onion-shaped Colt dome. But three miles away in her temporary apartment on Wethersfield Avenue, Nelson looks forward to a move-in that’s still 18 months away.

“I am just waiting and waiting until they finish over there,” Nelson said. “I definitely want to come back. I will be, hopefully, God-willing.”

Nelson is among dozens of MLK tenants that were scattered to temporary apartments and will be given first chance at one of the new apartments.

Nelson said she misses the neighborhood where she lived for more than 20 years. She doesn’t like living on the busy Wethersfield Avenue, and she said her building has suffered from flooding several times.

The long-delayed redevelopment of the rundown, MLK complex – first proposed five years ago – is already underway. Monday’s groundbreaking was held against the backdrop of a backhoe clawing the wall of one of the complex’s eight buildings, two already torn down to the foundation.

The apartments – just a short walk from downtown in the city’s Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood – will be replaced by 155 garden-style and townhouse apartments arranged around a green. The new design is a dramatic change from the existing brick, public housing complex.

Sheldon Oak Central Inc., the Hartford-based housing non-profit that owns the complex and is partnering in the redevelopment, ran up against the pandemic that pushed costs higher and forced a major revamp in the project.

The cost of the project soared nearly 30% from $50 million just a little over two years ago and that  led to funding gaps that had to be filled.

The higher costs also fundamentally changed what tenants will be able to live in the complex. Initially, the redevelopment had been conceived as a mixed-income project, but that was changed to entirely “affordable” because more funding was available for housing restricted to certain income levels.

Sheldon Oak is partnering with Simsbury-based affordable housing developer Vesta Corp. on the project.

The project has been seen as the last major piece of a revitalization plan from the 1990s in Hartford’s Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood.

The area of the city has been transformed the revitalization of the once-decaying Colt manufacturing plant, the Capewell Horse Nail Co. factory, the Dutch Point housing complex and Dillon — now Trinity Health — Stadium. The efforts also included the construction of the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy, a magnet middle and high school.

But Chris McArdle, president of CSS/CON, Sheldon Oak’s neighborhood revitalization zone, who attended the ceremony Monday said the area remains ripe for redevelopment, including both affordable and market-rate housing on empty lots.

“This is just one aspect of the renaissance that the neighborhood is going through and will probably continue to go through for another decade,” McArdle said.

Three-quarters of the 155 apartments will be pegged to working households, making 60% or less of the area’s median income. For a household of four, the median income in the neighborhood is $118,000, with 60% of that number about $71,000. The estimated rents will range from $1,200 for one bedroom to $1,700 for three bedrooms.

The remaining 38 units will qualify for federal Section 8 housing subsidies that require tenants to pay 30% of their income for housing. The MLK Apartments previously did not have Section 8 approval.

The financing for the project includes a $20.5 million loan from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority; $27.2 million in low-income tax credits; $11.7 million from state and federal housing funds, $3.7 million from the state’s Community Investment Fund, plus other sources, all represented at the groundbreaking.

When the MLK Apartments were built in 1969, the project won architectural accolades for its innovative design, appearing from the air in the shape of a chevron.

But in achieving that shape the complex took on a secluded atmosphere that invited crime and created apartments that were small with sharp angles.

The redevelopment’s design includes a larger building with flats that will be equipped with an elevator for those with physical disabilities. The design will also help the elderly to “age in place,” the developers say.

Emily Wolfe, Sheldon Oak’s executive director, told those gathered for the groundbreaking the MLK apartments were built by a consortium of churches that sought to fill the need for affordable housing. The need came in the aftermath of demolition and displacement that came in the aftermath of Urban Renewal in the 1960s.

Now, the redeveloped housing once again will serve to provide housing to those who are struggling to afford it, Wolfe said.

Wolfe said the MLK project fits in well with the redevelopment in the neighborhood that has come before it.

“Many people working together have accomplished a transformation in the Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood,” Wolfe said. “And this new MLK that is going to arise is kind of a capstone to many decades and dollars of productive private and public investment.”

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.