The West Hartford Town Council voted Tuesday night to approve a resolution authorizing an application to the Brownfield Municipal Grant Program to support redevelopment of 1800 Asylum Avenue.

Former UConn campus, July 2024. Photo credit: Ronni Newton (we-ha.com file photo)

By Ronni Newton

The Town of West Hartford is applying to the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s (DECD) Municipal Brownfield Grant Program in hopes of securing a $6 million grant to assist with the remediation of the former UConn campus property at 1800 Asylum Avenue.

The program provides municipalities with the opportunity to apply for the grants to assist with redevelopment projects. The grant monies are applied for by towns or other municipal authorities to support returning blighted or contaminated properties to productive use, and implemented through a public-private partnership with the property owner/developer.

The former 57-plus-acre UConn West Hartford campus – located on both the east and west sides of Trout Brook Drive just north of Asylum Avenue – faced an uncertain future for many years. The University of Connecticut first announced in November 2012 that it would be relocating to space in downtown Hartford and opened the new campus in Hartford for the fall 2017 semester.

After countless hours of discussion and debate, multiple sales of the property, and several failed proposals, plans for both parcels have received approval for redevelopment.

Plans for the roughly 23-8-acre eastern portion of the former campus were approved in April 2024 – with 14.87 acres set to become the four-building, 312-unit Residences at Heritage Park, now owned and being developed by Garden Homes. The rest of the property on the east side of Trout Brook Drive is now owned by the Town of West Hartford, and will be remaining ballfields and a playground.

Work is underway on the Residences at Heritage Park, being developed by Garden Homes on the portion of the former UConn campus on the east side of Trout Brook Drive. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

In February 2025 the Town Council approved the plans by West Hartford 1 LLC for creation of a Special Development District and redevelopment of the 33.5-acre western portion of the former campus for commercial and residential use.

Rendering of Heritage Park at 1800 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford. Courtesy of Newman Architects (we-ha.com file image)

It’s been nearly four years since West Hartford 1 LLC finalized the purchase of the former UConn campus property, on an “as is” basis, from then-owner Ideanomics, for $2.75 million, on Dec. 29, 2021. WeHa Development Group’s plans for 1800 Asylum – an investment of several hundred million dollars – call for demolition of the remaining buildings that were part of the former UConn campus and environmental remediation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and asbestos, followed by construction of 11 new buildings of one to four stories.

If the application is approved, the $6 million brownfield grant will be used to assist with the remediation and abatement costs at 1800 Asylum Avenue.

Former UConn campus, July 2024. Photo credit: Ronni Newton (we-ha.com file photo)

Over the past three years, the Town of West Hartford has received five grants through the Brownfield Municipal Grant Program – most recently for The Jayden and Playhouse on Park, Town Manager Rick Ledwith said Tuesday.

Included in the plan for Heritage Park are 93 one- and two-bedroom residential rental apartments. When the application was approved by the Town Council in February, it included a commitment by the developer for 5% of the rental units – five units including two one-bedroom units and three two-bedroom units – to be leased for 30 years as affordable at 80% of the lesser of the area median income (AMI) for the Town of West Hartford or the statewide median income as published by HUD.

One of the requirements of the Brownfield Municipal Grant Program, however, is a deeper commitment to affordable housing, “which I think would be a very welcome change for the Council,” Ledwith said. A new requirement is that either that 10% of the units be set aside for those earning 50% AMI or less, or 20% be set aside at the 80% AMI level. The developer has opted for the former, and 10 of the 93 rental units – a mixture of one- and two-bedroom apartments – will be deed-restricted for at least 30 years to residents at the 50% or less AMI level.

The plans for Heritage Park also include a total of 25 townhomes available for purchase, six of which are duplex townhomes along both Lawler Road and Asylum Avenue, 90 units of assisted living, a 26,488-square-foot organic grocery store, roughly 42,800 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and a 42,600 square foot spa.

“I’m glad we’re here. This remediation is long-awaited,” Mayor Shari Cantor said prior to the vote on the resolution. She thanked Ledwith for responding quickly to the recent legislative changes to the Brownfield Municipal Grant Program and meeting the deadline for the next round of funding.

The resolution authorizing application for the Brownfield Municipal Grant Program was approved Tuesday by the Council in an 8-1 vote, with Republican Mary Fay voting against it.

An excavator with a giant claw was used to demolish the former UConn School of Social Work building in West Hartford in October 2019. Photo credit: Ronni Newton (we-ha.com file photo)

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