East Hartford community members and town officials gave suggestions for redevelopment, including the possibility of taking the decrepit Silver Lane Plaza by eminent domain, as they discussed the state of the Silver Lane corridor Wednesday night.
About 20 people attended the public information session held by the Redevelopment Agency, including Mayor Mike Walsh, members of the Town Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission, and residents concerned about Silver Lane.
East Hartford on Tuesday approved tax abatements worth more than $15 million for a massive apartment complex proposed for the long-vacant Showcase Cinemas site, the latest in a series of municipal tax incentives for developers around central Connecticut.
Developers of the former Showcase Cinema property in East Hartford discussed their plans to build as many as 420 upscale apartments at the Silver Lane site during a recent special meeting of the Town Council, saying they also plan to seek a nearly three-decade tax abatement on the project.
The Town Council in September voted 6-3 along party lines to authorize the mayor to execute a purchase and sale agreement of $1 for the property, a process that could take up to 18 months.
Few forecasters anticipated a wave of large-scale apartment and condo projects when the pandemic started, but across central Connecticut developers are building thousands of new housing units.