Sheldon Oak News Today

A redevelopment of the Martin Luther King apartments in Hartford’s Sheldon Charter Oak neighborhood has been stymied after organizers learned inflation and higher interest rates have increased the project’s costs by about $8 million.  “We thought we had it sourced, but interest rates went up and construction costs went up,” said Capital Region Development Authority Executive Director Michael Freimuth of the now $58 million project. “We got hit on both ends and it opened up a hole.”

A redevelopment of the Martin Luther King apartments in Hartford’s Sheldon Charter Oak Neighborhood has been stymied after organizers learned inflation and higher interest rates have increased the project’s costs by about $8 million. “We thought we had it sourced, but interest rates went up and construction costs went up,” said Capital Region Development Authority Executive Director Michael Freimuth of the now $58 million project. “We got hit on both ends and it opened up a hole.”

The ambitious redevelopment of the deteriorating Martin Luther King Apartments near downtown — expected to start this spring — will now be delayed for months.

A $50 million plan to raze and rebuild the Martin Luther King Apartments on Van Block Avenue in Hartford is the final major piece of a redevelopment puzzle envisioned in the 1990s to strengthen the Sheldon Charter Oak neighborhood.

In its first meeting of 2021, the state Bond Commission later this week will vote on millions of dollars worth of loans and grants that would help spur the redevelopment of 460 new apartment units in Hartford. The funding on the commission’s Friday agenda would shepherd a $100 million Pratt Street redevelopment into its next phase, kickstart the repurposing of a former state office building fronting Bushnell Park and stake a mixed-income apartment redevelopment project near the Colt Armory. T...