A major New Haven apartment landlord is shifting its gaze northward to Hartford, paying nearly $7.1 million for two downtown properties one block apart that have both struggled with high vacancy.
Land records show that in mid-May, Greater Hartford developer-landlord Yisroel Rabinowitz sold the “Grand on Ann” apartments at 201 Ann Uccello St. for $3.15 million and the former High School Inc. building at 275 Asylum St. for $3.915 million.
Two separate LLCs bought the properties, but each is linked to New Haven-based Ocean Management and its principal Shmuel Aizenberg, records show.
It wasn’t immediately clear what plans Ocean may have for filling its newly purchased buildings with more tenants. The company owns a mix of approximately 20 multifamily and office properties in and around New Haven, according to property records.
Across from Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford’s Downtown North neighborhood, developer Randy Salvatore began building 270 new apartments last fall and he’s already making plans for the next batch of a few hundred more.
Salvatore, CEO of Stamford-based RMS Cos., brushes aside any suggestion that the COVID-19 pandemic which fueled significant demand for single-family homes has made multifamily property investment more tenuous.
“I remain as bullish as ever about the long-term prospects for Hartford and this development,” Salvatore said in a recent interview. “Time is the most prized possession for a lot of people. They work really hard and they don’t want to be doing yard work on the weekends and going to Home Depot to buy a part to repair the toilet. They want to be able to just enjoy themselves.”