The developer building $200 million-plus worth of apartments, retail space and parking garages around Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford says he remains on the hunt for a grocery operator to commit to a store at the Downtown North development now known as North Crossing. RMS CEO Randy Salvatore, leader of the Stamford firm the city chose as its development partner for a handful of key parcels surrounding the minor league ballpark that debuted in 2017, told a city council committee Wednesday evening that he may switch up the planned location for the grocery store in order to accommodate feedback and concerns expressed by grocery operators he’s talked to in recent months.
More than a year after winning approval to acquire a 183,000-square-foot building in Hartford’s Asylum Hill neighborhood, cabinet and countertop retailer Express Kitchens has not yet completed the purchase. However, Max Kothari, founder and CEO of the Hartford-based company, said Thursday that the deal should be done soon. “We should be able to finish the transaction in the next two months,” Kothari said in an interview. “Anything involving the city, the state, attorneys, even myself, was delayed due to COVID,” Kothari said, adding that he contracted the novel coronavirus and has since recovered. “You just have to give people room right now. I’m assuming everyone has become a lot more patient.”
The second round of the federal payroll protection program could be a lifeline to small business owners like Natalia Henriques, who's barely hanging on to the well-known Jamaican restaurant she took over from her mother five years ago.
The store owner said demands change from day to day,. Different demands are being cleared for example people are staying home right now so suddenly everyone is fixing up their house, doing painting patching this. That’s a new demand that’s been clear because people haven’t been traveling. That was an unexpected demand that came, then regular construction stuff came to a standstill - that demand disappeared so we don’t know what the demand will be, said Kothari. All of this comes at a time when the fear of a virus is at an all time high.