Vacant lot at prominent CT gateway acquired for $1.3M. ‘It’s a real eyesore.’

Even the governor has asked what’s going on at this site.

Now, a vacant lot at a prominent gateway to downtown Hartford — created nearly 15 years ago with the demolition of Broadcast House — has been sold for $1.3 million after the previous owner failed to redevelop the site at the foot of the Founders Bridge.

The buyer, Hartford Steam Boiler, is headquartered just across Columbus Boulevard from the half-acre lot at 3 Constitution Plaza, which is now an eyesore surrounded by a chain link fence.

“HSB’s land acquisition was a strategic decision to preserve the value of our headquarters at One State Street,” HSB spokesman Dennis Milewski said, in a statement Monday. “We would entertain a higher use value for the property but otherwise are looking to build additional street level parking for employees. We look forward to improving the general conditions of this corner in downtown Hartford.”

The property has long been considered a strong candidate for a new hotel because it is a short walk from the convention center. The city lost hundreds of hotel rooms in the pandemic, now hamstringing its ability to attract large conventions and other big events. The city is looking to rebuild its stock of hotel rooms.

In past year, the specialty insurer — owned by German reinsurance giant Munich Re — has taken an interest in the lot, commissioning a mural to spruce up the site. The mural’s focal point is a powerful locomotive, evoking HSB’s roots in boiler breakdown insurance, a train still part of HSB’s logo.

HSB also invested in the opening of a new, upscale restaurant, The Foundry, atop its headquarters building.

The sale was recorded in the Hartford town and city clerk’s office late last week.

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said late Monday the city looks forward to a new chapter for a property that the city has wanted very much to see redeveloped.

“For all Hartford residents, that’s felt like a real eyesore, right as you get off the highway and entering into downtown,”  Arulampalam said. “In my first couple months being mayor, it’s something the governor had mentioned to me and mentioned to me several other times. It’s a property that we’ve been very interested in, trying to get under responsible control and try to get a number of developers to look at.”

Earlier this year, Arulampalam said the city had been approached about negotiations between the previous owner of the long-vacant lot at the southeastern corner of Constitution Plaza — Abul Islam, founder and chief executive of Middletown-based AI Engineers — and potential developers of a new hotel. Those negotiations were in the earliest stages.

Islam could not be reached for comment late Monday.

The corporate investment in Constitution Plaza provides a boost at a time when the future of a large chunk of the 1960s-era complex is surrounded by uncertainty.

The court-approved foreclosure last month of a majority of Hartford’s Constitution Plaza is expected to open up options for the future, but just how redevelopment unfolds — or over what period of time — is the next chapter in the plaza’s long struggle to find a niche in the half century since it was built.

Islam put the property up for sale a little over two years ago, listed without an asking price.

Islam purchased the property at 3 Constitution Plaza in 2008 and announced splashy plans for a 12-story, $40 million office tower.

But those plans were subsequently downsized and, at one point, office space was combined with apartments. A hotel also was considered for the site. Each of the plans went nowhere, financing and falling demand for office space a constant obstacle.

Islam paid $700,000 for the property, $1 million below its original listing price. In 2008, Islam told the Courant he was investing $2 million to buy the property and demolish Broadcast House, a distinctive sight in the city with its scalloped roof.

The building had stood vacant and deteriorating since WFSB/Channel 3 moved its broadcast studios to Rocky Hill in 2006.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].