With 70 new apartments freshly on the market and 50 more under construction, the Founders Square project in the heart of Windsor is driving a revival of the surrounding neighborhood, local officials say.
The first phase of the mixed-use complex at Route 159 and Route 75 opened this fall, and more than half of the apartments along with all five ground-floor retail spaces are already leased.
Just behind the new centerpiece structure, an elevator tower has already been constructed for phase two, a four-story building that will add another 50 apartments.
More than 80 Windsor business leaders and officials gathered Tuesday for a ceremonial ribbon cutting, and speakers emphasized that the power of the new project extends far beyond its footprint.
“This is reinvigorating our beloved downtown,” Mayor Nuchette Black-Burke told the crowd. “We wanted the vibrancy to return to our downtown center.”
For city and state officials, part of the attraction of a new project of that size is that it brings new foot traffic to existing retailers on nearby blocks. In addition, the new storefronts — including the Blue Dragonfly gift shop, the Mometa Moments Baakery, the Lil’ Plant Shop and others — are drawing new customers.
“The positive ripple effects are already being felt,” said state Rep. Jane Garibay, D-Windsor, a supporter of the project since it was first announced nearly three years ago. “Over at Family Pizzeria they told me the Blue Dragonfly has been referring customers to them. And that’s just one business. There’s a renewed sense of energy downtown.”
Windsor Federal Bank, one of the chief financing partners, considers the new project as the start of a major resurgence for the town center.
“I look at this as the linchpin of the renaissance of downtown Windsor,” Chief Executive Officer Luke Kettles told the audience.
Developers Gregory Vaca and PAC Group LLC got $3.2 million in aid through a state Community Challenges grant two years ago, and state Community and Economic Development Deputy Director Matthew Pugliese said this is the first completed project under the program.
“We’re doing what every downtown in Connecticut has been asking for,” Pugliese said.
The project was the first to benefit under Windsor’s tax increment financing arrangement, in which the town government covers some site preparation costs through anticipated future tax revenue from the project.
Town Manager Peter Souza described Founders Square as the latest step in an effort to make the town center more vibrant and pedestrian-friendly. Windsor did some streetscape work, and another developer is currently constructing 77 more apartments about a block or two north of the Route 75 and Route 159 merger.
Founders Square has set aside 24 apartments as affordable, with the remaining 96 studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms renting at market rates of up to $2,000 a month.
Vaca credited the design for enabling developers to lease the commercial space quickly. New multi-use projects have become problematic in many communities because the market for new retail space is sluggish. But Vaca said Founders Square was deliberately laid out to give commercial tenants maximum window area facing the street and potential shoppers, but relatively shallow display space to keep costs reasonable.
“We have five spaces: two with 700 square feet, one with 1,400 and two with 1,500. They’re small and that’s what the market wants,” he said. “This is ‘mom and pop,’ which is the kind of business that’s traditional in a town center.”