City Looks to Sell Aquinas Building for $80,000
By Robin Vinci | Editor at August 11, 2023 | 2:00 pm | Print
Chrysalis Center Real Estate Corporation has offered to buy the former St. Thomas Aquinas Building at 74 Kelsey St. for $80,000.
Chrysalis will spend $6 million in rehabilitating and refurbishing this building and will not seek any enterprise zone benefits. The plan calls for creating about 30 rental apartment units with four units being reserved as a priority for veterans and the other units to be offered at a range of rental rates.
In 2011 Community Builders Inc. of Massachusetts wanted to build a duplex and town house style buildings with a total of 91 bedrooms including 15 for seniors 55 and older at the property. The Council denied that as neighbors were unhappy it could be low income housing.
Since then the property has been left vacant and has continued deteriorating.
According to the new resolution on the property, “it is in the best interests of the City of New Britain to have this property restored to the grand list with property assessment and property taxes determined in a way that shows City financial support for this project to the project funders and establishes property taxes that are based on the restricted Fair Market Value of the property.”
Chrysalis Center Real Estate Corporation will agree to a clause that all agreements between the parties will be canceled and the property will automatically revert back to the City of New Britain if it does not obtain project funding, purchase the property and start construction within forty eight months of the date of the Purchase and Sale Agreement that will be prepared from this Resolution.
The Council approved Mayor Erin Stewart to negotiate and execute on behalf of the City of New Britain and to execute the conveyance of the property and to establish a property tax assessment that reflects the restricted Fair Market Value based on the actual project net operating income and the current market capitalization rate, and to establish a phased in property tax with no property taxes during construction and for one year following completion of construction, and property taxes phased in at 10 percent per year over the next 10 years.
“The Chrysalis Center has a strong track record of rehabilitating underused properties and turning them into contributing assets within the community,” said Mayor Stewart. “I’m excited that they have taken interest in another property in New Britain with their plan to invest in the East Side neighborhood. The project will remove blight from our community and add to our Grand List.”
This is the second time the City has sold a property to the Chrysalis group this year. In March, the City sold an abandoned building at 57 Court Street for $1 to Chrysalis Center in order for them to transform that abandoned building into 24 one-bedroom housing units for $6 million.
