RE/MAX of New England reported that 2,461 single-family houses and condominiums sold in Connecticut last month, up from 2,371 for the same month a year ago. The median [...]]]> A major real estate broker in Connecticut reports today that the state’s housing sales rose nearly four percent in April, but the median sale price remained flat.

RE/MAX of New England reported that 2,461 single-family houses and condominiums sold in Connecticut last month, up from 2,371 for the same month a year ago. The median sale price was $255,000, down less than one percent from $256,000 a year ago.

The report also indicates that sales may continue to climb in the months ahead. Properties under contract rose by nearly 50 percent, to 2,154, from 1,436 a year earlier. Not all those contracts will end up in closed sales, experts say, with as many as 30 percent falling through.

In April, inventory fell to 28,133, from 31,883 a year ago. Based on the sales in April, there is a 11-month supply of properties on the market, indicating that Connecticut remains firmly in a buyer’s market. A market with a six-month supply is considered to favor neither buyer nor seller.

See the full RE/MAX report here.

RE/MAX draws its statistics from the Multiple Listing Service, but unlike other housing reports, RE/MAX combines single-family and condominium sales. Other reports separate the two categories of residential real estate.

Across New England, sales rose in all six New England states with New Hampshire seeing the biggest jump, at 20.2 percent. The median sale price fell in Connecticut and three other states with Rhode Island seeing a nearly six percent decline.

Here’s a chart on how sales compare across New England states in April:

Source: RE/MAX of New England

While increased sales are encouraging, economists say prices will also have to rise for a housing recovery to gain momentum.

Windsor may be losing the FedEx Ground distribution center, but it could gain a massive 1-million-square-foot Dollar Tree distribution center.

My colleague Steve Goode reports:

Following the unanimous approval of Windsor‘s inland wetlands and watercourses and town planning and zoning commissions last week, the proposed 1 million-square-foot Dollar Tree [...]]]>  

Windsor may be losing the FedEx Ground distribution center, but it could gain a massive 1-million-square-foot Dollar Tree distribution center.

My colleague Steve Goode reports:

Following the unanimous approval of Windsor‘s inland wetlands and watercourses and town planning and zoning commissions last week, the proposed 1 million-square-foot Dollar Tree distribution center appears poised to move forward with construction.

Barring a legal appeal by opponents to the project in the 15 day period allowed in Connecticut, the company has no more town agencies to go to for approval or legal hurdles to clear.

Dollar Tree chose Windsor as one of two finalists for the $57 million facility they have said will bring 200 jobs to town in the next five years.

Even though Dollar Tree now has all approvals in place to build in Windsor, Dollar Tree has yet to formally announce it has chosen Windsor over another site in New York.

Read more of Steve’s story here and more about FedEx’s move here.

FedEx told me it is building the 222,000-square-foot facility on Sullivan Avenue to replace a smaller one on Rainbow Road in Windsor. The Windsor location, which FedEx leases, is 105,000 square [...]]]> Construction of a $50 million FedEx Ground distribution center in South Windsor is now underway, with completion expected by the fall of next year.

FedEx told me it is building the 222,000-square-foot facility on Sullivan Avenue to replace a smaller one on Rainbow Road in Windsor. The Windsor location, which FedEx leases, is 105,000 square feet, less than half the size of the new facility.

The new facility will contain the latest packaging technology, FedEx told me.

The South Windsor plant will employ 80, some of which will transfer from Windsor.

The new distribution center is part of a nationwide expansion by FedEx in which 11 major hubs have been added and 500 facilities have been relocated or expanded.

FedEx Ground is the small-package ground delivery unit of FedEx Corp.

Blue Back Square, West Hartford’s upscale office and retail jewel, hasn’t been actively marketed for sale for several months now.

But low-key, informal negotiations with potential buyers still continue.

Robert Wienner, the Farmington real estate developer, who joined with European investor Ronald de Waal and Street-Works LLC to develop Blue Back, told me late [...]]]>  

Blue Back Square, West Hartford’s upscale office and retail jewel, hasn’t been actively marketed for sale for several months now.

But low-key, informal negotiations with potential buyers still continue.

Robert Wienner, the Farmington real estate developer, who joined with European investor Ronald de Waal and Street-Works LLC to develop Blue Back, told me late Friday that marketing has ceased because potential buyers were now well-aware of Blue Back’s availability.

Blue Back Square, West Hartford. Photo by John Woike/The Hartford Courant.

“We’ve had some low-key conversations, and some are still going on,” Wienner told me.

Wienner said he did not know if the discussions would result in sale or what the next move would be if a purchase wasn’t finalized.

Blue Back went on the market last June, without any asking price. Blue Back was part of a larger U.S. portfolio being sold by de Waal’s Ronus Properties, based in Atlanta. Ronus did not return telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment today.

Ronus executives said late last summer that there had been substantial interest in the property. What’s on the block includes about 460,000-square-feet of office, retail and apartment space.

The $159 million development, which opened in November 2007, is anchored by several major tenants, including Crate & Barrel, Barnes & Noble, REI and The Cheesecake Factory restaurant.

Blue Back Square, geared toward pedestrians, was built in the so-called new-urbanist style, with parking lots on either end of the Square. From the lots, or from either side of Memorial Road — which bisects the development — visitors step into a village of low-lying buildings. Developers incorporated historic, brick municipal buildings and facades along Main Street into the complex.

For nearly a century, the face of the American School for the Deaf has been the iconic Gallaudet Hall with its red brick facade and two-story cupola, an edifice perched atop the great lawn on North Main Street in West Hartford.

But what is stately Georgian on the outside is 21st century shabby and [...]]]>  

Gallaudet Hall, synonymous with the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford for nearly 100 years, will be torn down in a redevelopment. Photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/kgosselin@courant.com.

For nearly a century, the face of the American School for the Deaf has been the iconic Gallaudet Hall with its red brick facade and two-story cupola, an edifice perched atop the great lawn on North Main Street in West Hartford.

A rendering of the new Amercian School for the Deaf building. Courtesy of Tai Soo Kim Partners.

But what is stately Georgian on the outside is 21st century shabby and outdated on the inside.

As the school — the nation’s oldest for the deaf and hearing impaired still in existence — prepares to break ground in a week for a new, $20 million building, the construction comes only after one shelved plan to renovate Gallaudet Hall and, more recently, months of anxious deliberations that led to this painful conclusion: the 1921 building should be torn down.

Read more of my story here.

Take a virtual tour of the new building, which will break ground in two weeks, here:

It’s not unusual for businesses to perform community service, but this is the first time I’ve heard of an entire company with multiple locations closing down for a whole day to do it.

On Thursday, all offices of real estate company Keller Williams closed and 75,000 real estate agents and other workers — 130 [...]]]>  

It’s not unusual for businesses to perform community service, but this is the first time I’ve heard of an entire company with multiple locations closing down for a whole day to do it.

Volunteers from Keller Williams work at HARC group home at 1689 Asylum Ave. in West Hartford Thursday. Photo Courtesy of Keller Williams.

On Thursday, all offices of real estate company Keller Williams closed and 75,000 real estate agents and other workers — 130 of them in three offices in Greater Hartford — volunteered time in the community.

In Greater Hartford, Keller Williams performed repairs and other work at six group homes operated by HARC, a Greater Hartford-based not-for-profit that helps those with intellectual challenges and supports their families.

The company’s fourth annual “Red Day” takes its name from the company color and stands for the acronym “Renew, Energize and Donate.”

Does your company have multiple locations, perhaps in several states, and close down for an entire day to perform community service? What do you do in the community?

Read about the ceremony kicking off the demolition of the notorious eyesore here and more about the building’s storied, if not checkered past, here.

More [...]]]>

Capitol West building on Myrtle Street. Photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/kgosselin@courant.com

After a month of asbestos removal and other preparations at Hartford’s Capitol West, the wrecking ball takes it first swings today at the rear side of the building.

Read about the ceremony kicking off the demolition of the notorious eyesore here and more about the building’s storied, if not checkered past, here.

More photos from the first day of demolition:

The 6,800-square-foot Colonial was purchased by Donald R. Droppo Jr. and his wife Amy for just under the listing price of $1.6 million, according to public [...]]]> Former Connecticut Light & Power president Jeffrey D. Butler has sold his Avon house for $1.56 million, just  four months after putting the Pembroke Drive property on the market.

Former CL&P Chief Jeffrey Butler Has Sold His Avon Home.

The 6,800-square-foot Colonial was purchased by Donald R. Droppo Jr. and his wife Amy for just under the listing price of $1.6 million, according to public records. Donald Droppo is the president and CEO of Curtis Packaging Corp., a family-owned business in Sandy Hook.

Butler and his wife Susan paid $1.6 million for the house in 2009. It has five bedrooms and five full bathrooms and three half-bathrooms.

The brick Colonial on two acres also boasts views of the Heublein Tower and includes a game room, wine cellar, a gunite pool with hot tub, a waterfall and koi pond, a guest house with a full bath and kitchenette and a four-car heated garage.

See more photos of the house here.

Butler resigned from his post at CL&P after he became the lightning rod for criticism of the company’s power restoration effort following the Halloween snowstorm.

A 14,000-square-foot mansion on a 17-acre estate in Greenwich has sold for $13.5 million, one of the largest residential sales in Fairfield County so far this year, according to brokers involved in the deal.

The property, at 74 Upper Cross Road, was renovated extensively last year under the direction of prominent Greenwich designer [...]]]>  

This 17-acre estate in Greenwich is among the most expensive homes sold in Fairfield County so far this year. Photo courtesy of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

A 14,000-square-foot mansion on a 17-acre estate in Greenwich has sold for $13.5 million, one of the largest residential sales in Fairfield County so far this year, according to brokers involved in the deal.

The property, at 74 Upper Cross Road, was renovated extensively last year under the direction of prominent Greenwich designer Linda Ruderman, according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, which represented the seller.

Coldwell Banker declined to identify the buyer and seller, but public records show the buyers are Robert F. and Nancy R. Young. Robert Young is the co-founder and chief executive of the software company Red Hat and the founder of self-publishing web site Lulu.com.

The seller was Springbell Farm Inc., whose president is biotech billionaire Randal J. Kirk, records show.

The house has seven bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. A two-story dinning area off the gourmet kitchen leads to entertaining terraces, which include an outdoor kitchen and seating area around a firepit. In addition, there is an in-ground pool and log-cabin guest house.

Kathryn Clauss, one of the two Coldwell Banker sales associates involved in the sale, said the house was renovated over a two-year period and includes custom-made furnishings. The house was sold fully furnished.

“This recent residential sale is a sign that there is strong confidence in the luxury real estate market in Greenwich and throughout Fairfield County,” said Joseph Valvano, sales manager of Coldwell Banker offices in Greenwich and Old Greenwich.

A technology management company has purchased an office building on Prospect Avenue in West Hartford and intends to occupy more than half of the space.

Hartford-based IT Direct paid $700,000 for the three-story, 19,000-square-foot building at 67-69 Prospect Ave. The seller was New York-based Hartford CRE Holding Co. LLC.

IT Direct is now located [...]]]>  

A technology management company has purchased an office building on Prospect Avenue in West Hartford and intends to occupy more than half of the space.

67-69 Prospect Avenue, West Hartford. Photo Credit: Chozick Realty

Hartford-based IT Direct paid $700,000 for the three-story, 19,000-square-foot building at 67-69 Prospect Ave. The seller was New York-based Hartford CRE Holding Co. LLC.

IT Direct is now located on New Park Avenue in Hartford.

This is the third sale of the property since 2002, according to Rick Chozick of Hartford-based Chozick Realty Inc., which represented the sellers.

Built in 1989, it was sold in 2003 for $800,000 when the building was mostly occupied. It sold again in 2007 as part of a $64 million portfolio of apartment and commercial space. The individual sale price for 67-69 Prospect wasn’t available today.

The buyer was represented by the Brian Zelman of Eagle Rock Retail LLC.