James Kelly will assume the duties of senior vice president and focus on leasing for tenants and landlords.

Prior to joining RM Bradley, Kelly ran an independent brokerage JPK Realty [...]]]> A commercial real estate broker with two decades of experience — much of it in New York City — is joining RM Bradley’s Hartford office.

Kelly

James Kelly will assume the duties of senior vice president and focus on leasing for tenants and landlords.

Prior to joining RM Bradley, Kelly ran an independent brokerage JPK Realty for the past three years, covering Connecticut and New York.

Previously, Kelly launched Lincoln Property Co’s first New York office in 2002, serving as vice president of operations; and he was with the downtown New York office of Cushman & Wakefield for nine years.

Colorado developer David Nunes has rejoined the consortium’s lead development team after resolving a dispute that erupted earlier this spring with the other partners.  [...]]]> A real estate developer who pursued the building of a casino in eastern Massachusetts for five years is back as part of the Foxwoods-led consortium now competing to open that casino.

Colorado developer David Nunes has rejoined the consortium’s lead development team after resolving a dispute that erupted earlier this spring with the other partners.  Nunes founded Crossroads Massachusetts LLC and acquired land in Milford, Mass. for the construction of a casino.

Nunes will serve as chief development officer in the Foxwoods-led partnership.

Other members of the lead development team are: Scott Butera, Foxwoods president and chief executive, and Allan Kronberg, who has 40 years of experience in the hospitality, casino and educational industries. Kronberg, who will serve as president and general manager of the Massachusetts venue, has served as regional general manager of Tropicana Entertainment Casinos, among other posts.

Foxwoods joined the consortium in February, as it continued to struggle amid intensifying competition and a slugglish economic recovery.

The consortium is competing against two other proposals for the license to open a casino in eastern Massachusetts.

Business magnate Steve Wynn, who led the redevelopment of the Las Vegas casino strip in the 1990s, has proposed a casino in Everett, Mass. The owners of the Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston are partnering with Caesars Entertainment to build a resort casino near the aging racetrack.

Foxwoods’ Connecticut rival, Mohegan Sun, is one of the four proposals vying for a license for western Massachusetts.

The developers of ProTech Park said they are seriously considering  multiple sites in Enfield and others north of Hartford for the [...]]]> A $368 million health technology park — anchored by a cancer treatment center — could create as many as 2,500 jobs to north central Connecticut in the next five years, the project’s developers say.

The developers of ProTech Park said they are seriously considering  multiple sites in Enfield and others north of Hartford for the research and development facility. The facility could that could eventually encompass a half a million square feet, according to Boston-based International Charged Particle LLC, the developer and operator of the cancer treatment center.

Rendering of proposed Connecticut Proton Therapy Center. Courtesy of International Charged Particle LLC, Boston.

The park would be anchored by the state’s first proton therapy center for treating cancerous tumors. Construction could begin as early as this fall and patients start receiving treatment within two years, Stephen E. Courtney, ICP’s president, told me this morning.

Courtney declined to identify the sites now under consideration, except to describe ICP’s first choice as now being “a field.” Purchase negotiations have already taken place, he said.

The cancer treatment center would be about 75,000 square feet in size and cost about $150 million. Nearly half of the cost — $64 million — is for equipment and its installation, Courtney said.

In addition, there are at least two other potential tenants for the park — one interested in 90,000 square feet and another, 40,000 square feet — though Courtney declined to name them.

“In this park, it’s all related to medical technology,” Courtney told me. “We hope it will help in the areas of applied science, medical device development and precision engineering.”

See more renderings of the Connecticut Proton Therapy Center here.

Courtney said the cancer treatment center is expected to employ 216 initially, with jobs such as oncologists, physicists and technicians. The average salary will be about $102,000, Courtney told me. That’s nearly double the $53,760 statewide average, according to government statistics.

The cancer treatment that would be offered differs from traditional radiation therapy because it uses a beam of protons to target both benign and malignant tumors more precisely. That reduces the damage to nearby cells and organs that often occurs in traditional radiation therapy, Courtney said.

Treatment Level of the Connecticut Proton Therapy Center. Courtesy of International Charged Particle LLC, Boston.

Proton therapy was first used in the early 1950s, but it did not gain momentum until the 1990s. Today, there are 11 centers around the country using the therapy and another half dozen under construction. Courtney also is a partner in the SciX, a Boston architectural firm, that has designed a handful of proton therapy centers in the country.

ICP was formed a couple of years ago to design and develop the Connecticut project. Courtney told me joined with radiation oncologist Leslie Yonemoto and others to form the partnership. Yonemoto was involved in the country’s first proton therapy center in a hospital setting in the 1990s.

ICP chose Connecticut because there isn’t one currently in the state, and the closest, at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital, already can’t accommodate everyone seeking treatment, Courtney told me.

The project will need approval from the state’s Office of Health Care Access and local zoning officials.

While ICP has lined up bank financing, Courtney told me ICP has already had discussions about an aid package from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. He declined to discuss the details of those talks.

Officials from other states, including Massachusetts, are wooing ICP as well, hoping to attract the research and development facility to their states, Courtney said.

The plans include 300,000 square feet of retail space compared with 130,000 square feet at The Shops at Mohegan Sun, [...]]]> Mohegan Sun’s plans for a $775 million resort casino in Palmer, Mass. include shopping, dining and entertainment space that would be more than twice the size of its Connecticut venue, the casino operator said today.

The plans include 300,000 square feet of retail space compared with 130,000 square feet at The Shops at Mohegan Sun, according to spokeswoman Cathy Soper.

Mohegan also said today it will partner with Boston-based Finard Properties to develop the retail portion of the resort casino. Mohegan said it hopes the partnership will bolster its efforts to obtain a casino license for western Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is expected to issue one license for the region, and there are competing proposals for Springfield and West Springfield.

A rendering of Mohegan Sun’s proposed resort casino in Palmer, Mass. Courtesy of Mohegan Sun.

Finard, a commercial real estate firm, specializes in retail development.

“The portfolio of hugely success of hugely successful Finard Properties’ development is spread literally throughout every corner of New England and beyond,” said Mitchell Etess, chief executive of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. “Their creativity and expertise will be a huge asset to our application for the western Massachusetts gaming license.”

A spokeswoman said design of the shopping area and securing of tenants won’t begin unless Mohegan secures the license.

The retail plans for the resort are separate from ones announced earlier this month by Northeast Realty Associates for land adjoining the 152-acre casino site. Those plans include retail space, a hotel, a lifestyle center and office space, according to a report in The Day of New London.

The former Joseph R. Ensign House — a three-story, Renaissance Revival structure in the center of Simsbury –  has been sold to an investor group for $1 million.

Chestnut Hill Associates of Simsbury LLC acquired the 17,000-square-foot building at 690 Hopmeadow St. from Webster Bank, which had used it for office space and a [...]]]>  

The former Ensign House in the center of Simsbury has been sold for $1 million. Photo Courtesy of RM Bradley Brokerage Co.

The former Joseph R. Ensign House — a three-story, Renaissance Revival structure in the center of Simsbury –  has been sold to an investor group for $1 million.

Chestnut Hill Associates of Simsbury LLC acquired the 17,000-square-foot building at 690 Hopmeadow St. from Webster Bank, which had used it for office space and a branch, according to RM Bradley Brokerage Co., the sole broker in the deal.

Webster moved out of the space in November and has relocated the branch nearby to 708 Hopmeadow St.

RM Bradley said Chestnut Hill Associates has not revealed its plans for the building but “have expressed their intention to maintain 690 Hopmeadow Street’s historic presence in the center of Simsbury.”

Chestnut Hill Associates could not be immediately reached for comment.

The house was built in 1910 for Ensign and his wife, Mary Phelps Ensign, according to historicbuildingsct.com. Joseph Ensign had followed his father, Ralph Hart Ensign, as president of the Ensign-Bickford Co.

According to the web site, the house was first used in 1955 as the parish house for First Church which is across the street.

Community Renewal Team and the Urban League of Southern Connecticut are partnering in using the grant to hire 10 housing counselors to advise property owners in danger of losing their homes. The counselors will be in offices [...]]]> A $2 million grant will help two community-based organizations in Connecticut expand their services to homeowners facing foreclosure.

Community Renewal Team and the Urban League of Southern Connecticut are partnering in using the grant to hire 10 housing counselors to advise property owners in danger of losing their homes. The counselors will be in offices throughout the state for the next three years, CRT said.

The one-on-one counseling will build on foreclosure prevention programs now provided by the organizations, such as group workshops.

CRT will provide the counseling in Litchfield, Tolland, Windham, New London, Hartford and Middlesex counties. Urban League will operate the program in New Haven and Fairfield counties.

The funds are part of the state’s share of last year’s $25 billion landmark settlement with five national mortgage servicers over shoddy foreclosure practices. Connecticut’s share was about $190 million.

But the Warren Group, which tracks housing trends in New England, said the median sale price rose nearly 10 percent in March, [...]]]> Sales of single-family houses in Connecticut fell nearly 7 percent in March compared with the same month a year ago, the second consecutive month of year-over-year sale declines, a new report today shows.

But the Warren Group, which tracks housing trends in New England, said the median sale price rose nearly 10 percent in March, to $245,000 from $223,000 a year earlier.

“Low inventory is plaguing housing markets all over the country, and Connecticut is no exception,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., chief executive of Warren Group. “With mortgage rates low and prices rising, we’re hopeful more sellers will emerge and the trend in dropping home sales will reverse.”

House sales fell in five of eight counties in Connecticut, with Litchfield County sustaining the biggest decline, falling more than 30 percent. The median sale price — where half the sales are above, half below — rose in all counties, with the exception of New London County.

See a chart comparing house sales by county here and by town here.

In Hartford County, house sales fell nearly 5 percent, to 409 in March, from 430 a year ago. The median sale price increased 5.2 percent, to $200,000, from $190,000 a year earlier.

In the first three months of the year, single-family house sales statewide slid 3.5 percent, to 4,067 from 4,216 for the same period in 2012. The median sale price jumped 9.3 percent, to $235,000, from $215,000 in the first three months of last year.

Realtors say prices are rising despite weak sales, partly because the inventory of houses for sale is low and bidding wars are becoming more common. A dearth of houses in attractive locations that are “move-in” ready are drawing multiple bids as soon as the properties come on the market.

But realtors also say some homes are still sitting on the market and sustaining price reductions — especially if they need work.

For a true housing recovery to take place, more property owners must list their homes so the selection of homes for sale remains fresh. Some homeowners, experts say, are holding back from listing their properties because the long-term direction of prices remains fuzzy. And many property owners are staying put because job growth in many parts of the state remains lackluster.

Investors – ranging from corporations to wealthy individuals — are usually lining up [...]]]> The conversion of the old Sonesta Hotel in downtown Hartford into nearly 200 much-needed apartments could have been underway by now, if it wasn’t for one piece of financing that doesn’t normally draw a lot of attention: federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.

Investors – ranging from corporations to wealthy individuals — are usually lining up for the chance to help finance rehabilitation of historic structures in exchange for the credits used to reduce their federal taxes. But since last fall, after a federal appeals court ruling in a New Jersey case denied an investor the right to use the credit, investors have been scurrying to the sidelines until the implications are sorted out.

The tightening of the spigot is causing headaches for developers of projects like the Sonesta across the country, who depend on the historic tax credits to pull together often complex financing packages. In Connecticut alone, it is estimated that dozens of projects could be affected, according to Daniel Forrest, the state’s deputy state historic preservation officer.

The hotel on Constitution Plaza in Hartford as it appeared in the early 1990s. Photo by Stephen Dunn/The Hartford Courant.

Historic rehabilitation is especially critical in Connecticut – and throughout the Northeast – where a vast inventory of old buildings, especially outdated industrial properties, could be converted for new uses, Forrest told me.

The court ruling does not impact the state’s historic rehabilitation tax credit program.

“This is not just in Connecticut, but on a national level,” Forrest said. “It’s a very difficult circumstance. If no one knows what this means, they are not going to go down the road and invest.”

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in favor of the Internal Revenue Service in a case involving the redevelopment of the Historic Boardwalk Hall in Altantic City, N.J. into a new conference center. The court ruled that a tax credit investor — Pitney Bowes — wasn’t entitled to the credit even though it had invested $16.4 million into the project.

The court ruled that Stamford-based Pitney Bowes was not really a true partner in the project because its tax credit agreement insulated it from any risk, even if the development went awry.

The ruling is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is not yet known if the court will accept the case. Meanwhile, the federal appeals court ruling did not shed any light on how tax credit investments should be put together and, as of yet, the IRS had not provided guidance.

“Many investors are sitting on the sidelines while the attorneys and the IRS try to figure this out,” Thom Amdur, executive director of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association in Washington, D.C., told me.

Amdur estimated that as many as half of the investors in rehabilitation projects nationwide have put closings on hold.

Major corporations such as Chevron, Bank of America and Capital One have been active in the federal historic tax credit program.

In an email to The Courant, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department, said the IRS “is working on this guidance and hope to release it soon.” The IRS offered no specific timetable, but one expert said with the myriad of tax issues the IRS is dealing with “soon” could mean anywhere from a “few weeks to a few years.”

The $24 million financing package for the Sonesta project factored in $4 million from federal historic tax credits.

“If you drop one piece of the puzzle, then the whole puzzle falls apart,” said Jeffrey D. Ravetz, president of New York-based Girona Ventures, a partner in the conversion of the hotel on Consitution Plaza.

The Capital Region Development Authority is so concerned about the potential for delays that it is considering adding to its role in the Sonesta conversion. The authority may approve a temporary “bridge” loan of $2 million to cover the portion of the tax credit financing that is needed for construction.

“To move Sonesta, we may have to step in as bridge role,” Freimuth said. “It has been eight months since the ruling, and we’ve got to get Sonesta going.”

Forrest said a quick resolution is needed and he hopes a push by historic preservationists in the nation’s capital will speed up the IRS’ work.

“This has been a remarkably successful program,” Forrest said. “These types of projects need to go forward.”

The Hartford metro area’s median sale price was $202,100 in the first quarter, flat compared $202,000 for the same period in 2012, [...]]]> The median sale price of previously-owned single-family houses in the Hartford metro area didn’t register the gains seen nationwide in the first three months of this year, according to a new report today.

The Hartford metro area’s median sale price was $202,100 in the first quarter, flat compared $202,000 for the same period in 2012, the National Association of Realtors reported.

That compares with a 11.3-percent gain for the nation as a whole in the same period. Hartford, however, was closer to the Northeast as a whole, which inched up 3 percent.

The Hartford metro’s price was part of a larger quarterly report on 150 metro areas across the country tracked by the association.

Other metro areas in Connecticut fared better than Hartford. The median sale price in  Bridgeport metro area, which includes all of Fairfield County, rose 7.8 percent, to $360,100, from $334,000 a year earlier. And in the New Haven metro area, the median rose 5.3 percent, to $203,400 from $193,100 a year ago.

Some of the strongest gains in the country are in areas such as Nevada, California and portions of the Midwest, which were hardest hit by price declines in the housing downturn.

The median rose in 133 of the 150 metro areas tracked by the association. The largest gain was registered in the Akron, Ohio metro center, at 32.7 percent. The biggest decline was in Kankakee, Ill., at nearly 19 percent.

His half-acre parking lot, he told me, is the perfect spot for an apartment tower, with as [...]]]> The 12-foot “for sale” sign on the parking lot at Ann Uccello and Asylum streets in downtown Hartford is big and bold, and the same can be said about Paul Khakshouri’s ideas for this corner of the city.

His half-acre parking lot, he told me, is the perfect spot for an apartment tower, with as many as 800 apartments and a million square feet. (Yes, 800. That’s more than three times the number in Hartford 21 just up the street.) The apartments, Khakshouri says, are just the revitalizing spark downtown needs and would attract national retailers back to the city.

Manhattan real estate investor Paul Khakshouri has a bold development vision for this corner of downtown Hartford. Photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/kgosselin@courant.com

“You might get a Gap or a Banana Republic,” Khakshouri said. “That’s what you need. This will immediately help retail from Trumbull Street to the train station.”

He adds, “This would put people on the street. They would spend money.”

If anything, Khakshouri is passionate about his vision. But he’s only had preliminary discussions with the city and hasn’t submitted any formal plans. He likely would need a developer for the apartments and then a financing package would have to be assembled. The apartment tower could cost as much as $200 million, he says.

Khakshouri said it will be key to develop a “partnership” with the city, though the details are still to be developed, he told me.

Thomas E. Deller, the city’s chief development official, told me he has talked with Khakshouri about his ideas. Deller told me he intends to meet with Khakshouri again.

A Manhattan real estate investor, Khakshouri has not fared as well in forays into the organic coffee and high-speed Internet businesses. Those ventures did not pan out, he said.

In Hartford, there are already hundreds of apartments projects in various stages of approval and financing throughout the city, and demand for them has yet to be tested.

He waves away that concern: “I’ve already had five phone calls from kids who want to know when these apartments will be ready.”

Khakshouri is hardly new to Hartford. Ever since the late 1990s, he has been a partner in Morgan Reed Group, which bought up nearly two dozen properties in the city, mostly in and around Union Station.

Long sealed off doors and windows on the facade of Homewood Suites on Asylum Street would be uncovered in plans by Khakshouri as they were when the building was the Bond Hotel. Photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/kgosselin@courant.com

Khakshouri was essentially a silent partner in those days, not spending much more than a few days in Hartford each year. But now, Khakshouri is talking — and talking a lot.

“You need to make an impact,” he says.

He did decline to have his photo taken for this post.

Last November, Khakshouri bought out his partners’ interest in both the parking lot and  Homewood Suites — the redeveloped Bond Hotel — and is now working on gaining control of the Holiday Inn near Union Station.

See a photo gallery of the former Bond Hotel property.

He’s also moved from Manhattan, where he spent years investing in commercial real estate, to an apartment in Hartford to focus on the projects in the city.

His ideas don’t stop at the parking lot. He wants to reconfigure the Homewood Suites entrance to bring back the original lobby of the Bond and uncover long sealed up windows and doors along Asylum. Khakshouri wants to reopen rooms with vaulted ceilings once used for restaurants but now have been relegated to storage space.

Khakshouri said he envisions a bowling alley in an annex to the hotel. (Yes, a bowling alley.) He maintains he’s had interest for potential tournaments there.

Khakshouri told me he was born in Iran but left for Europe as a toddler and was educated at an English boarding school. He moved to the United States with his family at 15 and later graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in accounting, he said.

This cocktail reception area at Homewood would become the main lobby of the hotel, as it once was. Photo by Kenneth R. Gosselin/kgosselin@courant.com

He worked in accounting for five years but found his real love: investing in commercial real estate. Khakshouri started with small buildings in Manhattan and moved on to larger ones. The 42-story apartment building on his sign in Hartford was one he once owned, he said.

Although Khakshouri also dabbled in other businesses, he never found the success he found in real estate.

“For what I want to do here, I’m well suited to do,” Krakshouri said.