A University of Connecticut residence hall could be located off historic Pratt Street in downtown Hartford and would house students enrolled at the university’s regional campus in the city.
The proposed location, with an entrance off Pratt Street, is actually an annex to the 242 Trumbull St. office building, which takes up more than half of the brick-lined, pedestrian-only Pratt Street and is across from the XL Center.
Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, Tuesday confirmed the location, which for weeks has been the leading candidate to convert into housing for up to 200 students. The details of the proposal and the financing will be discussed at the quasi-public CRDA’s housing committee meeting Thursday, Freimuth said.
UConn did not have an immediate comment Tuesday.
Last month, university officials told a UConn board of trustees committee that the university was 95% complete on a term sheet for the project, but there still was a $3 million gap in the way of completing a deal. A term sheet outlines the financing of a development and other conditions of a project.
At that time, neither a building or a developer was disclosed. The eight-story, 242 Trumbull is owned by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC, downtown Hartford’s largest commercial landlord. Shelbourne, which has marketed the building for an apartment conversion, declined comment until after Thursday’s meeting.
Ever since UConn opened its regional campus in downtown Hartford in 2017, there has been discussion about the addition of undergraduate student housing — something that the university has successfully done at its Stamford campus.
The residence hall could be open for the fall semester of 2025 or, at the latest, the fall of 2026, UConn has said.
UConn officials say student surveys have shown a strong interest in housing for the Hartford campus.
The addition of a residence hall in Hartford also would give UConn another housing option for freshman applicants who are accepted to the university but can’t get into the main campus at Storrs.
Of the nearly 57,000 applicants for this fall’s semester, all but 2,000 sought acceptance to Storrs. The applications also indicate a strong, clear demand for housing, and the addition of a residence hall to Hartford could increase the attractiveness of the city as a second option.
University officials say the housing could serve upper division students who want intern in downtown Hartford.
The residence hall also could cater to students who don’t want to attend the sprawling UConn campus in Storrs but prefer the smaller, regional campus. Housing in Hartford could eliminate commutes.
UConn has looked at a half dozen potential locations for the residence hall in recent months. University officials said they were in a geographic triangle formed by the XL Center, its Hartford regional campus in the former Hartford Times complex on Prospect Street and Constitution Plaza, where UConn has long had its master of business administration program. UConn plans an expansion this year in an upper floor of the XL Center complex.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
