Landlord will not contest foreclosure on 19-story office tower in East Hartford

The owner of a 19-story office tower in East Hartford has agreed not to fight a foreclosure by a limited liability company planning a major redevelopment of the Founders Plaza mixed-use office park.

The building is currently owned by a limited liability company affiliated with First Merchants Group, a Massachusetts-based company that had big plans to redevelop the roughly 50-year-old Founders Plaza office park even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those plans have since fizzled out, and last year a new group of prominent local businesspeople began implementing their own vision for a mixed-use office park on the Connecticut River.

A limited liability company whose managing director, real estate executive Harris Simons, is a partner in the Port Eastside development has purchased a promissory note and mortgage on the 25,400-square-foot, 1971 high-rise at 111 Founders Plaza and initiated foreclosure proceedings.

Last week, attorneys for both sides signed an agreement in Hartford Superior Court asking a judge to authorize foreclosure “at the earliest legal date the court may determine.” The agreement also notes that the current owner, Merchant 99-111 Founders LLC, has no equity in the property.

According to the agreement, there is an unpaid debt of $17.49 million on the property. The current owner waived the right to appeal, the affidavit of debt, and the need for an appraisal.
An attempt to reach a representative of the current building owner was not immediately successful on Monday morning.

Attorney Richard P. Weinstein, who represents the plaintiff, said the agreement allows for the transfer of ownership once the case goes to trial.

Office tenants in the tower were recently informed that new owners will take over the building sometime in August. The building was on the verge of closure because it failed to meet state fire codes due to a lack of sprinkler systems.

East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin previously confirmed that Port Eastside officials had spoken to him about the desire to convert office space in the tower into apartments.

Harris Simons, along with his brother Bruce, is the managing director of West Hartford-based development and real estate services firm Figure 8 Properties. Both are also partners in the planned “Port Eastside” redevelopment of Founders Plaza.

Other partners in Port Eastside include: Hartford-based developer Lexington Partners, Hartford-based investor and businessman Alan Lazowski, Hoffman Auto Group co-chairman Jeffrey S. Hoffman, Manafort Brothers Inc. president Jim Manafort, Nicholas Michnevitz, president of West Hartford-based MBH Architecture, and Peter S. Roisman, head of Houston-based multifamily investor REV.

Port Eastside partners announced plans last year to transform large parts of the aging office complex on the east side of the Connecticut River into a complex that will combine around 1,000 apartments with commercial space, cultural facilities, a transportation hub and new pedestrian connections.

They have started to acquire land for development.

Last summer, Port Eastside LLC – with Bruce Simons as managing director – paid $4 million for a 170,000-square-foot office building on a 300,000-square-foot lot at 20 Hartland Street (also known as 99 Founders Plaza).

In late July, another LLC, whose principal is Harris Simons, paid $7 million for a vacant 65,000-square-foot “flex” office building on a 6.5-acre site at 300 East River Drive.