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- Category: Past Issues
88 Main:
Restored
in a year?
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- If everything falls into place, 88 Main Street would be transformed within 12 months.
Bruce Dexter II, of Dexter Properties LLC, said plans for the four-story building in the center of downtown, now include an Italian restaurant on the ground floor, a lobby, elevator, possible retail shops and a restaurant on the Main Street level and a "boutique" style hotel/inn on the top two floors. An idea to put a nursing school on the top two floors has fallen by the wayside. Dexter said the upscale hotel floors could contain some 15 to 20 completely unique rooms. "We would hope it would offer rooms that are different from the typical rooms you see at chains," he said.
Town Administrator Douglas M. Cutler said if someone is interested in putting in the boutique hotel, "we'll make it happen." Dexter said he hoped to make it an upscale destination. "We may look into creating a deck on the roof, too," he added. Research on the idea continues and the former Putnam Inn, which stood a block away from 88 Main, may provide some inspiration for the project.
The town received word last week that a state grant of $400,000 for the project would be heading Putnam's way. Dexter said the grant, which is likely to be approved at the Bonding Commission meeting Dec. 10, would be joined up with the town $100,000 facade grant and Dexter's $100,000 matching contribution. When all that is in place, Dexter said they would start as soon as possible. The first priority, he said would be to remove all four existing outside walls, install sheathing, install an air and vapor barrier and then construct a new masonry facade. The grants would also cover new glass, windows, doors, awnings. He said the building is "structurally sound" but there are some modifications needed inside and some roof work is yet to be done. "Yes, we can do the entire outside with that money," Dexter said. It would be a watertight building and looking like new, at the end of the project. After that, Dexter Properties might be interested in low-interest loans to continue inside work. Interested tenants may also be covering the cost for their "build-outs."
After the nursing school idea was taken off the table, Dexter said they brainstormed and are still interested in putting an Italian restaurant on the almost-underground first floor. Access would be from the alley between 88 Main and the former LaPointe's building. He said there is "lots of interest" from an unnamed restaurant group and some retail shops are also interested in the Main Street level floor. The hotel would be on the third and fourth floors. The lobby, elevator and entrance to the restaurant and possible retail shops would be on the Main Street level.
Dexter said they are "very thankful" for all the support from government and community. "They know the potential."
Cutler said the $400,000 grant for the renovation of 88 Main is one of three grants announced last week and likely to be approved at the Dec. 10 Bonding Commission meeting. The Greater Hartford YMCA was awarded $3.745 million for the proposal Regional YMCA with indoor pool to be located in the proposed high tech industrial park off Kennedy Drive and I-395.
In addition, the town was awarded $508,421 for the remediation and demolition of the arson-scarred former Putnam Foundry property off Rt. 12.
Cutler said the town would be moving toward taking down some of the unsafe buildings on the 9.4-acre property. The grant would be used to remove some of the building and "remediate" the soil near those buildings. In addition, the town has already "done the legwork" on a Phase 2 and Phase 3 remediation of the land surrounding the buildings. The balance of the grant might be able to stretch to accomplish some of those projects, too. A Phase 2 survey lists parts of the property that might be "environmentally challenged" and Phase 3 is a plan to correct the concerns noted in a Phase 2 survey.
The goal, Cutler said, is to get the industrially zoned property, which also hosts a railroad spur, into its "highest and best use" to add value to the grant list. All three projects came through the state Office of Policy and Management as support for the creation of long-term jobs at all three properties.