Page 8 - BusinessWest January 20, 2025

Enfield at
a Glance
Year Incorporated: 1683
Population: 42,141
Area: 34.2 square miles
County: Hartford
Residential Tax Rate: $32.23
Commercial Tax Rate: $32.23
Median Household Income: $67,402
Median Family Income: $77,554
Type of Government: Town Council, Town Manager
Largest Employers: Empower Retirement LLC, Town of Enfield, Advance Auto Parts Distribution Center, Eppendorf Manufacturing
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT >>
Enfield Is All Aboard the Development Train
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
In a region with plenty of dying, dead, or deteriorating shop- ping centers, Enfield Square stands out — just Target and a few smaller retailers occupying a largely empty structure
where anchors such as Macy’s, JCPenney, and Sears once thrived.
But it’s also a property with an intriguing location, sitting between two very busy thoroughfares in Elm Street and Haz- ard Avenue, each dotted with retail, restaurants, and plenty of traffic.
And 2024 brought a ray of hope when the mall property — all but the Target — was purchased by Woodsonia Acquisi- tions, which has proposed a $250 million project that will feature retail and restaurant businesses, hundreds of resi- dential units, and a small hotel.
Woodsonia also worked with the town on an application for a $20 million Connecticut Community Investment Funds program grant. After much back and forth with the state, an amended, $10 million version was recently resubmitted.
“It was narrowed down a little bit,” said Aaron Mar- cavitch, who has had a busy several months since coming on board as Enfield’s Economic & Community Development director last April. “It’s a $10 million request, basically for the demolition of the building and for the critical infrastruc- ture elements of it — pipes in the ground and some of those types of things. We should hear by March whether or not that will happen. If it goes forward, that process will take six to nine months before you might see demolition.”
He said the town and developer share a vision for the property involving the mixed-use blend of housing, a hotel,
and “some upscale strip elements” on the retail side, includ- ing an organic grocery store.
“It’s likely that the developers are a little bit more hous- ing-focused, so they’ll get that part done, and the rest will happen as they acquire potential retailers or restaurants or whatever,” Marcavitch went on. “If the project were to go sideways, there may be other ways for us to go with this. It is a really great location for retail.”
“With demographics changing, we kind of have to stay on our toes for what the community is looking for.”
The housing element is especially intriguing at a time when most cities and towns in the region need more of it. At the same time, a 140-unit residential development is taking shape on North River Street, near the critically important train stop project taking shape in the Thompsonville neigh- borhood (more on all of that later).
“I think the balance that Enfield is looking for is in truly affordable housing — really low-income versus workforce housing,” Marcavitch said, citing a term often used in the social-services world: ALICE, which stands for asset-limited, income-constrained, employed. “It basically means that you’re well above the poverty line, but it’s still hard to make ends meet. And I think that’s the area of housing we’ve been
8 JANUARY 20, 2025
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