Hundreds Of New Windows Needed At Hartford Apartment Tower – Hartford Courant

The first tenants in downtown's 777 Main apartment tower moved in 20 months ago, and now the building is 95 percent leased.

But the place, surrounded by scaffolding on street level, still looks like a construction zone.

The staging hasn't been removed because the developer confirmed he is replacing "hundreds" of the original 1,900 windows in the tower damaged during the $85 million conversion of the former bank building into rentals. And the troubles are tangled up in long-running legal wrangling between the apartment developer and the general contractor over who is responsible and who should pay for the new windows.

"We've left up the scaffolding as an extra precaution," Bruce Becker, the project's Fairfield-based developer, said. "I don't like having it there. But safety has to be the priority."

The scaffolding obscures the storefront of Blue State Coffee, which opened in September, 2015, just a few months after the first tenants moved into the tower.

The staging has hurt the cafe's visibility and its goal of becoming part of the community, said Carolyn Greenspan, Blue State's chief executive.

"We do think it's an issue," Greenspan said. "It's not helping to let people know that we are there. It's not welcoming the way we want to be with the scaffolding there."

And you can't see that CVS is outfitting a space in another space on the ground floor.

In the apartments above, window replacement started in November and has been done mostly as apartments have turned over to new tenants. If tenants were in the middle of a lease, they were relocated to a furnished apartment elsewhere in the tower.

The east and south faces of the 26-story building are the priority, Becker said, because that's where the scaffolding is set up. Becker hopes the staging will be removed by late spring.

"I do look forward to it being gone by the warmer months," Nick Addamo, an urban planner who has rented an apartment in the building since October, said. "It will be nice to have the block back."

The 286-unit apartment building is the largest downtown rental development tackled so far by the Capital Region Development Authority, using taxpayer-subsidized loans and equity investments. Of the $85 million development and construction costs at 777 Main, CRDA committed a $10.2 million loan and a $7.5 million equity investment.

Becker said he is close to a settlement with the contractor, Viking Construction of Bridgeport and one of its subcontractors, Armani Restoration of Hartford. The settlement will help speed up the window replacement, but it won't cover all the costs of the new windows. The settlement is expected to be paid for by insurance carriers for Viking and Armani, Becker said.

Becker declined to discuss the terms of the settlement. He said the total number of windows to be replaced must still be determined.

Attorneys for Viking and Armani declined to comment for this story.

Becker said each window cost less than $1,000, but that does not include installation.

Becker said the damage to the 9-foot high windows original to the 1967 structure occurred after Viking hired Armani to clean the building's facade. Becker said the glass became "pitted" around the edges, compromising the views from the windows and their strength.

Under most weather conditions, Becker said the damage to the windows wouldn't present a safety problem. But if, say, a hurricane struck, the damage could cause a window to break, he said.

Becker said the exterior damage to the windows was separate from windows that broke during construction. Viking in court documents blamed that on the installation of interior storm windows designed to further insulate against heat and cold, a contention disputed by Becker.

Soon after the first residents started moving into 777 Main in June, 2015, a portion of the scaffolding along Main Street was removed. But days later, a shard of glass from a window on the sixth floor plunged to the sidewalk below. No one was hurt, but the staging was put back in place.

Although Addamo said he won't miss the scaffolding, it has had its benefits in bad weather this winter.

"I've actually been a little thankful for it in the rain and snow," Addamo said.

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Hundreds Of New Windows Needed At Hartford Apartment Tower - Hartford Courant