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Long-Vacant Hartford Building To Be Torn Down To Make Way For CVS

By Kenneth R. Gosselin

May 21, 2012

The long-vacant office building at Washington and Park streets in Hartford isn’t exactly an eyesore, but it isn’t doing much for the corner either.

That’s about the change: the 1915 brick-and-concrete structure at 150 Washington St. will soon be torn down to make way for a 13,000-square-foot CVS.

Owner and developer Eliot B. Gersten, a Hartford lawyer, told me he expects the CVS will be open by January and, with a little luck, earlier, in time for the holiday shopping season.

Gersten’s late father, Charlie, a lawyer and real estate developer, purchased the property 15 years ago, after the state had stop using it for offices. The property, empty for about two decades, had been marketed for offices and some consideration was given to renovations. Charlie Gersten died in 2006.

But when CVS showed interest in the site, Eliot Gersten jumped at the opportunity.

The project is expected to cost $6 million, and its facade will reflect the architectural style of other recent renovations along the Park Street corridor. The store will employ 40.

“Years ago, this building was a great asset to the area,” Julio Mendoza, executive director of the Spanish American Merchants Association, told me, after a news conference today. “Now, it will contribute to the neighborhood again.”

When the state had offices in the 60,000-square-foot, brick-and-concrete building, it is estimated that 200 people worked in the building. Those workers pumped money into the local, Park Street economy and “it was a blow” when they left, Mendoza told me.