What to Watch in 2008

More than a dozen developments are expected to change the face of Farmington Avenue in 2008. Here’s what’s in the works for the avenue.

• Pedestrians on Farmington Avenue in Asylum Hill will see more flowers, cleaner streets, less graffiti and increased security thanks to property owners who fund the Business Improvement District (BID).
• A new police substation opened on the ground floor of the Connecticut Culinary Institute at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Imlay Street.
• The city will be removing non-conforming newsracks (boxes that hold newspapers and advertising circulars) that have been a source of visual blight and litter.
• More office workers will be based on Farmington Avenue as The Hartford moves into the brick colonial building at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Asylum Place.
• Aetna is also expanding its workforce at its headquarters on Farmington Avenue. The company will move a few thousand employees into the former ING building as well as its large brick colonial building on the avenue. A newly constructed parking garage on Flower Street will accommodate some of the new staff.
• Farmington Avenue’s first bus pullout, designed to get buses out of travel lanes when passengers get on and off buses, will be installed in front the Connecticut Culinary Institute (CCI). Its design, including new sidewalk pavers, will preview what will be built on the rest of the avenue for the streetscape project. Kudos to CCI for sharing the cost and land for the new design.
• CT Transit will be consolidating and relocating bus stops to speed up the time it takes passengers to travel the avenue.
• The 1970’s era KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurant will be torn down and replaced with a new model, filling in a hole in the West End commercial district.
• Parking for customers of West End restaurants has been made available evenings (after 5 p.m.) at the rear of the lot between Kenyon and Whitney Streets known in the neighborhood as the “Kinko’s lot”.
• Efforts are underway to relocate and expand the Mark Twain Branch of the Hartford Public Library at a location at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Marshall Street.
• A new American cuisine restaurant at the former Roo Bar is under construction.
• Plans for a mixed use retail and residential building at the corner of Farmington and Girard Avenues have changed. Currently the owner is working on a plan for a two-story retail development.

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