Hartford Expects $500000 For Albany Avenue Improvements

The State Bond Commission is expected to approve $500,000 for streetscape improvements in the Upper Albany neighborhood when it meets next week.

The funding will be used for the first phase of improvements to the area, state officials said, and includes an assessment of all properties on Albany and Homestead avenues and façade enhancements along Albany Avenue.

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The assessment will include vacant buildings and lots. Once it is complete, design standards will be drawn up to craft a “comprehensive façade improvement plan,” officials said.

“We’re really pleased that the [Department of Economic and Community Development] sees the value and real opportunity in this area,” state Rep. Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, said Thursday. “It’s a competitive grant process. It’s good Hartford was able to put its best foot forward to win the grant.”

“Revitalizing local commercial centers is a key component of our economic development strategy,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a prepared statement. “Not only are we advancing our efforts to help small businesses grow and create jobs, but we are also improving the quality of life in communities around the state, making them more attractive to employers and residents alike.”

The bond commission is expected to approve the funding at its Jan. 9 meeting.

The improvements are part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the Upper Albany neighborhood.

Earlier this year, officials from the Urban Land Institute presented their initial impressions and recommendations for renovating the mile-plus-long corridor. Hartford was one of four cities chosen for the institute’s Rose Fellowship program, which aims to create successful, long-term development plans. The city decided to focus the study on Albany Avenue.

The institute’s ideas included two mixed-use developments, one near the Hartt School of Music and another at Albany Avenue and Woodland Street.

Albany Avenue has long struggled with crime, but has had its successes. In the late 1990s, the Artists Collective opened at the corner of Albany Avenue and Woodland Street and, more recently, the new YMCA, the new Upper Albany Branch of the Hartford Public Library and the expanded Community Health Services Center have opened.

An estimated $17 million in state and local funding is earmarked for streetscape improvements. The upgrades — sidewalks, lighting and landscaping — could provide an additional boost, sprucing up the street’s appearance.

The $500,000 would be in addition to the $17 million, Ritter said, and would help revamp privately owned businesses as well as public properties. He said the first phase of improvements would begin later this year.

Staff writer Kenneth R. Gosselin contributed to this story.