Volume 18, Number 35
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
www.berlincitizen.com
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Hawthorne Inn could be redeveloped By Jesse Buchanan Special to The Citizen
The Hawthorne Inn building on the Berlin Turnpike could be demolished under one offer made on the fiveacre property. One offer has been submitted and two more are expected soon, said Joe Granato, a broker with American Brokers & Consultants 4 Restaurants. Two of the suggested plans include redeveloping the property. The Hawthorne Restaurant closed in July. It’s been on the market for about three months and is listed for $1.9 million. “We are pretty close to making a deal,” Granato said. Ideas for redevelopment
include a banquet facility and medical offices. Granato believes there are too many restaurants in the area so he is marketing the property as a banquet facility. “A restaurant on that location was good 30 years ago,” Granato said. “Now that (the turnpike) has made a comeback over the years, it’s like running a gauntlet. It makes sense for a banquet facility because of all the hotels in the area.” The Grelak family owned the inn for 65 years and offered a banquet facility, catering, a lounge, and a restaurant. Hotelier Syed Bokhari bought The Hawthorne in August 2010 for $1.8 Mayor Rachel Rochette, center, left, with scissors, at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Depot Crossing. | Ken Liebeskind / The Berlin Citizen See Inn / Page 11
Native historian publishes first book By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
“Any time I can help tell the Connecticut story I look forward to it,” said Major Jason Warren, a Berlin native who earned his Ph.D. at Ohio State University in 2011. Warren, whose previous publications include articles and book chapters, recently published his first book, about King Philip’s War, which Warren calls the Great Narragansett War, highlighting the importance of the Narragansetts, the largest native tribe in southern New England. Warren focuses on events surrounding the conflict in very early American history,
c i rc a 1675. The conflict remains, Warren explained, one of the bloodiest, per capita, in American Warren history. Warren said he was able to find some connection to settlements that would one day become Berlin in his research. “I grew up in Berlin, my parents still live in town,” the author said in a phone interview. “Even though Berlin wasn’t settled yet, it was called the See Book / Page 8
Depot Crossing opens, apartments going ‘like hotcakes’ Ken Liebeskind The Berlin Citizen A ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open Depot Crossing, a mixed use property on Farmington Avenue, was held Oct. 15 with Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman offering congratulatory comments. “This is the kind of housing and retail space we need,” she said. “It’s near a train station and there’s activity all around. It improves Berlin and makes Connecticut a better state.” Depot Crossing is a threestory building with 12 apartments available on the second and third floors and 8,900 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. Four of the apartments will be rented at affordable rates,
which is at or below 60 percent of the median income level. Seven apartments have already been rented, including three affordable units. “They’re going like hotcakes,” said Martin Legault, president/CEO of CIL, the developer behind the project. “The apartments are being rented by young adults in their mid-20s and town residents in their upper 60s who want to stay in town for the central location,” he said. “There are not a lot of rentals in Berlin.” Mayor Rachel Rochette said, “It’s been a long time coming and it’s a collaborative effort. We’ve taken a blighted building and turned it around.” Financial aid from the state was instrumental in the de-
velopment of the property. The Connecticut Financial Housing Authority loaned $1 million. “It was lent through the Connecticut Investment Housing Fund as a second mortgage,” said Dara Kovel, vice president of multifamily housing for the CFHA. “It was the exact amount needed to make a difference.” Legault said none of the commercial space has been rented yet. Up to four commercial properties are available on both sides of the building. “It’s open space and we can put up dividing walls based on the needs of the tenants,” he said. The market rate rents for the apartments are $900 for one bedrooms and $1,200 for See Opens / Page 8