News & Media

By Matt Pilon

Developers Avner Krohn and Brian Zelman are set to break ground this spring on a 111-unit upscale apartment complex on Jolley Drive in Bloomfield.

“It’s not a massive building, it has kind of a boutique hotel feel,” said Krohn, who has been one of New Britain’s more active developers in recent years. Krohn and Zelman revealed that Wash Brook will offer six different unit layouts at market rates, ranging from studios up to three-bedrooms and will target young professionals and empty-nesters alike. There will be a gym, yoga studio, pool, pet grooming stations, golf and sports simulator, bicycle storage, shared office area, covered parking ports, electric vehicle chargers, a smart door access system, and other amenities. “I don’t think you can build 111 units that are higher end and not have those things or else your competition knocks you out,” Zelman said of the planned amenities. “It’s kind of a given that you have to have them.”

The two hope that when units begin leasing by the summer or fall of 2022 the pandemic will be in the rearview mirror.

New Britain developer Avner Krohn of Jasko Development plans to raze two prominent connected vacant buildings at 267 and 277 Main St in New Britain's downtown. One of which housed the former Burritt Interfinancial Bancorporation that was shut down by bank regulators in the early 1990s.

Krohn envisions razing both properties and building an 83,000-square-foot, five-story building that would contain approximately 90 apartment units and 6,000-square-feet of ground-floor retail space. The project is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $13 million.

JASKO Development LLC, recently purchased the former Burritt Bank and Lerner’s store on 267 and 277 Main St. in downtown New Britain in order to develop a new new residential and retail five-story building that includes approximately 90 multi-style apartments and 6,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. The locations have both been vacant for nearly 30 years.

Last month, New Britain-based JASKO Development completed its renovation of the building where four floors were converted from commercial space to one-bedroom apartments to meet the growing demand for downtown housing.

Avner Krohn, owner of Jasko Development LLC, in an interview said his firm recently finished a year-long redevelopment of the upper four floors of the 28,473-square-foot building at 132 Main St. 

The office-to-apartment conversion adds 20, one-bedroom apartments to New Britain's steadily growing downtown corridor, Krohn said. Several leases have already been signed for a variety of one-bedroom layouts sized 500 square feet to 700 square feet. The first tenants will begin occupancy in early July.

The market-rate units, he estimated, are roughly 20% to 30% cheaper than comparable spaces in Hartford and other nearby towns.

JASKO Development finished its reworking of the historic building at 132 Main St. New Britain, creating 20 one-bedroom apartments on four floors. The building was converted from what was commercial space.

Avner Krohn, one of the most active developers in downtown New Britain in recent years, is proposing to build a 111-unit multi-family housing development on vacant Bloomfield land.

Jasko Development, LLC, the New Britain, CT based real estate developer has purchased the 14,500 sf former Sid Miller’s Appliance building at 10 Jolley Drive, Bloomfield, CT with plans to convert the 12,600 sf appliance retail space into a high-presence medical facility. Over the past 5 years, Jasko has constructed a dozen such medical/dental facilities for tenants such as AFC Urgent Care, Columbia Dental, Charter Oak Dental and others.

Twenty one-bedroom apartments and space for two or three bars or restaurants will be available after the restoration of the historic Andrews Building, Mayor Erin Stewart and Jasko Development have announced.

The restoration by Jasko is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2020.

This project is a way of meeting the growing demand for housing in downtown New Britain, according to Avner Krohn, CEO of Jasko Development.

Downtown New Britain will add 20 more apartments through landlord Avner Krohn's planned makeover of one of his center-city properties.