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August 24, 2004
By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN, Courant Staff Writer
After years of sitting vacant, a key building in Hartford's historic Colt factory complex got a jolt of unaccustomed vibrancy Monday as about 300 high-tech employees arrived for their first day of work in a structure long regarded as an eyesore.
And as the complex's first new business tenant moved into the refurbished Sawtooth Building, the $110 million Colt gateway project marked a major milestone in its quest to turn, by early 2006, the once-decaying manufacturing complex into a place where people work, live and visit.
The lease also is a coup for the city, which is trying to encourage businesses to locate in and around downtown. The city also is hoping that at least some of those workers will choose to live downtown and boost the after-hours life that for decades has eluded Hartford.
The sight of that many workers arriving for work Monday in an area that long has had a deserted, rundown appearance stunned even the developers.
"It was strange to see that many people down here," said Rebekah MacFarlane, director of communications for developer Homes for America Holdings.
The Colt factory has a high-profile place in Hartford history. In the 1800s, Samuel and Elizabeth Colt established a firearms factory that was the catalyst for a technological revolution.
Two-thirds of the renovated Sawtooth Building is being leased by Insurity Inc., a business information and data management company that provides services to insurance companies. Insurity, which also has an option to lease the rest of the building, is consolidating workforces in Hartford, East Hartford and a portion in Ridgefield at Colt.
Jeffrey Glazer, senior vice president at Insurity and one of its founders, said that Insurity has been adding between 30 and 40 positions a year and that he expects that pace to continue.
"We have every intention of taking the rest of the building," Glazer said.
Insurity would not disclose the salary levels of its programmers and analysts. But industry statistics show that such positions typically pay $70,000 or more a year.
As economists worry about a shift toward lower-paying service jobs in Connecticut, the prospect of more well-paid positions is welcome in the city.
Glazer said he doesn't expect to have trouble persuading new recruits to come and work in Hartford.
Insurity has successfully recruited "several senior-level people from New York City, who were sick of having it take two hours to get to work," Glazer said.
As Insurity settles into its new offices, the one-story Sawtooth Building - so named for the 1,500 skylights that jut out from its roof like the serrated edge of a saw - becomes the fourth building in the complex to be renovated.
The redevelopment plan for the 17-acre Colt complex calls for commercial and retail space as well as 250 apartments. A replica of the reflecting pool at the Colt mansion on Wethersfield Avenue also is planned as part of a centrally located public park area.
The most recognizable building - the East Armory, with its blue onion dome - will have commercial space on the first floor and rental housing on the four floors above.
Of the four buildings already renovated, the largest is being leased by the nonprofit Capital Region Education Council. The council moved in last fall. There also are tenants in the South Armory.
Dining options remain limited at Colt. Insurity has its own cafeteria, but plans for a restaurant nearby have not been finalized. And it is a good walk to downtown.
Insurity brings the high-tech jobs to the city that many development officials want to attract. It also bolsters insurance industry employment, which has eroded through years of layoffs.
But as the Sawtooth Building gets a new future, its roots are firmly in the manufacturing past. Longer than a football field, with ceilings as high as 25 feet in some spots, the building was erected in 1916 for assembling rifles and other weapons.
The sawtooth roof design was common in the early 1900s. The skylights allowed natural light to flood into the workspace to augment early, crude electric illumination, architectural historians say.
Historians say the building - even its roof - is not especially noteworthy architecturally, unlike the more widely known East Armory. Many factories in the early part of the 20th century were built in a similar way.
What is important is what Colt meant to the history of manufacturing. It is especially well-known for producing the famous "Colt 45" revolver, the "gun that won the West."
For the state, the Sawtooth Building and factory complex are highly visible reminders of the state's manufacturing past, said Bruce Clouette, a historian in Storrs.
"If we're going to understand our history and how we've changed, it's important to have physical reminders as well as history books," Clouette said. "Fifty years ago, a lot of people in Connecticut were factory workers."
Clouette said the only downside is that the renovated Sawtooth Building now has walled-off workspace, dividing up a building that was once wide-open space.
"You could walk in there and see hundreds of feet of open space," Clouette said. "But you can't ask society to preserve a big empty space."
The Sawtooth Building is being renovated at a cost of about $15 million - $1.2 million for skylights alone - using a combination of historic preservation tax credits and other aid from the state and city.
Glazer said that the light flowing in through the roof will create the proper atmosphere to foster creativity in Insurity's employees.
Glazer and a partner, Steven Weber, founded Insurity in Hartford in 1984 in a 1,000-square-foot space in a warehouse on Wethersfield Avenue, with four employees.
The company later built a 15,000-square-foot building at Asylum Avenue and Sigourney Street. By then, Insurity employed 80 people. Up until Monday, Insurity had its corporate offices in that building.
In 1994, Insurity was acquired by the company that would eventually become ChoicePoint, a company that collects, packages and resells data on people and businesses. Shares in ChoicePoint trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Insurity produces software products and data services for property-casualty insurers, including the St. Paul Travelers Co.
Insurity searched for two years for a new headquarters location. But it was attracted by the location on Huyshope Avenue because it is near a planned connection to the Riverfront Recapture parks system and Adriaen's Landing. Insurity's lease at Colt is for 61,000 square feet, with its option covering another 35,000 square feet.
"We want to be a part of all the renovations that are going on in Hartford," Glazer said.
Glazer acknowledged that Hartford has had a lot of false starts through the years as it has tried to remake itself. This time, Glazer said, he's convinced that it will work.
"We're betting our business that it's going to happen," Glazer said.
__________________________________________________ _______________
I don't know if they're going to renovate any 19th century buildings, but there were plans to make part of the armory into a museum.
By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN, Courant Staff Writer
After years of sitting vacant, a key building in Hartford's historic Colt factory complex got a jolt of unaccustomed vibrancy Monday as about 300 high-tech employees arrived for their first day of work in a structure long regarded as an eyesore.
And as the complex's first new business tenant moved into the refurbished Sawtooth Building, the $110 million Colt gateway project marked a major milestone in its quest to turn, by early 2006, the once-decaying manufacturing complex into a place where people work, live and visit.
The lease also is a coup for the city, which is trying to encourage businesses to locate in and around downtown. The city also is hoping that at least some of those workers will choose to live downtown and boost the after-hours life that for decades has eluded Hartford.
The sight of that many workers arriving for work Monday in an area that long has had a deserted, rundown appearance stunned even the developers.
"It was strange to see that many people down here," said Rebekah MacFarlane, director of communications for developer Homes for America Holdings.
The Colt factory has a high-profile place in Hartford history. In the 1800s, Samuel and Elizabeth Colt established a firearms factory that was the catalyst for a technological revolution.
Two-thirds of the renovated Sawtooth Building is being leased by Insurity Inc., a business information and data management company that provides services to insurance companies. Insurity, which also has an option to lease the rest of the building, is consolidating workforces in Hartford, East Hartford and a portion in Ridgefield at Colt.
Jeffrey Glazer, senior vice president at Insurity and one of its founders, said that Insurity has been adding between 30 and 40 positions a year and that he expects that pace to continue.
"We have every intention of taking the rest of the building," Glazer said.
Insurity would not disclose the salary levels of its programmers and analysts. But industry statistics show that such positions typically pay $70,000 or more a year.
As economists worry about a shift toward lower-paying service jobs in Connecticut, the prospect of more well-paid positions is welcome in the city.
Glazer said he doesn't expect to have trouble persuading new recruits to come and work in Hartford.
Insurity has successfully recruited "several senior-level people from New York City, who were sick of having it take two hours to get to work," Glazer said.
As Insurity settles into its new offices, the one-story Sawtooth Building - so named for the 1,500 skylights that jut out from its roof like the serrated edge of a saw - becomes the fourth building in the complex to be renovated.
The redevelopment plan for the 17-acre Colt complex calls for commercial and retail space as well as 250 apartments. A replica of the reflecting pool at the Colt mansion on Wethersfield Avenue also is planned as part of a centrally located public park area.
The most recognizable building - the East Armory, with its blue onion dome - will have commercial space on the first floor and rental housing on the four floors above.
Of the four buildings already renovated, the largest is being leased by the nonprofit Capital Region Education Council. The council moved in last fall. There also are tenants in the South Armory.
Dining options remain limited at Colt. Insurity has its own cafeteria, but plans for a restaurant nearby have not been finalized. And it is a good walk to downtown.
Insurity brings the high-tech jobs to the city that many development officials want to attract. It also bolsters insurance industry employment, which has eroded through years of layoffs.
But as the Sawtooth Building gets a new future, its roots are firmly in the manufacturing past. Longer than a football field, with ceilings as high as 25 feet in some spots, the building was erected in 1916 for assembling rifles and other weapons.
The sawtooth roof design was common in the early 1900s. The skylights allowed natural light to flood into the workspace to augment early, crude electric illumination, architectural historians say.
Historians say the building - even its roof - is not especially noteworthy architecturally, unlike the more widely known East Armory. Many factories in the early part of the 20th century were built in a similar way.
What is important is what Colt meant to the history of manufacturing. It is especially well-known for producing the famous "Colt 45" revolver, the "gun that won the West."
For the state, the Sawtooth Building and factory complex are highly visible reminders of the state's manufacturing past, said Bruce Clouette, a historian in Storrs.
"If we're going to understand our history and how we've changed, it's important to have physical reminders as well as history books," Clouette said. "Fifty years ago, a lot of people in Connecticut were factory workers."
Clouette said the only downside is that the renovated Sawtooth Building now has walled-off workspace, dividing up a building that was once wide-open space.
"You could walk in there and see hundreds of feet of open space," Clouette said. "But you can't ask society to preserve a big empty space."
The Sawtooth Building is being renovated at a cost of about $15 million - $1.2 million for skylights alone - using a combination of historic preservation tax credits and other aid from the state and city.
Glazer said that the light flowing in through the roof will create the proper atmosphere to foster creativity in Insurity's employees.
Glazer and a partner, Steven Weber, founded Insurity in Hartford in 1984 in a 1,000-square-foot space in a warehouse on Wethersfield Avenue, with four employees.
The company later built a 15,000-square-foot building at Asylum Avenue and Sigourney Street. By then, Insurity employed 80 people. Up until Monday, Insurity had its corporate offices in that building.
In 1994, Insurity was acquired by the company that would eventually become ChoicePoint, a company that collects, packages and resells data on people and businesses. Shares in ChoicePoint trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Insurity produces software products and data services for property-casualty insurers, including the St. Paul Travelers Co.
Insurity searched for two years for a new headquarters location. But it was attracted by the location on Huyshope Avenue because it is near a planned connection to the Riverfront Recapture parks system and Adriaen's Landing. Insurity's lease at Colt is for 61,000 square feet, with its option covering another 35,000 square feet.
"We want to be a part of all the renovations that are going on in Hartford," Glazer said.
Glazer acknowledged that Hartford has had a lot of false starts through the years as it has tried to remake itself. This time, Glazer said, he's convinced that it will work.
"We're betting our business that it's going to happen," Glazer said.
__________________________________________________ _______________
I don't know if they're going to renovate any 19th century buildings, but there were plans to make part of the armory into a museum.