The nonprofit Hartford Land Bank on Thursday held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a single-family home built on the site of a longtime vacant lot in the city’s Behind the Rocks neighborhood.
The four-bedroom house at 647 Broadview Terrace was built by local developers Al Gary and Annette Gaynor, and will be sold to a household earning less than 80% of the area median income.
“Today, we gather to celebrate something that may seem ordinary at first glance but is truly extraordinary: a patch of empty ground transformed into a place where life, laughter and memories will take root,” said Marcus Ordoñez, Hartford Land Bank’s executive director.
Gaynor said communities and families in Hartford deserve high-quality housing.
“We could erect houses all over,” Gaynor said. “But put quality and time into it, and you’ll get families that want to stay. You’ll build communities back, and you’ll have neighbors that talk to each other, look out for each other.”
Gary said work on the house was “done by 100% minority contractors and subcontractors.” The Hartford Land Bank’s website says the organization is “committed to advancing racial equity and justice in the city of Hartford. The Land Bank programs are designed to increase wealth among residents of color in the city of Hartford.”
Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, who served as the Hartford Land Bank’s CEO prior to his election as mayor, celebrated the development as a win for the community.
“Building houses on these vacant lots is about creating opportunity with these areas that have been sources of blight and crime [that] made people feel crappy about their neighborhoods,” Arulampalam said.
“What you see today is a home that will house a family and that will bring life back into this property and that will allow somebody to create generational wealth here and that will flourish for many decades to come, hopefully,” he said.
According to Hartford Land Bank, the developers will list the house on the open market through a realtor. Prospective buyers will be required to complete paperwork verifying they meet the affordable housing qualifications and commit to living in and owning the home for a minimum of five years.
