HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER: HARTFORD, CT
Michael Czaczkes's Commentary
Posted January 15, 2006 (user submitted)
I was flipping through your site which I just discovered and was extremly
impressed but a little dissapointed to not see the Hartford Civic Center on the
list of "dead malls":
The Hartford Civic Center was home to a mall area as well as the Veterans
Memorial Coliseum which was for many years home to the NHL Hartford Whalers and
is now home to AHL Hartford Wolfpack and Men's and Women's University of
Connecticut Basketball. The Civic Center was built back in the 1970's but
starting facing lots of competition from suburban malls and lifestyle centers
such as Westfarms Mall in Farmington/West Hartford, The Shoppes at Buckland
Hills in Manchester, Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, West Hartford Center in
West Hartford, Somerset Square in Glastonbury, the Shoppes at Farmington Valley
in Canton, and the Westfield Shopping Town in Enfield. Soon stores starting
closing in the mall and around the city such as G. Fox and Sage Allen. The
Whalers soon left the city despite the large number of people who attended the
games in this hockey loving city.
New life has started for the civic center as a new redevelopment project
entitled "Hartford 21" is well under way. Hartford 21 started with the
demolition of the Hartford Civic Center Mall (not the Veterans Memorial
Coliseum though-that's still there) In it's place is rising a 36 story
residential tower (to be the tallest in New England) that will feature 262
luxury apartments plus 45,000 square feet of retail space and 90,000 square
feet of office space all in a retail/office block attached to the new
residential tower. The tower is well under construction and had a topping off
ceramony in October, 2005.