By Jesse Leavenworth
leavenworth@courant.com
MANCHESTER – Redevelopment agency members interviewed the LWLP team on Jan. 28. The group was the sole respondent to the town’s request for developers interested in the town-owned side of the Manchester Parkade.
The blighted shopping center has been demolished and the site now consists of about 18 acres of vacant land that town leaders are eager to return to the tax rolls.
“We were hoping that they would be one of the players,” agency Chairman Tim Devanney said. “They ended up being the only player, but that’s not a bad thing.”
He and other agency members were impressed by the team’s experience with mixed-use projects, including the recently launched redevelopment of the New Haven Coliseum site.
Devanney said he and other members were also excited by the team’s holistic vision for remaking Broad Street into a vibrant destination that would complement the town’s natural and historic assets, Devanney said.
“They’re looking at the whole town,” he said.
LiveWorkLearnPlay describes itself on its website, lwlp.com, as a master developer focused on large-scale, mixed-use real estate planning and development. In the Jan. 28 interview, LWLP founding principal Max Reim said, “Our end goal is to create places where people are thriving, places that become the personality of a city.”
The team also includes Newman Architects of New Haven; Fuss & O’Neill Inc., a Manchester-based engineering consulting firm; and commercial real estate broker Jim Kelly, a town resident.
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