UConn Plan Calls For 50 Student Housing Units In Downtown Hartford

STORRS, CT — The University of Connecticut is adding a housing initiative to its presence in Hartford.

UConn officials this week said the university plans to offer 200 beds for students in a downtown building adjacent to a bustling area that included businesses, food and entertainment venues, and space being refurbished for academic and research use.

The UConn Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a plan to lease space at 242 Trumbull St. that will be turned into about 50 four-person units over 87,150 square feet in the building's rear area facing the Annex on Pratt Street, officials said.

The units would be available for rent to students attending UConn Hartford students starting in August 2026 if the State Bond Commission approves the financing elements involving the building's owner and the Capital Region Development Authority and if the owner’s construction stays on schedule, officials said.

Shelbourne Pratt Development owns the eight-story commercial building. UConn would then lease the space and offer it as student housing with a hall director and resident assistants, officials said.

The term of the master lease is for 20 years, with two five-year extension options at the University’s discretion, according to a project outline.

The first-year rent payment will be about $2.2 million and the rent increases at a rate of 2.75 percent per year, according top the plans.

All conversion cost will be be borne by Shelbourne, including construction, security monitoring systems, access control systems, and cable/Wi-Fi.

The University is responsible for providing any audio-visual devices for non-apartment spaces and furniture for the apartments, which is estimated at approximately $500,000 combined, according to the plans.

The projected housing rates will be consistent with housing rates at the Storrs campus, officials said.

Philanthropy and/or naming rights of the residence hall may potentially off-set some or all of this operating costs, officials said.

UConn is also refurbishing space near the XL Center for academic and research use, and is opening a café for students in fall 2025 in the Hartford Times main campus building.

UConn's Hartford campus opened in 2017 and the undergraduate enrollment grew by about 18 percent between then and fall of 2023, officials said. In the most recent academic year, UConn Hartford had about 544 first-year students who entered in the fall or spring and in the coming academic year that starts in August, the University projects that number to be about 595.

UConn surveyed undergraduate students at the campus in 2023 to assess interest in student housing, and about 70 percent of the respondents expressed interest. Most said they lived with their parents and about half of them said the rent would need to be "affordable" to make it a viable option.