Often, the development of a new retail center can get thrown off schedule — maybe a few weeks, a few months, at worst a couple of years. But how about 2 decades? About 20 years ago, two developers began planning a neighborhood shopping center for the town of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, a suburb just to the south of Hartford. Due to rejected proposals and busy schedules, construction didn’t begin on the project until this past spring. “Good real estate is good real estate,” says Matt Halprin, a partner at Wethersfield, Connecticut-based New England Retail Properties, “and sometimes good development takes longer than anyone would like it to.”

Horizon Commons, a 168,000-square-foot center in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, will open in spring 2005.

The story begins in 1984, says Halprin, when developers Frank Messina of F.X. Messina Enterprises and Bob Samuels of Samuels & Associates purchased some land in Rocky Hill. Their plan was to develop a retail center with a supermarket, drugstore and clothing retailer. Because of some opposition with neighboring property owners, their original application for development was rejected. In addition, says Halprin, because the two development companies became so immersed in their own individual projects, the Rocky Hill venture ended up on the back burner.

Though perhaps not at the forefront of Messina’s and Samuels’s minds, plans for the development continued to loom on the horizon. “They continued to stay in the project because they knew it was good real estate, and they had a good sense of a shopping center development,” says Halprin.

Halprin and his partner Mark D’Addabbo became part of the story in the late 1990s when their company, New England Retail Properties, began soliciting tenants for the project. The brokerage firm secured Kohl’s as an anchor tenant in 2000, with plans for an opening in 2004.

But the developers were still dealing with some outstanding environmental issues that continued to trouble neighbors. The Rocky Hill residents were mostly concerned about how the shopping center would affect the surrounding wetlands. As a result, the developers spent most of the 1990s involved in a legal battle over the wetlands dilemma. Landscape and traffic issues were also a concern to residents.

“A condominium association had opposed this project for years,” explains Halprin. “They had the normal not-in-my-back-yard attitude. There was never any blood bath. This was a very friendly opposition. The developers went back to the drawing board to get this project approved.”

Plans for a 2004 opening were delayed, but “Kohl’s hung in there,” says Halprin. The project was finally approved in the fall of 2003. The original plans for a 200,000-square-foot center were scaled back to 168,000 square feet, and the developers agreed to hire an ecologist who would participate in the retail center’s development. The project was inching closer and closer to reality.

Construction commenced in May on the retail center, named Horizon Commons, and Kohl’s is now scheduled to open in spring 2005. New England Retail Properties is also in discussions with some national and regional tenants to co-tenant with Kohl’s. In addition, the center includes some outparcels for a restaurant and service retail. Its neighboring retailers and restaurants include Stop & Shop, Wal-Mart and On the Border.

Though planned as a community shopping center, because Horizon Commons is right off Interstate 91, the center will also service the areas of Wethersfield, Cromwell, Newington and Glastonbury in addition to Rocky Hill, says Halprin. The population within a 1-mile radius of the shopping center is 4,632, with an average household income of $85,260. More than 120,000 people live within 5 miles of Horizon Commons, and those households have an average income of $84,491. By 2008, the population within those 5 miles is expected to grow to more than 144,000.

And the center will definitely be complete by then. In fact, Horizon Commons should be complete by the end of 2005. Though the project took 20 years to come to fruition, the developers are glad they stuck it out. Halprin relays a comment from developer Bob Samuels: “Good real estate is good real estate. We knew it was going to be a good site no matter when or how long it was going to take to get developed.”

©2004 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.