The Andrews Building Plan

The Courant and Herald each reported recently that the Andrews Building at 136 Main Street was purchased for $700,000 by a Trenton, NJ, firm, Jasko Developments, which intends to redevelop it. But it's really not clear just what's next for this property or why anyone should be hopeful that this deal will make a difference in downtown.

The Herald report is available on line.

Both newspapers report a similar set of facts and give a little bit of history of this 103 year old building.

As far as its future, The Herald wrote:

“The first floor and basement are being converted into creative retail uses focused on restaurant space, and room for an art gallery and small jazz club. Use of the upper floors of the building as luxury office space will be maintained by the new owners.”

Neither news report provides any information about Jasko and its previous projects, so there’s no simple way to assess the ability of this firm to succeed here. (My Google searches were drawing blanks.)

Some history:

The Andrews Building underwent an extensive renovation in the mid-1980s. Banquers, its first floor restaurant, opened on Aug. 5, 1986 and later a comedy club and piano bar opened downstairs. It closed on March 9, 1990. (Thanks to the New Britain Public Library reference room staff for researching these dates for me.)

I was City Hall reporter at The Herald in 1986. City officials were obviously happy about development plans for this building and approved the demolition of the building immediately to the right of the restaurant for a parking lot. The building owners said having parking nearby was critical to its success.

I met the owner of Banquers just before it opened and he gave me a tour. It was an attractive but somewhat formal restaurant. One odd thing that made no sense at the time: The owner wouldn't let us take his photo.

I don’t know the entire story behind Banquers. (There is a history here with a connection to armored car robberies.) But well before it closed, I could find very few people I worked with interested in going to this restaurant.

Banquers was, especially for reporters at The Herald, expensive. On Friday nights after work we typically headed across The Herald’s back lot to The Holiday Inn for bargain drafts, greasy appetizers and a lively crowd. Had Banquers been less formal, with a comfortable bar, and music – even a loud jukebox, it might have become popular, at least with my colleagues.

That’s what makes me interested in knowing more about Jasko Developments. Many previous efforts to create downtown entertainment venues have been done on the cheap and short-lived. (Who remembers the Gold Vault?) Why does this firm believe it can succeed?

Working in Jasko’s favor are 20 years of downtown changes since Banquers opened: The improvement of Arch Street, the coffee shops, court house development area, improved housing, especially Hillside Place, and the emerging arts development. Places such as Leaves & Pages have shown that people will visit downtown if the right offering is available. But none of this will matter if the new owners of the Andrews Building don't come up with a venue that makes people want to come downtown.