Developer sues CT town for denying massive apartment plan. Site was former corporate headquarters.

Rebuffed in its bid to build more than 430 apartments and townhouses, the Silverman Group is suing Simsbury, claiming town officials acted illegally when they rejected the plan.

Silverman, the company that previously built 280 apartments on the north end of The Hartford’s former campus, contends Simsbury’s zoning commission ignored evidence when it voted against the proposal for a far more massive project on the property’s southern end.

Residents were largely opposed to Silverman’s plan when it went to a zoning commission hearing this winter, arguing that Route 10 traffic is already excessive and local schools can barely accommodate current enrollments.

On a 4-1 vote in late February, commissioners rejected the company’s request for zoning approvals. Some commissioners indicated that Silverman wasn’t offering enough economic development opportunity, retail space or new employment.

“The proposal fails to achieve the purpose and intent of a mix-used, vibrant community,” the commission said in a highly detailed, written rationale for its decision. “The proposal fails to provide an appropriate building scale and transitions to fit the adjoining design context.”

Silverman’s plan didn’t provide enough open spaces, civic areas or new employment, all goals of the town’s long-term plan for redeveloping the roughly 170-acre site that had been The Hartford’s headquarters until about 10 years ago.

Silverman paid roughly $8.5 million for the site and developed a luxury apartment complex called The Ridge at Talcott Mountain on the northern end of the property. Apartments.com lists monthly rents for two-bedroom units there in the $2,170 to $2,655 range.

Last year, Silverman proposed a massive 580-unit version of The Ridge for the southern end of the campus, which is currently vacant land and abandoned parking lot.

The proposal called for nearly 490 apartments in a series of four-story buildings, and dozens of single-family homes and townhouses. That initial plan showed parking for more than 1,200 cars along with a pool, 5,500-square-foot clubhouse, gym and other amenities.

Residents and commissioners alike balked at the size, and Silverman gradually reduced the scale. In its lawsuit, Silverman noted that its final version sought just 432 housing units in three-story buildings, did away with the proposal for one-family rental houses, added 27,000 square feet of commercial space and a 5,000-square-foot restaurant.

In addition, Silverman pledged that 15% of the new units would be set aside as affordable under state guidelines, up from the 10% that it initially offered. But commissioners voted it down.

“The commission relied on speculation and generalized concerns in denying the application and ignored the only expert testimony in the record,” wrote David Sherwood, Silverman’s attorney, in the lawsuit filed in April in Hartford Superior Court.

Commissioners failed to learn enough about the application and the hearing record to make an informed decision, and held Silverman to standards that are arbitrary, the suit claims.

Town Attorney Robert DeCrescenzo and Town Manager Marc Nelson could not be reached Wednesday. Towns typically do not comment publicly on pending litigation.

In part, the conflict illustrates a sharp change in market conditions and developers’ goals as the bricks-and-mortar retail industry continues to suffer from digital shopping and lingering effects of the pandemic.

Recently, the Washington Prime Group — like Silverman, a huge out-of-state development company with land holdings in Connecticut — advised South Windsor that 50 acres near the Evergreen Walk shopping center are more appropriate for apartments than stores. South Windsor decades ago had envisioned the land as growth space for the region’s retail hub in the Buckland Hills area, but Washington Prime said there’s simply no market for either new stores or new office space.

And this spring, developer Dan Bertram told Portland officials that the original plan for redeveloping the Elmcrest Psychiatric Hospital site was also overly optimistic about the retail market. The Brainerd Place proposal had included a roughly 70,000-square-foot commercial building, but Bertram said in March that must be scaled back even while the residential component could be increased from 240 apartments to 350.