The much-anticipated residence hall at 64 Pratt St. will open next week as about 200 undergraduates move into its apartment-style living spaces.<\/p>\n
With four floors and a central atrium, the former office space has been renovated to include student-centric spots including classrooms, lounges, a fitness area, and gathering space in central atrium.<\/p>\n It also benefits from its central entrance on historic Pratt Street, a brick-lined pedestrian-only road lined with restaurants, merchants, and other local businesses. The residence hall is an easy five-block walk to UConn Hartford, and just around the corner from the PeoplesBank Arena and other city attractions.<\/p>\n Maric told the assembled crowd Monday that the residence hall\u2019s opening marks an important step in securing UConn\u2019s place at the heart of the state\u2019s capital city, and will be a major benefit to Hartford, local businesses, major employers — and most importantly, to UConn students.<\/p>\n \u201cThis investment in our students is also an investment in Hartford\u2019s future. Together we are helping to create a more vibrant, dynamic downtown where students can live, learn, and contribute to the city\u2019s growth,\u201d Maric said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what UConn is all about: UConn changes the lives of young people and the communities where they live,\u201d she added. \u201cI am very excited that we are writing a new chapter in this great city together.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn Hartford<\/a>\u2019s enrollment has been steadily increasing, with a growing number of students choosing to start their UConn journey there and many staying there throughout their four years.<\/p>\n For students like Kai Blatchford \u201928 (SSW) and Arielle Crichlow \u201926 (CLAS), being able to live in a residence hall while attending UConn Hartford is an ideal and long-awaited opportunity. Both will serve as resident assistants in the new facility, and were on hand to celebrate the opening Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cBy supporting students with these residential opportunities, UConn isn\u2019t just offering a place to sleep, but a place to belong. We have space to grow as leaders, to engage deeply with downtown Hartford\u2019s vibrant culture, and to truly call the city our home,\u201d Crichlow said.<\/p>\n That sense of belonging is exactly what UConn officials envisioned when they started discussing the possibility of student housing near the Hartford campus.<\/p>\n UConn Board of Trustees member Tom Ritter, one of the main drivers of the project, said Monday that the project\u2019s success reflects the work of many people and organizations who believed strongly that it was good for students and also for the city and region.<\/p>\n The Hartford residence hall was developed through a partnership with Lexington Partners LLC, Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC, and LAZ Investments. UConn holds a master lease to operate it as student housing with an on-site director, resident assistants, and services there similar to residence halls at Storrs and Stamford.<\/p>\n The residence hall has garnered strong community support, including hundreds of thousands of dollars donated by local businesses \u2013 notably Travelers<\/a>, The Hartford<\/a>, and Global Atlantic \u2013 for scholarships to help offset housing costs for students with financial constraints.<\/p>\n The residence hall is a testament to what can be achieved when institutions invest in students and the communities around them, said Andy Bessette ’75 (CLAS), Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Travelers and a member of UConn\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n \u201cEducation changes lives \u2013 we see it every day through Travelers EDGE, our school-to-career program that has helped hundreds of students earn their degrees and launch careers in insurance and financial services,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cUConn has helped that initiative succeed from the very beginning. We welcome this first cohort of students to their new home on Pratt Street and look forward to watching them shape the future of Hartford and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n AnnMarie LaBreck, head of community relations at The Hartford, said the company is committed to helping the city thrive, including through supporting UConn Hartford and its student housing project.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re proud to provide housing scholarships that help remove a financial barrier for students, allowing them to live, learn and fully experience college life in downtown Hartford without taking on additional debt,\u201d LaBreck said. \u201cWhen we invest in students, we’re investing in Hartford and the next generation of leaders, workers and community members who will help shape our city’s future.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn opened the Hartford campus downtown in 2017, and has worked since then to position it as a centerpiece of a thriving capital city by bringing people downtown to learn, live, and support the regional economy.<\/p>\n The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), City of Hartford, State of Connecticut, and other entities also helped make the residence hall project a reality with financing assistance through grants, loans, and property tax agreements.<\/p>\n \u201cUConn is Hartford, and Hartford is UConn,\u201d former CRDA executive director Michael Freimuth said Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘UConn is Hartford, and Hartford is UConn’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":251667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1727,2193,2235,92,2227,2458,2234,2233,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1932],"class_list":["post-251653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-construction","category-hartford-county","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-hartford","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-undergraduates","category-university-life","category-university-news","category-video","post_format-post-format-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-24 19:10:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251653"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251672,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251653\/revisions\/251672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/251667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251653"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=251653"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=251653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HartfordHousing_1_UCTedit-300x200.jpg\")
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