The Daily Campus

Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Dan Gindraux Farmer Brown's parking lot (above) and X-Lot were purchased by two companies.

Farmer Brown's and X-Lot could look quite different after two companies partnered to purchase the parking lots and 20 acres surrounding them. Corridor Ventures, an Avon development company, and Propark America, a Hartford parking management company, purchased the 27-acre area for $5.5 million in February, but plan to continue operating X-Lot and Farmer Brown's lot as parking lots and will not develop them anytime soon. They do, however, envision improvements to at least one parking lot to make it both safer and more efficient.

Propark and Corridor Ventures are working to improve the appearance of Farmer Brown's lot according to student suggestions.

"We're looking to make small improvements both today and long-term to make it a better place to park," Corridor Ventures Partner Dan Joseph said. "So far some of the suggestions include removing the concrete blocks so we're taking steps to do that, and we're also reconfiguring the lot to create more space."

The lot currently has space for 380 cars. Students who park there next year will pay $799 for their parking stickers, Joseph said.

Dave Schmid of Propark listed other improvements in the works including cleaning up the lot and making lane designators. He added that the company would be more proactive as managers and had already begun moving marketing and registration for Farmer Brown parking spaces online.

Though the companies have big plans to improve Farmer Brown's lot in the immediate future, no plans to change anything about X-Lot are in the works at the moment.

Joseph said that improvements to X-Lot were likely in the future, but that the companies would be looking at the issue more closely as UConn's lease approaches expiration. UConn leases X-Lot from Corridor Ventures in a lease agreement that the company inherited in the sale. The lease on X-Lot expires in 2010.

Propark will be managing the parking-lot-specific issues, while the two companies will jointly decide what to do with the rest of the property, a 20-acre plot of land along North Eagleville and Hunting Lodge roads in the northern part of campus.

The land is in a prime location for development because of its proximity to the university. However, the companies have not yet decided what to do with the rest of the property in terms of development.

"Nothing may happen to the rest of the property," Joseph said. "It's possible that this could continue to operate as a parking lot only for 25, 30 years."

Though the area seems to need a lot of work, Joseph thought the purchase was a good investment.

"We thought it was a good piece of land with a good location to the UConn campus," Joseph said. "We've been investing in UConn for seven years and thought that ultimately it would be a good investment to make."



Contact Aly Shea at

Alison.Shea@UConn.edu.

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