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Developer Restores Massive Historic Building In Downtown Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A total of 60 new apartments and thousands of square feet of new retail are coming to a restored historic building in Bridgeport’s Downtown North.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch talks with a developer at a construction site in Downtown North Tuesday.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch talks with a developer at a construction site in Downtown North Tuesday.

Photo Credit: Jay Polansky
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch poses for a selfie Tuesday at the construction site of a renovated building in Downtown North.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch poses for a selfie Tuesday at the construction site of a renovated building in Downtown North.

Photo Credit: Jay Polansky
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch talks with a developer at a construction site in Downtown North Tuesday.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch talks with a developer at a construction site in Downtown North Tuesday.

Photo Credit: Jay Polansky

Construction work is underway at the 88,000-square-foot Securities Building — which was originally developed in 1904 — as well as two adjacent structures at 1103 and 1135 Main St.

“It’s a massive building in Bridgeport,” Mayor Finch said Tuesday to a small gathering of developers, city officials and press. “It’s a part of our history.” 

Spinnaker Real Estate Partners developed the building. Kim Morque, the company's owner, said the project is scheduled to be completed in spring 2016.

He noted that the building will essentially be new when the work is completed — with replaced utilities and new finishes. 

“All of the interior has been removed,” Morque said. The building’s elevator banks and a staircase were replaced to bring the building up to code.

During a tour of the project Tuesday, Finch posed for a selfie with the developers in the building’s expansive historic atrium. 

“You’ve got to get that on your Facebook, mayor,” one onlooker said.

Finch noted that the building’s future occupants will get out of bed in the morning and walk through the bright, well-lit atrium.

The completed building will revitalized an area of the city that has not received much attention in the past, he said.

“It’s going to bring life to a desolate area of the city,” Finch told the Daily Voice. The neighborhood is like a jigsaw puzzle, he said, and the development of the building is an essential piece.

But Finch acknowledged that the development will not be quick or easy.

“They take time, but they are worth every moment you spend on them,” he said.

The transformation of this historic building, though, may be worth the wait.

“We’re going to bring it back to life,” Morque said. 

In the last 20 years, Spinnaker and its predecessor have owned or developed in excess of 3.25 million square feet of commercial real estate and more than 5,000 single-family and multifamily units nationwide.

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