A slide from a 2017 master planning effort covering the Bushnell Park South area. Image courtesy of Suisman Urban Design.

While construction gets underway on the first set of buildings in Hartford’s current development frontier near Dunkin Donuts Park, a consortium is looking to map out the city’s next growth area.

A group made up of the city of Hartford, the Capital Region Development Authority, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners has issued a request for proposals for a firm to help draw up a master plan for the 20-acre Bushnell South neighborhood.

The area is bounded by the Capitol Building to the West, Bushnell Park to the north, Buckingham Street to the south and Main Street to the east. It’s currently home to the Bushnell Center, state office buildings, a 205,000-square-foot Spinnaker-owned former office building currently being redeveloped – and over 9 acres of surface parking lots and other empty properties.

The Bushnell South Planning Consortium hopes to receive bids by the end of November that will help it forge a plan for a mixed-use residential and entertainment area that can connect the Hartford Hospital Health Care complex to its south with the city’s downtown, to the north.

The vacant areas, where much of the development proposed in previous studies has been concentrated, are largely owned by CRDA.