Embattled Builder Loses Winchester Lots

For the first time in more than two decades, a vacant lot and an incomplete apartment building on Winchester Avenue are no longer controlled by NFL cornerback-turned-housing developer Kenny Hill. 

Last Wednesday, Stormfield Capital Funding I LLC filed a certificate of strict foreclosure for those properties on the city land records.

That means that the Southport-based lender now legally owns the 0.16-acre overgrown lot at 235 Winchester and the nearby three-story, 12-unit apartment building at 201 Winchester.

Both of those properties have been owned since 2003 by holding companies controlled by Hill.

The lot at 235 Winchester used to have an 18-unit brick apartment building — the blighted remains of which were bulldozed by the Elicker administration in February 2023. The 12-unit apartment building at 201 Winchester, meanwhile, has received a partial certificate of occupancy for its residential units, according to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller. But, when the Independent swung by Monday morning, the property appeared to be unfinished and empty.

Wednesday’s change in ownership marks the end of a years-long legal battle over a defaulted $2.7 million loan that Stormfield took over in 2020. The company filed a foreclosure lawsuit for the two Winchester properties in 2021. In November, a state judge set the ​“law day”– or the last day by which the borrower could redeem these properties from foreclosure by paying off the related debts — for Jan. 13.

That day came and went. According to the certificate of strict foreclosure filed by Stormfield on Jan. 15, Hill and his companies failed to pay what was owed by that final foreclosure deadline.

“The time limited for redemption in said judgment of foreclosure has passed and the Mortgaged Premises was not redeemed by payment of the indebtedness,” that document reads. ​“The title to the Mortgage Premises became absolute to Stormfield Capital Funding I LLC on the 15th day of January, 2025.”

All the while, an appeal Hill’s companies filed in this foreclosure case is still before the state appellate court. But the trial judge’s decision to ​“terminate the stay of execution” of this matter, on the grounds that Hill’s appeal was ​“part of a delay pattern,” allowed the strict foreclosure to move forward without the customary appeal-required delay.

Neither Hill not representatives from Stormfield responded to requests for comment for this article.

Hill also declined an interview with the Independent in July 2022. He did say at the time that he hoped to resume construction at 201 and 235 Winchester, and said he had lost millions of dollars​“trying to do good things for the city. There is a lot of nonsense going on downtown. I have gotten totally screwed.”

Over the years, Hill had blamed the city for the stalemate — especially for forcing him, he said, to use a preferred, incompetent contractor to remove lead paint under a $168,000 city grant at 235 Winchester. That was back in 2004. Amid lawsuit threats from Hill, several Livable City Initiative (LCI) directors had sought to reach an agreement with Hill to resolve the issue, but came up short. In August 2021, the city did file paperwork signed by Mayor Justin Elicker releasing Hill’s company from any liability connected to the $168,000 lead grant. 

Meanwhile, in December 2024, a LCI hearing officer approved $6,300 in new anti-blight fines for the now-empty property at 235 Winchester. All as the vacant lots, industrial properties, and other underdeveloped sites in that stretch of Dixwell / Newhallville / Science Park have exploded in recent years with a flurry of new residential construction.