New Haven Development Commission tweaks plan for former Coliseum site
NEW HAVEN >> The Development Commission on Tuesday tweaked the proposed agreement for the former Coliseum site near the Ninth Square to update it from the original plan as it goes before aldermanic committees this week for approval by the end of the year.Live Work Learn Play, a Canadian company that has put $2 million into the plan over the past three years, is ready to start construction in 2014 for its mixed-use development.Over two phases, it will eventually see construction of 1,002 units of housing, 35 permanent and 20 seasonal businesses and 200,000 square feet of Class A office space, all developed around a 40,000-square-foot public square tied to the extension of Orange Street over what is now the Route 34 highway.“We’re very excited about this. We’ve fallen in love with New Haven and the community. It has been a labor of love,” Max Reim, founding principal of the company, told the commission of the $400 million development.The commission took out the reference to Long Wharf Theatre being part of the project and changed the mix of affordable housing to include middle class as well as low-income units, and multi-bedroom apartments to accommodate larger families.Reim said he also has pledged to work with UniteHERE over unionization of workers at the proposed 160-room hotel for the site, when that phase of the plan kicks in. “Every hotel that we have ever developed has always been unionized and we have an arrangement with UniteHERE, as well,” Reim said. “We intend to make sure that we work with the union and all unions very collaboratively. We come from a union city.” Reim’s company is located in Montreal. Reim had nothing but praise for the professional staff at the City Plan Department headed by Karyn Gilvarg and at the Economic Development Administration led by Kelly Murphy. Reim said the project, which will bring 4,700 construction jobs and 2,800 full-time jobs, targets local residents for those positions.
Aldermen OK funds for public works facility
WATERBURY — The Board of Aldermen gave the go ahead Tuesday to build the new centralized public works campus on East Aurora Street.The overall project approval came by way of approving the $2 million addition to the city's existing contract with Weston & Sampson Engineers Inc. to design the new facility.That addition brings the overall amount the city has paid to the Massachusetts firm to almost $5.1 million, all but $200,000 of which has been spent on the public works project.
The city had originally planned to build its new public works facility at the Waterbury Industrial Commons site, which it hired Weston & Sampson to design.But with a change of administration, Mayor Neil M. O'Leary reversed Michael J. Jarjura's plan to build the new facility at the Thomaston Avenue industrial park.Instead, O'Leary wanted to keep the industrial park open to manufacturers, one of which he says will be a Norwalk firm that wants to make chemical additives for wind turbines there.He slashed the public works facility budget from as high as $45 million to $20 million and announced he wanted to build an economical version of it at the former MacDermid property at East Aurora Street and Huntingdon Avenue.Weston & Sampson gave the city a $1 million "credit" for at least some of the money the city had agreed to pay for the WIC facility design, and asked to do the MacDermid design as well.The city development arm, Waterbury Development Corp., wrestled with whether to put the new facility design out to bid or stay with Weston & Sampson.After bidding questions arose during its troubled Municipal Stadium project, WDC's new leader, Kevin DelGobbo, said he would put every project out to bid, even if it didn't have to.But on Tuesday, WDC asked the board's permission to go with Weston & Sampson without bidding in part because it will save the taxpayers almost $600,000, DelGobbo said."They have all the knowledge of the department needs, the city needs, and that knowledge allows us to save money," said DelGobbo. "So we brought it to the board, to be open."WDC also got approval from the city purchasing officer.
Construction adds 11,000 jobs in October
Construction employment hit a 50-month high as employers added 11,000 jobs in October, the fifth consecutive month of sector job gains, and the industry unemployment rate fell to 9 percent, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said that the new employment figures indicate there was little nationwide short-term impact from the federal government shutdown and cautioned that skilled worker shortages are likely to grow as the industry continues to expand.“After some very dramatic declines and years of sluggish growth, the construction industry is slowly adding jobs,” said Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist. “The federal government shutdown did not appear to have undermined construction job growth in the short term probably because it did not significantly impact projects that were already under way.”Construction employment totaled 5,834,000 in October, an increase of 185,000 from a year earlier, and is now at the highest level since August 2009. Simonson noted that the October increase was the fifth consecutive month of construction job growth. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for workers actively looking for jobs and last employed in construction declined from 11.4 percent in October 2012 to 9 percent last month.