Company looks for tax deal to finish hotel in Wallingford
WALLINGFORD — Representatives from Winston Hospitality, Inc., came before the Town Council Tuesday night to propose an updated tax fixing agreement that they said would help the company finish construction of a partially built hotel on Route 68. It was a different proposal from what was presented to the Economic Development Commission on Dec. 9. While the goal of the project remains to build a Hilton Garden Inn at 1181 Barnes Road, in order to receive financing for the project the company is looking for a deal that will allow it to be taxed less by the town in the short term, said Bob Winston, who owns the Raleigh, N.C., based company. Winston purchased the hotel property through foreclosure proceedings in early 2013. Winston’s initial proposal to the Economic Development Commission asked for a seven-year fixed property valuation of $2.5 million, resulting in property tax payments of $45,325 annually subject to changes in the tax rate. But on Tuesday, Winston brought two new proposals to the table. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING
Coast Guard museum agreement signed
New London — The major players in the project to build a National Coast Guard Museum downtown said the new agreement they signed Wednesday should make it crystal clear that this museum will become a reality. Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said that when the site for the museum was announced in April, skeptics asked, "Is it actually going to happen?" "If today's ceremony speaks to anything, it says loudly and clearly this is happening," Finizio said. Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr. said Coast Guard men and women have done great things for the country, and their story deserves to be told. "What better place than down by the water here in New London, Connecticut?" Papp, the commandant of the Coast Guard, said. "It will be done." In the ceremony at Union Station Wednesday, as trains rumbled by, Papp, Finizio, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and James Coleman, chairman of the National Coast Guard Museum Association Inc., signed a memorandum of agreement that outlines how the Coast Guard, city, state and museum association will cooperate and what their responsibilities will be. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING
DOT: Busway on time and on budget
The CTfastrak construction is on schedule and within budget, and transit planners are looking to offer occasional special busway service for events at Rentschler Field and perhaps even the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, state Transportation Commissioner James Redeker told lawmakers Wednesday. "An awful lot of thinking and preparation is going on right now. It's unlike just putting a bus on a highway or a train on a track," Redeker said. "There's a very complex set of things to integrate." Contractors have put down a first layer of pavement on about 80 percent of the rapid-transit bus route from downtown Hartford to downtown New Britain, and stations along the way are being built, Redeker said. Construction should be finished in October, followed by driver training and extensive testing of the intersection signals, closed-circuit cameras, ticket dispensers, and digital signs at each platform announcing the arrival time of the next bus. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING
Wethersfield Council OK's $50M in contracts for troubled school renovation
WETHERSFIELD -- Town council Republicans reluctantly joined majority Democrats Tuesday in approving about $50 million of contracts for the reconstruction of Wethersfield High School.
GOP councilmen initially suggested waiting two weeks to see if the state would provide additional funding to cover $9 million to $10 million in cost overruns on the project. They also wanted more time to review the recommended bids. But construction officials warned that waiting would delay the work. That prompted Republicans to reverse course and vote to award the contracts.
"What we heard tonight is we can't (wait),"said GOP Councilman Stathis Manousos in explaining his change of heart. "It will affect the timing of the project. I really feel like we're boxed into a corner."
CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING
NEW HAVEN >> Continuum of Care, which already employs 650 people and plans to hire 300 more, pitched its plan Wednesday for an administrative headquarters that will be part of a mixed retail development on what is now just a parking lot in the middle of the Route 34 corridor.
The nonprofit, which provides services to some 1,500 persons with mental illness and development disabilities annually, is partnering with Centerplan Development Company on a $50 million, two-phase project, $40 million of which represents private investment.Erik Johnson, who heads up the Livable City Initiative in New Haven, said Continuum needed someplace to consolidate multiple offices into a 30,000-square-foot administrative headquarters, while Centerplan was looking to put up a 50,000-square-foot development. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING
The nonprofit, which provides services to some 1,500 persons with mental illness and development disabilities annually, is partnering with Centerplan Development Company on a $50 million, two-phase project, $40 million of which represents private investment.Erik Johnson, who heads up the Livable City Initiative in New Haven, said Continuum needed someplace to consolidate multiple offices into a 30,000-square-foot administrative headquarters, while Centerplan was looking to put up a 50,000-square-foot development. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE READING