MIDDLETOWN >> The city has drafted a new zone to circumscribe the riverfront and guide redelopment efforts along the water.The Department of Planning, Conservation and Development sent a draft of a Riverfront Development Floating Zone to the planning and zoning commissioners.
The draft language is not an official application, and reads that any official application for a zoning chance must come to the Planning and Zoning Commission “by the owner or owners of the land which are the subject of the application, together with any other applicant.”The land in question, which spreads over River Road, Eastern Drive, Maplewood Terrace and Walnut, Silver and Omo streets, currently sits in five different zones, each with limited opportunities for land use or special exceptions.The floating zone, according to the draft language, could be applied to lots larger than three acres on certain stretches of those streets.The floating zone would “give us the flexibility to redevelop the riverfront with a lot of uses and a lot of diversity,” city Mayor Daniel Drew said Friday. Also in the vein of riverfront development, the city will meet with state officials from the Department of Transportation Tuesday in order to confer on the future of Route 9, the physical barrier between downtown and the Riverfront. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
With Legault, developer CIL soars as landlord
By late May, the Corporation For Independent Living (CIL) expects to have in its hands title to the derelict Capewell Horsenails factory in Hartford's South End in a bid to convert the idle eyesore into 72 apartments and an adjacent parcel into 24 affordable townhomes.
If it does, it will open another fruitful chapter for a South End nonprofit that has leveraged — and exported — its talent as a group-home developer to shelter a diverse swath of central Connecticut's population. It, too, will be one of the final swan songs before the yearend retirement of its first and only chief executive. Since its launch in 1979 to finance, build, lease out — then ultimately give away — supportive shelter for thousands of the state's physically and mentally disabled, CIL has invested $458 million to construct or convert 2,205 dwelling units into shelter for 7,200 residents in Connecticut and Massachusetts. For at least a dozen years, CIL has applied that same skill set to its expanding for-profit realty development operations that include Capewell, and a neighboring nonprofit-office-space cluster. In February, CIL announced it bought and will resume work on the $3.34 million Depot Crossing mixed-use project across from Berlin's train station. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Old Hartford hotel's easily reclad into housing
The nine-inch-thick, poured-in-place concrete skeleton of the old Hotel America/Sonesta/Clarion in downtown Hartford's Constitution Plaza has held up well the last half century.
So well, in fact, that with 98 percent of the interior demolition and asbestos-removal done, work crews have begun installing steel framing for apartments on several upper floors of the 12-story structure. All new windows are in place, with sweeping views of downtown and beyond in some of the best-placed units. Barring unforeseen hurdles, the $26 million transformation of a building largely vacant the past two decades into the 193-unit On The Plaza apartments is on schedule for its May 2015 debut, if not sooner, say New York developers Jeff Ravets of Girona Ventures, and Joseph Klaynberg, a principal of condo-builder Wonder Works Corp. The developers, who are collecting $6 million in state assistance to go with a $15 million Webster Bank construction loan to convert the building, said the hotel is amazingly well preserved for its age and for having sat vacant for so long. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Tanger, WS Development partnering on Chesire outlets
WS Development and Tanger Outlet, both of which will own retail centers in Connecticut, will co-own a Chesire outlet center, they announced. The 480,000-square-foot center, which the two billed as upscale, is in pre-development. It would be located just off Route 691. The companies didn't disclose the expected cost of the development. WS owns seven retail centers in Connecticut, including the Shoppes at Farmington Valley in Canton. Tanger has a Westport location and is in the midst of construction of new shops inside Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Financing set for downtown Hartford's largest apartment complex
Construction on the largest apartment project in downtown Hartford — the conversion of the former Bank of America tower — will begin next week after an $85 million financing package closed Friday. "This is a big day for me," Fairfield developer Bruce Becker said. "I've been anticipating this for two years. I'm thrilled to cross the threshold and have the keys in my hands."
He added, "It took us a little longer than we thought, but we've taken the time to do more thorough planning." Work will begin Monday morning on the 285 rental units — mostly studios and one-bedrooms — beginning with the upper floors of the 26-story building at 777 Main St. The first units are now expected to be ready by the end of the this year, a few months later than Becker's most recent projection of Labor Day. The conversion is expected to be completed by the summer of 2015. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Chesire developer snags high profile partner
The landscape for factory outlet stores in Connecticut could get a little crowded in the next few years.
On Monday, the developer of a proposed upscale outlet center in Cheshire said it is partnering with outlet powerhouse Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc in a development of at least 60 stores near I-691 and Route 10. WS Development of Chestnut Hill, Mass. said the outlet center would be 510,000 square foot and would be built in phases. The number of stores has yet to be determined, but WS Development expects there will be between 100 and 125 stores. Groundbreaking is expected as soon as later this year, with the first stores opening as soon as 2015, WS Development said.
Tenants have yet to be named. The Cheshire center would be the third for Tanger in Connecticut. It already operates an outlet in Westbrook and is now developing a second at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Monday's announcement comes less than three weeks after Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. said it had signed "a letter of interest" with Michigan-based Horizon Group Properties Inc. to build an $85 million outlet center on Rentschler Field in East Hartford. That center could be open by the summer of 2016. Both outlet centers would be within a few miles of major, traditional shopping centers. Outlets tend to offer shoppers merchandise directly from manufacturers at cheaper prices.
The Outlets at Cheshire, which has won most local approvals but still needs state permits, would have 10 buildings. The outlet center is the first phase of a larger development that could eventually include residential, a hotel and medical offices on more than 100 acres. In a release, Dick Marks, of WS Development, said, ""We have a long history of creating best in class open air shopping centers in New England and beyond, and we are excited about the opportunity to incorporate Tanger Outlets into our vision for a dynamic development of which Cheshire will be proud." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford's Union Staion to get facelift, not full makeover
Hartford's Union Station is in for relatively minor remodeling to accommodate the Springfield-New Haven commuter train service planned for 2016, but there won't be any large-scale makeover.
Ultimately, if the state ever decides to replace the I-84 viaduct that crosses through the city, the Amtrak line at Union Station could be moved 100 or 200 feet to west and brought down to ground level, according to the state Department of Transportation. "We're not sure what's going to be happening here over the next 20 years," John Bernick, a design manager with the DOT, told several dozen people Thursday afternoon at an informational meeting in the Grand Hall of the 125-year-old station. "Let's do what we need to do right now and see where the [planning] studies go."
Before starting high-frequency commuter service on the 62-mile New Haven-Springfield line, the DOT plans to add platform lighting, security cameras, digital signs and new ticket vending machines at Union Station, Bernick said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
West Haven panel OK's expanded plan for high school building
WEST HAVEN >> The West Haven High School Building Committee has approved an expanded high school building plan that raises the total cost from $109 million to $130 million. It will forward to the City Council a request to raise the city’s share to $5.8 million. The council will consider the request at its next meeting April 14. The expanded building and renovation plan includes a new auditorium, a new gymnasium, a new lecture hall, a completely asbestos-free building, better security options and a National Institute for Automobile Service Excellence-certified auto shop. The split vote — with three of Mayor Ed O’Brien’s four new appointees voting against the council request and all four voting against the expanded building plan — came after the same presentation that architects and owners representative Capitol Region Education Council recently made to the City Council.
Committee Chairman Ken Carney and O’Brien, who attended the meeting, said Monday that the new members voted against it in part because they felt they did not yet have enough information on the project. “At the meeting ... they were pretty clear that it wasn’t so much that they were against it, but they just wanted more information,” said O’Brien. “I think everybody there was in favor of moving the high school forward.” New appointees Peter Cardone, Bart Chadderton, Tricia Perugini and Richard Shae all voted against the expanded plan. Cardone, Perugini and Shae all voted against the additional funds request CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Demolition kicks off Brooker Memorial facility renovations
TORRINGTON >> Demolition began earlier this week to kick off the first phase of renovations to Brooker Memorial’s Litchfield Street facility. The first phase of renovations involved demolishing the organization’s 1957 wing, the oldest part of the building located at 157 Litchfield St. According to Board President William Marchand, the project will provide a new exterior that enhances the character of the neighborhood, redesign the interior space to better accommodate existing programs and provide space for new program growth in children’s and family services, as well as improve the energy efficiency of the building. The renovation plan calls for a new two-story building that will replace the 1957 and 1983 wings and renovations to the existing child care center, which was built in 1995. The project will also bring about features such as a new main entrance with a covered walkway, enlarged child care classrooms, a parent resource area, cameras in classrooms that will enable parents to view their children during the day, indoor play areas for the children, a new dental center with a dedicated children’s waiting room, space for an Education Connection pediatric therapy program, a second floor conference room serviced by an elevator, and updated mechanical systems, among others. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE