Building and Land Technology, the developer of the $3.5 billion mixed-use Harbor Point project, may be focused on housing in the South End, but the company has also been busy making noteworthy commercial acquisitions in the region. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal last week, BLT and Quinlan Development Group together paid $89.4 million for a Brooklyn storage facility in downtown Brooklyn. The 10-story 230,000 square-foot building is located near the Barclays Center as well as subway and Long Island Railroad stations. The neighborhood is considered a hot redevelopment area in New York City.
The plan by the development team is to convert the building into office. In the WSJ story, Greg Bates, a fund manager at BLT, is quoted as saying, “We happen to believe the demand for creative office space is accelerating.”
Similar to BLT’s decision to perform a historic renovation of the Yale & Towne factory buildings, which were turned into an apartment complex, the developer has indicated that it would preserve the building’s 1920 architecture.
According to WSJ, Bates called the building “too special to demolish.”
Closer to Stamford, BLT last Wednesday announced its purchase of the Westport Inn for $14.5 million. The 117-room inn at 1595 Post Road East had been the proposed site of a controversial plan for a five-story, 200-unit rental development that would use the state’s affordable housing statute 8-30g. BLT, which owns more than 50 hotels across the country, has indicated that it intends to maintain the property as a hotel. The developer last summer snapped up nearby Nayala Farms, the corporate complex that serves as the headquarters for hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, for $130 million. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
GHS auditorium taking shape
Visitors to the MISA auditorium under construction at Greenwich High School cannot yet take their seats but they can see the set design underway.
A tour of the building last week showed a maze of scaffolding for the auditorium's sound reflector obscuring the stage. The performance hall's interior still looks very much like a construction site -- lots of exposed ductwork and masonry.
But a visitor can step on stage to rehearse a soliloquy, venture backstage to check out the set shop or walk around each of the three seating levels. A lookout from the third-floor balcony emphasizes the size of a venue that will have 1,325 seats, 50 percent more than the school's current auditorium.
"Great progress has been made," said Walter Chabla, an architect with Perkins and Will, the firm that designed the auditorium. "We have a lot of people working very hard, and it's been very encouraging." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Activity at cluster of Meriden projects as weather warms
MERIDEN — As the weather takes a turn for the warmer this week, construction can be seen resuming or beginning on downtown building projects, and could soon be ramping up further.
Work on the State Street train station has been inching along since chain-link fencing and concrete barriers were put in place in mid-February. The new platform, which is being championed by state and local officials as a key component of a larger, multimillion-dollar rail improvement project called the Hartford Line, is set to open in late 2016 along with the rest of the line.
One of the first steps before construction is installing sheet piling into the ground around the tracks to support them during excavation, according to Robert Sammons, project manager for Judlau Contracting Inc.
In February, Sammons was concerned that city fiber optic cables were running directly under, or very near, the sheet piling operation. That turned out to be true, and it has delayed the installation of the metal sheets as officials reached a resolution to move the sheet piling closer to the tracks.
More recently, state officials required that vibration monitoring systems be added to nearby buildings to help keep them safe from the heavy excavation and demolition that would be occurring in tight proximity.
Those monitoring systems weren’t in the original designs for the work, and will need to be sent out to bid and then installed, a process that’s delaying station work even further, Sammons said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The rail yard at the station has been undergoing a massive expansion to be able to service the M8 cars on the Metro-North Railroad. “I am pleased that almost $9 million from the FTA will now be released for this much needed power upgrade,” DeLauro said in a release. “Given the construction of a new rail maintenance facility at Union Station, the fact that the rail yard will exceed the effective capacity of the shared feeder before the completion of all of the anticipated projects and that one of our most prone areas to flooding is Union Station, adding and hardening capacity is a smart investment.”
The $8.98 million from the Federal Transit Administration is part of the Sandy Disaster Relief Bill passed in 2013 to protect infrastructure from destructive storms.
Legislators to outline joint Pequot/Mohegan pitch
The Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, historic rivals and casino competitors, are to be introduced Tuesday as potential partners in at least one new casino in Connecticut, sources said Monday night.
Senate Democratic leaders are holding a press conference with tribal leaders, casino workers and union representatives to make “a major announcement about jobs and the future of gaming in Connecticut.”
The announcement comes less than a week after The Mirror reported that tribal leaders and their lobbyists jointly met with Senate leaders to gauge support for expanding gambling to preserve Connecticut’s share of casino jobs and revenue.
The state’s two tribal casinos, Foxwoods Resorts Casino and Mohegan Sun, are facing a rapidly shrinking market share in the face of new competition, including the opening of MGM Springfield casino in 2017.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said in separate interviews Monday that the tribes have made the case that the legislature needs to act.
No House leader is scheduled to attend the press conference but Aresimowicz, who was out of state over the weekend, said his absence was due to a scheduling conflict, not opposition. House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, could not be reached for comment. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Senate Democratic leaders are holding a press conference with tribal leaders, casino workers and union representatives to make “a major announcement about jobs and the future of gaming in Connecticut.”
The announcement comes less than a week after The Mirror reported that tribal leaders and their lobbyists jointly met with Senate leaders to gauge support for expanding gambling to preserve Connecticut’s share of casino jobs and revenue.
The state’s two tribal casinos, Foxwoods Resorts Casino and Mohegan Sun, are facing a rapidly shrinking market share in the face of new competition, including the opening of MGM Springfield casino in 2017.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said in separate interviews Monday that the tribes have made the case that the legislature needs to act.
No House leader is scheduled to attend the press conference but Aresimowicz, who was out of state over the weekend, said his absence was due to a scheduling conflict, not opposition. House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, could not be reached for comment. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE