BRIDGEPORT -- Steps from the Steel Point development sits an abandoned, dilapidated factory that belies local officials' promises of a city on the rebound. Thanks to a federal grant, it could soon be gone.
Mayor Bill Finch announced Thursday that Bridgeport has received $200,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to tear down the former AGI Rubber Co. plant on Stratford Avenue, one of the most unsightly properties in a city with no shortage of them.
"This is happening right here at ground zero for economic development," Finch said. "This is a great day for Bridgeport."
The mayor said that the city will be pitching in to take down the decrepit plant, and that the demolition work would begin in the next few weeks.
"This is part of a brownfields program that began in 1994, and this year we had 21 proposals come in and only four of those were selected, this being one of them," said Curt Spalding, administrator for EPA's New England Region, in handing over an outsized check to Finch.
City officials say that getting rid of the old AGI plant is vital to the success of its Steel Point project because pedestrians from downtown need to walk past the depressing-looking buildings on their way to the development now taking shape on the lower East Side. The AGI buildings only served to make that trek seem more threatening. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
House backs move to start process for a new casino
HARTFORD — The House of Representatives voted early Friday to approve a bill that would start the process of authorizing a third casino in Connecticut, despite concerns about complicated legal issues that could derail any actual construction.
The bill, already approved by the Senate, would authorize a two-step process allowing towns to submit proposals for a casino to be jointly operated by the two Indian tribes that already run casinos in southeastern Connecticut. But building the casino would require another vote by the legislature, most likely in the next legislative session in February.
The House debated for about 90 minutes, starting after 10:30 p.m., before voting 88-55, with 8 members absent, in favor of the measure. It now goes to the governor.
Rep. Stephen Dargan, co-chairman of the committee overseeing gambling, began the debate by talking about the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, the thousands of jobs they have created over 20 years and the money that has poured into state coffers from slot machines under a revenue-sharing deal. The tribes originally proposed opening a new casino faster, but legal questions were raised that caused the ¿ legislature to put on the brakes. The idea was to open a casino to fend off competition from an $800 million MGM Resorts International casino under construction in Springfield. "We're slowing down the process immensely," Dargan said on the House floor. "This amendment before us is a first step." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Renaissance seeks another chance to pitch Bristol development plan
BRISTOL — Renaissance Downtowns wants another shot at getting the city behind its newest downtown revitalization plan.
The mayor is convening a special council meeting Monday night to hear the company's case for why it merits city financing. Renaissance wants to get the city's endorsement before June 10, its deadline to apply for $5 million in low-interest, long-term state financing.
The Long Island-based developer has faced increasingly stiff resistance from city officials, though, as new versions of its plan have grown smaller while shifting more of the financial risk to the city.
When the city gave Renaissance a contract in 2010 to be the chief coordinator of redeveloping the old Bristol Centre Mall property, the city was looking for the company to buy the 17 acres for $2.1 million. It expected Renaissance to line up a series of investors and developers to build Depot Square on the site, a project initially envisioned with 750 apartments for young professionals and empty-nester baby boomers, a 100-room business hotel, and rows of specialty shops and ethnic restaurants,
That plan included underground parking garages, rooftop gardens and a park-like plaza in the center of the property. At the time, company President Don Monti predicted to an audience of officials and taxpayers that downtown would become an urban centerpiece and a model for other communities. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NY developer sets sights on former CT Transit building in New Haven
NEW HAVEN >> Jason Carter, a wealthy New York developer smitten with New Haven, wants to add another piece of the city’s transportation history to his holdings.
He already owns the former Robby Len building at 1175 State St., that once served as a maintenance garage for trolleys through the mid-20th century. Carter now plans to bid on 470 James St., a 195,000-square-foot building that contained offices and a bus depot for CT Transit.
New Haven has put out a request for proposals to reuse the large light industrial site, where 100 drivers a day used to park their buses each night.
Closed since 2010, when CT Transit opened a new maintenance site in Hamden, the state tried in 2012 to attract a developer, but nothing came of it. New Haven Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson hopes the city, which is working with the state on the project, will be more successful this time, Carter of the Carter Management Corp. in New York City, said in addition to his involvement in real estate management and high-end developments, over his career he has restored nine national landmarks in that city. The CT Transit site is located across the street from the former trolley barn in Fair Haven, just off Exit 5 of Interstate 91.
Built in 1950 for the Connecticut Co., a private bus company, it was bought by the state in 1976 and the name was changed to CT Transit. Carter, who has three grown children, said he was often in New Haven over a period of 10 to 12 years when they attended Yale University. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Legislators, Malloy hovering on brink of state budget deal
What do you call something that falls just short of a tentative deal on the next state budget?
On one hand, legislators and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget staff still were hammering out the details of key tax issues late Thursday night. But the governor also was expected to visit the Capitol overnight to be briefed on the near-deal before leaving Friday for a political event in Oklahoma.
Majority Democrats in the House of Representatives gave their Republican counterparts a courtesy warning that a Saturday vote on the budget was anticipated.
But sources also said the soon-to-be-complete spending and revenue proposal for the next two fiscal years will face a very stiff test when it gets presented to House Democrats in a closed-door caucus — something likely to happen Friday or Saturday before any public floor debate. Moderate Democrats are expected to object to hundreds of millions in new taxes while liberal caucus members plan to push back against cuts to social services.
Tentative budget deals can unravel in caucus — and have in the past.
So just what has been agreed upon in this still incomplete outline of the next budget? Very few details on the spending side of the plan have been disclosed to date, though all parties acknowledge the bottom line will be less than the $40.5 billion, two-year plan recommended by the legislature’s Appropriations Committee. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy targeting sales tax increase for transportation
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy cautioned legislative leaders in overnight budget talks against using a sales-tax increase for municipal aid, saying he sees the tax as a likely funding source for his ambitious transportation initiative, sources said Thursday.
The governor's warning is both a potential complication to budget negotiations and evidence he already has identified potential funding for a 30-year infrastructure overhaul, a task he gave to a special study group with an end-of-summer deadline.
Sources familiar with the talks said that Malloy, who met twice with Democratic legislative leaders in his office Wednesday night and again early Thursday in a meeting that ran past 3 a.m., raised cautions about Senate Bill 1, the Senate leadership's municipal aid measure.
Mark Ojakian, the governor’s chief of staff, acknowledged Thursday afternoon that using the sales tax to support the governor’s transportation infrastructure program is an element of the budget talks.
“There’s been a lot of discussions about what to do about Senate Bill 1 and the sales tax, and one of the thoughts is to partially devote it to transportation," Ojakian said. "There’s been a lot of conversations about what to do with that. Nothing’s been formalized or discussed seriously, because we’re not at that point yet. But there’s been a lot of things floated, and that’s one of them.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Nailed it
WATERBURY — Drivers who take the Exit 23 eastbound access ramp to the end, where they can either turn onto Hamilton Avenue or re-enter Interstate 84 just past the merge, may notice a ledge of soil being turned into a wall.
The work is part of the $298 million I-84 widening project between Washington Street and Pierpont Road. A soil nail wall is being built just west of the intersection of the off-ramp and Hamilton Avenue. The wall, made of steel mesh-reinforced concrete, will be attached to the earth-cut slope using threaded steel rods grouted into the soil, said Project Engineer Christopher Zukowski.
The wall is being constructed from the top down, in 3- to 6-foot increments, Zukowski said. A completion date has not been set. The soil nail wall will support the earth while a permanent retaining wall is constructed in front of it, he said. The retaining wall will sit along the I-84 Exit 23 eastbound off-ramp. It will be made of pre-cast concrete, fabricated by Doublewal Inc., a Plainville-based company. Constructing the soil nail wall won't result in any lane closures, but it will give motorists waiting in traffic at the end of the off-ramp a front row view of the action.
Look for an update on the project in the Sunday Republican.