Bridgeport factory conversion awaits final approvals
Within months, one of Bridgeport's worst eyesores could see some much-needed improvement.
A former factory complex alongside Interstate 95 is due for a conversion into 326 residential units, with a charter school, open space and potentially a grocery store on the Railroad Avenue property. Initial work could begin in two months, with the first phase of 157 apartments opening by April 2017, said Gary Flocco, managing partner of Corvus Capital Partners, of White Plains, N.Y.
"We've got our market studies done and all our approvals are in place," Flocco said. "We're very optimistic."
The next step is a hearing before the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, where an application was filed last year to underwrite bonds for the $130 million project. A hearing at the agency is expected before the end of the month, and Flocco said financing for the project is in place and awaiting CHFA approval.
"Our investors are on board," Flocco said. "We're just waiting to get the bonding approved."
The development team is calling it the Smile Project. Dating to the late 1800s, the buildings were for generations home to the American Graphaphone Co. and its successor, Columbia Records, where records and record players were manufactured. The block has stood mostly vacant for decades, and been empty since Label Systems left a small corner of the complex two years ago. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Women's prison construction to start this summer
WASHINGTON -- Construction of the new Danbury federal prison for women will begin this summer, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a Senate panel Thursday under questioning by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
"I regret to say I'm hesitant to offer (a completion estimate), having seen several federal construction projects in my day," Lynch said during her first appearance on Capitol Hill since being sworn-in as attorney general on April 27.
Speaking at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department and its Bureau of Prisons, Lynch said an environmental impact statement that had been a hang-up in the process of restoring women prisoners to Danbury was "completed quite recently."
Murphy had asked Lynch for a construction timetable "so we can transition these women who are now in places like Brooklyn and Philadelphia back to a more long-term suitable facility."
The exchange between Murphy and Lynch was the latest chapter in an on-going discussion between lawmakers and the Bureau of Prisons over the fate of women at the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE