STAMFORD — A year after public outcry over its plans to build a $750 million waterfront headquarters at Harbor Point killed the project, Bridgewater Associates will move some of its staff to the South End after all.
But only temporarily.
The hedge fund plans to lease more than 100,000 square feet of space in one of the office buildings at the waterfront development owned by Building and Land Technology while its Westport facility is renovated.
The 14-acre peninsula where the firm had originally planned to build a new campus remains vacant. Last week BLT told The Advocate it still has no new plans for the site.
Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith said late Wednesday that the state had changed its financing deal with Bridgewater for the new arrangement.
"We are delighted Bridgewater is staying in the state, and continuing to grow here,” Smith said in a statement late Wednesday.
Stamford Mayor David Martin said he was thrilled that the hedge fund decided to move to Stamford during renovations at its Nyala Farms complex, which BLT also owns. The city and the BLT buildings already have the infrastructure the company needs, he said, so the firm would be able to hit the ground running. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Plainville synthetic turf project begins
PLAINVILLE — Installation of synthetic turf on three fields has begun at Plainville High School.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Sept. 17 at 4 p.m. at the school at 47 Robert Holcomb Way. School and town officials will join state Rep. Betty Boukus and representatives from the Tinty Foundation in celebrating the beginning of the project.
The cost of the project is covered by a $950,000 state grant, which Boukus announced in July 2014, a $1 million donation from the Tinty Foundation and $225,000 from the town’s unassigned fund balance.
“I really appreciate the generous donation to this project from the Tinty Foundation,” said Town Manager Robert E. Lee. “It will really benefit our children and create a much safer environment to play on.”
School Superintendent Jeffrey Kitching, during a public presentation last year, said synthetic turf fields will help reduce the frequency of concussions, accommodate more community use during the year and cost less to maintain than grass fields. He has also stressed that studies have shown no scientific evidence of any health danger to athletes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New cheaper Town Hall renovation plan on the table
NEWINGTON — A smaller, cheaper project may be the answer to Newington’s long-awaited Town Hall renovation.
Town Hall Building Committee Chairman Alan Bongiovanni presented the Town Council with a new plan at its meeting Tuesday for a building that is 10 percent smaller and $5 million cheaper than the last proposal.
“In my personal opinion this will meet the needs of the town for years to come, and it’s probably the most cost-effective plan we’re going to see,” Bongiovanni told the council.
Architect Kaestle Boos and construction manager Downes Construction were sent back to the drawing board after two other more costly and extensive plans failed to gain support from residents who attended public hearings in July and early August.
The latest $32 million plan calls for a new 91,000-square-foot Town Hall that would be built on the existing facility’s footprint. It would still have two gymnasiums — an element young families and parks and recreation staff pleaded for during the hearings. However, office sizes were reduced by around 10 percent, with more work stations and common areas, according to Bongiovanni. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Middletown mayor proposes new city job for water front activities
MIDDLETOWN >> As the city continues to plan the redevelopment of its waterfront, Mayor Dan Drew announced his intention to propose a new town hall position.
After the city received a $2.6 million grant from the state for a new boathouse a year ago, Drew announced in early August a plan for the waterfront redevelopment that would include a “riverfront czar.” “We are at a point in which we have achieved great success thus far with steps to develop the waterfront,” Drew said at an August meeting of the Economic Development Commission.
The mayor pointed to the funding received for the boathouse and the Sumner Point Great Lawn, the former site of Peterson Oil on River Road, as accomplishments for the city, and said the city must continue to create a boat launch on the river, as well as trails, playgrounds, guardrails and making land transfers.
Last January, the New York-based nonprofit Project for Public Spaces delivered its final recommendations to the Riverfront Redevelopment Committee in which Meg Walker, a Wesleyan University alumnae and PPS vice president was among two who delivered a concept plan.
The proposal synthesizes the city riverfront into a “string of pearls,” with restaurants, common areas, residential areas and entertainment venues spread out along the riverbank.
At the time, Elena Madison, also a PPS vice president, suggested making Harbor Park more family-friendly and retrofitting the launch there to accommodate kayaks rather than just larger craft. She pointed to the Sumner Point “great lawn” for outdoor movies, picnics and other community gatherings. The full report can be found on the Middletown Planning, Conservation and Development website. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Groton learns harsh reality of waiting to fix its school buildings
Groton — The chairman of the School Facilities Initiative Task Force didn't mince words Wednesday when speaking about the proposed school building plan.
"It's time to pay the piper," Chairman Jon Heller said after presenting the plan to the Representative Town Meeting and the public.
He said the task force was told to come up with a plan to upgrade the schools and it delivered.
"That's just the harsh reality," he said.
The proposed school construction plan would build one new middle school adjacent to Robert E. Fitch High School and two new elementary schools at the site of the existing middle schools, at a total cost of $192 million, or about $95 million to local taxpayers after state reimbursement.
Pleasant Valley, Claude Chester and S.B. Butler elementary schools would be closed.
Heller said he doesn't like paying taxes any more than anyone else, but the town put off work on the schools for years and years, and rejected a $133 million school construction referendum in 2011.
Now state reimbursement rates are falling and the schools need repairs like roofs that can't wait, Superintendent Michael Graner said.
Groton would need $55 million to keep the buildings going, he said.
The task force offered this choice: Pay an average of $150 in extra taxes per year, for 20 years (to cover $55 million in upgrades) and have what you already have; or pay an average of $250 in extra taxes per year, for 23 years, for three new schools. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Uconn breaks ground on $95M Engineering & Science Building
STORRS — The University of Connecticut broke ground Wednesday on a $95 million engineering and science building that will bolster efforts to expand and strengthen research programs.
The five-story, 118,000-square-foot structure is expected to open in 2017 and will provide laboratory space for UConn's growing genomics, biomedical, chemical engineering, and cybersystem research programs.
The project will be funded with $60 million from the 21st Century UConn fund and $35 million from the $1.5 billion Next Generation Connecticut program designed to boost science, technology, engineering and math at the university.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the building and its laboratories will provide researchers with "the resources they need to secure UConn's standing as one of the best public research universities in the country. The innovations and new technologies coming out of these laboratories will invigorate Connecticut's economy, support business and industry and create high-paying jobs."
UConn President Susan Herbst said that having the new building in the heart of the campus will "do more than ever to spark innovation, catalyze research advances, and build on the momentum we've already gained as a source for new and groundbreaking research. This is a powerful driver for Connecticut's economy and will provide amazing opportunities for our faculty and students."
The new building will have an open floor layout designed to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and allow scientists to share knowledge and equipment in the labs.
Three of the floors will be dedicated to engineering research, while the other two floors will house UConn's Institute for Systems Genomics and Center for Genome Innovation. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developer presents $220M development plan to Avon town officials
AVON — A developer presented plans to the planning and zoning commission Tuesday for a massive redevelopment near town hall on land owned by Ensign Bickford Co
The Carpionato Group of Rhode Island has proposed a 1.2 million-square-foot development on 92 acres that could cost as much as $220 million to build.
Company officials said they envision a mix of stores, restaurants and offices. A key part of the plan, which town officials are eager to see, is a new town green.
The planning and zoning commission continued a hearing on the plan Tuesday that it had started in July.
Even though Carpionato's concept is in line with what town officials have said they want for the site, there were many questions and concerns.
Part of the plan includes apartments that would abut a neighborhood that has mostly single-family houses. One resident asked why the residential component could not include owner-occupied homes.
"We know something is going to be built there, but it should kind of go along with the rest of the neighborhood," said Sue Vredenburgh.
Much of the discussion on Tuesday focused on a large retail development anchored by two stores as large as 40,000 square feet each that is planned for the northern part of the property. Large grocery stores and sporting goods stores were among the potential tenants mentioned for those two spaces.
Behind those stores would be apartment buildings with more than 200 units. Alfred Carpionato, president of the development group, said that part of the proposal is a key element.
"Without this platform, we won't have a job," Carpionato said. "We can't finance this without roots to make this thing work." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Briefly, Malloy takes bus to celebrate and brag
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy took a quick bus ride Wednesday to trumpet milestones in the life of the much-maligned bus rapid transit system, CTfastrak: Average daily weekday ridership is 14,390, and the system just recorded its one millionth passenger trip.
“Some people referred to this system, perhaps, as an albatross around someone’s neck,” Malloy said after taking the three-minute trip to the Flatbush Avenue station on the West Hartford line after boarding at the previous station. “Quite frankly, I think those folks have been surprised at how successful it’s been.”
From the day in 2011 Malloy gave final approval for the $567 million busway -- a project conceived during the administration of Gov. John G. Rowland and designed during the tenure of Gov. M. Jodi Rell – the project and Malloy were ridiculed. After the groundbreaking, one critic said the governor had "dug his grave."
Daily ridership is ahead of the original weekday projections of 11,000, but the state cannot say yet how of many of those riders abandoned local bus routes for a quicker ride on a system built around a nine-mile Hartford-to-New Britain busway.
One of those riders is John Colon, who says his commute from New Britain to his job as a cook in West Hartford used to take 75 minutes each way, including the wait to transfer from one CT Transit bus line to another.
The trip from New Britain’s downtown station, a short walk from his apartment, to the Corner Pug, a pub across the street from a CTfastrak station in the Elmwood section of West Hartford, takes 15 minutes.
Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker said federal transit officials, who provided all but $112 million of the construction funds, require the state to conduct a detailed survey next year about ridership, including measuring how many riders are new to mass transit.
The ridership numbers announced Wednesday date from April 6, when an introductory period of free rides ended and passengers began paying $1.50 fares for up to two hours of travel time. Buses arrive at stations every six to eight minutes. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE