BRIDGEPORT - The state has snagged a coveted $10 million federal grant to help build a new Metro-North train station in a downtrodden East Side neighborhood desperate for a major economic lift.
“This is great news for our city and its future,” said Mayor Bill Finch, who believes the station will trigger a 700-acre redevelopment of the low-income, crime-ridden section of the city.
The highly competitive grant from the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery fund will be used to design a $146 million Barnum Station on the former Remington Arms factory property.
“Bridgeport’s new Barnum Station - the second rail stop in the state’s largest city - will serve as a much needed catalyst for job creation and economic growth,” Finch said. “We’ll be able to move this game-changing, job creating project forward.”
New “circus” in town
But despite the celebrating in Bridgeport, not everyone is convinced a second train station — named after circus showman and former Bridgeport mayor P.T. Barnum — is a top priority, or will spur the promised economic miracle on the city’s East Side.
“If we can assume that the new station will have additional parking and be part of a redevelopment plan, this may be a good thing,” said James Cameron, founder of the Commuter Action Group, which advocates for Metro-North riders. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Demolition of old New Britain police headquarters begins
NEW BRITAIN — The city took a major step toward revitalizing the downtown area Monday by taking a hammer to the former police headquarters on Columbus Boulevard.
Ken Malinowski, director of the city’s Department of Municipal Development, said his department is finalizing a request for proposal that will seek a master developer to redevelop the entire site.
“Over the next few months, Wiese Construction will be removing the asbestos from this building,” Malinowski said. “When they’re done it will be pretty much of a shell and it will come down for new development.”
Funding for the project comes from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, the Office of Brownfields Remediation and Development and the City of New Britain.
Mayor Erin Stewart; state Transportation Commissioner James Redeker, Department of Economic and Community Development deputy commissioner Tim Sullivan, and Malinowski each took a whack at the rear wall of the formidable building.
The former police station was built in 1968. Town Clerk Mark Bernacki recalled that before the station was built the area was mostly industrial. Now the city has moved into a new phase.
“Hopefully, developers will want to build the kind of structure that will appeal to young professionals who use CTfastrak,” he said. “They’re discovering they can get quality housing here at a reasonable price with amenities such as bars or restaurants. Putting more properties back on the Grand List would be fantastic.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Walk in the park reveals continued progress of Meriden Hub project
MERIDEN — A large swath of the Meriden Hub park is already covered in green grass, while an amphitheater dug into a slope overlooking Harbor Brook is taking shape.
Several contractors were at the soon-to-be downtown park Monday working to complete a flood control and beautification project many years in the making. One crew spread topsoil in the area of Pratt and Mill streets, where a 45-foot flagpole will eventually be erected. Another crew put the final touches on the 300-foot pedestrian bridge spanning the park. At the end of the week, workers will start pouring concrete to form the bridge’s walkway, said Joseph LaRosa, co-owner of LaRosa Construction Co. and the project’s general manager.
“We are going to be in decent shape,” LaRosa said Monday morning while walking through the construction site.
Much of the project is expected to be finished by the end of December, but work will continue early next year before the park’s grand opening toward the end of May, he said.
An amphitheater at the corner of State and Mill streets is nearly complete. The amphitheater has four rows of sitting walls. The walls overlook a stage not far from where Jordan Brook converges with Harbor Brook. The stage will be under a cover that can be removed in the winter, LaRosa said. The area behind the amphitheater along State and Mill streets is available for mixed-use development.
There is still more work to do on the amphitheater, “but the whole area is coming together,” Public Works Director Robert Bass said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Tanger, based in Greensboro, N.C., seeks to recover an “excess development fee” of about $568,000 that it says it paid to Gordon Group Holdings, its Greenwich-based development partner.
The Foxwoods outlets, an enclosed, 80-store mall linking Foxwoods Resort Casino’s Grand Pequot and Foxwoods towers, opened in May.
Tanger, which owns the mall, says in the suit that it agreed in 2012 to pay Gordon a development fee of 2.5 percent of the project’s “hard costs.” Nearly two years later, in March 2014, the parties reached an amended agreement that capped Gordon’s fee at $1 million, according to the suit.
Tanger claims it has paid Gordon $1,568,053 in fees and has been unable to recover the alleged overpayment. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford's Capitol Center apt. conversion gets state backing
Heading into negotiations over reducing state spending. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has announced over $20 million to create six affordable housing developments across the state. The housing grants, which come from the most recent Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties (CHAMP) funding round, will assist in creating and rehabilitating 230 affordable units and 52 market-rate units.
In Hartford, the Department of Housing will provide a loan up to $4.2 million and CHFA is expected to provide an approximately $11 million construction loan and approximately $862,000 in 4 percent LIHTC equity to assist in the adaptive re-use of a vacant six-story commercial building at 370 Asylum Street into a mixed-use, mixed-income development.
Several groups have tried to redevelop the property in recent years into mixed income apartments. The property was donated by foundation of Stamford technology entrepreneur Milton B. Hollander and his wife Betty Ruth the Northeast Neighborhood Partners, Inc., a Hartford-based nonprofit development firm. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Project To Bring Middletown Water To Durham
URHAM — A project to extend water from Middletown to homes and businesses in Durham that have contaminated drinking water will begin in 2016, state and federal officials announced Monday.
The $21 million project will include new pipes and equipment in south Middletown to supply clean water to about 100 buildings in Durham where two former manufacturing companies polluted the groundwater by disposing of the chemical solvent trichloroethylene, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said.
"For about 30 years now, we've had residents who have lived with the fear that their water could harm them," said Durham First Selectwoman Laura Francis. "This is the beginning of a permanent solution to that problem."
The EPA has deemed the area a Superfund site because of pollution from the Durham Manufacturing Co. and Merriam Manufacturing Co. The government has allocated $9 million so far for the project with another $9 million to come. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has said it will dedicate another $3 million for the project.Officials said the agreement was finalized recently but took years of negotiations between Durham, Middlefield, the EPA and several state agencies.
Regional School District 13, which operates its own water system, will be one of the customers buying water from Middletown. School officials said there is no additional cost in switching to municipal water, and the district will not have to maintain its own system. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE