STAMFORD — Mayor David Martin stood on the edge of the construction site in the city’s Waterside neighborhood Wednesday and looked at the work completed so far.
On one end of the property, at 112 Southfield Ave., was a pile of steel beams that, until recently, marked the frame of the planned five-story building. The beams were taken down this week so workers could tear out the foundation, which was built in the wrong place.
“We’ve basically lost two months,” Robert Orvis, Pointe Builders’ field superintendent, told the mayor.
Martin said he had never seen anything like the situation Belpointe Capital, of Greenwich, found itself in.
The city stopped work on the 109-unit apartment complex in December when it was discovered the foundation on the waterfront development was set at 102 feet from the high-water line, instead of the required 111 feet approved by the Zoning Board.
The developer applied to the board for a change in the approved plans, but then withdrew that request.
On Monday, Belpointe agreed to rip out the foundation and start over. Orvis said it would take about two weeks before the builders could move forward. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Shelton, Bridgeport win brownfield-cleanup funds
The transition in downtown Shelton from factory hub to residential destination took another step forward Wednesday when the state announced an $875,000 grant to clean and demolish a vacant industrial building at 223 Canal St., next to the Avalon housing.
Bridgeport also received $2 million to clean a 2.2-acre site in the city’s Eco-Technology park that will be used to build a pair of anaerobic digesters, which turn waste into energy, as well as a $200,000 grant for assessing several East End parcels the city plans for mixed-use development in the area of the Newfield Library.
The awards were among $8.7 million for 16 communities from the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation Program.
Also included is $200,000 for Stratford to continue investigating the former Stratford Army Engine plant site for contaminants.
Last year, developer John Guedes unveiled plans for a 68-unit apartment building at the Shelton site, which faces the Housatonic River. Guedes’ company also redeveloped the former Birmingham Corset factory on the other side of Avalon, and has plans for the former Spongex building downtown.
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State earmarks $5 million for Middlesex County road work
Thirteen Middlesex County municipalities were among dozens statewide granted nearly $5 million in aid to improve their streets, bridges and traffic signs. This is the second installment of two $30 million Town Aid Road funding for cities and towns across Connecticut, according to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office. Grants ranged from $197,000 to $593,000 in Middlesex County a total of approximately $5 million in state aid.
Local municipalities granted monies are: Cromwell, $277,297; Deep River, $198,560; Durham, $222,641; East Haddam, $331,310; East Hampton, $320,189; Essex, $214,979; Haddam, $246,301; Killingworth, $253,147; Middlefield, $197,382; Middletown, $592,845; Old Saybrook, $247,043; Portland, $239,866; and Westbrook, $216,813.
A $68.9 million allocation was approved to cover costs to resurface state roadways this year, which will begin April 1, the press release says. The governor’s office anticipates that at least 250 two-lane miles of roads throughout the state will be repaved. “In Connecticut, we are in the middle of a critical conversation on what we need to do to build a best-in-class transportation system that provides residents and businesses with real solutions for problems that the state can no longer put off,” Malloy said in the release. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Meriden receives money to demolish Mills, Southington for Beaton & Corbin
Meriden and Southington are among a handful of Connecticut municipalities chosen to receive brownfield cleanup money from a state grant.
Of the $8.7 million in grant funding announced Wednesday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Meriden was awarded $2 million to demolish and remediate the site of the Mills Memorial Apartments complex. Southington received $400,000 to do similar work at the former Beaton & Corbin manufacturing site. The state grants are furnished by a Brownfield Remediation Program under the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
“In a new economic reality, transforming and remediating sites is so important,” Malloy said in a statement released Wednesday. “We’re on the cutting edge of taking otherwise unusable property and transforming it into new space for businesses and residents.
The Mills site — currently home to five outdated low- and high-rise apartment buildings — has been slated for redevelopment into a mixed-use development in the downtown Transit-Oriented District. It will cost an estimated $3 million to demolish the 140-unit complex, according to Meriden Housing Authority Executive Director Robert Cappelletti.
“This is a great help towards taking those buildings down and clearing the site for new construction,” he said of the grant award.
The remaining funds to demolish the complex will come from the city, MHA and Pennrose Properties, a developer that has proposed building a four-story, 96,700-square-foot building including 75 apartment units and commercial space, Economic Development Director Juliet Burdelski said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said crews are working on two projects on that stretch.
One of them, the replacement of the Society Road bridge at Exit 73, began in September 2014 and originally was slated to be finished in May of this year. Because of utility delays early on, Nursick said, the expected date of completion now is Aug. 28.
The bridge replacement is expected to cost almost $5.6 million, but Nursick said that number is based on the construction company's contract and doesn't include extras such as inspection costs.
The other project, a resurfacing and safety improvement project from the Baldwin Bridge to Exit 72, is almost on track to hit its expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2017. "Minor extra work" may push the completion into the fall, Nursick said, but officials are working with the contractor to mitigate the delay.
Nursick said the projected cost of the resurfacing project, also without additional costs included, is $24.6 million.
When DOT officials first discussed the resurfacing project with residents in June 2013, they said they expected construction to begin in the fall of 2014 and end by fall 2016. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Dredging keeps docks, channels open, but disposal can be a problem
Groton — Over the last two decades, so much silt, sand and gravel had accumulated around the docks at the Pine Island Marina that it became too shallow for the boats of some longtime customers.
“We’ve lost some business due to the filling in,” marina manager Miles Dull said Wednesday. “Dredging is something that has to be done from time to time.”
Dull said about six slips had become so shallow that customers were forced to move their boats elsewhere. The problem, he added, became noticeably worse after the tidal surges from Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.
This week, contractors from Cashman Dredging & Marine are completing excavation of about 22,000 cubic yards of material clogging the docks and channels around the 105-slip marina.
Once the project is complete, boats with drafts up to 6 feet will be able to use the docks and mooring areas at the marina — even at low tide, he said.
“It was getting harder to do business here,” he said. “With some of the sailboats, we had to be here at night to play the tide to bring them in. It was costing us more to have to bring the guys back in at night.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New London council asked to fund $2.8 million in sidewalk, road repairs
New London — The city’s Public Works Department is asking City Council for $2.8 million to repair aging, crumbling and buckling sidewalks and curbs.
The roadway improvement program priority list for 2016 contains a host of sidewalks on roads in both commercial and residential areas where pedestrian foot traffic is high.
William Camosci, assistant director of engineering services, said the proposed work is a continuation of a five-year plan to address problem areas — a list that continually grows.
He said the city on average has funded close to $2 million in such improvements each year in an attempt to keep pace with the deterioration of sidewalks, both concrete and brick, and roadways.
Camosci said his experience has been that wherever roadside repairs are made, nearby buildings follow suit.
“You find people start improving the exterior of their properties,” Camosci said. “There are benefits all around.”
Sidewalk replacement is being proposed for Bank, State, Golden, Williams, Meridian and Broad streets, Eugene O’Neill Drive and Governor Winthrop Boulevard, among others. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Developer No Longer Has Option On Possible Casino Site In East Windsor
Centerplan Cos., the developer of a minor league ballpark in Hartford, confirmed Wednesday it no longer has an option on property in East Windsor where it had proposed building a casino.
Robert Landino, Centerplan's chief executive, declined further comment.
The Centerplan site, 33 acres at Wagner Lane and Route 5, is one of three sites in East Windsor proposed for a possible casino to be built by a joint venture of the operators of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, known as MMCT. The Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegan tribes are seeking a location in north central Connecticut to dilute competition from a casino expected to open in Springfield in 2018.
Centerplan's no longer having an option on the property surfaced in a public notice released Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. by First Selectman Bob Maynard. According to the notice, Maynard said he believes the site is no longer being considered by the tribes.Maynard could not be reached for comment.
Andrew Doba, a spokesman for MMCT, said late Wednesday that MMCT had not received any notice from Centerplan on the change in the status on the option for the property. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford Superintendent Calls For New Building To Replace Contaminated Clark School
HARTFORD — The PCB contamination at Clark Elementary School is so pervasive that Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez is now recommending that the north Hartford school be torn down and rebuilt.
The city hired environmental specialists who tested and retested the building over the past year.
About $750,000 in costs later, "it's clear that the PCB levels at the school are too high," said John Motley, chairman of the Hartford school building committee that oversees the renovation and construction of city schools.
"It's not ideal — this is not what anyone of us had hoped for," Narvaez told Clark parents and staffers who had gathered in the auditorium at Wish Museum School Wednesday night. Building a new Clark is "the right thing to do," she said later.School building officials said newer tests revealed that the airborne traces of polychlorinated biphenyls, toxic chemicals known as PCBs, found at Clark remain at levels unacceptable for schoolchildren.
Those results also doused any hope that the school could be ready for students by August, in time for the new school year and within the $5 million budget the city had planned for Clark's cleanup and restoration, school administrators said. A recent internal memo deemed that scenario "impossible." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hill to Downtown Steering Committee tweaks New Haven development deal
NEW HAVEN >> A Hill to Downtown Steering Committee tweaked a proposed agreement Wednesday with a developer interested in bringing housing and commercial uses to the neighborhood.
City officials came up with a proposed agreement with Randy Salvatore of RMS in which he would bring 140 apartments with first-floor retail, offices and possibly biotech labs to some 20 acres across 11 parcels in the Hill that have remained undeveloped for 26 years.
He was willing to pay some $1.25 million to the city for the property instead of the old agreement under which the land could have gone for $150,000.
The neighborhood, however, wanted more say in the development around affordable workforce housing and proposed community benefits, so the Board of Alders created the steering committee to get feedback.
In the hour-and-a-half meeting, the decision was made to ask for 30 percent affordable housing and eliminate two parcels from a proposed zone change. from BA to BD-3.
The original deal looked to 10 percent affordable housing if there were subsidies available. The committee also wants the 30 percent to apply equally across the bedroom choices. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE