Mohegan tribal leaders and Mohegan Sun executives will celebrate a milestone Wednesday in the construction of Mohegan Sun’s Earth Hotel, which is scheduled to open this fall.
The final piece of exterior glass is to be put in place, marking completion of that phase of the $130 million project.
The 400-room hotel is part of Mohegan Sun’s long-term expansion plan, and is expected to help meet the growing demand for hotel rooms in southeastern Connecticut. Mohegan Sun’s existing hotel has 1,200 rooms.
Tribal Chairman Kevin Brown and Ray Pineault, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun, will speak at Wednesday’s ceremony. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Multi-families still pace CT permits
Permits for new housing construction in Connecticut grew for the second straight month in March, and have eclipsed the first-quarter total from a year ago, new data shows.
Statewide, 104 cities and towns tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau counted 541 permits issued last month for single- and multi-family dwellings with two or more units vs. 474 handed out in March 2015, the state Department of Economic and Community Development said Tuesday.
A breakdown of the permits reveals that of the latest March total, 219 were single-family dwellings; 312 were multi-families. A year ago, the split was 178 single-family and 296 multi-families.
From January to March of this year, those same communities have tallied 1,088 permits vs. 845 in the first quarter of 2015, DECD research data shows.
Permit totals rose in February and March from a year earlier, while January's tally declined. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Work At Dunkin' Donuts Park Falls Behind Schedule; May 17 Deadline Looms
HARTFORD — The developer of Dunkin' Donuts Park has missed its final milestone toward "significant completion" of the $63 million minor league baseball stadium by May 17.
Five milestones were put in place in January to ensure completion of the ballpark after construction delays pushed the Hartford Yard Goats' home opener back to May 31. Friday's milestone was the completion of a left-field kitchen, including installation of front counters, an overhead coiling door, refrigerant piping, set refrigeration, walk-in coolers and related equipment.
Most of that work was completed, said Jason Rudnick, a principal with DoNo Hartford LLC, which, along with Centerplan Cos., is building the ballpark. But Rudnick said Tuesday that the coiling door was not installed because it had not been delivered yet. Rudnick said he expected the door be delivered and installed by this Friday.
Rudnick said that he understood the city and the team owners wanted a mechanism to mark progress and that, more or less, those markers have been achieved.
"But as with all construction projects, there are things that will creep up," he said.
Rudnick cited another still-to-be completed milestone: the exterior masonry. The brick work on Pleasant and Main streets is done, but work on the Trumbull Street side continues beyond the April 15 milestone set forth in the January agreement.
"We had to leave the wall open for delivery of sod," Rudnick said, citing snow and cold weather for delaying delivery of the sod by more than a week. He said the exterior brick will be completed shortly. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Tribes Will Wait On 'Satellite' Casino Proposal
With a week left in the legislative session, state lawmakers won't get a crack at casino expansion in the state.
The tribes operating Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos said Tuesday that they will not approach the legislature this session for any approvals on establishing a third, jointly run casino in the Hartford area. The "satellite" casino is intended to dilute the competitive impact of MGM's $950 million casino and entertainment complex now under construction in nearby Springfield.
The Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans previously said they would not pick a site for a third casino in time for this legislative session, which is scheduled to end May 4.
The tribes' joint venture — MMCT — also said Tuesday it also would wait until 2017 to raise another casino expansion issue: how a third casino might affect the state's 25 percent cut of slot revenue at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, now at about $200 million a year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEJJ Mottes Concrete Company Leases Facilities To Farmington Firm Amid Foundation
Troubles
The Joseph J. Mottes Co., whose concrete has been cited in lawsuits filed by homeowners with failing foundations, announced Tuesday that is has leased its property and equipment to a Farmington company for the 2016 building season.
Mottes, which has locations in Stafford and Somers, said bad publicity prompted it to lease its facilities to Connecticut Ready Mix LLC of Farmington.
"This measure was taken in response to the ongoing adverse publicity which we believe has been both unfair and unjustified; it no longer makes financial sense for us to continue to operate," Mottes said in a written statement announcing the agreement.
In the statement, company spokesperson John Patton said Mottes believes that the problems with failing concrete foundations can be blamed on bad installation practices, not the concrete mix that Mottes uses."We strongly believe that the current situation involving residential foundations in Eastern Connecticut is an installation issue, and we support an unbiased and comprehensive investigation of these foundation issues — including how the materials were placed and installed, in addition to remedial actions — so that homeowners can get the answers they deserve and meaningful help with solutions," Patton said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUECostco withdraws Branford application; development’s future uncertain
BRANFORD >> Costco Wholesale Corp. Tuesday withdrew its pending inland wetlands permit application to build a store in town, saying there still are some important issues that remain unresolved. First Selectman James B. Cosgrove, however, said he remains committed to bringing the big box store to town.
“We have previously expressed to the Commission specific concerns about the manner in which this application has been reviewed and processed by wetlands staff,” attorney Thomas P. Cody wrote in a letter Tuesday in behalf of Costco to the Inland Wetlands Commission.
The town began to review the conduct of town officials and peer reviewers in their dealings with Costco’s inland wetlands application in March after a report by BranfordSeven.com raised questions about the way the application was handled. The letter said that although Costco continues to believe the pending application complies with all application regulations, it still has concerns about issues it believes have not been fully resolved. First Selectman James B. Cosgrove said he was disappointed to hear the news of Costco’s application withdrawal Tuesday, as he believes the majority of town residents were in support of the development. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE