STAMFORD — A lot on the site of a planned big-box home improvement store on the West Side sold last week for $14.5 million, paving the way for construction on the project to start next year.
West Side Development Partners II LLC acquired the vacant lot from Cytec Industries, a maker of chemical and material technologies with an adjacent research lab at 1937 West Main St. The deal follows a sale six years ago when West Side Development Partners LLC acquired Cytec’s building for $11 million. Both of the West Side Development groups comprise affiliates of the real-estate firms Steven Wise Associates and Spinnaker Real Estate Partners.
“This acquisition is a very important step toward realizing the goal of a home improvement center,” said Steven Wise, a principal in the West Side Development groups.
The developers are targeting a second-quarter 2017 start to the construction of an approximately 125,000-square-foot building, as well as a garden center, according to Wise. The new store is scheduled to open in the spring of 2018, Wise said.
Stamford’s zoning board approved the project last year.
Wise declined to say which home improvement store the West Side Development groups planned to bring to West Main Street.
A decade ago, The Home Depot proposed a store at the site. Neighbors challenged the redevelopment because they said it would overburden the surrounding roads with more traffic. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
At Wallingford station, Malloy says rail upgrade on track for January 2018
WALLINGFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy donned a hard hat and orange safety vest in 90-degree weather to tour the framework of the new train station Wednesday afternoon.
“This project will attract businesses and grow jobs and help us move into the future,” Malloy said. “Ultimately this is about making Connecticut a better place to do business.”
The $640 million project includes updating train stations along the New Haven to Springfield line and adding a second track. Workers have been making progress in the area in recent weeks, constructing track beds, laying down rail and preparing for a track-laying machine to complete the 10-mile stretch between North Haven and Meriden in September.
Malloy said 50 percent of upgrades to the tracks have been completed along the line, which is expected to be finished by January 2018.
Eighty percent of train station foundations and platforms are in place and 100 percent of the steel beams and pedestrian bridges have been installed, Malloy said. Construction has also begun on parking lots for the new stations.
Once the line is completed from New Haven to Hartford, Malloy said the volume of commuters is expected to increase from 300,000 to 750,000 a year, with over 1 million riders anticipated once the line has been updated to Springfield.
The number of daily trips between New Haven and Hartford will jump from six trips to 17 and later 25 round trips a day once fully complete to Springfield.
A service provider for the line has not yet been selected, Malloy said.
“Selection of the service provider for this line is ongoing at this time with an announcement of the operator coming this winter,” Malloy said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
PLAINVILLE — Demolition is underway at the former Linden Street grammar school, which closed in 2009 and was too expensive for any group to renovate for another purpose.
An excavator equipped for demolition worked the north end of the three-story, century-old brick building. By 3 p.m. Wednesday, a large section of the exterior walls had been chewed and shattered, exposing upper classrooms that crews earlier had stripped of pipes, utilities, tiles and any hazardous materials.
"The building should be gone by early August," Town Manager Robert Lee said.
Adding to the expense of prepping the structure for demolition was discovery this spring of additional hazardous material in the building, but the final cost will be within the project's $2.6 million budget, Lee said.
A water misting machine operates next to the demolition device to reduce dust. Shane Lockwood, director of the Southington-Plainville Health District, said the project contractor is doing a good job of reporting to the health district about the ongoing work.
On Wednesday, the machine operator separated demolition debris into metal, wood and brick piles. The site is ringed by a chain-link fence, but anyone passing by can see the work in progress. The schedule calls for the demolition and cleanup to be completed before students return to the new Linden Street School, which opened adjacent to the former school a decade ago. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEInland Wetlands rejects variance for Quinnipiac fields, stadiums project
HAMDEN >> They went to Memorial Town Hall braced for defeat, but several dozen Hamden and North Haven residents were pleasantly surprised Wednesday night when the Inland Wetlands Commission denied Quinnipiac University’s request for a variance on one of the conditions of a previous approval of its application to renovate two athletic fields and build two stadiums on Mount Carmel Avenue. The commission narrowly voted to deny the application by a vote of 5 to 4, after which the audience burst into prolonged applause.
“I think they listened to all of us who expressed concerns about violating the 25-foot buffer,” said Debbie Smith, referring to the university’s request for a variance regarding how close the fields come to wetlands on the site. The commission last year approved the project with the condition, which university officials said would be impossible to meet.“They listened to us and did what all of us wanted them to do” in denying the request, Smith said. “They listened to all of us saying, ‘please, say no,’ because there was a line drawn and they wanted to cross it. There would have been no advantage to Hamden (to approve it). This is not about helping Quinnipiac University, this is about what is in the best interest of Hamden.” The university’s plans include resurfacing the two fields with crumb rubber turf and constructing two stadiums — one seating 500 and the other seating 1,500 — around the fields, including locker rooms and showers. The plans shift the fields too close to wetlands, which is why the university appealed to the commission to grant a variance allowing the plans to go forward despite the encroachment. It wasn’t possible to revise the plans to meet the buffer requirements, university officials told the commission. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE Centerplan Fires Back In Ballpark Dispute, Says City Hall Showing Its 'Inexperience' HARTFORD — The head of Centerplan Cos. on Wednesday said Mayor Luke Bronin's administration showed its "inexperience" when responding dismissively to his offer to finish the ballpark.Centerplan CEO Robert Landino initially declined to respond to the mayor's comments Tuesday, but on Wednesday he released a two-page statement under the DoNo Hartford LLC letterhead, challenging the allegation that theirs wasn't a "serious" proposal to finish the work.
Contrary to the city's position that the former developers' proposed settlement agreement would require the city to pay to finish the ballpark, Centerplan's proposal "explicitly stipulates" that it would pay for the work and that both the city and Centerplan would reserve their rights to settle all disputes at a later time via binding arbitration, Wednesday's statement said.
The statement concluded: "The proposed settlement should have been a catalyst for compromise. Instead, perfect has become the enemy of good which has demonstrated an inexperience at City Hall that prefers conflict over progress and values politics over reasonable governance."
Sean Fitzpatrick, the city's development director, wrote in his analysis of the proposed agreement that the city would be required to cover cost overruns and to agree to binding arbitration, limiting the city's rights to sue for damages later. The proposal also would require the city to rescind its termination of Centerplan and DoNo Hartford LLC, which Fitzpatrick said would "effectively preclude our ability to recover [cost overruns] under the surety bond." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
WALLINGFORD — The Malloy administration is poised to authorize nearly $200 million more in state bonding for roads and highways, bridges and mass transit. The State Bond Commission is expected to vote to approve the transportation financing at its upcoming meeting next Tuesday, including $59 million for local projects and $139.2 million for state projects.
The state funding will pay for some initiatives laid out in the 30-year, $100 billion transportation modernization plan that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed.
This includes $1 million for studying the widening on Interstate 95 between New Haven and Greenwich, $10.1 million for rehabilitating the Gold Star Bridge on I-95, and $3 million to study upgrades to the Metro-North tracks along the New Haven-to-New York City corridor.
Malloy assessed how this latest infusion of state bonding will advance his modernization program Wednesday while visiting the construction site for the new Wallingford train station on Amtrak's Hartford line.
"We have underinvested in transportation for over 40 years, and that's why we are stepping up with major projects like the one that is under construction," he said.
The governor came to Wallingford to tour construction at the train station and provide an update on the project to complete the Hartford line. The updated Hartford line will triple the number of trains between New Haven and Hartford and double the service between Hartford and Springfield after its expected completion in January 2018, Malloy said.
The Malloy administration and Amtrak announced an agreement last December to complete the Hartford line that set guaranteed cost ceilings and a clear timetable for work completion.
A week later, the bond commission approved $155 million to get the job done.
"Much of the money that we are spending under our additional investment is in mass transportation," Malloy said.
The bond commission's agenda Tuesday includes $25 million for rail and bus transit projects.
The subject of the latest round of bond funding came up during a news conference after Malloy had provided the update on the Hartford line project.
"We know congestion is a major issue, and we know that our infrastructure is deteriorating on our highway systems. What we also know is we are taking action," Malloy said.
In addition to the mass transit funding, the installment includes $36 million for roads and highways, $37 million for bridges, and nearly $10.4 million for highway and bridge equipment for the state Department of Transportation.
"People say, well, what am I paying for? Hopefully what you're paying for in Connecticut is a transportation system that will get us off the top 10 list," Malloy said, referring to how highways here are consistently ranked among the most congested in the country. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The state funding will pay for some initiatives laid out in the 30-year, $100 billion transportation modernization plan that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed.
This includes $1 million for studying the widening on Interstate 95 between New Haven and Greenwich, $10.1 million for rehabilitating the Gold Star Bridge on I-95, and $3 million to study upgrades to the Metro-North tracks along the New Haven-to-New York City corridor.
Malloy assessed how this latest infusion of state bonding will advance his modernization program Wednesday while visiting the construction site for the new Wallingford train station on Amtrak's Hartford line.
"We have underinvested in transportation for over 40 years, and that's why we are stepping up with major projects like the one that is under construction," he said.
The governor came to Wallingford to tour construction at the train station and provide an update on the project to complete the Hartford line. The updated Hartford line will triple the number of trains between New Haven and Hartford and double the service between Hartford and Springfield after its expected completion in January 2018, Malloy said.
The Malloy administration and Amtrak announced an agreement last December to complete the Hartford line that set guaranteed cost ceilings and a clear timetable for work completion.
A week later, the bond commission approved $155 million to get the job done.
"Much of the money that we are spending under our additional investment is in mass transportation," Malloy said.
The bond commission's agenda Tuesday includes $25 million for rail and bus transit projects.
The subject of the latest round of bond funding came up during a news conference after Malloy had provided the update on the Hartford line project.
"We know congestion is a major issue, and we know that our infrastructure is deteriorating on our highway systems. What we also know is we are taking action," Malloy said.
In addition to the mass transit funding, the installment includes $36 million for roads and highways, $37 million for bridges, and nearly $10.4 million for highway and bridge equipment for the state Department of Transportation.
"People say, well, what am I paying for? Hopefully what you're paying for in Connecticut is a transportation system that will get us off the top 10 list," Malloy said, referring to how highways here are consistently ranked among the most congested in the country. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE