NEW MILFORD — After sitting vacant for 30 years, the old Century Brass mill could become a natural-gas-fueled power plant if the Town Council and voters approve a $2.8 million deal for the site.
Officials from Panda Power Funds, a company based in Dallas, announced the plan at Tuesday’s council meeting. According to its website, Panda Power Funds is a private-equity firm that develops, owns, operates and manages investments in clean energy.
The sale and partnership with Panda must still be approved by residents in a town vote, a date for which is expected to be set at the next council meeting.
“This is probably the biggest thing to come to New Milford since Kimberly-Clark,” said Mayor David Gronbach.
The public is invited to attend the Economic Development Commission meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in Town Hall to view a presentation and ask questions.
Under the proposal, a 550-megawatt plant powered by natural gas will be built on about eight to 10 acres of the 70-acre parcel.
It is expected to provide 300 to 500 jobs during 30 months of construction and 25 to 30 full-time jobs operating the plant once it goes online.
Starting salaries are expected to be around $75,000.
The plant would generate power by creating steam to power a turbine, and is expected to generate enough power to serve 500,000 homes simultaneously.
Bill Pentak, vice president of investor relations and public affairs for Panda Power Funds, said the company is committed to hire as many skilled local workers as possible.
“We want the community to see the economic benefit of it,” he said.
The plant manager will be required to live in town.
“We expect them to be accessible to the community,” Pentak said.
Economic Development Director Kevin Bielmeier said the sale is $400,000 above the property’s appraised value. He added the project would add millions of dollars to the town’s tax revenue and attract other industries to New Milford.
“It brings far more than the purchase price,” he said.
The brass mill, which sits on the corner of Aspetuck Ridge Road and Housatonic Avenue, was built in 1959 and closed in 1986. The town acquired it in 1999 and has since been removing PCBs from the property. The town received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency last week to demolish the building, which is expected to be completed in several weeks. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Aldermen approve Columbus Blvd. site sale
NEW BRITAIN — The Common Council Wednesday night unanimously approved the sale of the land at 125 Columbus Blvd., signaling what city officials call a new era for the central business district.
The vote was 15-0, with all aldermen present.
The proposed $55 million mixed-use development would be the largest retail and housing construction project the downtown area has seen in decades.
Alderman Jim Sanders Jr., at Tuesday’s meeting of the Planning, Zoning & Housing Subcommittee that sent the project to the full council, said he is enthusiastic about the proposal. Xenolith Partners LLC’s interest in the parcel, he said, is indicative of the commitment to pursing retail and housing opportunities that starts at City Hall.
Terri Belkas, a principal at Xenolith, said the company is drawn to work with municipalities that “have a general desire to see something happen” in their communities. Lenders alsol are more likely to fund projects with that type of support, she said.
Plans by Xenolith and project associate Dakota Partners call for transforming the nearly 3-acre parcel into Columbus Commons, a 230,000-square-foot mix of retail and residential units.
Belkas and Dakota president and co-founder Roberto Arista detailed the project for the subcommittee on Tuesday. Plans would include two six-story, L-shaped buildings with retail, office space and restaurants on the first floor and 160 market-rate apartment units on the floors above.
The plan, which would be developed in two phases, also calls for extensive use of green space, including an interior courtyard that would be visible from Herald Square.
Arista said it is too early to say how the 20,000 square feet of retail space would be subdivided. He envisions tenants including a day care, restaurant, real estate office and other services catering to the “modern, urban crowd” the development hopes to attract. Retail space would be accessible from Columbus Boulevard and the interior courtyard.
The apartments would be a mix of market rate and ‘workforce’ housing, a term used to describe households earning from 60 to 120 percent of the area’s median income. The current New Britain market, Arista said, rates on average about $900 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and around $1,100 for a two-bedroom unit.
The proposal would be the city’s largest transit-oriented development project to date. Ken Malinowski, director of the city’s Department of Municipal Development, said the city specifically sought proposals that incorporated the use of public transportation lines, in particular the nearby CTfastrak route, and did not rely on large parking areas. He said the Xenolith proposal includes parking for patrons of the retail space at Columbus Commons but not its residents. The developers will likely negotiate leasing parking spaces in the Szczesny Garage for tenants as plans move forward, according to Arista. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Work nearly complete at Meriden’s Maloney High School, Platt less than a year away
MERIDEN — With only the finishing touches left to go before work at Maloney High School closes out completely and less than a year left on work at Orville H. Platt High School, officials say construction has progressed according to plan.
“Both projects are coming along nicely,” said Assistant School Superintendent Michael S. Grove. “They are coming out really well and we’re really excited that our students are able to start using those buildings.”
Work at Maloney is 99.5 percent complete, according to Karrie Kratz, project manager for Gilbane Building Co., with only the installation of the school’s main canopy and a few final “punch list” items remaining.
The $107.5 million project is expected to finish $130,000 below budget, Grove said.
Work in the media center has shifted from construction to installing shelving and furniture. That room was expected to be handed over to school officials this month. The small gym is also nearly complete, with crews waiting for the rubber floors to cure.
The last major component in the project is the installation of the glass canopy that will greet students at the building’s main entrance. The piece should take one day to install, Kratz said, which will likely happen in November.
“It’s a big piece, in our opinion, that needs to be done, but in the grand scheme of what we’ve already accomplished it’s pretty small,” Kratz said.
Kratz estimated the project will officially close out by the end of the year, however, some final weather-dependent items may need to be finished in the spring. Those final tasks would be “extremely minimal,” Kratz said.
Overall, Kratz said the last push to completion has progressed without a hitch and students and staff are pleased with the final product.
“The final phase of the project has gone very smoothly and everything has pretty much gone according to plan,” Kratz said. “I think the city has gained a fantastic asset in Maloney. It’s a beautiful building and all the interactions I’ve had with administration and the students so far, they are very happy in their new space and that’s the end goal, to create a building that everyone enjoys being in.”
Less than a year of work remains at Platt High School, which is currently 87.6 percent complete, Grove said. The $111.8 million project is projected to finish $388,000 under budget.
The large and small gyms, auditorium, administrative offices and main entrance are the major items left for contractor O&G Industries Inc., Grove said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
O & G Industries, Connecticut’s largest privately-held construction company in partnership with the Platt High School Career Center, kicked off the fourth annual PlattBuilds program on Wednesday, Sept. 28.
Twenty-three members of the Platt student body, including five returning students, are participating in the nine-month long experiential learning program in which high school students earn credits while learning hands-on about careers in construction. As a part of the program, students get a behind the scenes look into the construction of their school, while engaging in interactive lectures from the project management team, design team and trade contractors as the project moves through the final phases of construction.
The PlattBuilds program has been recognized with the Connecticut Construction Industries Association Community Service Award in 2014, and the MidState Chamber of Commerce Recognition for Business & Education Excellence in 2015. To date, 46 students have graduated from the program at Platt High School since its inception in 2013.
Solutions ranged from reusing a former Showcase Cinemas site in East Hartford that already has been cleared for development to building a casino in southwestern Connecticut. The suggestions came after a report Tuesday that a new estimate by the Office of Fiscal Analysis indicated the $950 million MGM casino planned in Springfield, Mass., will drain $68.3 million in annual state tax revenue at a time when budgets are already tight and deficits likely.
Tony Ravosa, managing partner at Silver Lane Partners LLC, has been pushing the East Hartford site for more than a year now, saying that Connecticut needs to move quickly to combat the planned 2018 opening of an MGM Resorts International casino only a few miles from the Connecticut border. The site is one of several being considered by Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, which are partnering on a plan to locate a new gaming mecca on the Interstate 91 corridor near Hartford.
"No one beats East Hartford in terms of speed to market," Ravosa said in a phone interview. "To have a one-year jump start is absolutely huge."
MGM officials, however, said they believe the best location for another Connecticut casino is in the southwestern part of the state. According to a study commissioned by MGM and conducted by Oxford Economics, the southwestern location would generate twice the number of jobs and four times the amount of taxes as one in north-central Connecticut.
"If Connecticut wants to maximize job creation and revenue for the state, it needs to open up the process so that it is fair, transparent, and competitive," said Alan Feldman, executive vice president of MGM Resorts International, in a statement sent to The Day.
Ravosa, however, said MGM was suggesting southwestern Connecticut as a casino location because it has an agreement with Springfield not to build another gaming establishment within a 50-mile radius. He added that allowing a private company like MGM into the casino game would be a dicey proposition because of compacts the state has with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes entitling them to exclusive casino operators in return for a 25 percent slice of slots revenue.
Ravosa called the state's revenue-loss forecast related to MGM "stunning and ominous," though the initial estimate done in 2011 was more than $25 million higher. The forecast losses were lowered this year, according to a spokesman for the Office of Fiscal Analysis, because the gaming industry has been in decline.
Crews Prepare For Work To Resume At Dunkin' Donuts Park
Workers returned this week to Dunkin' Donuts Park.
Preliminary work underway Tuesday and Wednesday represents some last-minute adjustments before the new contractor, Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., resumes construction later this week. Workers were drilling and hammering on the park's upper levels Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, outside the stadium, contractors from Environmental Designs of Hartford were spreading grass seed.
Construction was halted in June when the city fired the project's former developers. In late September, Arch Insurance, the company guaranteeing completion of the ballpark, announced that Whiting-Turner had been hired to finish the project in time for the team's home opener next April.