O&G/Tutor Perini Wins CAAPA Award
Torrington >> The joint venture team of O&G Industries/Tutor Perini Corporation has received a 2016 Connecticut Asphalt & Aggregate Producers Association (CAAPA) Award in the Limited Access Roadway category. CAAPA awards are presented annually to projects that exemplify excellence in pavement placed on Connecticut roadways. Winners are selected by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The joint venture team was recognized for its work on I-95 and I-91 north and south bound in New Haven. The pavement installation was part of Contract E, a complex, five-and-a-half year, $360M project that will conclude this spring.
“For us, this was a remarkable achievement considering all of the challenges in placing the bituminous concrete on this project,” said John Gemetro, Vice President of O&G’s Heavy Civil Division and Project Executive for the contact, in a written statement.. “Matching grades both horizontally and vertically with the numerous stages and many structures while maintaining a heavy flow of traffic, and in the end being able to finish the project with a smooth uniform surface was a real accomplishment. I congratulate our Civil Superintendent Bill Noll and Paving Foreman Vic Mancini for their excellent work.” The award was presented at CAAPA’s 59th annual conference in North Haven on April 7 in North Haven, Connecticut. The project’s asphalt supplier, milling contractor and quality inspector were also recognized for their contributions.
Developer eager to break ground on mall, but approvals still needed
NORWALK — General Growth Properties plans to pull an excavation permit by next month to start work on The SoNo Collection off West Avenue and Interstate 95.
“What we’d be proposing to do ... is begin with excavations and foundations,” William J. Hennessey Jr., an attorney representing GGP, told the Norwalk Common Council’s Planning Committee at City Hall Monday evening. “We would actually be obtaining the permit for the building that’s already been approved, which at that stage of the construction is identical to the building that’s proposed.”
Hennessey said the plans for the mall are under review by the city’s building department. GGP plans to pull the excavation permit before May 1, he added.
At issue is how work can begin when GGP’s requested removal of a 152-room from the nearly million-square-foot upscale regional shopping center has only begun to undergo review by the city bodies.
“Can a project like this be started once, theoretically, we could just say thumbs down to everything for whatever reason?” asked Councilman Bruce I. Kimmel, an at-large Democrat. “Couldn’t we back ourselves into a corner where we’re busy deliberating on things while construction is under way?”
Same foundation
The SoNo Collection site plan calls for 728,000 square feet of retail space, including anchor stores Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, as well as 80 to 100 smaller retailers, public realm space and the hotel on the site.
According to GGP, the excavation and foundation work is identical for The SoNo Collection — with or without the eight-story hotel atop Bloomingdale’s.
GGP has concluded that the hotel and two alternative uses — office or residential space — are not feasible after comparing construction costs versus returns.
The Chicago-based developer has asked the city for permission to remove the hotel from the approved plan in exchange for a $3.5 million payment to the city.
Adams thanked Planning Committee members for scheduling the special meeting to consider the request.
“I don’t think any of us want to be here,” said council Majority Leader John Kydes, the District C Democrat who chairs the committee. “I think your offer to compensate for the lost tax revenue got you through the door.”
After a lengthy presentation, discussion and input from several residents, Kydes and other committee members voted unanimously to forward the hotel removal request for the full council for consideration next Tuesday.
A council approval then would authorize the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency to draft changes to the Reed Putnam Urban Renewal Plan and Land Disposition Agreement — two documents governing redevelopment of the site. The council would vote on the changes at a later date.
For the hotel to be removed, the Redevelopment Agency Commission also must approve changes. A public hearing is required as part of that review. In addition, the city’s Zoning Commission would have to approve a revised site plan reflecting the removal of the hotel.
“Our hope is that if we can begin this process, which we think can be completed by the beginning of June in discussions with the city and the agency, that we can start construction on the excavation and foundation,” said GGP Senior Director Douglas T. Adams. “Just the excavation component is four months of just dirt removal and the beginning of some lowest-level foundation work.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hartford architect selected for new East Hampton Town Hall/police complex
EAST HAMPTON >> An architect has been chosen to design the proposed new Town Hall/police station.
Seven firms submitted proposals to design the new municipal building, which will — if approved by the voters — be built on a 5.4-acre parcel of land in the Edgewater Hills mixed-use development. The land on which the building will stand is being donated to the town by the developers of the project, Stephen J. and Lisa M. Motto.The submissions from the seven firms were reviewed by Town Manager Michael Maniscalco and members of the town staff, he said last week. The applications were forwarded to the building committee, chaired by Glenn Gollenberg, the architect for the high school.
The $51 million renovation and expansion of the high school is nearing completion. Gollenberg came before the Town Council last week to outline the process that led to the selection of Amenta Emma Architects of Hartford. “We short listed four firms that we intended to interview,” Gollenberg told the council. The committee used “a quality-based selection process,” he said. “We rated the firms and reviewed their fee proposals,” Gollenberg said. “The lowest qualified bidder was Amenta Emma.” The firm is also the architect for the Edgewater Hill development. In response to Gollenberg’s presentation, Councilor Kevin Reich said he was “very impressed with the process (the committee) is taking and the information we have received.”
The council — absent Councilor Mark Philhower — voted 5-1 to endorse the selection of Amenta Emma. The lone no vote was cast by Councilor Ted Hintz Jr., who has opposed the process that led to the selection of the Mottos’ proposal to have the complex built on their property. In exchange for donating the land to the town, Stephen Motto will serve as the construction manager for the project.Depending on the eventual cost of the project, Stephen Motto stands to make between $400,000 and $800,000. He had initially demanded that he would also choose the architect and the construction firm. The council rejected those proposals, however, while agreeing to allow his to serve as the owner’s project manager. Amenta Emma, which has offices in Stamford, New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed the UConn Co-op on the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut as well as buildings on the Middlesex Community College campus in Middletown. In addition, Amenta Emma also designed several buildings in the Blue Back Square and Bishop’s Corner developments in West Hartford, according to a portfolio of designs on the firm’s website.Maniscalco said Amenta Emma submitted a bid of $897,000, $153,000 less than the second-place firm, Kaestle Boos Associates Inc. of New Britain, which bid $1.05 million for the project. The work includes the design of the building — which preliminary estimates put at between 32,000 to 40,000 square feet. Amenta Emma will also be required to provide a detailed plan as well as the floor plans, Maniscalco said.
Norwich Hospital property sale OK’d
Preston — This was a night to break the rules, Preston Redevelopment Agency Chairman Sean Nugent said, filling tiny plastic glasses with champagne not normally allowed at Town Hall.
Nugent nearly choked up with emotion when he asked the overflow crowd in the small Town Hall conference room to raise their glasses in toasts.
Thanks went to the residents of Preston, to First Selectman Robert Congdon for his leadership, to the state officials who supported the town and to themselves, the PRA members who gave up hundreds of hours of their time to the tedious task of seeing the former Norwich Hospital property cleaned up and readied for development.
"This is a historic moment for the townsfolks. This is a historic moment for the region. This is a historic moment for the state of Connecticut," Nugent said.
Ten minutes earlier, election moderators read the results of Tuesday's referendum, which overwhelmingly approved the sale of the former Norwich Hospital property to the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, 813 to 137.
It was one of the highest voter turnouts in recent years.
The tribal authority plans a $200 million to $600 million development to create a major recreational, entertainment, sports and residential complex on the 388-acre property over a five-year period. Preston must first finish the environmental cleanup, using a $10 million state grant already approved in February.
Cleanup is expected to take about a year.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy — the first governor to visit the former Norwich Hospital property since it closed under former Gov. John G. Rowland in 1996 — will return to Preston Wednesday for a 12:15 p.m. agreement signing ceremony outside the historic original campus building, the Administration Building.
The ceremony is open to the public. Nugent said guests will be directed where to park and how to get to the signing site.
"Thank you to the residents of Preston, First Selectman Congdon, and the Preston Redevelopment Agency for welcoming us to the Preston community and for believing and trusting in us," said Kevin Brown, chairman of the Mohegan tribe and MTGA Management Board, in a news release issued after the vote.
Brown added: "We look forward to a long future together and to developing a project that will not only make Preston residents proud, but will strengthen the local economy and the state as a whole."
Town leaders thanked the voters first for taking the "tremendous" risk in 2009 to take ownership of the property, Congdon said. Without that decision, Congdon said, the sprawling former state mental institution still would be a contaminated brownfield with dozens of decaying, abandoned buildings.
Through the redevelopment authority, the town obtained about $15 million in state and federal grants and loans, cleaned and demolished all but 10 structures and aggressively marketed the property to potential developers. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Hotel proposed for Marsh Hill Road site in Orange
ORANGE >> The Town Plan and Zoning Commission was presented Tuesday with a site plan for a 122-room, high-end hotel at 99 Marsh Hill Road, and in an unrelated matter made it clear they want to deny a mixed-use proposal that would include 60 apartments using the state’s 8-30g affordable housing statute. The hotel plan was unveiled by Jeffrey N. Gordon, site planner, landscape architect and president of Codespoti & Associates, who represents the developer, Hartford Lodging Partners LLC. The extended stay Homewood Suites by Hilton would be situated right near the entrance to northbound Interstate 95 on Marsh Hill Road, near Yale’s West Campus, where the School of Nursing is located. The four-story hotel, if approved, would also be situated near the approved, but not constructed, train station. Gordon said the hotel likely would draw a lot of executives and Yale visitors.
Gordon is seeking site plan approval and a special permit to build the hotel; the property is already zoned for a hotel. The hotel of all suites will have a pool, fitness room, outdoor plaza and a meeting room area that can be extended for conferences.
In other business, the commission, faced with an affordable housing proposal under the state’s controversial 8-30g regulation, closed a public hearing that spanned weeks regarding a developer’s proposal to build a mixed business/residential complex with 60 apartments, 18 of them affordable units. The site plan application, submitted by Sixty Five Marsh Hill Road LLC for property at 65-69 Marsh Hill Road and 0 & 15 Salemme Lane, calls for underground parking, commercial space and residential units. Approval has already been granted near the location for a train station, 200 apartment units and a 900-car parking garage Gordon, who also represents that developer, and attorney Thomas Lynch, both foremost 8-30g experts, sparred politely through the last two hearing dates with TPZC Chairman Walter Clark IV, who appeared to have soured on the project weeks ago. The statute intended to create more affordable housing gives much leeway to developers, especially in municipalities that haven’t reached a certain threshold of affordable units among their housing stock. Orange has a low number of affordable housing units, less than two percent of its housing stock, Lynch has said. The regulation allows developers to bypass local zoning regulations, and the burden of proof that a project threatens the health, safety or welfare of residents is high and falls on the board. Municipalities rarely win on appeal — the developer typically prevails — and the losing is expensive to towns and cities because of all the legal fees, 8-30g experts have said. The TPZC, poised to deny the application, asked Town Attorney Vincent Marino to draw up a resolution. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE