STAMFORD — The South End’s apartment inventory continues to grow — and not just at Harbor Point.
The third phase of the Metro Green campus has already leased nearly 90 percent of its 131 units at 695 Atlantic St. since opening in July. Developed by Malkin Holdings and Jonathan Rose Cos., with about $100 million invested in the three buildings opened so far, Metro Green comprises one of Stamford’s largest mixed-income apartment complexes.
“This is more like workforce housing, for people who work and have families and are trying to make it,” Julie Rodriguez, an asset manager for Jonathan Rose, said in a recent interview at Metro Green Terrace. “It’s a little different than your typical low-income housing.”
Built on previously vacant lots a couple blocks from the downtown Metro-North station, Metro Green Terrace includes 58 market-rate apartments and 73 units leased below the market rate. Residents in the latter group earn 50 percent to 60 percent of the annual area median income — a level that runs at about $142,000, according to Jonathan Rose officials.
For below-market units, monthly rents range from $1,056 for a studio to $1,781 for a two-bedroom apartment. Market-rate apartments run from $2,050 for a one-bedroom unit to $2,815 for a two-bedroom residence.
Market-rate and affordable apartments are distributed throughout the building, which stands out with its red-white-and-blue facade.
There are few differences between the two types of apartments. Market-rate residences feature stainless appliances, granite or stone countertops and their own washers and dryers. Affordable units include non-stainless appliances, countertops made from recycled laminate and use a laundry room on the ground floor.
“The reason I chose Metro Green Terrace is because of how convenient it is to go back and visit my family (in New York), as well as it being pet-friendly,” said resident Paola Gomez. “The fact that I was able to qualify for an affordable unit also made my choice a bit easier. Living at Metro Green Terrace has been great. The staff are always attentive and understanding of my needs. I haven’t had any issues while living here.”
Metro Green’s first building, the 50-unit Metro Green Apartments at 84 Henry St., was completed in 2009. All of its units are below the market rate.
In 2012, Metro Green Residences was completed at 717 Atlantic St. It houses 40 below-market-rate apartments and 10 market-rate units.
Residents in the affordable apartments at 84 Henry St. and 717 Atlantic St., make between 25 percent and 60 percent of the area median income. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Wallingford train station to open Monday; first to open as part of CTrail Hartford Line
WALLINGFORD — The town’s new train station on North Cherry Street is scheduled to open Monday, and will be the first station to open as part of the CTrail Hartford Line.
The station, at 343 N. Cherry St., is scheduled to open on Monday at 12:30 p.m., according to the state Department of Transportation. There is alternative access to the station from North Colony Road.
The station will be open in advance of the May 2018 launch of CTrail Hartford Line rail service, meant to increase commuter rail service between New Haven and Springfield. DOT says it will be the first station to open as part of the new rail service. Construction crews are putting final touches on new stations in Meriden and Berlin as well.
While the station won’t have bathrooms, it “features amenities aimed at providing a high-quality passenger experience, including high-level platforms, an overhead pedestrian bridge, overhead canopies, automatic snow melting systems, a passenger information display system, electric vehicle charging and bicycle racks,” according to a DOT statement.
Two lots with a total of 221 parking spots were built at the station. Construction began in December 2014 and cost about $21 million, DOT noted.
Tribes' lawyers tell Interior it must accept casino deal
Two national law firms representing the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations pressed the federal government Tuesday with a letter insisting the Interior secretary has no choice but to approve their gaming agreements with Connecticut and clear the way for them to jointly develop a commercial casino in East Windsor.
The letter comes just days after a meeting at the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior, where the tribes and the state's congressional delegation failed to move the department off its puzzling stance of neither rejecting nor approving amendments to the tribes' gaming compacts.
The refusal to give a clear answer was a victory for MGM Resorts International, which has fought for two years in Hartford and Washington, D.C., to block the East Windsor casino and protect the market for an MGM casino scheduled to open next year in nearby Springfield.
If MGM cannot stop the casino, it would like to delay its construction until after MGM Springfield opens. MGM also has begun a lobbying campaign for legislative approval to open its own casino resort in Bridgeport.
Connecticut conditioned its authorization of the tribes' East Windsor casino on Department of the Interior confirmation that the state's approval would not invalidate agreements that grant the tribes exclusive gaming rights in return for a 25 percent share of slots revenue at their tribal casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
The Department of the Interior's non-answer in a letter sent Sept. 15 effectively blocks the East Windsor project, unless the department relents or the General Assembly revises the law conditionally authorizing its construction.
The letter from Michael S. Black, a career BIA employee who is now the acting assistant secretary for Indian affairs, represented a stunning reversal, coming six months after another career official, James Cason, assured the tribes in writing that approval of amendments to the compact was virtually certain.
In their response Tuesday, lawyers for the tribes say that Secretary Ryan Zinke had only two options under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
"IGRA allows the Secretary only two options once a compact has been submitted for review — he must either affirmatively approve, or affirmatively disapprove, within 45 days of receipt," they wrote. "IGRA further requires that if the Secretary neither approves nor disapproves a compact, it is deemed approved to the extent it is consistent with IGRA 45 days after its submission to the Secretary."
The 45 days have passed without a disapproval, so it should be deemed approved, say the tribes' lawyers. But there is a catch: Under federal law, nothing is official until published in the Federal Register.
So far, Zinke has refused to do that. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy rejects hospital tax plan but signs most of CT budget into law
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy used his line-item veto to reject a new taxing arrangement on hospitals, but signed into law the bulk of a new, two-year state budget negotiated without direct input from his administration.
The governor signed a $41.3 billion, biennial plan that closes major projected deficits while boosting taxes close to $500 million per year; cutting municipal aid, higher education and social services; and sweeping tens of millions of dollars annually from energy conservation programs.
It also would provide emergency assistance to keep Hartford out of bankruptcy, implement a stringent spending cap, and enact a new statutory limit on borrowing.
“After 123 days without a budget, it is time to sign this bipartisan bill into law and continue the steady and significant progress our state has made over the past several years,” Malloy said. “Connecticut’s families and businesses deserve to have a budget in place, one that provides a stable environment to live and work. While there are certainly many provisions of this budget I find problematic, there’s also a clear recognition of many of the fiscal priorities and concerns I’ve consistently articulated since January. I appreciate the work of the General Assembly in passing a budget to my desk that I can sign.”The hospital tax is a complex legal and fiscal maneuver designed to increase federal Medicaid reimbursements to the state and to ease burdens on the industry.Technically the state’s tax on hospitals would rise from $556 million to $900 million per year. Connecticut would redistribute those funds and return them to the industry — plus about $229 million more — qualifying the state for a big boost in federal aid.
The net effect on the state budget would be a $137 million annual gain.
This taxing change still needs to be approved by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, commonly referred to as CMS, which oversees the Medicaid program.
The administration says the budget bill appears to guarantee the hospitals a windfall paid by the state, regardless of whether the federal government signs off on the Medicaid change.
The governor added that absent his line item veto — and had federal officials rejected the tax increase agreement — Connecticut still would be obligated to pay roughly an extra $1 billion to the hospital industry across this fiscal year and next combined.
“I am not opposed to a new, mutually beneficial relationship with hospitals that realizes additional federal dollars for the state of Connecticut,” Malloy wrote in a letter to legislative leaders. “In fact, my administration has repeatedly offered workable language to that end — language developed by nonpartisan, classified attorneys in the executive branch with considerable expertise in this specific area.”
Legislative leaders have said they didn’t receive the administration’s proposed language in time to incorporate it into the budget, which was adopted last Tuesday. Malloy’s budget chief, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes, disputes this assertion.
Legislative leaders nonetheless have said they are willing to adopt corrective language regarding the hospital tax in the near future if it is necessary. There was some grumbling on that point. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Industry Stakeholders Gather for Energy Builders Rally
It was a beautiful day for a rally at Cleveland Brothers Equipment Co., in Harrisburg, Pa., where hundreds of industry professionals and stakeholders gathered together Oct. 19 to show their support at the Energy Builders Rally of Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure. Over a lunch catered by Pig Tails Barbeque, supporters listened to impassioned speeches from state senators and representatives, industry leaders and others beneath the backdrop of an enormous American flag, donated for the day by event co-sponsor Stephenson Equipment.
For Jay Cleveland, president and CEO of Cleveland Brothers, the impact the oil and gas business has had on the company is clear.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Cleveland to the crowd. Cleveland Brothers, he said, is involved in all aspects of energy infrastructure, from installing pipelines to compression work, maintenance to machining.
“It's been a tremendous boost for our company and our people,” said Cleveland.
But the benefits of the oil and gas business reach far beyond the industry itself, Cleveland pointed out.
“I don't think there is a community that isn't affected by this throughout our great state,” said Cleveland. “That means jobs across many industries… hotels, restaurants, trucking, business fabrication, residential and commercial developments. Pennsylvania needs to be friendly to this business. We need to harness this. It is a game-changer, it can be a change for the whole energy policy for the country and we need to harness that.”
Toby Mack, CEO of the Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), the group responsible for putting together the Energy Builders Rally, said the event's goal was twofold.
“We are trying to build public and policy maker support for pipelines, but we are also trying to energize, mobilize all of these people here, whose livelihoods depend on this work, to get into the game, because there is a lot of opposition, so we are there to provide that counter balance, that counter force, that counter choice to that opposition,” said Mack.
“[Priority number one is] to get pipelines permitted and built,” Mack continued. “We have this enormous wealth of natural gas in the state of Pennsylvania and you can't get it to market because you don't have enough pipelines to get it from where it's being pulled out of the ground to where it is being used.”
George Stark, of co-sponsor Cabot Oil & Gas, and the event's emcee, had hopes for the rally which centered on “a great crowd, a great day and an educational bottom line.”“Everyone drives by this facility,” said Stark about Cleveland Brothers. “I drove by here every day. You don't know how many people are employed here and what happens here. The more we get people to understand that this is a major economic engine — and I don't think people give it the full credit that it deserves … that's the piece we enjoy talking about … and that is what we want to showcase — the advances and equipment, the knowledge level of the employees and the care. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE