$8.6 million fed grant will enhance, enlarge State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown
MIDDLETOWN — Officials broke ground Tuesday at the State Veterans Cemetery on two projects totaling $8.6 million that are designed to expand and beautify the Bow Lane grounds.
As the wind whipped on a brisk afternoon with a bright sun overhead, firefighters held tight against their backs the edges of a 60-foot American flag hoisted high from the South Fire District ladder truck off Bow Lane.
“This is a sacred place,” Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said during the groundbreaking ceremony.
“The men and women interred here made tremendous sacrifices to Connecticut and our nation. We will serve them as they served us, and ensure they have a final resting place where the families can come to reflect and remember,” she said. Civil engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill of Manchester prepared the design for the improvements project, which includes raising, realigning and cleaning more than 7,000 headstones, as well as improving the turf throughout the grounds as part of a federal grant.
Construction on that portion of the project is estimated to be finished by February 2020. It is being paid for by a $3.18 million federal grant. “This is an important milestone as we continue to honor those who have given so much,” said George Eisenbach Jr., director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration.
He retired with the rank of first sergeant after serving 23 years in the U.S. Army, said Thomas J. Saadi, acting commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Affairs. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Best Buy distribution center to be built at Northrop Industrial Park on Meriden/Wallingford line
WALLINGFORD — Developer John Orsini has a deal with Best Buy to construct a new 80,000-square-foot distribution center in the Northrop Industrial Park.
The new Best Buy facility is being constructed at #8 Northrop Road Industrial Park West, 1070 North Farms Road. Northrop Industrial Park is part of an 88-acre parcel that straddles the Meriden/Wallingford line.
Best Buy spokesman Jeff Shelman said the facility will be a “delivery pad” where washers. TVs and other items too large to go through a conveyor belt will be held until they are delivered to customers.
“This is just going to give us more home delivery capacity,” Shelman said.
Orsini said about 50 employees will work at the new facility. Best Buy signed a seven-year lease for the building.
According to site plans, 10,000 square feet of the building will be office space and the remainder will be warehouse space. There will also be a 7,800 square foot storage building and parking space for 117 cars.
Orsini said the company chose the site because it’s centrally located and has easy access to the highways. Construction, which recently began, will be completed by the end of July.
“One of Walllignford’s many strengths is proximity to the highway system and we think Best Buy recognized that,” said Tim Ryan, the town’s economic development specialist.
The warehouse will have multiple truck docks and loading doors along the south side. Orsini will also enlarge an existing detention pond to detain water for the industrial park. The project will require 10,000 to 20,000 cubic yards of fill to complete.
Hotel plans for Fort Trumbull hit potential snag in New London
New London — Development of an aquaponics farm is off the table at Fort Trumbull but the Renaissance City Development Association, the city’s development arm, is expected to start the new year with continued negotiations for a hotel on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
The hotel plans face an obstacle, however, with the nine-month negotiating period with J-Patel Hotel group for a $15 million hotel set to expire on Jan. 5. The RCDA has not been able to come up with a viable place to relocate the commercial fishing operation located on the waterfront pier that is a critical part of the 90- to 120-room hotel proposal. The RCDA does have the ability to extend talks for at least 30 days.
RCDA Executive Director Peter Davis called it a “Catch-22” situation because the state requires the RCDA to either have a valid relocation plan for the commercial fishing operation or maintain the proposed hotel property as a “water-dependent use,” something mandated in the Fort Trumbull municipal development plan approved in 2000.
For several years there has been discussion of relocating the fishing fleet to Central Vermont Railroad Pier, or C.V. Pier., at the New London Port near State Pier. Davis said the Connecticut Port Authority, because of the state budget woes, has not designated funds to make necessary infrastructure investments at the pier to support the idea.
“With the current condition of the C.V. Pier, it would be difficult to support commercial fishing or a growing commercial fishing fleet there without improvements,” Davis said. “There really is no place to relocate them to currently. There is not the infrastructure in New London Harbor."
Davis said the RCDA is “looking at other options” to potentially satisfy all parties but could not elaborate while in talks with the hotel developer.
Known as New London Seafood, the commercial fishing operations based at the Fort Trumbull pier has existed since 1989 when the business started leasing what was then private property. The lease predated the seizure of land by eminent domain in the Fort Trumbull development area that led to a Supreme Court case in 2005. The RCDA now owns the pier.
New London Seafood moves more than seven million pounds of seafood through its facilities each year and it is a regular stop for fishing boats from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.
Attorney Gordon Videll, who represents New London Seafood, said in the event the RCDA’s negotiations with the hotel developer end, New London Seafood will present the RCDA with a development proposal of its own for Fort Trumbull. He said he is barred from any discussions of the proposal while the RCDA is in talks with another potential developer. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Centerplan Construction sued for falling behind on Middletown rent payments
Centerplan Construction Cos., the original developer of Dunkin' Donuts Park that was fired from the project by the city of Hartford after falling behind on the development schedule and going over budget, is being sued for failing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in back rent on its former Middletown headquarters and ignoring a Nov. 24 eviction notice, court records show.
Centerplan owes a monthly $12,920 base rent -- on its former Middletown second-floor office at 10 Main St. -- that has gone unpaid since Sept. 1, 2016, according to a civil suit filed Dec. 15 in Superior Court's Middletown Housing Court.
The current landlord, Elmsford, N.Y., based MK-Menlo II, acquired the building at 10 Main St. in 2014. Centerplan's 10-year lease for about 9,650 square feet was originally signed in 2013.
It is unclear exactly how much in back rent Centerplan allegedly owes, but the suit says the company still occupies the space even though an eviction was scheduled for late November.
Centerplan's attorney, Jeffrey M. Donofrio of Ciulla & D'Onofrio LLP of North Haven, said Tuesday that Centerplan relocated its office to 250 Sackett Point Road in North Haven, "sometime between September and November of 2016."
"That (Middletown) space has been vacated, but in order to terminate the lease the landlord brought an eviction action, which under Connecticut law formally terminates the lease," D'Onofrio said. "We're working with them."
Hartford lawyer Robert E. Kaelin, who represents MK-Menlo II, the Middletown landlord, said "We're working to resolve the eviction action." He did not comment further about the back rent allegations.
On Tuesday, a receptionist at Centerplan referred a reporter's call for CEO Robert Landino to voicemail. Landino did not return a call seeking comment.
MK-Menlo II also is also trying to evict Greenskies Renewable Energy LLC, which, according to the complaint, sub-leases office space from Centerplan. On Tuesday, Greenskies announced it has been purchased by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Clean Focus Yield Limited, a group of renewable-energy companies. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Calif. renewable energy developer acquires Greenskies
Middletown-based Greenskies Renewable Energy, which has been called the most prolific solar developer in Connecticut, has been purchased by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Clean Focus Yield Limited, a group of renewable-energy companies.
Terms of the deal, which the company said Tuesday was completed during the summer but not made public until today, were not disclosed. Key Greenskies investors and executives -- including former President Mike Silvestrini, co-founder and state Sen. Art Linares, Executive Vice President Andrew Chester and investor Bob Landino, who is also CEO of Centerplan Construction Cos. -- were bought out in the transaction and are no longer active in management of the company.
Clean Focus says the deal makes it the owner and operator of the largest commercial and industrial solar portfolio in the United States.
Greenskies, which develops, constructs, and maintains renewable-energy projects, will continue to operate from its Middletown headquarters at 180 Johnson St.
The company said it expects personnel growth in Connecticut and across the country.
Greenskies will gain added financial resources and international scale as a result of the deal, the two companies said.
"This acquisition strengthens Greenskies, grows Clean Focus, and provides new opportunities for our customers and financing partners," said Stanley Chin, CEO of Clean Focus, who is now also listed as Greenskies' CEO.
Greenskies has a project pipeline of 350 megawatts of renewable energy and intends to expand into new segments including schools, hospitals and community solar, said Will Herchel, who has been president since November 2016.
The Clean Focus group of companies originates, develops, finances, constructs, owns, and operates renewable-energy projects in the United States, Taiwan and China. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE