STAMFORD — The historic West Main Street bridge is turning out to be about much more than connecting one shore of the Mill River to the other.
It’s about an emerging downtown jewel, Mill River Park, home to the bridge and object of a $60 million renovation.It’s about a concern among West Side residents that their working-class neighborhood is being left out of plans for a shining park and downtown.
Residents filled the seats and lined the walls at Tuesday night’s public hearing on a $2 million contract to rehabilitate the 1888 bridge as a walkway only, which it has been since the state closed it to cars 16 years ago because the supports are crumbling.
The importance of the bridge was evident from the attendance of others at the six-hour meeting — Mayor David Martin and members of his cabinet; neighborhood activists; a city attorney; the traffic chief, city engineer and planner; preservationists; and members of the Mill River Collaborative and Downtown Special Services District.The hearing was before the board’s nine-member Operations Committee, but a dozen other representatives attended. Two committee members who are out of the country weighed in by writing letters that were read into the record.
At issue is whether the 125-foot bridge should be shored up to accommodate cars, as it once did, or remain pedestrian-only, as it has been since 2002. The collaborative obtained a $2 million grant it wants to give the city to rehabilitate the bridge for walkers only.
Martin’s administration supports the idea, saying it is good for Mill River Park because it will keep cars out of the greenway, and good for the West Side and downtown because it will create “walkability.”
Some West Siders disagreed Joyce Griffin said the city has failed them by neglecting the bridge for so long that engineers now say it can wash away in the next heavy rainstorm.
“When it was closed it forced (traffic) out to Tresser Boulevard from West Main Street,” cutting the neighborhood off from downtown, Griffin said. “The majority of you have never had a desire to walk across the bridge, and you won’t do so when it’s fixed. People from other areas of town want to dictate what takes place in our community.”
The bridge should accommodate walkers and drivers, resident Russell Davis said.
“It’s key to the development of the Stillwater corridor,” Davis said of Stillwater Avenue, a West Side thoroughfare. “We need to do everything in our power to make it a better bridge for pedestrians and for traffic flow.”Others had a message for city officials — just fix it already.
“I am a pedestrian,” Sheila Williams Brown said. “I have been walking across the bridge for eight years. “I went to a … meeting when I was 65 years old and they told me the bridge would be (repaired) when I was 69. I’m almost 72 and nothing has been done.”
‘Remarkable object’
Preservationists favor the contract, saying it ensures restoration of the decorative trusses and other elements of the 130-year-old ironwork bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “This antique bridge … is a remarkable object … and you can walk right up to it and touch it,” said Wes Haynes, a Stamford preservationist. “Bridges with this lenticular truss design are being resurrected all over the world.”By more than two to one, speakers said the bridge should be for pedestrians only. Quentin Phipps, a director at the Stamford Charter School for Excellence on Schuyler Avenue, said no one has contacted the pre-K to Grade 4 school about plans for the bridge.
A large number of students walk to school, Phipps said, and for their safety, “we are adamantly opposed to a vehicular bridge. … What other school in this city would have been left out of this conversation?”Stamford resident David Kweskin read a letter from the UConn-Stamford campus director saying hundreds of students now living in a Washington Boulevard dorm need safe places to walk. Vin Tufo, CEO of Charter Oak Communities, the city’s housing authority, said allowing cars on the West Main Street bridge won’t ease traffic, but the agency is working on intersection realignments and other projects to improve flow. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NORTH HAVEN — The concrete walls are up and the roof is under construction at the 855,000 square-foot Amazon fulfillment center off Route 5.
”It’s on schedule for May 2019,” said Richard LoPresti, chairman of the town’s Economic Development Commission. “They put the walls up, went in and put in a crane and put in the steel.”
The $250 million warehouse and fulfillment center is expected to open in mid-May next year on the site of the former Pratt & Whitney manufacturing plant.
LoPresti and First Selectman Michael Freda have checked on construction regularly, and Freda said he has been in touch with Amazon developer Hillwood Investment Properties.
General Contractor R. C. Anderson could not be reached for comment.
The warehouse will feature mezzanines stocked with products and robots working alongside employees to pick, pack and ship goods throughout the region. Some of the other equipment includes conveyer belts, forklifts, and refrigeration units to service Whole Foods locations.
The town is also working with the state Department of Transportation, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers on plans to repair and expand Valley Service Road to provide secondary access to the warehouse away from congested Route 5.
Freda expects the warehouse to have an initial workforce of 1,800 and eventually reach 3,000 employees.
Freda is also the co-chairman of the Regional Workforce Investment Board of the South Central Region. The board works closely with the Workforce Alliance to help Amazon screen, assess and match potential employees from the local labor pool.
“They take people who are unemployed, and the Workforce Alliance evaluates skill sets and offers training on improving those skill sets,” Freda said.
He expects that as the opening draws nearer, there will be more job fairs in either New Haven or Meriden to hire warehouse workers and managers.
The new Amazon warehouse has also been a catalyst for commercial development on Washington Avenue (Route 5).
“Many of the small businesses are excited about the prospects of a large business like Amazon coming in,” Freda said.
In addition to the Amazon warehouse, BYK Chemical’s move to the town from Wallingford has sparked consumer confidence among retailers. One entrepreneur, Joseph Moruzzi, has breathed new life into the 60-year-old North Haven Shopping Plaza with improvements and new tenants.
Freda doesn’t expect much in the way of new apartment units because of the Amazon. ”I do expect to see a limited degree, maybe on the west side of Washington Avenue,” Freda said. “But there are no other plans at this point.”
New Developer Takes Over Redevelopment Of Crucial Corner Of Hartford's Main And Park Streets
A new developer is taking over the redevelopment of two, blighted vacant lots at the corner of Park and Main streets in Hartford, the latest in a long string of attempts to create a southern gateway to downtown.
A partnership of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners of South Norwalk and Freeman Cos. of Hartford will replace the Hartford-based, nonprofit CIL on what is expected to be a mixed-use development of apartments over storefront space. Both had submitted proposals to the city late last year and CIL was selected in March.
The city and CIL parted ways earlier this month, unable to reach a final agreement on a financing and construction timeline for the project, Kent Schwendy, CIL’s president and chief executive, said Wednesday.
“The timeline that they wanted — I know that on more than one occasion — I heard the mayor say they had a strong sense of urgency to make something happen here,” Schwendy said. “I understand that sentiment and I agree, the sooner the better, but I didn’t want to overcommit and disappoint the city and the community.”
CIL, formerly the Corporation for Independent Living, envisioned the development being constructed in sections, with the first phase possibly not completed until 2022. The nonprofit also wanted to put together the pieces of a financing package before firmly committing to any one of them, but the city wanted to show more solid progress.
“The center issue was that we had to have more flexibility in the timing in order to use our approach which is built for and by the community,” Schwendy said.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin praised CIL’s long track record of successful projects in the city, such as the recent conversion of the once-dilapidated Capewell Horse Nail Co. factory into apartments. Bronin said the city looked forward to working with CIL on other developments in the future.
“On the Park and Main project, while we all worked hard to put together a deal that could move forward soon, we found that the financials were just too challenging,” Bronin said in a written statement. “We’re going to work with the other bidder who responded to the RFP process, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners in partnership with their local partner, Rohan Freeman, to try to keep the project moving forward as quickly as possible.”
Spinnaker did not disclose details of its plans Wednesday but previously said it was a vision for a mixed-use redevelopment.
Spinnaker has experience in such developments in Fairfield County and elsewhere in the country. Spinnaker also has ties to Hartford as the owner of land now used for parking across from Bushnell Park and behind TheaterWorks.
Bronin, who explored a possible gubernatorial run earlier this year, will come up for re-election as mayor in 2019. He has not said whether he will run.
One reason for wanting to push the development along more quickly may be connected with the project securing public funding through the State Bond Commission. The change in the governor’s office coming in January could impact obtaining those funds.
CIL’s Schwendy said the nonprofit still considers the project crucial, even if CIL is not leading it as the developer.
“Anything we can do to help, we will do and a big thing is we won’t stand in the way of the city being able to progress and that’s why we stepped away,” Schwendy said.
For decades, the city has sought to redevelop the barren, 2.3 acres on either side of Park Street at the intersection with Main, also considered the gateway to Hartford’s Latino community.
In the 2000s, “Plaza Mayor” envisioned high-rise buildings and a square, in the spirit of the well-known square in Madrid with the same name. The project was downsized from an initial $64 million to $30 million, but the plug was pulled in 2009 when financing would not come together.
Three years later, in 2012, there was another push to sell the land to a developer, but it went nowhere.
The development is seen as a key pedestrian link for a city that has pushed its “walkability.” A development at Park and Main would, in theory, connect Bushnell Park and development envisioned near it with Colt Park and the Coltsville National Historical Park.”It’s on schedule for May 2019,” said Richard LoPresti, chairman of the town’s Economic Development Commission. “They put the walls up, went in and put in a crane and put in the steel.”
The $250 million warehouse and fulfillment center is expected to open in mid-May next year on the site of the former Pratt & Whitney manufacturing plant.
LoPresti and First Selectman Michael Freda have checked on construction regularly, and Freda said he has been in touch with Amazon developer Hillwood Investment Properties.
General Contractor R. C. Anderson could not be reached for comment.
The warehouse will feature mezzanines stocked with products and robots working alongside employees to pick, pack and ship goods throughout the region. Some of the other equipment includes conveyer belts, forklifts, and refrigeration units to service Whole Foods locations.
The town is also working with the state Department of Transportation, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers on plans to repair and expand Valley Service Road to provide secondary access to the warehouse away from congested Route 5.
Freda expects the warehouse to have an initial workforce of 1,800 and eventually reach 3,000 employees.
Freda is also the co-chairman of the Regional Workforce Investment Board of the South Central Region. The board works closely with the Workforce Alliance to help Amazon screen, assess and match potential employees from the local labor pool.
“They take people who are unemployed, and the Workforce Alliance evaluates skill sets and offers training on improving those skill sets,” Freda said.
He expects that as the opening draws nearer, there will be more job fairs in either New Haven or Meriden to hire warehouse workers and managers.
The new Amazon warehouse has also been a catalyst for commercial development on Washington Avenue (Route 5).
“Many of the small businesses are excited about the prospects of a large business like Amazon coming in,” Freda said.
In addition to the Amazon warehouse, BYK Chemical’s move to the town from Wallingford has sparked consumer confidence among retailers. One entrepreneur, Joseph Moruzzi, has breathed new life into the 60-year-old North Haven Shopping Plaza with improvements and new tenants.
Freda doesn’t expect much in the way of new apartment units because of the Amazon. ”I do expect to see a limited degree, maybe on the west side of Washington Avenue,” Freda said. “But there are no other plans at this point.”
New Developer Takes Over Redevelopment Of Crucial Corner Of Hartford's Main And Park Streets
A new developer is taking over the redevelopment of two, blighted vacant lots at the corner of Park and Main streets in Hartford, the latest in a long string of attempts to create a southern gateway to downtown.
A partnership of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners of South Norwalk and Freeman Cos. of Hartford will replace the Hartford-based, nonprofit CIL on what is expected to be a mixed-use development of apartments over storefront space. Both had submitted proposals to the city late last year and CIL was selected in March.
The city and CIL parted ways earlier this month, unable to reach a final agreement on a financing and construction timeline for the project, Kent Schwendy, CIL’s president and chief executive, said Wednesday.
“The timeline that they wanted — I know that on more than one occasion — I heard the mayor say they had a strong sense of urgency to make something happen here,” Schwendy said. “I understand that sentiment and I agree, the sooner the better, but I didn’t want to overcommit and disappoint the city and the community.”
CIL, formerly the Corporation for Independent Living, envisioned the development being constructed in sections, with the first phase possibly not completed until 2022. The nonprofit also wanted to put together the pieces of a financing package before firmly committing to any one of them, but the city wanted to show more solid progress.
“The center issue was that we had to have more flexibility in the timing in order to use our approach which is built for and by the community,” Schwendy said.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin praised CIL’s long track record of successful projects in the city, such as the recent conversion of the once-dilapidated Capewell Horse Nail Co. factory into apartments. Bronin said the city looked forward to working with CIL on other developments in the future.
“On the Park and Main project, while we all worked hard to put together a deal that could move forward soon, we found that the financials were just too challenging,” Bronin said in a written statement. “We’re going to work with the other bidder who responded to the RFP process, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners in partnership with their local partner, Rohan Freeman, to try to keep the project moving forward as quickly as possible.”
In a statement Wednesday, Matthew Edvardsen, director of acquisitions and asset management at Spinnaker said: “We are cautiously optimistic that, working collaboratively with the City of Hartford, we are well positioned to pursue the redevelopment of Park and Main.
“Our proposal is to improve the urban fabric of a crucial junction within a prominent Hartford neighborhood by advancing a high quality, contextually designed development that benefits the entire community.” Spinnaker did not disclose details of its plans Wednesday but previously said it was a vision for a mixed-use redevelopment.
Spinnaker has experience in such developments in Fairfield County and elsewhere in the country. Spinnaker also has ties to Hartford as the owner of land now used for parking across from Bushnell Park and behind TheaterWorks.
Bronin, who explored a possible gubernatorial run earlier this year, will come up for re-election as mayor in 2019. He has not said whether he will run.
One reason for wanting to push the development along more quickly may be connected with the project securing public funding through the State Bond Commission. The change in the governor’s office coming in January could impact obtaining those funds.
CIL’s Schwendy said the nonprofit still considers the project crucial, even if CIL is not leading it as the developer.
“Anything we can do to help, we will do and a big thing is we won’t stand in the way of the city being able to progress and that’s why we stepped away,” Schwendy said.
For decades, the city has sought to redevelop the barren, 2.3 acres on either side of Park Street at the intersection with Main, also considered the gateway to Hartford’s Latino community.
In the 2000s, “Plaza Mayor” envisioned high-rise buildings and a square, in the spirit of the well-known square in Madrid with the same name. The project was downsized from an initial $64 million to $30 million, but the plug was pulled in 2009 when financing would not come together.
Three years later, in 2012, there was another push to sell the land to a developer, but it went nowhere.
Initially, CIL envisioned 100 mixed-income apartments, possibly 10 townhouses along John Street with 17,000 square feet of street-level storefront space. Buildings would likely have been four stories high, keeping to the scale of the surrounding neighborhood.
And even though the South Green park was not a part of the project, CIL said the park and surrounding roads needed to be redesigned so it would work together with the redevelopment and make the area more pedestrian friendly.
Schwendy said the South Park Inn shelter for the homeless — a concern for some on how it would fit into the area’s redevelopment — could have fit into CIL’s plans.
“Our strong belief is that the homeless are not the problem, homelessness is the problem,” Schwendy said. “We are more than willing to work with the existing neighbors and the fabric of the existing community and make room for everyone. And we hope someday there are no homeless people. But until then, we’re not going to ignore them and say you can’t be part of this community.”