BETHEL — A section of a local trail is closed for construction on Eversource’s transmission line.
The Enchanted Trail from the Boardwalk on Walnut Hill Road to Bennett Park is closed temporarily, according to the Bethel Land Trust.
“The Bethel Land Trust is working in close coordination with Eversource while they perform upgrades to the power transmission lines in Bethel,” the land trust said on its Facebook page.
Instead, residents are encouraged to hike the 86-acre Wolfpits Preserve at Wolfpits Road and Hearthstone Lane or the 128-acre Stevenson Preserve off Putnam Park Road. These hikes take about an hour, the land trust said.
Architect selected for Memorial Boulevard School project
by SUSAN CORICA
BRISTOL - The transition of the old Memorial Boulevard School into an arts magnet school took a big step forward as the committee in charge chose an architect for the project.
Chris Wilson told the Board of Education the committee chose Quisenberry Arcari Malik LLC, “otherwise known as QAM.” Wilson is both board chairman and a committee member.
The committee got submissions from eight to 10 architects, he said. “It felt like QAM had the best value proposition in both pricing and quality engineering/design expertise. It’s a renovation of a school and because of the theater and the arts it’s a really unique project. We thought QAM had the expertise to do that.”
Wilson said the committee will likely choose a construction manager and project manager soon.
QAM lists a number of school construction and renovation projects on its website, including the CREC Museum Academy for pre-K to fifth grade in Bloomfield; Wethersfield High School; and the John Wallace Middle School Academy of Aerospace and Engineering in Newington.
The city wants to renovate the old school building into the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School for 525 students in grades 6 through 12, which local students could attend through a lottery system.
Over the summer Superintendent Susan Moreau said she received a commitment letter from the state for about $56 million to renovate the school. The funding represents a 68 percent rate of reimbursement for the project.
The nearly century-old school closed in 2012, and the 90,000-square-foot building has gone unused for several years after prior plans failed to come to fruition. The arts and theater magnet school would be home to Bristol’s largest performance theater.
The arts magnet school project got its start in January 2017, when State Rep. Chris Ziogas, D-Bristol, and Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, toured the school along with members of the City Council and school board to discuss potential funding for the renovation.
Currently about 100 local students go out of district to performing arts magnet schools in Hartford or Waterbury. The state pays about $5,000 per student for their transportation costs so it would save the state money to keep them in the district, Wilson has said.
Last fall the school board approved educational specifications and an operational plan for the proposed arts magnet school, which would include converting the gymnasium to a small black box theater, and possibly re-opening the building’s pool for community use.
City officials would also like to use the school’s existing 750-seat theater, which is more traditional and features a balcony and a mezzanine, as a community cultural center.
Memorial Boulevard was the city’s high school when it opened in 1922. In 1967, it became a junior high school and then a middle school, until it closed at the end of the 2011-12 school year, as part of a major redistricting in which five aged schools were closed and two large new ones opened.
The building was last renovated in 1978. The 10,000-gallon oil tank was replaced in 2000 and the roof was replaced in 2008. The overall area is listed as 96,524 square feet.
The arts magnet school plan has drawn bipartisan support from city and school officials. However, some teachers have expressed concern that it could pull resources from arts programs in the city’s other public schools.
Legal battle brews over 2017 clean energy funding sweeps
By Benjamin Kail
New Haven — Contractors and environmental advocates sparred with the state in federal court Thursday over whether the state improperly swept $145 million from ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs to address steep budget shortfalls last year.
The groups sued the state government over the sweeps in May, arguing the state's October budget deal essentially stole ratepayer funds meant to pay for programs that reduce electricity demand, stabilize the energy grid and help residents finance home efficiency improvements and solar installations. Many business owners say the sweeps undercut their businesses, leading to layoffs of home energy auditors and solar and insulation installers.
The state argues a budget crisis prompted the move. Attorneys for the state also argue the statute establishing the clean energy programs does not prevent the state from transferring the funds elsewhere, as it has done a few times in smaller increments.
"That's the equivalent of my 5-year-old saying, 'I've been taking cookies out of the jar and you didn't notice, so I took the whole jar of cookies,'" Leticia Colon De Mejias, a plaintiff who founded Windsor-based Energy Efficiencies Solutions, said in an interview.
The programs, including Conservation and Load Management, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Clean Energy Fund, are funded in part through small surcharges on Eversource and United Illuminating customers' electricity bills. Customers of municipal utilities, including Groton Utilities and Norwich Public Utilities, do not pay into those funds.
In a courtroom packed with energy contractors who say they've downsized due to the sweeps, U.S. District Judge Janet Hall on Thursday peppered attorneys on both sides with tough questions centered on whether the state's budget deal amounted to a legal shift of funds or an unconstitutional break of contracts between ratepayers and utilities.
Hall said she's been reviewing related case law for at least a month and will consider arguments further before rendering a decision.
"This is a problem coming up in other states, as well," attorney Stephen Humes of Holland & Knight, one of the firms representing the plaintiffs, said in an interview. Humes characterized the sweep as brazen and said the case could set precedent, so states would be less susceptible to similar actions when policies shift due to administration changes.
Humes told the judge "there was no debate, no public policy discussion ... nothing normal about" the budget deal to sweep the funds.
Hall jokingly advised Humes to avoid arguments "about what's normal in the state legislature."
During her questioning of Humes, Hall highlighted that the nearly 20-year-old statute forming the clean energy funds includes no language barring their transfer into the treasury. Utility customers pay for a service and receive electricity, but the statute gives customers no control over where the surcharges wind up. Utilities, which serve as a custodian for the collected surcharges, also have no power over the funds.
But Humes argued according to the "regulatory compact" established through the clean energy funds, utility customers expect the surcharges to go toward efficiency programs as directed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
Humes added that the state — a utility customer in its own right — took part in "self-dealing" through the sweep, effectively paying itself back all the money it had contributed to the clean energy funds.
Philip Miller, assistant state attorney general, said the clean energy funds did not "create the expectation" the funds could never be pulled for other purposes. He pointed to instances in 2003 and 2005 in which the state reassigned some of the clean energy funds.
"There's not a contractual obligation on the state" to ensure the surcharges go to clean energy funds, Miller told the judge, who was pressuring him on whether the transfers to state coffers impaired customers' contracts with utilities.
When Hall noted plaintiffs' point that the "state has recouped all the money it paid that was supposed to benefit clean energy funds," Miller responded that the state still faces a budget crisis.
"When the state was trying to do whatever it can, it's taken money from the Department of Children and Families, from the Department of Correction," he said, adding that it may have reduced the state's bottom line but "that wasn't the motivating factor in doing this. There's a difference between just wanting to send money another way and a true fiscal emergency."
Peter Callan and Craig Frenkel of Norwich-based Lantern Energy, a residential and commercial energy auditing and installation business, said their company is down about a dozen people due to fewer funds being available in the clean energy programs.
"The market is not mature enough to sustain itself yet without funds like this," said Callan, who noted that he and Frenkel come from banking and commercial construction fields, respectively. "Everything we touch is affected by this. Solar installs. LED retrofits."
Kenny Foscue, chairman of the North Haven Clean Energy Task Force, said the reduced clean energy funds means fewer small grants for municipal task forces and fewer townwide efficiency projects and, in turn, they mean higher taxes for residents across Connecticut.
"It's not just hippies and saving the environment," Foscue said. "It's about saving money, too."
Utilities are not party to the lawsuit and have declined to comment on the pending litigation. Gov. Dannel Malloy, Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Treasurer Denise Nappier are named as defendants. Lembo's and Nappier's offices previously declined to comment on the pending case.
Malloy signed the budget deal in October but opposed the sweeps, calling them shortsighted.
In addition to Colon de Mejias and Connecticut Fund for the Environment, plaintiffs in the suit are New Haven-based Fight the Hike; Energy Efficiencies Solutions LLC; Best Home Performance of CT LLC; Connecticut Citizen Action Group; New England Smart Energy Group LLC; CT Weatherproof Insulation LLC; Steven C. Osuch of East Windsor; Jonathan Casiano of Windsor; and Bright Solutions LLC.
Construction Of Long-Sought Grocery Store Near Downtown Hartford Could Start In A Year
Construction of a full-service grocery store in Hartford — a project that has long proven elusive — could get underway in a year, part of a $23 million development that would serve both the downtown and the city’s northern neighborhoods.
The State Bond Commission will vote next week on whether to devote $8.5 million for the project. The push for a grocery store is being led by the Hartford Community Loan Fund, a private, not-for-profit that focuses on neighborhood revitalization, and the city of Hartford.
Plans call for a 33,000-square-foot grocery store that would be part of a larger development encouraging healthy eating and lifestyles in a city that has few food buying alternatives. The development also could include a clinic, pharmacy, wellness studio and a teaching kitchen. Construction is expected to take about 18 months.
The plan is similar to one the loan fund envisioned in 2014, which collapsed when the city backed the building of Dunkin’ Donuts Park on neighboring land.
The store would be located either near the intersection of Albany Avenue and Main Street or just to the south. It is not yet known whether it will be part of the Downtown North project. But the loan fund said Thursday it is in discussions with RMS Cos., the preferred developer for Downtown North.
Consultants hired by the loan fund are pulling together financing and are in talks with three potential operators. One could be chosen by the end of the year. The not-for-profit declined to name the potential operators.
“Everything hinges on attracting an operator to the site, but our market study showed a strong opportunity for this area,” Rex Fowler, the loan fund’s chief executive officer, said Thursday. “I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic about the project’s potential.”
Mayor Luke Bronin said Thursday the grocery store could provide a critical link among downtown, the Downtown North development around Dunkin’ Donuts Park and the northern neighborhoods.
“A grocery store that could serve both the residents of the North End and the downtown could be a very important bridge between those neighborhoods as we work to continue to close those gaps and develop those vacant lots,” Bronin said.
Downtown North is a mixed-use development around the ballpark that is expected to cost over $200 million. It would redevelop vacant lots and abandoned buildings into 800 apartments, 60,000 square feet of retail and parking structures.In addition to the funding for the grocery store, the bond commission also will vote on funding for other Hartford projects in the waning days of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration.
All four projects still need to be approved by the Capital Region Development Authority, which is contributing the funding. Without CRDA board approval and the closing of financing packages, the funds, even if authorized by the bond commission, cannot be released to developers, officials said.
Typically, the CRDA board approves the financing requests and then they are submitted to the bond commission for consideration. The CRDA board is scheduled to vote on the projects on Sept. 20 — the same day as the commission meets.
Michael W. Freimuth, CRDA’s executive director, said Thursday the board is aware of the projects and how the grocery store, the historic block and the first phase of Downtown North could work together to attract more financing.
This is the second attempt by the loan fund to open a full-service grocery store north of Hartford’s downtown.
The fund got involved with the push for a supermarket in 2012, when the upscale Market at Hartford 21, on Asylum Street, closed after just six months.
By 2014, the loan fund had secured a developer and an operator, ShopRite, for a mixed-use development that would prominently include the supermarket. The project was to be located on a long-vacant tract of land used for parking, just west of what is now the Red Lion Hotel.
But those plans collapsed after the city announced it was building just to the north what would become Dunkin’ Donuts Park. ShopRite said the supermarket wouldn’t be compatible with the stadium.
Fowler said Thursday the loan fund had nearly abandoned the push for a grocery store, but it was approached by Bronin’s administration about restarting the effort.
3 proposals aim to bring more affordable housing to New Haven
NEW HAVEN — Multiple projects that will add to the number of affordable housing units in New Haven, as well as upgrade some existing units, are on the drawing boards for the Hill, Wooster Square and West River neighborhoods.
The National Housing Partnership Foundation out of New York wants to build 56 apartments and an office meeting center on one of the large median strips of green space off Route 34.
The second separate project involves 114 units of housing that upgrades and adds to the Hill Central housing complex, while the third converts the long-shuttered New Haven Clock Factory to 103 apartments with a portion set aside for artists.
All three are on the City Plan Commission agenda for Sept. 19 with two getting their approvals in place in order to submit applications to the Connecticut Housing Financing Authority by Oct. 31.
The foundation has 44 properties in 15 states and the District of Columbia, totaling 7,047 units of low- and moderate-income housing with units currently in Waterbury, Stamford, Wolcott and Southington The project, listed as the West River Housing Co. LLC., plans for 56 apartments in 10 townhouse-style buildings with 4 to 6 dwelling units per building. A proposed office meeting center for the tenants also includes four apartments.
The plan is to have covered front porches and rear patios for each apartment. There would be 60 parking spaces, as well as a playground and gazebo.
He said there would be a number of architectural styles, Italianate, Victorian, Colonial and National, for the apartment buildings and they will feature energy-efficient units. The western portion of the parcel along Ella Grasso Boulevard would remain open space and includes the Peace Garden.
The current two-decade-old Hill Central housing development along Dewitt and Portsea streets and Washington Avenue contains 72, three- and four-bedroom Section 8 units, divided among 11 buildings.
The entire project will be divided into two phases and, like the 16 Miller St. plan, depends on CHFA funding. Ross said Phase 1 could start construction six months to nine months after the funding is available and be finished in 2020, with Phase 2 starting a year later. Ross said they would move the current tenants to renovated apartments as the project proceeds so they won’t have to move off site. Each phase is estimated to cost around $27 million, he said. His company bought the site about a year ago. The renovation of the former clock factory has been playing out for months with the city committed to $400,000 in aid to help offset clean-up of the radium-contaminated site and a seven-year freeze of the current tax assessment.
When residents reacted negatively to leasing only to “artists,” Toam Heritage New Haven agreed to limit it to 44 apartments reserved for this group, broadly defined. The city also insisted the newly renovated complex lease to tenants whose total average income is 60 percent of area median income. The apartments are also mandated to stay affordable for three decades.
Waterbury to get $15.5 million from state for redevelopment
BY MICHAEL PUFFER
WATERBURY – The city plans to renovate a large downtown building, knock down a derelict factory on Freight Street and repair a broken stretch of East Main Street with $15.5 million in state grants up for approval next week.
The grant requests are on the Sept. 20 State Bond Commission agenda. It would be rare for an item on the agenda not to be approved. These would be the latest in a string of large redevelopment grants Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration earmarked for the city.
The requests include:
$10 million for renovation of the Odd Fellows Hall building at 36 North Main St. just opposite the city Green.
$4 million would to renovation of the streets, sidewalks and lighting on East Main Street from the Green to North Elm Street by police headquarters.$1.5 million to knock down most of the former Anaconda American Brass Complex at 130 Freight StAttempts to reach a city representative Thursday were unsuccessful.
Under Malloy, the state has made various high-profile grants to spur downtown redevelopment – the largest yet being a $12.2 million grant announced in 2014.
The city used $7.5 million of the 2014 grant to help fund an ongoing private redevelopment of the former Howland-Hughes department store on Bank Street. The remainder was used to renovate the Green; purchase the former Anamet industrial site and other projects.
The 2014 grant was originally expected to also include repair of East Main Street in the downtown. But city leaders decided to instead pour more money into redevelopment of Howland-Hughes, which promises to bring at least 400 workers downtown by the end of this yearThe city owns the Odd Fellows building at 36 North Main St. The city claimed the nearly 40,000-square foot building for unpaid taxes in 2013
The former Anaconda complex is owned by D’Addario Enterprises, according to city records. In recent years, the city has committed at least $444,065 to perform environmental tests on the property. City officials have previously said they had permission from the owners of the property.
These studies have been funded through state grants. The first $200,000 was granted in 2015. At the time, Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said the city was interested in acquiring the property for a city-led redevelopment effort. But first, the city wanted to know the extent of pollution and probable cleanup costs, he said.
The committee got submissions from eight to 10 architects, he said. “It felt like QAM had the best value proposition in both pricing and quality engineering/design expertise. It’s a renovation of a school and because of the theater and the arts it’s a really unique project. We thought QAM had the expertise to do that.”
Wilson said the committee will likely choose a construction manager and project manager soon.
QAM lists a number of school construction and renovation projects on its website, including the CREC Museum Academy for pre-K to fifth grade in Bloomfield; Wethersfield High School; and the John Wallace Middle School Academy of Aerospace and Engineering in Newington.
The city wants to renovate the old school building into the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School for 525 students in grades 6 through 12, which local students could attend through a lottery system.
Over the summer Superintendent Susan Moreau said she received a commitment letter from the state for about $56 million to renovate the school. The funding represents a 68 percent rate of reimbursement for the project.
The nearly century-old school closed in 2012, and the 90,000-square-foot building has gone unused for several years after prior plans failed to come to fruition. The arts and theater magnet school would be home to Bristol’s largest performance theater.
The arts magnet school project got its start in January 2017, when State Rep. Chris Ziogas, D-Bristol, and Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, toured the school along with members of the City Council and school board to discuss potential funding for the renovation.
Currently about 100 local students go out of district to performing arts magnet schools in Hartford or Waterbury. The state pays about $5,000 per student for their transportation costs so it would save the state money to keep them in the district, Wilson has said.
Last fall the school board approved educational specifications and an operational plan for the proposed arts magnet school, which would include converting the gymnasium to a small black box theater, and possibly re-opening the building’s pool for community use.
City officials would also like to use the school’s existing 750-seat theater, which is more traditional and features a balcony and a mezzanine, as a community cultural center.
Memorial Boulevard was the city’s high school when it opened in 1922. In 1967, it became a junior high school and then a middle school, until it closed at the end of the 2011-12 school year, as part of a major redistricting in which five aged schools were closed and two large new ones opened.
The building was last renovated in 1978. The 10,000-gallon oil tank was replaced in 2000 and the roof was replaced in 2008. The overall area is listed as 96,524 square feet.
The arts magnet school plan has drawn bipartisan support from city and school officials. However, some teachers have expressed concern that it could pull resources from arts programs in the city’s other public schools.
Legal battle brews over 2017 clean energy funding sweeps
By Benjamin Kail
New Haven — Contractors and environmental advocates sparred with the state in federal court Thursday over whether the state improperly swept $145 million from ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs to address steep budget shortfalls last year.
The groups sued the state government over the sweeps in May, arguing the state's October budget deal essentially stole ratepayer funds meant to pay for programs that reduce electricity demand, stabilize the energy grid and help residents finance home efficiency improvements and solar installations. Many business owners say the sweeps undercut their businesses, leading to layoffs of home energy auditors and solar and insulation installers.
The state argues a budget crisis prompted the move. Attorneys for the state also argue the statute establishing the clean energy programs does not prevent the state from transferring the funds elsewhere, as it has done a few times in smaller increments.
"That's the equivalent of my 5-year-old saying, 'I've been taking cookies out of the jar and you didn't notice, so I took the whole jar of cookies,'" Leticia Colon De Mejias, a plaintiff who founded Windsor-based Energy Efficiencies Solutions, said in an interview.
The programs, including Conservation and Load Management, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Clean Energy Fund, are funded in part through small surcharges on Eversource and United Illuminating customers' electricity bills. Customers of municipal utilities, including Groton Utilities and Norwich Public Utilities, do not pay into those funds.
In a courtroom packed with energy contractors who say they've downsized due to the sweeps, U.S. District Judge Janet Hall on Thursday peppered attorneys on both sides with tough questions centered on whether the state's budget deal amounted to a legal shift of funds or an unconstitutional break of contracts between ratepayers and utilities.
Hall said she's been reviewing related case law for at least a month and will consider arguments further before rendering a decision.
"This is a problem coming up in other states, as well," attorney Stephen Humes of Holland & Knight, one of the firms representing the plaintiffs, said in an interview. Humes characterized the sweep as brazen and said the case could set precedent, so states would be less susceptible to similar actions when policies shift due to administration changes.
Humes told the judge "there was no debate, no public policy discussion ... nothing normal about" the budget deal to sweep the funds.
Hall jokingly advised Humes to avoid arguments "about what's normal in the state legislature."
During her questioning of Humes, Hall highlighted that the nearly 20-year-old statute forming the clean energy funds includes no language barring their transfer into the treasury. Utility customers pay for a service and receive electricity, but the statute gives customers no control over where the surcharges wind up. Utilities, which serve as a custodian for the collected surcharges, also have no power over the funds.
But Humes argued according to the "regulatory compact" established through the clean energy funds, utility customers expect the surcharges to go toward efficiency programs as directed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
Humes added that the state — a utility customer in its own right — took part in "self-dealing" through the sweep, effectively paying itself back all the money it had contributed to the clean energy funds.
Philip Miller, assistant state attorney general, said the clean energy funds did not "create the expectation" the funds could never be pulled for other purposes. He pointed to instances in 2003 and 2005 in which the state reassigned some of the clean energy funds.
"There's not a contractual obligation on the state" to ensure the surcharges go to clean energy funds, Miller told the judge, who was pressuring him on whether the transfers to state coffers impaired customers' contracts with utilities.
When Hall noted plaintiffs' point that the "state has recouped all the money it paid that was supposed to benefit clean energy funds," Miller responded that the state still faces a budget crisis.
"When the state was trying to do whatever it can, it's taken money from the Department of Children and Families, from the Department of Correction," he said, adding that it may have reduced the state's bottom line but "that wasn't the motivating factor in doing this. There's a difference between just wanting to send money another way and a true fiscal emergency."
Peter Callan and Craig Frenkel of Norwich-based Lantern Energy, a residential and commercial energy auditing and installation business, said their company is down about a dozen people due to fewer funds being available in the clean energy programs.
"The market is not mature enough to sustain itself yet without funds like this," said Callan, who noted that he and Frenkel come from banking and commercial construction fields, respectively. "Everything we touch is affected by this. Solar installs. LED retrofits."
Kenny Foscue, chairman of the North Haven Clean Energy Task Force, said the reduced clean energy funds means fewer small grants for municipal task forces and fewer townwide efficiency projects and, in turn, they mean higher taxes for residents across Connecticut.
"It's not just hippies and saving the environment," Foscue said. "It's about saving money, too."
Utilities are not party to the lawsuit and have declined to comment on the pending litigation. Gov. Dannel Malloy, Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Treasurer Denise Nappier are named as defendants. Lembo's and Nappier's offices previously declined to comment on the pending case.
Malloy signed the budget deal in October but opposed the sweeps, calling them shortsighted.
In addition to Colon de Mejias and Connecticut Fund for the Environment, plaintiffs in the suit are New Haven-based Fight the Hike; Energy Efficiencies Solutions LLC; Best Home Performance of CT LLC; Connecticut Citizen Action Group; New England Smart Energy Group LLC; CT Weatherproof Insulation LLC; Steven C. Osuch of East Windsor; Jonathan Casiano of Windsor; and Bright Solutions LLC.
Construction Of Long-Sought Grocery Store Near Downtown Hartford Could Start In A Year
Construction of a full-service grocery store in Hartford — a project that has long proven elusive — could get underway in a year, part of a $23 million development that would serve both the downtown and the city’s northern neighborhoods.
The State Bond Commission will vote next week on whether to devote $8.5 million for the project. The push for a grocery store is being led by the Hartford Community Loan Fund, a private, not-for-profit that focuses on neighborhood revitalization, and the city of Hartford.
Plans call for a 33,000-square-foot grocery store that would be part of a larger development encouraging healthy eating and lifestyles in a city that has few food buying alternatives. The development also could include a clinic, pharmacy, wellness studio and a teaching kitchen. Construction is expected to take about 18 months.
The plan is similar to one the loan fund envisioned in 2014, which collapsed when the city backed the building of Dunkin’ Donuts Park on neighboring land.
The store would be located either near the intersection of Albany Avenue and Main Street or just to the south. It is not yet known whether it will be part of the Downtown North project. But the loan fund said Thursday it is in discussions with RMS Cos., the preferred developer for Downtown North.
Consultants hired by the loan fund are pulling together financing and are in talks with three potential operators. One could be chosen by the end of the year. The not-for-profit declined to name the potential operators.
“Everything hinges on attracting an operator to the site, but our market study showed a strong opportunity for this area,” Rex Fowler, the loan fund’s chief executive officer, said Thursday. “I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic about the project’s potential.”
Mayor Luke Bronin said Thursday the grocery store could provide a critical link among downtown, the Downtown North development around Dunkin’ Donuts Park and the northern neighborhoods.
“A grocery store that could serve both the residents of the North End and the downtown could be a very important bridge between those neighborhoods as we work to continue to close those gaps and develop those vacant lots,” Bronin said.
Downtown North is a mixed-use development around the ballpark that is expected to cost over $200 million. It would redevelop vacant lots and abandoned buildings into 800 apartments, 60,000 square feet of retail and parking structures.In addition to the funding for the grocery store, the bond commission also will vote on funding for other Hartford projects in the waning days of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration.
All four projects still need to be approved by the Capital Region Development Authority, which is contributing the funding. Without CRDA board approval and the closing of financing packages, the funds, even if authorized by the bond commission, cannot be released to developers, officials said.
Typically, the CRDA board approves the financing requests and then they are submitted to the bond commission for consideration. The CRDA board is scheduled to vote on the projects on Sept. 20 — the same day as the commission meets.
Michael W. Freimuth, CRDA’s executive director, said Thursday the board is aware of the projects and how the grocery store, the historic block and the first phase of Downtown North could work together to attract more financing.
This is the second attempt by the loan fund to open a full-service grocery store north of Hartford’s downtown.
The fund got involved with the push for a supermarket in 2012, when the upscale Market at Hartford 21, on Asylum Street, closed after just six months.
By 2014, the loan fund had secured a developer and an operator, ShopRite, for a mixed-use development that would prominently include the supermarket. The project was to be located on a long-vacant tract of land used for parking, just west of what is now the Red Lion Hotel.
But those plans collapsed after the city announced it was building just to the north what would become Dunkin’ Donuts Park. ShopRite said the supermarket wouldn’t be compatible with the stadium.
Fowler said Thursday the loan fund had nearly abandoned the push for a grocery store, but it was approached by Bronin’s administration about restarting the effort.
3 proposals aim to bring more affordable housing to New Haven
NEW HAVEN — Multiple projects that will add to the number of affordable housing units in New Haven, as well as upgrade some existing units, are on the drawing boards for the Hill, Wooster Square and West River neighborhoods.
The National Housing Partnership Foundation out of New York wants to build 56 apartments and an office meeting center on one of the large median strips of green space off Route 34.
The second separate project involves 114 units of housing that upgrades and adds to the Hill Central housing complex, while the third converts the long-shuttered New Haven Clock Factory to 103 apartments with a portion set aside for artists.
All three are on the City Plan Commission agenda for Sept. 19 with two getting their approvals in place in order to submit applications to the Connecticut Housing Financing Authority by Oct. 31.
Jamie Smarr, an officer with the NHP Foundation, said the West River site is a complete block bordered by Ella Grasso Boulevard, North Frontage Road, Tyler Street and Legion Avenue, while the postal address is 16 Miller St.
He said if CHFA funds for tax credits are not available, the project will not go forward. Smarr, however, said the money for this fiscal year is part of the state budget on a competitive basis. The land is currently owned by the city.The foundation has 44 properties in 15 states and the District of Columbia, totaling 7,047 units of low- and moderate-income housing with units currently in Waterbury, Stamford, Wolcott and Southington The project, listed as the West River Housing Co. LLC., plans for 56 apartments in 10 townhouse-style buildings with 4 to 6 dwelling units per building. A proposed office meeting center for the tenants also includes four apartments.
The plan is to have covered front porches and rear patios for each apartment. There would be 60 parking spaces, as well as a playground and gazebo.
He said there would be a number of architectural styles, Italianate, Victorian, Colonial and National, for the apartment buildings and they will feature energy-efficient units. The western portion of the parcel along Ella Grasso Boulevard would remain open space and includes the Peace Garden.
The current two-decade-old Hill Central housing development along Dewitt and Portsea streets and Washington Avenue contains 72, three- and four-bedroom Section 8 units, divided among 11 buildings.
Rick Ross, of West Mount Management in Branford, is proposing to redevelop the complex to provide 114 units. They will continue to provide 72 units with the large bedrooms, while adding 42 more apartments with 22 of them set aside for elderly tenants. The additional apartments will feature one- and two-bedroom units. Of the total 114 apartments, 80 percent will be affordable at 25 percent, 50 percent and 60 percent of area median income.
“The availability of smaller units will provide a means for elderly members of Hill Central to downsize without leaving the community, an opportunity for younger members to find safe, affordable housing,” the proposal states.The entire project will be divided into two phases and, like the 16 Miller St. plan, depends on CHFA funding. Ross said Phase 1 could start construction six months to nine months after the funding is available and be finished in 2020, with Phase 2 starting a year later. Ross said they would move the current tenants to renovated apartments as the project proceeds so they won’t have to move off site. Each phase is estimated to cost around $27 million, he said. His company bought the site about a year ago. The renovation of the former clock factory has been playing out for months with the city committed to $400,000 in aid to help offset clean-up of the radium-contaminated site and a seven-year freeze of the current tax assessment.
When residents reacted negatively to leasing only to “artists,” Toam Heritage New Haven agreed to limit it to 44 apartments reserved for this group, broadly defined. The city also insisted the newly renovated complex lease to tenants whose total average income is 60 percent of area median income. The apartments are also mandated to stay affordable for three decades.
Waterbury to get $15.5 million from state for redevelopment
BY MICHAEL PUFFER
WATERBURY – The city plans to renovate a large downtown building, knock down a derelict factory on Freight Street and repair a broken stretch of East Main Street with $15.5 million in state grants up for approval next week.
The grant requests are on the Sept. 20 State Bond Commission agenda. It would be rare for an item on the agenda not to be approved. These would be the latest in a string of large redevelopment grants Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration earmarked for the city.
The requests include:
$10 million for renovation of the Odd Fellows Hall building at 36 North Main St. just opposite the city Green.
$4 million would to renovation of the streets, sidewalks and lighting on East Main Street from the Green to North Elm Street by police headquarters.$1.5 million to knock down most of the former Anaconda American Brass Complex at 130 Freight StAttempts to reach a city representative Thursday were unsuccessful.
Under Malloy, the state has made various high-profile grants to spur downtown redevelopment – the largest yet being a $12.2 million grant announced in 2014.
The city used $7.5 million of the 2014 grant to help fund an ongoing private redevelopment of the former Howland-Hughes department store on Bank Street. The remainder was used to renovate the Green; purchase the former Anamet industrial site and other projects.
The 2014 grant was originally expected to also include repair of East Main Street in the downtown. But city leaders decided to instead pour more money into redevelopment of Howland-Hughes, which promises to bring at least 400 workers downtown by the end of this yearThe city owns the Odd Fellows building at 36 North Main St. The city claimed the nearly 40,000-square foot building for unpaid taxes in 2013
The former Anaconda complex is owned by D’Addario Enterprises, according to city records. In recent years, the city has committed at least $444,065 to perform environmental tests on the property. City officials have previously said they had permission from the owners of the property.
These studies have been funded through state grants. The first $200,000 was granted in 2015. At the time, Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said the city was interested in acquiring the property for a city-led redevelopment effort. But first, the city wanted to know the extent of pollution and probable cleanup costs, he said.