Barry Lytton
STAMFORD — Another downtown hotel could soon be coming to the city, this one next to the new Veterans Memorial Park.
Prominent land-use consultant Rick Redniss has presented early plans to build a 14-story structure behind the 119-year-old Stamford Savings Bank building next to the parking entrance to Stamford Town Center. A change to city zoning texts, the first round of city approvals needed to allow the hotel, will go the Zoning Board early next month. The change has earned a recommendation from Planning Board members.The proposal calls for the bank building to be incorporated into the high rise behind it, tucked between Edith Sherman Drive and the park, which is now undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation. The park is slated to reopen in late fall. The 100-room hotel would use the bank as its primary entrance, according to plans on file with the city, and use nearby parking garages instead of building all required spots onsite.
If approved, this veteran’s themed hotel — meeting rooms would be named after veterans — would join the new Residence Inn by Marriott and others in a crowded downtown hotel scene. The Residence Inn, the city’s first extended-stay hotel, opened downtown in November.
Redniss, also president of the Veterans Park Partnership, the nonprofit behind the park’s renovation, said the group has always planned for a hotel in the bank building. It would liven the area and spark activity, he said, which would dissuade vagrants from making the park a go-to meeting place, which they often did with the old park.
“Having 24/7 eyes on the park in terms of public safety is very important to the long term success of the park,” he said. “It was always a goal to have a hotel in that space rather than a bank.”Redniss said a local developer is in contract to buy the bank and build the new hotel, but declined to say who. The bank building has been owned by the First County Bank, which was Stamford Savings until the late 1980s, according to city tax records.
The building is one of the few spared by the city’s Urban Renewal period that leveled dozens. Nearby Old Town Hall is another building pardoned, though the massive Stamford Town Center mall, an associated parking garage and surrounding mid- and high-rise office buildings now rule the area, dwarfing the old one- to three-story structures.
According to LoopNet, an online real-estate marketplace, the bank has been listed since July 2017 although no sale price is published. The city last appraised the bank and its land at $2.7 million.
The developer’s first step toward approval will be getting the text change, tentatively slated for a Zoning Board public hearing on Feb. 4. It would allows balconies or facade elements to overhang public property when on historic buildings incorporated into a hotel design in the northern downtown zone. Redniss said history, mainly Urban Renewal, has also clouded property lines, so he’ll be asking for changes there, too. City tax maps show the bank address claiming the bulk of the parking lot behind it, but not the whole thing. “Some small property lines anomalies need to be ironed out,” he said. “It’s a very complicated history of how the lot came to be, how the park came to be.”
Harbor Point at 10: Where BLT has been, where it’s going
Barry Lytton
STAMFORD — Zoning Board members could point to where the high rises dotted the South End stood, though shrouded in fog as they marched down a near-deserted boardwalk to the tune of beeping bulldozers.
The band of volunteers decides what goes up in this fast-growing city, but rarely visits sites as a troupe. So the board packed into a muted-gold minivan on a recent afternoon and toured the now 10-year-old Harbor Point project, taking stock of all they and the city had agreed to — billions of dollars worth of investment, a new taxing district and a sprawling development comprised of some dozen buildings that began construction a decade ago.
“Look at all this,” said Chairman David Stein. “It’s amazing what they’re doing down here.”
But the board wasn’t only there to see what had been erected in Building and Land Technology’s Harbor Point. It was there to assess what’s coming.
Like most any 10-year-old, Harbor Point is not done growing.
There is at least one more proposed 22-story building in the works, and BLT owns another tract to the north. The developer also owns buildings and land not in the original Harbor Point outline, the 80-acre assemblage of vacant manufacturing plants and utility sites Antares Investment Partners cobbled together in the mid 2000s.
The fate of the newer sites is the crux of current conflict.
In fact sheets and talking points, BLT Chief Operating Officer Ted Ferrarone is quick to outline the positives, and most city officials call Harbor Point an enviable success story.
Harbor Point properties contribute more than $1.2 billion to the city’s Grand List value. Twenty-seven restaurants, and retailers and office tenants including Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, exist where overgrown industrial brownfields once ruled. The city has reaped $18.6 million in fees and conveyance taxes alone, and been paid $100 million in property taxes.
BLT has done what city plans have called for for decades by building more housing and affordable housing, Ferrarone and lawyers say.
Over the last decade, the company has brought 2,476 market-rent units on line in the South End and has 391 more under construction. The developer also has built 276 units for those making half the area’s median income — another 44 are in the works.
The neighborhood now has more parks than any other in the city, Ferrarone is fond of saying.
But Harbor Point is also clearly spreading, some say without control, into its neighbor, the South End Historic District — a 177-acre tract within the larger South End that is among the oldest neighborhoods in the city.
Some of the old Victorian homes there have fallen into disrepair, but it’s nonetheless on the National Register of Historic Places. The expansion into its lines drives neighbors to anger, and is what brought the Zoning Board out into the field with two city Land Use Bureau officials, a state representative and two South End residents tagging along.
During a visit to the 22nd-story rooftop of the Beacon building, a walk along Commons Park and a stop in front of the site of an old boatyard which BLT infamously demolished without Planning or Zoning Board permission, a mix of pride and distrust in the builder was clear.
The Zoning Board was later sued by an environmental group for making changes that allowed for the demolition after the fact. That case wast thrown out last fall.
At the boatyard site, attendees nodded and admired the fact that they were 10-feet above where they would have been a decade ago — back before BLT remediated the old utility plants and built green space, roads and boardwalk — a mile of it — along the West Branch of the harbor.
But some wounds are still fresh.
“Is this where there used to be a boatyard?” asked State Rep. David Michel, D-146th.
Board members winced.
BLT entered the picture after the Great Recession felled Antares’ fast rising star, and after the now-defunct Antares, of Greenwich, had already planned Harbor Point and had general development plans approved.
Comparing what’s there now to the 2006 zoning applications shows some deviations, but highlights that BLT has largely carried out what Antares had proposed.The eastern portion of Harbor Point, home to the Lofts at Yale & Towne and Fairway Market — where the Yale & Towne factory complex once stood — is little changed from original plans, but BLT has made some edits to the western part of the development, on the waterfront along Harbor Point Road.
The Beacon building, the one the Zoning Board toured, went from condos and hotel rooms to wholly apartments. And several other buildings are considerably larger than called for back in 2006, according to original renderings. Those drawings show a range from one- to 12-story buildings instead of the high rises there now.
Still, the developer has stayed largely within the confines of 2006 proposals and has made quick work. The only spaces left to develop within Harbor Point are the large lots west of Dyke Lane. City approvals allow for the two tracts to house up to six buildings. BLT is now building two buildings, and has site and architectural approvals for two more. It has yet to come to city boards with plans for the remaining two.
But before the developer finished within it’s original footprint, it has expanded, bounding across Stamford Harbor and buying buildings to the north and east.
Across the West Branch of the harbor, BLT put up another apartment building, 218 units in the Harbor Landing complex, and built a boatyard — both opened last year. A water taxi now runs between the two in the summer months, and there’s even a floating tiki bar docked on the water’s edge. The boatyard, rented to Hinckley Yachts, came as a compromise after BLT demolished the old Brewer’s Yacht Haven West boatyard on the neighborhood’s 14-acre peninsula.
Now BLT is looking to build more after buying up new parcels over the last few years.
Though a slice of land north of Walter Wheeler Drive was part of the original Harbor Point, BLT has since bought nearly the whole block. The site, now proposed to house some 670 units, was once predominately home to garbage transfer firm B&S Carting.
Ferrarone said the impetus for developing the block is to establish better connection between east and west, the two original Harbor Point development sites.
The number one complaint we get from residents is about that area,” he said. It’s “the hole in the doughnut.” Before putting anything up, the builder has paved a street bisecting the site, and connecting the two Harbor Point pieces. The B&S block is where neighbors are now fighting back, trying to keep BLT within its district or at least shrink its vision back to what was originally allowed in city plans. Further north BLT also has the so-called Gateway site, where the developer is erecting the new 500,000-square-foot headquarters of Charter Communications. It asked in December for changes to plans there to allow another 365,000-square-foot tower.
And it has also bought and demolished several homes and businesses along Garden Street, where BLT owns nearly the whole block between Garden and Atlantic Streets. That is the block where the old Blickensderfer factory, long vacant, sits. After B&S, the Blickensderfer site could be poised to be the next battleground. Residents have already objected to any plans to tear more homes down.
To the south and east, BLT hasn’t built, but has bought. In 2015, the developer bought the old Pitney Bowes headquarters, also outside the original Harbor Point site, designed by I. M. Pei and Partners along Elmcroft Road — since renaming it “Silicon Harbor” in the hopes of luring tech companies.
And, of course, there’s the boatyard site, now a vacant peninsula. Ferraone said this week BLT has yet to have any plans for the site. But, seeing as the peninsula is free of litigation for the first time in recent years, something there could very well be coming.
Harbor Point at 10 may be just the beginning.
Public hearing set for water main project
DURHAM — The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded the contract for the town’s Water Main Extension Project to Ludlow Construction Company, from Massachusetts.
A public informational meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., at the Durham Public Library. At the meeting, interested members of the public will have a chance to meet the contractor and learn about the expected construction schedule.
The project is funded through the federal Superfund Program in partnership with the State of Connecticut. nFor more details, visit https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0100108
Two companies awarded Memorial Blvd. School contract
SUSAN CORICA
BRISTOL - The City Council has awarded the $2.5 million contract to renovate the Memorial Boulevard School into an arts magnet school to Downes Construction Co. and D’Amato Construction Co.
Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu said the project’s building committee chose D’Amato and Downes A Joint Venture as the construction management firm to transform the old school into the Memorial Boulevard Intra-District Arts Magnet School.
Chris Wilson, the Board of Education chairman, has reported that the Building Committee unanimously chose Downes and D’Amato because D’Amato recently renovated the old Jennings School, which is of similar vintage, and Downes has built many school across the state, and is in the process of building two for the Capitol Region Education Council.
The city and school board are collaborating on the project to create the arts magnet school for grades six through 12. The architect, Farmington-based Quisenberry Arcari Malik LLC, has estimated the new school could be open by August 2022.
“We felt [D’Amato and Downes] were the most appropriate for this work,” Zoppo-Sassu said. “They are going to be working hand in hand with the architect and the Building Committee. As the Programming Committee finishes its work and those schematics are brought into the fold all of this is going to start happening very quickly.”
“So while some may feel that this has been a process that has gone on a long time we are actually starting to really start to see the wheels move on this, and it’s an exciting time for this project,” she added.
Roger Rousseau, the city’s purchasing agent, reported that the building committee has completed a state-required phase one analysis of the school site, including survey work for the wetlands areas.
The programming committee is making progress in working with the architect to determine which areas of the school building would be used for which specific purposes, he said.
“It’s still preliminary concepts but at least they have specific square footage attributable to certain functions within the structure. Then they will be able to start working with the construction manager to come up with specific concepts and costs attributable to those designs.”
Zoppo-Sassu said the building committee has been meeting about every two weeks, but there are challenges for doing a historic restoration project as well as new construction at the same time.
The last set of plans for the building that QAM has is from the 1950s, but it would like to look at plans from the 1920s, she said.
“Those are the maps they’re really interested in looking at and they can’t find them anywhere. We should probably start asking some of the older teachers because that’s how old these maps would probably be. They are probably squirreled away in somebody’s basement or attic.”
“If you could find any older teachers from 1921, that would be pretty good,” joked Councilor David Mills.
Memorial Boulevard was the 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.
With Downtown North construction on hold, Hartford officials eye data center demolition
Chris Wilson, the Board of Education chairman, has reported that the Building Committee unanimously chose Downes and D’Amato because D’Amato recently renovated the old Jennings School, which is of similar vintage, and Downes has built many school across the state, and is in the process of building two for the Capitol Region Education Council.
The city and school board are collaborating on the project to create the arts magnet school for grades six through 12. The architect, Farmington-based Quisenberry Arcari Malik LLC, has estimated the new school could be open by August 2022.
“We felt [D’Amato and Downes] were the most appropriate for this work,” Zoppo-Sassu said. “They are going to be working hand in hand with the architect and the Building Committee. As the Programming Committee finishes its work and those schematics are brought into the fold all of this is going to start happening very quickly.”
“So while some may feel that this has been a process that has gone on a long time we are actually starting to really start to see the wheels move on this, and it’s an exciting time for this project,” she added.
Roger Rousseau, the city’s purchasing agent, reported that the building committee has completed a state-required phase one analysis of the school site, including survey work for the wetlands areas.
The programming committee is making progress in working with the architect to determine which areas of the school building would be used for which specific purposes, he said.
“It’s still preliminary concepts but at least they have specific square footage attributable to certain functions within the structure. Then they will be able to start working with the construction manager to come up with specific concepts and costs attributable to those designs.”
Zoppo-Sassu said the building committee has been meeting about every two weeks, but there are challenges for doing a historic restoration project as well as new construction at the same time.
The last set of plans for the building that QAM has is from the 1950s, but it would like to look at plans from the 1920s, she said.
“Those are the maps they’re really interested in looking at and they can’t find them anywhere. We should probably start asking some of the older teachers because that’s how old these maps would probably be. They are probably squirreled away in somebody’s basement or attic.”
“If you could find any older teachers from 1921, that would be pretty good,” joked Councilor David Mills.
Memorial Boulevard was the 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.
With Downtown North construction on hold, Hartford officials eye data center demolition
While the four parcels surrounding Hartford’s minor league ballpark remain in legal limbo, city and state leaders have found another way to move ahead with crucial development in the neighborhood: Demolishing a decades-old concrete building on one of the properties.
Hartford officials plan this summer to take down a bunker-like former data processing center, which occupies an entire city block between Trumbull and Pleasant streets behind Dunkin' Donuts Park. They see it as a key step in advancing a project that has stalled as control of the properties is battled over in court.
Two years ago, Bronin fired developer Centerplan Construction, which had planned to build housing, retail, office space and the ballpark on a long-vacant stretch of land north of Hartford’s central business district. The company missed two important deadlines to complete the baseball stadium, and the city moved to end its contract with the developer. Another company finished Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
Centerplan sued, claiming wrongful termination, and the fate of the properties has since been entangled in a legal fistfight.
In fall of 2017, Hartford issued a new call for developers to erect apartments and retail at the site. Only one bidder responded, but his proposal was embraced by the city. Randy Salvatore, the owner of Stamford-based RMS Companies, envisioned 800 housing units flanked by 60,000 square feet of retail and structured parking. The $200 million project would unfold in stages, Salvatore said, with 200 apartments on the parcel behind the Red Lion hotel planned as a first step. He suggested a construction start time of May 2019.
But the lawsuit has hung like a cloud over the project. The city filed a motion in September asking the court to remove liens placed on the Downtown North properties and to allow the city to move ahead with development while the legal wrangling continued. A judge denied the request.
In November, Hartford officials filed another motion for control of the properties. A hearing on that is scheduled for the end of the month.
In November, Hartford officials filed another motion for control of the properties. A hearing on that is scheduled for the end of the month.
In the meantime, city and state leaders see the data center demolition as a critical move in nudging the project along. One hundred and fifty rental units are planned for that property, near the corner of Trumbull and Market streets, along with ample structured parking for ballpark spectators.
“It’s a sign of momentum,” said Erik Johnson, Hartford’s new development director, who called the Downtown North project one of his top priorities. “We’re making an improvement to the land.”
Development of the properties encircling the ballpark is considered essential in generating tax revenue needed to pay for the $71 million, publicly-funded stadium.