Kaitlyn Krasselt and Emilie Munson
HARTFORD — In a letter sent Thursday to the entire General Assembly, Gov. Ned Lamont told legislators he’s willing to work toward a compromise that provides for some short-term borrowing until tolls are fully implemented, despite his much-maligned debt diet.
Lamont also said the transportation legislation will create a Connecticut Transportation Commission, an idea first proposed late last month by Sen. John Fonfara, a veteran Hartford Democrat who chairs the legislature’s revenue committee.
The letter signals Lamont’s efforts to solidify Democratic support for tolls before the legislative adjourns June 5. Some Democrats do not support tolls and others have concerns about what they believe are scant details on toll implementation and transportation spending from the administration.
Even some toll supporting lawmakers expressed frustration with the administration’s toll strategy Thursday.For the last two months, my administration has been working with the Transportation co-chairs to craft a bill that allows us to upgrade our roads and bridges and speed up rail,” Lamont wrote. “I have also talked with Republicans and Democrats about a potential compromise, all in the spirit of forging a bipartisan path ahead — a place in which I am very comfortable.”
Lamont’s administration has been repeatedly criticized for not producing a long-term transportation spending indicating exactly how he would spend the $800 million a year he predicts tolls will produce.“I heard you when you said that you wanted more line-of-sight into the state’s long-range transportation planning and development,” Lamont wrote Thursday.
Lamont’s letter did not specify how much bonding he would support. The businessman-turned-governor and his staff have been meeting with lawmakers to build enough support to pass tolls before the legislative session ends.
Sen. Alex Bergstein, D-Greenwich, and Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, both toll supporters, said they backed these compromise proposals including some bonding and a transportation commission.
But they also expressed concerns about the executive branch’s leadership on this divisive issue.
“I have been dismayed at the lack of coordination and messaging on our side,” said Bergstein. “For months I have been seeking out the executive branch and asking for a coordinated messaging strategy and public relations so that we can at least inform the public with real facts. To date, I have only seen piecemeal efforts.”
“Unless we have leadership from the top and a coordinated strategy, you see how things...” she let her voice trail off.
Haskell worried about the clock running down without tolls passing because of a lack of a long-term transportation spending plan.
“My constituents, I believe, sent me to Hartford to vote in favor of tolls,” he said. “What the constituents are right to expect and every person that they sent to Hartford, whether Democrat or Republican, is a long-term transportation plan with a vision of how we’re going to fund this thing and how we’re going to make people’s every day lives better. And that plan doesn’t ex... we haven’t seen that plan yet.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D- New Haven, urged lawmakers to rise above partisanship to address the state’s transportation crisis.
“All of Connecticut — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — looks to the entire General Assembly to work together on developing a sustainable answer for our transportation challenges,” Looney said.
While Lamont’s move toward some bonding inches him closer to the Republican transportation funding strategy “Prioritize Progress,” Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, was disappointed that Lamont would not abandon tolls or new taxes for transportation.
“The proposal outlined in Gov. Lamont’s letter today is the same ‘plan’ he has been talking about for months,” Fasano said. “It is a plan that is based on hypothetical sketch numbers, that has never been shared with the federal government, and that takes the full General Assembly out of the decision making when it comes to how tolls will actually impact our residents and local communities.”
Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, continues to oppose tolls, she said Thursday.
Stamford’s Atlantic Station construction resumes
Paul Schott
STAMFORD — Construction has started on the second apartment tower at the downtown Atlantic Station complex, one of the city’s most-ambitious development projects.
Excavation and foundational work are underway at 405 Atlantic St., on a 325-unit structure that is expected to take about two years to complete. The edifice would complement a similarly sized, glass-sheathed building — which opened next door about a year and a half ago — and complete a property that has helped to revitalize the southern end of the downtown.
“Atlantic Station, as a development, is really creating that connectivity between downtown living and mass transit,” said Joseph Graziose, vice president-project executive of RXR Realty, the Manhattan-based owner and co-developer of Atlantic Station. “Our project really connects the downtown to the (Metro-North Railroad) transit station like no other project, in my opinion.”
Downtown development
RXR has developed Atlantic Station with the White Plains, N.Y.-based Cappelli Organization.The RXR multi-family housing portfolio encompasses approximately 2,600 units under operation or development. The Cappelli team was familiar with the city having developed, with Stamford-based F.D. Rich Co., the Trump Parc condominium tower that opened in 2009 at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Broad Street.At Atlantic Station, the developers took over a site that had languished empty for a number of years after a commercial strip center there had been torn down.
But the developers saw potential in a site that stands yards from the downtown Metro-North train station and Stamford Town Center mall and a short walk from the city center’s restaurant rows.
Construction of the first Atlantic Station apartment tower started in early 2016. Today, 93 percent of its 325 units are leased, according to RXR.
On the ground floor of the existing structure, about 16,000 square feet are allocated for retail. No ground-floor tenants have been signed, but the leasing negotiations could bring in grocery and cafe businesses, according to RXR officials.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of positive feedback on the phase-one product, so it feels only natural to continue that momentum with phase two,” Graziose said.
Next door, the second apartment tower would start to take shape during the next one to two months. Its finished exterior would emulate the first building’s glass “curtainwall.”
Next steps
Adjacent to the apartment towers, Cappelli and RXR are renovating a former U.S. post office on Atlantic Street.At the post office site, the developers have signed an early-childhood day care center to take about 12,000 square feet and a co-working center to use about 36,000 square feet. Those tenants, which the developers declined to name, are scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2020.
Redevelopment is moving ahead at neighboring buildings as well.
The approximately 700,000-square foot office complex, at 677 Washington Blvd., has landed the future headquarters of WWE and also signed professional-services firm KPMG and architectural firm Perkins Eastman. The latter moved last October into about 13,000 square feet on the building’s ground floor.
“I see this area as becoming a hub and link to the downtown,” Mark Creedon, co-managing principal of the new Perkins Eastman offices, said in a recent interview. “I think we’ll see more diversity of tenancy in the building. It’s a great place to be.”
Before the recent lease signings, 677 Washington had languished for a couple of years as the city’s largest vacant office property, following banking giant UBS’ 2016 relocation of its offices across the street, to 600 Washington Blvd.
Down the street from Atlantic Station, the north building in the St. John’s towers apartment complex was torn down earlier this year to make way for an apartment block.
The neighborhood’s new development has also spurred the arrival in the past year of a number of businesses, including, California Tortilla and Spavia on Atlantic Street.
Lamont willing to compromise on transportation — if tolls are involved
Keith M. Phaneuf
With less than four weeks left in the legislative session, Gov. Ned Lamont made a bipartisan appeal for compromise on tolls.
The Democratic governor pledged to dedicate more resources to transportation construction between now and 2024 — the first year toll receipts might be available. This generally was recognized as one of the soft parts of Lamont’s plan.
But the governor also insisted any bargain would have to include electronic tolls, saying this was essential to provide long-term fiscal stability to a transportation program otherwise headed for insolvency.
“I am more than willing to entertain a compromise that shores up our Special Transportation Fund, provides for some short-term borrowing until the point at which tolls come online,” Lamont wrote in an open letter to the General Assembly.
The governor wants to put electronic tolls on interstates 84, 91 and 95 and on the Merritt Parkway with a base charge of 4.4 cents per mile — before discounts are offered to Connecticut motorists.
This would raise $800 million per year for the budget by 2024, the administration says, with 30 to 40 percent coming from out-of-state motorists. Discounts would be provided to Connecticut residents and to frequent travelers.
But Lamont also had proposed canceling additional resources pledged to the transportation program over the next few years.
Republicans in the Senate and House say that with additional funding — a mix of bonding and sales tax receipts — Connecticut’s transportation program can get by without tolls.Their plan, “Prioritize Progress,” actually would dedicate roughly $2.4 billion more to transportation construction than Lamont’s would over the next four years combined.
The governor had met with Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, in recent weeks to see if a bipartisan deal on transportation financing could be reached.Fasano expressed disappointment Thursday that Lamont “remains unwilling to consider alternatives to fund transportation over the long-term that do not involve tolls and new taxes.”
“The proposal outlined in Governor Lamont’s letter today is the same ‘plan’ he has been talking about for months,” Fasano added. “It is a plan that is based on hypothetical sketch numbers, that has never been shared with the federal government, and that takes the full General Assembly out of the decision making when it comes to how tolls will actually impact our residents and local communities. Gov. Lamont’s proposal is a new tax not only on residents here and now, but on all future generations who will be paying tolls for years to come.”
The reaction was no less bleak from House Republicans.
“Currently there are no Republican votes in the House for tolls and we’ve conducted a series of forums in the state that have elicited anti-toll sentiments,” said Pat O’Neill, spokesman for the House Republican Caucus.
But Lamont says the Republican plan is not a long-term solution, since the Special Transportation Fund still would plunge into insolvency under that proposal within a decade.
And once Connecticut catches up on some of the transportation maintenance it’s deferred for years, it actually could use toll receipts to pay cash for capital projects, rather than borrowing and running up huge interest costs, the administration says.“I won’t entertain a compromise in which the numbers don’t add up, the excessive borrowing crowds out other needed and necessary investments elsewhere and the approach is simply a band-aid to buy more time until the point at which we can revisit this conversation in another two years — all while our roads and rail continue to decline and economy limps along,” Lamont wrote. The governor also hinted tolls would improve Connecticut’s standing with Wall Street, where strong fiscal practices are rewarded with lower interest rates on borrowing. “The ratings agencies are waiting to see our next move,” he wrote.
“The transportation crisis in Connecticut is too large a problem to get bogged down in partisan politics,” Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, who supports tolls, said in response. “We must all rise above narrow partisanship and find a bipartisan solution to rebuilding and strengthening our state’s transportation infrastructure. All of Connecticut — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — looks to the entire General Assembly to work together on developing a sustainable answer for our transportation challenges.”Democratic House leaders did not comment immediately after Lamont released his letter.
As Lamont prepared to release his letter to lawmakers Thursday, toll foes gathered on the steps of the Capitol to – once again – decry the governor’s plans. After a bit of speech making, they delivered petitions to the governor’s office they said contain more than 100,000 signatures of Connecticut residents opposed to Lamont’s tolling plan.
Opponents of tolls will hold a protest outside the Capitol May 18.
EW senior housing breaks ground
Anthony Branciforte
EAST WINDSOR — Local officials celebrated the groundbreaking of a 122-unit senior housing facility at 20 North Road on Tuesday, praising it as a facilitator of economic growth.
New York company Calamar is developing the property, a 55-and-over housing development expected to open next summer, and its vice president of facilities, Marc Guizzo, said East Windsor has been a strong partner.
Guizzo said the company has been happy to work with a town that “rolls out the red carpet instead of the red tape,” and he said the town’s demographics match well with the age-restricted development.
“It’s a great community — we’re lucky to be here,” he said.
The three-story building will have one- and two-bedroom apartments and common areas for residents, including a lounge and a community room with a kitchen.
Calamar has said the development represents a $16 million investment in East Windsor.
Sen. M. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, co-chairman of the Senate Housing Committee, said the development hits the six key components of any housing project: “location, location, location, and timing, timing, timing.”
“You’ve nailed it,” he said. “You’ve come at the best time to a community that is growing in a manner that is very exciting.”
First Selectman Robert Maynard said the project represents economic growth. Other projects in the pipeline include Sardilli Produce and Dairy’s planned 202,000-square-foot produce warehouse on South Water Street and the Tribal Winds Casino, which would be located near Calamar’s project at the old Showcase Cinemas site.
Maynard said that he is 73 years old and plans to move to the development “when the Department of Motor Vehicles takes (my license) away,” because he will be able to walk to the casino and to interact with other seniors in the facility’s community rooms.
Guizzo said that Maynard could take advantage of Calamar’s “Connect 55+” program, through which the company offers services to residents such as exercise facilities, yoga classes, and trivia games.
Chamber of Commerce Chairman James Richards called the development a “triple win for the town” because it will bring needed housing to the community, broaden the tax base, and provide local businesses with additional customers.
Money for pier replacement at sub base advances in Congress
The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $228 billion budget plan to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs and various military construction projects in fiscal year 2020 that includes $72.3 million for the replacement of a pier at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton.
The funding was announced in a news release from the office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
The replacement pier will be longer and wider than existing piers, providing adequate space for the Virginia-class attack submarines based there and will allow for more safe passage of vehicular traffic, according to a letter Courtney wrote in support of the funding. The pier also will be raised to account for future sea level rise.
Courtney, who urged approval of the funding, said "this major investment into Pier 32 is further confirmation that Congress, as well as the Navy, expects our submarine base to remain a valuable hub of activity for generations to come."
About $5 million previously had been approved for planning and design work for the pier project. The $72.3 million approved by the House committee will fully fund the project.
In the coming weeks, the Veterans Affairs and Military Construction Appropriations Bill will move to the House floor for final consideration. In early June, the House Armed Services Committee, of which Courtney is a senior member, also will begin work on the 2020 defense authorization bill, which must concurrently authorize military construction projects such as this.
Money for pier replacement at sub base advances in Congress
The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $228 billion budget plan to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs and various military construction projects in fiscal year 2020 that includes $72.3 million for the replacement of a pier at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton.
The funding was announced in a news release from the office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
The replacement pier will be longer and wider than existing piers, providing adequate space for the Virginia-class attack submarines based there and will allow for more safe passage of vehicular traffic, according to a letter Courtney wrote in support of the funding. The pier also will be raised to account for future sea level rise.
Courtney, who urged approval of the funding, said "this major investment into Pier 32 is further confirmation that Congress, as well as the Navy, expects our submarine base to remain a valuable hub of activity for generations to come."
About $5 million previously had been approved for planning and design work for the pier project. The $72.3 million approved by the House committee will fully fund the project.
In the coming weeks, the Veterans Affairs and Military Construction Appropriations Bill will move to the House floor for final consideration. In early June, the House Armed Services Committee, of which Courtney is a senior member, also will begin work on the 2020 defense authorization bill, which must concurrently authorize military construction projects such as this.