CT Construction Digest Thursday September 5, 2019

What's new at CCSU: Construction continues as part of 10-year plan
Adam Hushin
NEW BRITAIN -With the first week of classes completed, most Central Connecticut State University students have already been exposed to some of the changes around campus, while other updates are still a work in progress.

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Sal Cintorino is currently serving as the interim chief facilities officer, which is a role that involves overseeing construction projects on campus.
“The transition into the new year has been phenomenal,” Cintorino said.
Cintorino detailed several completed and ongoing projects around campus, most of which are a part of a ten-year master plan that began around 2010.
Projects featured in this plan that have already been completed previously to this year include renovations to the Willard-DiLoreto complex, the Mid-Campus Residence Hall, Hilltop Dining Facility, a new nursing lab, a new food pantry facility and renovations to a social sciences hall that has since been named Ebenezer Bassett Hall after the first African-American graduate.
One of the most recent aspects of this master plan is a complete remodeling of the first floor of Memorial Hall that was finished this summer.
The remodeling created a state of the art study lounge area and a new e-sports lab, Cintorino said.
“Walking around it’s like you’re in a different world,” Cintorino said.
The e-sports lab will be having a grand opening on Sept. 6.
Another new addition that will be completed this semester is the Huang Recreation Center.
The new recreation center is a $26 million project that after 18 months of development replaces the outdated Kaiser Annex Bubble.
“It’s something for our student body for a health and wellness perspective,” Cintorino said.
There are more projects that will be completed in the near future as well.
Groundbreaking for a new engineering building will take place on Sept. 12 and construction is expected to take 24 months.
According to Cintorino, CCSU President Dr. Zulma R. Toro was able to personally assist in the early stages of preparation for this new building.
“With a background in engineering she gave some important insight into this project,” Cintorino said.
He went on to say that he expects the new engineering building to be an attraction for recruiting purposes.
A $22 million renovation project to Henry Barnard Hall is expected to be completed within the next 16 months. Cintorino said he believes this project is overdue and will be received well by the students.
“It was a building that was aged, so it’ll be nice when the students see it again,” Cintorino said.
Another student-oriented development is a 15 thousand sq. ft. addition to the campus library. According to Cintorino that project is still in the programming phase.
“We’re just trying to meet the needs of the students,” Cintorino said.
The recently completed projects have made campus easier for students to navigate this semester, Cintorino said.
“Before kids had to hike all over campus to get what they need,” Cintorino said. “Now it’s all in one place.”
A project to combat issues with parking around campus has just moved beyond the programming stage and is expected to be completed in 18 months.
“It will certainly take some stress off of parking,” Cintorino said.
The plan is for an over 600 space parking garage that will connect to the new Willard-DiLoreto complex through a walkway that passes over Paul Manafort Senior Drive.
Cintorino admitted that construction on campus is a lengthy ordeal but that the process is nearing completion.
“We’re at that point now where it’s all coming together, the money is already there,” Cintorino said. “It’s a long process certainly, but there’s a bright horizon.”
Updates regarding sporting news, programmatic additions, official enrollment numbers and changes pertaining to the handling of sexual misconduct complaints will be coming throughout the next few weeks.

State takes $25M loss on key downtown Hartford apartment redevelopment
Gregory Seay
A heavily subsidized downtown Hartford apartment project that was part of the city’s “six pillars” economic-development plan has fallen into foreclosure and forced the state to take a nearly $25 million haircut on its original investment, the Hartford Business Journal has learned.
The holder of a pair of mortgages secured by downtown Hartford’s The Lofts at Main & Temple apartments and adjacent parcels has been suing to foreclose on the collateral since March, court files show.
Elizon DB Transfer Agent LLC, of Greenwich, is suing in Hartford Superior Court, 18 Temple Street LLC, the entity for whom two loans, totaling $42.6 million, were issued over a decade ago, filings show.
The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), which originated the loans and still services a pair of smaller, related notes, and the state Department and Economic and Community Development, are co-defendants in the March 22 foreclosure lawsuit.

According to the suit, CHFA on June 30, 2004, granted 18 Temple Street LLC -- whose principal was longtime Hartford developer/landlord Marc Levine, who died last October -- two secured loans: one originally for $15.95 million; the other, for $9.35 million. There also exist two smaller loans that are not part of the foreclosure action totaling $5.4 million issued from the former Capital City Economic Development Authority, predecessor to the Capital Region Development Authority.

The two larger notes, the suit says, were issued to construct, and are secured with, a key apartment development in the city’s ambitious six pillars plan, which also led to the construction of the Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford Marriott Downtown and Connecticut Science Center.
The properties listed in the lawsuit include 884-908 Main St., former home to the Sage-Allen Department store, now site of the 78-unit Lofts at Main & Temple apartments; and 29 Temple St., where 42 student townhomes were built.
Those loans have had a troubled history, court records show. One or both were modified at least seven times over a 13-year period starting in 2005. One loan modification, in May 2005, included CHFA increasing the first loan from $15.9 million to $30.5 million so that the developer could erect the student housing, which included 42, four-bedroom townhomes.
That loan was increased again to $34.1 million in Dec. 2006, court records show.

Hazim Taib, CHFA’s chief financial officer, said that once it became clear that Levine’s partnership was struggling to keep current on the notes, CHFA decided to sell them off. It did so, he said, via a competitive bid process in which Elizon DB Transfer emerged the winner and purchased the notes last Nov. 18, the suit states.

At the sale, there was $33.3 million and $9.3 million still outstanding on each mortgage, Taib said.
CHFA sold the pair to Elizon for $18.25 million, meaning the quasi-public housing finance agency took an approximately $24.5 million loss on the loans.
By last Christmas Eve, both mortgages were in default, and Elizon said in its suit that it negotiated a one-month forbearance pact with 18 Temple, forestalling foreclosure.
One month later, on Jan. 31, the forebearance had expired and Elizon said it sent the borrower a Feb. 19 “demand letter,’’ declaring its intent to call the full debt due and payable, the suit said.

Elizon had asked the court in March to, among other things, allow it to immediately foreclose on, and take possession of, the downtown properties securing the debts.

18 Temple Street’s attorney declined comment.
It’s not clear why The Lofts at Main & Temple property has experienced such financial difficulties, but developer sources say the property was overleveraged and the townhouses did not prove popular. However, the main apartment units have seen occupancy rates well into the 90-percent range, sources said.
A new development plan
The Lofts at Main & Temple and adjoining townhomes are now in the redevelopment crosshairs of a new development group that recently proposed a $100 million makeover of the Pratt Street retail corridor, extending to Main Street.

The Pratt St. developers, which include Shelbourne Global LLC, Hartford landlord Martin J. Kenny, of Lexington Partners LLC, and city parking magnate Alan Lazowski, of LAZ Parking, are trying to buy the notes from Elizon so they can take ownership of the properties to convert the student housing into micro apartment units and remodel and add more units to the Lofts at Main & Temple.

 

Ansonia to save more than $1 million on police station project

Jean Falbo-Sosnovich

ANSONIA — The city stands to save nearly $1 million on the new police station project, thanks to a historically low interest rate Ansonia has scored.

That’s the word from Mayor David Cassetti, who said the city secured a 2.1 percent interest rate on a $5 million, 20-year bond for the new police station downtown.

Cassetti said it’s one of the lowest interest rates the city has ever received on a bond issuance.

The bottom line is a $1 million savings for taxpayers on the police station project, made possible by Ansonia’s high grade, AA- rating by Standard and Poor’s, according to Cassetti.

In addition, Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley said the 2.1 percent interest rate obtained by Ansonia “bested nearly every other community that has pursued a similar bond issuance in the past year,” including wealthy cities and towns maintaining a perfect AAA bond rating, including Stamford, which scored a 2.3 percent interest rate; Fairfield at 2.5 percent; Norwalk at 2.6 percent; and Darien at 2.7 percent.

When the city originally presented the $12 million police station project, which residents approved at a November 2016 referendum, the city planned to fund it using a loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, according to O’Malley, the city learned last October that the loan came with a costly, 4 percent interest rate.

“The mayor and his finance team, anticipating that Ansonia’s solid financial condition could result in a lower interest rate, decided to alter course and bond the project,” said O’Malley. “The rate is saving the city $1 million over the USDA option. It is a big victory for the taxpayers, and due to our still high grade AA- investment rating.”

O’Malley said this is the first bond issuance related to the police station project. Expenditures on the project so far, she said, including purchase of the property at 65 Main St., have been funded using Bond Anticipation Notes.

“With significant savings now realized through a historically low interest rate, Mayor Cassetti and his team look forward to proceeding with construction on Ansonia’s new police station project later this fall,” O’Malley said.

The new police headquarters will be built in the former Farrel Corporate headquarters. The current police station is housed in a 123-year old former school on Elm Street, which police and city officials said is dilapidated and beyond its useful life.

The Farrel headquarters will be transformed into a new, state-of-the-art police station, the culmination of much planning and effort by many individuals over the last few years.

The city went out to bid earlier this summer in search of a contractor to handle renovations to the entire building, which will include a new roof, heating and electrical work, as well as purchase and installation of new furniture and equipment to outfit the police station. The bids also included prep work for a new senior center, which will share space in the three-story, 85,000-square-foot building.

The building also includes both an indoor parking garage and an outdoor parking lot.

O’Malley said the city now is working with the lowest bidder, Banton Construction Co. of North Haven, which came in as the lowest bidder at $11,599,000, to finalize a contract for the project for aldermanic approval.

In all, there were nine bidders for the project, according to O’Malley, with the highest bidder coming in at $13.8 million.

The city hopes to get construction started later this month, and expects the new police station to be ready in about a year.

 

Lamont, legislators: Quasi-publics are here to stay

Mark Pazniokas

Gov. Ned Lamont and legislative leaders said after a closed-door meeting Wednesday that mismanagement and contracting irregularities at the Connecticut Port Authority demonstrate a need for greater oversight of quasi-public agencies, not their abandonment.
“We got this group together to think about our quasi-publics,” Lamont said. “I think most of them are running very well, but some of them we’ve had some real issues with, starting with the Port Authority and the Lottery.”
The Connecticut Lottery Corporation is one of several quasi-publics whose severance packages to departing employees have been flagged by state auditors, and Lamont recently ordered a review of the relatively new port authority.
All of the state’s 15 quasi-publics are subject to state audits, and their operations fall under the state ethics code and freedom of information act. But they have more freedom than state agencies in personnel, purchasing and contracting decisions.
Governance of the quasi-publics is periodically questioned by auditors and outside groups, especially over severance issues. Access Health CT, the state’s health exchange, paid out $678,954 in severance without review by the board of directors in 2014 and 2015, according to a May 2019 audit.
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said the lawmakers and Lamont also discussed the payment of bonuses by some quasi-publics, arguing that the agencies must have consistent policies and full transparency on bonuses. Treasurer Shawn Wooden, who sits on the board of some quasi-publics, attended the meeting.
Lamont said the state’s Office of Policy and Management, which prepares the state budget, most likely would be asked to review the quasi-public’s finances and ensure that the agency budgets and other data are available on line.

The concerns raised Wednesday expose the tensions inherent in the expectations of quasi-publics vs. standard state agencies. Quasi-publics are meant to be more nimble and business-like, yet transparent and accountable.Striking a balance between flexibility and consistent standards in quasi-publics has been a struggle and subject to periodic debates. Thirty years ago, the legislature’s now-defunct Program Review and Investigations Committee concluded the quasi-publics played a constructive role, even if they lacked consistent standards.

The committee recommended standards for financial controls, purchasing and personnel management.

“These standards are proposed in the form of recommendations aimed at clarifying the basic nature of quasi-public agencies and ensuring accountability to the state without jeopardizing the freedoms with which they were intentionally created,” the committee wrote.

The legislators said Wednesday they see no fundamental problems with quasi-publics that cannot be addressed by better oversight.
“Quasi public isn’t a bad word, per se,” said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby.  “It’s just how effective it is and efficient moving forward.”
Eight years ago, when the legislature created the Connecticut Airport Authority to run and market Bradley International at the request of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Klarides complained in written public-hearing testimony that the authority would not be sufficiently independent, since its workers still would be state employees.
“There is no need for the Governor or the State of Connecticut to be in the business of running airports or ferry services; we should be trying to shrink the government’s role not increase it,” Klarides wrote.
The airport authority manages Bradley and five general-aviation airports: Brainard in Hartford, Danielson, Groton-New London, Waterbury-Oxford and Windham. It is financed by revenues such as landing and parking fees, terminal rents, rental-car fees, concessions, issuance of bonds, state and federal grants, and other fees.

Until 2011, Bradley and the other state-owned airports fell under the control of the Department of Transportation, as was the case with the deepwater ports of New London, New Haven and Bridgeport before the creation of the port authority through legislation passed in 2014 and 2015.

Lamont said the port authority is the best way for Connecticut to make the ports an integral element of the state economy, despite a recent audit that found its board had failed to establish more than minimal financial controls in its initial operations.“I think the legislature in their wisdom said, ‘Our ports are festering, not much has happened there over the last 50 years.’ They came up with a new vehicle, the port authority,” Lamont said. “I think you’ve seen the  New London port has the best potential to be transformed in many, many a year.”
The State Pier at New London is slated to become the staging area for off-shore wind power in the Atlantic.
The legislature’s Transportation Committee conducted an all-day hearing last month into the operations of the troubled new authority: Its executive director, Evan Mathews, is on leave, and two recent board chairs, Scott Bates and Bonnie Reemsnyder, have resigned in quick succession following a critical audit and press accounts of questionable contracting and hiring practices
Lawmakers have questioned the circumstances surrounding the $3,000 purchase of sound-insulating panels decorated with photographs by Reemsnyder’s daughter for the authority’s new offices in Old Saybrook, while auditors found that the authority had operated its first two years without the most basic of financial controls or personnel rules.
Republican lawmakers have asked that Bates, whose board service was part-time and unpaid, be suspended from his full-time job as the deputy secretary of the state. Republican leaders did not press that request at the meeting Wednesday.