SUSAN CORICA
BRISTOL – The city is seeking to partner with New Colony Development Fund to clean up and renovate the Sessions Building brownfield property at 273 Riverside Ave., which is considered a gateway to downtown.
The Board of Finance granted a request by Justin Malley, the city’s Economic and Community Development executive director, for a bid waiver and $100,000 so the city can get to work with New Colony, which Malley said is one of the few land banks in Connecticut.
Rather than foreclosing on the property, working with a land bank will allow the city to avoid legal liability for the pollution there, he said.
“We’ve been working on Sessions for over 10 years, maybe 15,” Malley said. “We’ve gotten to a point where we learned where the bad stuff is and what it’s going to cost to remove it - to the tune of about $1.5 million.”
The building is a 80,000 square foot, blighted, very under-utilized factory building on a key downtown gateway, According to Malley. He also said that they knew there was something better destined for that building, but they have these challenges.
In addition to the site pollution, Malley said the Sessions family, who own the property, are in tax arrears for almost $1 million.
“They are cooperating with us, and I think the whole group understands it’s a real challenge,” said Malley.
Malley explained that land banks are fairly new in Connecticut and there aren’t many here.
“One of the things they do is they are able to take possession of these troubled properties so that we don’t have to as a municipality. Land banks are the only entity that can take it on our behalf, hold it while the property is cleaned, and eventually hand it off to the developer,” he said.
Bristol was working with one land bank but the director retired so now the city developing a relationship with New Colony, he said. “The president is Dale Kroop, who was the economic development chief in Hamden for 25-30 years. He’s somebody I respect a great deal.”
Last January, the City Council approved a plan to redevelop the Sessions Building into market rate apartments, through a public-private partnership between Vesta Corp. and the Bristol Housing Authority.
Vesta Corp. is a Weatogue-based owner, manager, and developer of apartment housing, including more than 20,000 housing units in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The project will differ from other BHA projects, as it will be not be subsidized for lower-income earners.
Their construction partner will be D’Amato Construction and the architect will be Quisenberry, Arcari and Malik of Farmington.
Arthur Greenblatt, Vesta CEO/president, told the council the plan is for 91 apartments, “pretty much even split between one and two bedroom. We’re estimating they would be somewhere between $1,100 and $1,500 out in 2022, when we think the first units will become available.”
“Riverside Avenue is a very critical corridor for us as it leads into downtown and it’s going to be our focus for the next two to three years,” Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu told Greenblatt at the time. “As you develop your project we’ll be working with the other property owners there as well.”
The Sessions Building sits on 3.54 acres. Built in 1907, it was the site of a trunk hardware manufacturing business which used heavy metal compounds in the painting and plating operations.
Since the Sessions Co. ceased operations in 1984, other industrial users have leased space in the building, including Armaloy and Plymouth Spring. The building is still owned and operated by members of the Sessions family.
In past 15 years, the city, with support from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Connecticut, has done several environmental site assessments at the site. The most recent, in 2017, concluded that remediation would cost at least $1.4 million.
Rather than foreclosing on the property, working with a land bank will allow the city to avoid legal liability for the pollution there, he said.
“We’ve been working on Sessions for over 10 years, maybe 15,” Malley said. “We’ve gotten to a point where we learned where the bad stuff is and what it’s going to cost to remove it - to the tune of about $1.5 million.”
The building is a 80,000 square foot, blighted, very under-utilized factory building on a key downtown gateway, According to Malley. He also said that they knew there was something better destined for that building, but they have these challenges.
In addition to the site pollution, Malley said the Sessions family, who own the property, are in tax arrears for almost $1 million.
“They are cooperating with us, and I think the whole group understands it’s a real challenge,” said Malley.
Malley explained that land banks are fairly new in Connecticut and there aren’t many here.
“One of the things they do is they are able to take possession of these troubled properties so that we don’t have to as a municipality. Land banks are the only entity that can take it on our behalf, hold it while the property is cleaned, and eventually hand it off to the developer,” he said.
Bristol was working with one land bank but the director retired so now the city developing a relationship with New Colony, he said. “The president is Dale Kroop, who was the economic development chief in Hamden for 25-30 years. He’s somebody I respect a great deal.”
Last January, the City Council approved a plan to redevelop the Sessions Building into market rate apartments, through a public-private partnership between Vesta Corp. and the Bristol Housing Authority.
Vesta Corp. is a Weatogue-based owner, manager, and developer of apartment housing, including more than 20,000 housing units in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The project will differ from other BHA projects, as it will be not be subsidized for lower-income earners.
Their construction partner will be D’Amato Construction and the architect will be Quisenberry, Arcari and Malik of Farmington.
Arthur Greenblatt, Vesta CEO/president, told the council the plan is for 91 apartments, “pretty much even split between one and two bedroom. We’re estimating they would be somewhere between $1,100 and $1,500 out in 2022, when we think the first units will become available.”
“Riverside Avenue is a very critical corridor for us as it leads into downtown and it’s going to be our focus for the next two to three years,” Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu told Greenblatt at the time. “As you develop your project we’ll be working with the other property owners there as well.”
The Sessions Building sits on 3.54 acres. Built in 1907, it was the site of a trunk hardware manufacturing business which used heavy metal compounds in the painting and plating operations.
Since the Sessions Co. ceased operations in 1984, other industrial users have leased space in the building, including Armaloy and Plymouth Spring. The building is still owned and operated by members of the Sessions family.
In past 15 years, the city, with support from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Connecticut, has done several environmental site assessments at the site. The most recent, in 2017, concluded that remediation would cost at least $1.4 million.
State Pier occupants granted another extension to stay
Greg Smith and Julia Bergman
New London — The two commercial fishermen and a major local road salt distributor based at State Pier are once again being granted extensions to stay at the facility as plans for a finalized move are still in motion.
Pier operator Gateway is allowing DRVN Enterprises to remain on the premises for several more weeks, and it is negotiating an agreement to allow DRVN to stay through December to have more time to sell the 90,000 tons of salt it still has at the facility and find a new location, said David Kooris, interim chairman of the board of the Connecticut Port Authority, which is responsible for the care, custody and control of the port property.
Kooris said any new agreement would stipulate that DRVN could not bring any more salt to the facility. The company currently is in the process of moving its salt from its current location at the pier to what is known as the Central Vermont Railroad, or CV, Pier so that testing and boring can be done as part of the $157 million redevelopment plan to ready State Pier for use by the offshore wind industry.
The two commercial fishermen working off CV Pier also will be offered an extension, Kooris said, but that offer has not been formally made yet.
The extensions come as a July 31 deadline for vacancy at State Pier was looming. The original deadline was March 31, which was extended by four months in part because the port is still occupied by Skanska, a company using the pier as a staging area for the multimillion-dollar construction project at Electric Boat. Skanska was able to cover basic costs of security and insurance at the site.
The current agreement with Skanska goes through August, and the company might get a “modest further extension as long as their footprint can be managed in a way that doesn’t affect the (redevelopment) project,” Kooris said.
The port authority previously had approved an extension of a contract with AECOM, an engineering firm initially hired to oversee permitting and predevelopment work at State Pier, to explore potential sites for the two commercial fishing outfits that have worked from CV Pier for nearly two decades.
Kooris said the fishermen will be able to stay at CV Pier on a month-to-month basis while the City of New London and the New London Port Authority find a location for them to relocate to in the short term, with AECOM still working on a permanent solution.
AECOM has identified at least four locations in New London: a spot under the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, two sites at Fort Trumbull and another on the city’s waterfront, at the end of the Bank Street Connector. Docks would need to be built at most of the locations, which would drive up costs. The city’s port authority is likely to make recommendations to the Connecticut Port Authority on what is most feasible.
New London Seafood owner Gary Yerman, whose operation has worked out of Fort Trumbull since 1989 and who has a long-term lease with the city, said there is room at his location for the fishermen but the pier is in dire need of infrastructure upgrades. He recently sent a letter to the two fishermen with rental estimates.
Representatives from the fishermen at CV Pier, Montville-based Donna May Fisheries and Waterford-based Out of Our Shell Enterprises, could not be reached to comment.
Mayor Michael Passero said the pier at Fort Trumbull is in line to receive $3 million in upgrades. The money was first promised by Deepwater Wind and the commitment was later honored by Ørsted, which purchased Deepwater. There had been some controversy when the Connecticut Port Authority discussed using that money to solve the problem of relocating the fishermen. Passero said he has received assurances the money will be directed to the Fort Trumbull pier.
The only short-term solution to moving the fishermen, Passero said, is the Custom House Pier on the city's waterfront. He said the pier could accommodate the fishermen on a temporary basis but he expects a commitment from the port authority to relocate them permanently. Custom House Pier is the designated location for a new waterside restaurant, a venture that required numerous approvals and negotiations with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and other agencies. The restaurant is expected to move in next spring.
DRVN owner Steven Farrelly could not be reached to comment. The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments last month wrote a letter of support for DRVN to DEEP, expressing concerns about how difficult and costly it will be to procure salt during the winter months if DRVN were forced out of business. Farrelly has said he has yet to find a suitable location to move the salt and continue his business, given that it depends on access to the deepwater port.
New housing activity in CT takes a tumble in June