Construction to begin this year on 30 apartment rentals in Blue Hills affordable housing community
Rebecca Lurye HARTFORD — The redevelopment of the old Bowles Park public housing project in Blue Hills may enter its third phase by the end of this year, bringing another 30 rental apartments to what’s now Willow Creek.
The development team behind the affordable housing community, Overlook Village Associates, will spend nearly $16.8 million on the six-acre parcel, which will consist of 24 affordable units and six market-rate apartments when it’s completed in 2022.
Already, two other parcels have been redeveloped on the 61.5-acre property on Granby Street, which Overlook is leasing from the Housing Authority of the City of Hartford.
The 105 units built in Phases I and II are fully occupied and about 150 families are on a wait list for an apartment, according to Imagineers, the property manager and a member of the Overlook Village Associates team.
Phase II, which consists of 43 units, was completed in November 2019. The affordable units are restricted to households earning 25%, 50% and 60% of the median income in the Hartford region — up to $70,260 for a household of six people.
Some of the newest affordable units would be available to households earning 80% of the area’s median income.
The wait list is closed, according to the development’s website.
Willow Creek replaces the old Chester E. Bowles Park project, a 410-unit community that opened in 1950. By the time plans and funding materialized to redevelop the site in 2015, only 86 units were occupied, the rest deemed unfit to live in.
All former Bowles Park residents who were relocated from their homes have had an opportunity to return to Willow Creek
The city of Hartford is offering the developer tax relief on the affordable units. Mayor Luke Bronin is asking the city council to approve a tax abatement agreement that would generate $21,600 annually for the first 15 years.
Taxes on the six market-rate units would increase 2% each year.
Pandemic delays West Haven retail project; ‘heavily invested’ developer says it’s coming
Pam McLoughlin WEST HAVEN - The developer of The Haven assured the City Council this week that the project will be built, but said it has been slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Developer Matt Armstrong said demolition, now in the beginnings, should be completed by the end of next year and construction should start the following year.
“We are heavily, heavily invested in this project,” both financially and in time spent, Armstrong said.
Armstrong spoke and answered questions at the virtual meeting at the request of council Chairman Ron Quagliani, who recently said he wanted an update and timeline on the project. Quagliani said he will expect quarterly updates to be shared with the council going forward.
He and other council members were full of questions, as they receive many questions from constituents.
“While it is clear there is progress being made on this project (environmental remediation, demolition) there are still hurdles to overcome (State approval of a special taxation district, leasing goals),” Quagliani wrote in an email after the meeting. “The project, as many other retail projects, has been slowed by COVID.”
The outdoor waterfront retail and dining center - seen by many as a potential savior for the financially ailing city - has been in the works for more than five years.
It’s a hot topic among city residents, with some expressing doubt the project will become reality because of so many delays and an economy that doesn’t favor brick-and-mortar stores.
Armstrong said remediation and demolition took place in recent weeks at a vacant gas station and will continue on an old check-cashing business, then the Bilco building in late October.
“Everything is going on schedule as planned,” he said of demolition.
He said there has been a delay in a financing transaction with the state to establish a special tax district, but he expects that will be heard in Hartford by the end of the year.
He said that on a national scale, “It’s awfully difficult to get retailers.” He said hopefully when COVID lets up, a focus will return to leasing. Armstrong said a certain percentage has to be leased before construction starts.
“We’re doing everything we can to work our way through this,” Armstrong said.
One council member said he has concerns about the viability of a mall when malls in Milford and Trumbull are struggling.
But Armstrong said The Haven isn’t really a mall - but rather a “retail, dining and entertainment complex.” He said it will be more like an open-air center.
Armstrong said the types of retailers The Haven would have are different and in demand these days.
In answer to another council member’s question, Armstrong said 20-30 percent of The Haven would be food and 70-80 percent retail. He envisions six different dining establishments to include a feature restaurant.
He said they hired a new security and cleanup company and CITY COUNCIL members concurred they are doing a much better job with keeping blight out and securing the area.
Iconic Pirelli building begins transformation, one of 2 major developments underway in New Haven
Maty E. O'Leary NEW HAVEN — This is no cookie-cutter design, something to which the 140,000 drivers who travel past the site daily can attest.
Bruce Redman Becker’s Hotel Marcel, a reuse of the city’s iconic Pirelli building, plans to be open next fall despite the hit the hospitality business has taken since the response to coronavirus pandemic crushed the economy.
Becker said Wednesday that the historical aspect of the building, its unique design, its sustainability features as the first zero-net hotel in the country, and its very visible location alongside Interstate 95 will make for a successful $50 million investment. The hotel will be a Hilton as part of its Tapestry brand. Chesapeake Hospitality, which runs 30-40 hotels on the East Coast, will be the operator.
A day before work on the hotel began, Hine, an international real estate firm, broke ground for its 230 rental apartments and some 5,600 square feet of retail space across two buildings at 630 and 673 Chapel St., yet another construction project underway in New Haven.
The Whit Wooster Square is the first multifamily development in Connecticut for Hine, adding to its 18,000-unit portfolio. Hine took over the project from Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, which put it on the market after years of litigation by a competing developer in New Haven, all of which Spinnaker won. But that slowed its plans as it continued to work on Audubon Square where hundreds of apartments there are now occupied.
Becker, the architect and developer for Hotel Marcel, last was in New Haven when he built 360 State Street, a 30-floor apartment complex downtown with a ground-floor boutique grocery store.
The conversion of the Pirelli building, designed in 1967 by brutalist architect Marcel Breuer, will feature 165 rooms along the perimeter on five of its floors. There will be a restaurant and bar with flexible conference space on the ground floor and parking for 130 cars next to the hotel.
Becker said he will work with the Canal Dock Boathouse across the way on Long Wharf Drive on event planning. He said the hotel will have some 7,000 square feet of conference space.
The building originally was the corporate headquarters for Armstrong Rubber, and then for the Pirelli Tire Co. As part of the historical preservation, Becker said they are retaining the original executive offices on the 8th floor, which will be converted to the nicest suites.
Becker said the biggest intervention in the renovation will be on the 9th floor.
He said when the headquarters was being built for Armstrong, it only wanted a two-story structure. Then-Mayor Richard C. Lee, who was redeveloping the city at the time, wanted something more impressive as the entrance to New Haven off the highway. Becker said an additional 16-foot story was added to the top, reportedly to house the mechanicals for the building, but he said there were only two pieces of equipment there. “It was really done for the scale of the building and was under-purposed, he said.” He said a cooling tower was sunk inside the roof.
Now the plan is to open it up to let light into what will be a meeting room floor with courtyards and gallery space. He said there also will be a small terrace with views of Long Island Sound and the New Haven cityscape.
The Whit Wooster Square is replacing the former Comcast building and also will use space across the street which will partially continue to be a parking for the adjacent Smoothie apartment building. The new apartments will feature a brick facade and steel accents, drawing on the architecture of the former industrial buildings in the area.Another apartment complex, located behind The Whit, is further along in its construction schedule. Both of these buildings are filling in the connection between downtown and the Wooster Square neighborhood.
The Whit will feature a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom residences as well as several two-story, loft-style apartment homes.
The amenities for the complex will include communal workspaces with private offices; a club room with “chill lounge”; and a social dining room and with catering kitchen. The social space will connect to a roof terrace featuring grilling stations, bar and lounge seating, a fire pit and views of the tree-lined Olive Street and Wooster Square Park.An outdoor courtyard at The Whit Wooster Square will feature a resort-style pool; lounge area with fire pit; grilling stations with dining areas; and a connection to the interior club room. An expansive fitness center with a yoga room, coffee bar, bike room and dog wash round out the amenities at The Whit Wooster Square.
“We expect The Whit Wooster Square to bring a new rental experience to this already vibrant enclave of New Haven,” said Grant Jaber, managing director at Hines. “The combination of upscale amenity spaces with thoughtful residence layouts and high-end finishes throughout will set a new benchmark for rental living in the area.”
For the hotel, Becker said it will be one of the first in the country to operate without fossil fuels.“(Given) the climate crisis and global warming, we felt that if we are going to make a commitment (to sustainability) we wanted to develop this building in a way that does not contribute to that problem,” Becker said.
He said they will heat and cool the building with electric high-efficiency VRF air-source heat pumps. Solar power that will be installed on the roof and in solar canopies in the parking lot will provide all the electricity needs. Taken together this will make it a zero-net energy building.
All lighting will be low-voltage DC power-over-ethernet LED technology, cutting energy use for lighting by 30 percent, he said.
As a result of the materials Becker said he is using and the insulation of the building envelope, he said it also will be the first passive house certified hotel in the United States, a standard that has already been adopted in Europe.
Another sustainability goal is LEED Platinum certification, which he said only 10 of the 80,000 hotels in the United States have earned.
Hotel Marcel is being financed with a $25 million loan from Liberty Bank; Bank of America is investing in historic tax credits, and United Illuminating is providing some funding to help meet the developer’s energy goals. Connecticut Innovation extended a tax exemption on materials.
Chris Green of Chesapeake Hospitality said the hotel will be recognized nationwide and maybe worldwide for its sustainability features and commitment to being a passive house.
“That doesn’t just happen in the hotel environment,” Green said. “I think the New Haven community is going to experience something that they didn’t believe was possible in this hotel.”
Given the pressure on the hospitality industry now, “making this kind of statement and this kind of commitment matters to the hospitality industry.”
Chris Arnold, senior vice president of commercial real estate at Liberty Building, said they are investing in the hotel for a number of reasons. He said they wanted to be associated with something that is “very important to New Haven in terms of redeveloping an historic landmark.”
He said it has unique attributes being located at the juncture of Interstates 95 and 91 with its high traffic count. He said the sustainability features will appeal to people at Yale University and visitors going there, as well as Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition, Arnold said it will be a good meeting place for business people coming from New York and Boston.
New Haven as a whole needs additional hotels, he said. Arnold said the Hilton reservation system is very strong and will drive occupancy. He said there will be shuttle buses to downtown.
Kraemer Sims Becker, Bruce Becker’s wife and business partner, said the Hotel Marcel project “synthesizes everything Bruce has been about. It is really his passion for design, historic preservation, green energy, green architecture. The other part is he is so committed to Connecticut,” having grown up in New Canaan. “He has made such a commitment to Connecticut cities.”
“It all comes together in this building,” Kraemer Becker said.
Farewells and bipartisan votes in a special House session
Mark Pazniokas Partisanship took a holiday Wednesday as the House of Representatives confirmed judicial nominations, passed bills and bid farewell to leaders of both parties in its last scheduled meeting before a new legislature takes office in January.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, were among the departing lawmakers to make final speeches to an audience limited by COVID-19 precautions.
The Republican minority had questioned the need for the session, but they mostly voted with the Democrats on a series of bills negotiated to generate maximum support and minimum debate a month before the Nov. 3 election.
The highest-profile measure was a legislative response to a massive blackout after Tropical Storm Isaias in August. It directs regulators to implement a performance-based rate system that would favor ratepayers over shareholders.
House Bill 7006, the measure dubbed “Take Back Our Grid,” passed on a vote of 136-4 and is likely to be featured in campaign mailers.
It would require utilities to pay customers $25 for each day power is out beyond 96 consecutive hours, $250 for lost food and medicine if power is out for that period of time, and would begin a process aimed at providing more reliable staffing levels for storm response.
While Gov. Ned Lamont strongly backed the regulatory bill, his administration’s priority was House Bill 7001, a technical measure aimed at simplifying assessing liability for pollution on properties as they are sold. The rewrite of the so-called Transfer Act came after a study finished in February.
Rep. Caroline Simmons, D-Stamford, co-chair of the Commerce Committee, said 4,200 properties are in limbo due to the Transfer Act. She called the measure pro-environment protection and pro-economic growth, because it frees some properties for sale and focuses more attention on “high-risk properties.”
COVID forced an end to the regular session in March, setting the stage for a special session in July and a final one this week. On Wednesday, most lawmakers monitored the debates from their offices. Those in the chamber wore masks.
Most of nine bills taken up passed on unanimous votes, as did the confirmations of Christine E. Keller to the Supreme Court and Joan K. Alexander, José A. Suarez and Melanie L. Cradle to the Appellate Court. Others passed on lopsided votes.
The exception was a school construction bill with $189 million funding for a new Norwalk High School sought by Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. Republicans tried to strike the project from the bill, saying Duff was seeking to go outside the normal review process. Their amendment failed, 86-51. The bill passed, 99-38, after midnight.
House Bill 7005, which is intended to quicken the counting of absentee ballots, was approved, 139-5. It also creates an election monitor for Bridgeport.
House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said overwhelming votes reflected weeks of negotiations, helped by a friendly tone set by a series of tributes to departing legislators on both sides of the aisle.
The two caucus leaders, Aresimowicz and Klarides, struggled for composure as they referred to each other as friendly adversaries. They talked about mutual respect for those who put their names on the ballot and serve.
Aresimowicz started to speak of leaving, then paused to gather himself.“It’s going to be a lot harder than I thought,” said Aresimowicz, an AFSCME official and high school football coach in Berlin.
“I can’t do this,” Klarides said, laughing and dabbing her eyes. “I will just say it’s been the honor of my life.”
Republicans came within four seats of winning a 76-75 majority in 2016, the closest Klarides came to unseating her friend, Aresimowicz, as speaker. Democrats rebounded in 2018, helped by the galvanizing effect Donald J. Trump’s win had on the Democratic base. The General Assembly has not been immune to the increasing polarization of U.S. politics, but a majority of its bills pass on bipartisan votes ,and the leadership has largely avoided the brinkmanship that has become a routine feature of congressional politics.
Aresimowicz briefly referred the previous night’s ugly presidential debate, saying that was not politics as practiced in the Connecticut General Assembly.
Ritter will succeed Aresimowicz as the top Democrat. Deputy Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, has the support to succeed Klarides.
After the tributes, Ritter and Candelora huddled to review the rest of the day’s agenda.
“Many of these bills were discussed and worked out on a bipartisan basis, so we’re going to have unanimity,” Candelora said. “And frankly I think a big factor also is the time of the year, being five weeks out from an election where you have a lot of contention. I think nobody is interested at the state level to duplicate the behavior that’s going on at the federal level.”
The electric regulation bill was negotiated by the Democratic co-chairs and Republican ranking members of the Energy and Technology Committee. It was the only measure that generated significant debate, most of it reflecting anger at the state’s two major electric utilities, Eversource Energy and United Illuminating.
“The utility put their shareholders as their number one priority,” said Rep. David Arconti, D-Danbury, the energy co-chair.
The bill would shift the balance toward ratepayers and direct the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to consider penalizing bad performance by limiting what executive compensation can be reflected in rates, he said.
“It’s a fine line to try to walk, especially when it comes to energy policy,” Arconti said. “They are the regulators. They take their direction from us, the policy makers. So that’s what we tried to accomplish in this bill.”
The Senate is expected to take up the bills Thursday.
Other bills on the agenda Wednesday:
- House Bill 7002. It revises fees for judicial marshals.
- House Bill 7003. This revises the state’s hemp program to comply with U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations.
- House Bill 7004. It clarifies that condominiums are eligible for the special loans available for the repair of buildings affected by crumbling foundations due to a mineral, pyrrhotite.
- House Bill 7007. The bill, which have made changes how the prevailing wage is set, was the only legislation not taken up.
- House Bill 7008. The measure revises the states environmental justice law.
- House Bill 7009. The bill, among other things, extends by five years the deadline for Bridgeport’s Steel Point Infrastructure Improvement District to issue bonds.
- House Bill 7010. This bill authorizes 12 school construction grants totaling $209.2 million toward total project costs of $501.3 million.
Council of Small Towns warns of prevailing wage bill in special session
Marc E Fitch A bill that would determine prevailing wage rates for large building and highway construction based on “dominant collective bargaining agreements” will likely be voted on by the legislature during special session.
Although much attention has been paid to a number of other bills up for vote, An Act Codifying Prevailing Wage Contract Rates could impact the cost of large-scale public building projects and highway construction in Connecticut.
Gov. Ned Lamont referred to “Providing greater protection for employees in occupations engaged in construction on certain non-residential building, heavy, or highway works projects in Connecticut,” as one of the issues to be considered during special session.
Connecticut’s prevailing wage laws establish a base wages and benefits that must be paid to employees working on public projects that are estimated to cost over $1 million, regardless of whether or not the employees are unionized.
The prevailing wage rate is determined yearly by the Connecticut Department of Labor Commissioner based on hearings held to determine the prevailing wage in a particular town or wage rates determined by the United States Secretary of Labor under the Davis-Bacon Act.
However, the prevailing wage bill – originally Senate Bill 350 – would add in that the prevailing wage shall be determined by “the dominant collective bargaining agreement,” in a municipality that has more than one collective bargaining agreement in effect for each trade or occupation involved in a project.
Labor leaders and Department of Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby testified in support of the bill before the Labor and Public Employees Committee in March, saying the measure was necessary to allow Connecticut to determine prevailing wage rates rather than waiting on guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.
CT AFL-CIO President Sal Luciano also expressed concern that changes to U.S. DOL’s methodology for determining wage rates could be “made to artificially drive down wages.”
“SB 350 will protect our state’s construction industry from mismanagement within the U.S. DOL and from any attempts to artificially drive down wages,” Luciano testified.
Municipal organizations, however, are concerned the changes could drive up costs for municipalities, the state and taxpayers.
The Connecticut Council of Small Towns warned in an email and in testimony that side-stepping the U.S. DOL and use of a “Union Dominance Rate” would drive up taxpayer costs.
“Under this proposal, prevailing wage rates must be in lockstep with wage rates dictated by union contracts, which will significantly increase costs for state and municipal projects,” COST Executive Director Betsy Gara wrote in an email.
The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities also said they believed the change could increase construction costs for municipalities and asked that a fiscal analysis be conducted before they could offer any support.
In her testimony before the Labor and Public Employees Committee in March, Gara cited the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, which found that Massachusetts and New York both set prevailing wage rates based on collective bargaining agreements, rather than the U.S. DOL.
Both Massachusetts and New York’s prevailing wage rates were generally higher, although for some trades the rates the rates were lower in different localities. OLR wrote that discounting electricians, “Connecticut’s rates range from $12.64 to $18.01 less than the highest rates paid to a particular occupation.
Municipalities successfully lobbied to have the prevailing wage threshold for new municipal projects raised from $400,000 to $1 million in 2017, saying the state mandate inflates the costs and prevents municipal leaders from obtaining the best price for construction. The new threshold however, does not apply to renovation work.
The Office of Fiscal Analysis wrote that the change in the prevailing wage threshold would result in “significant savings to the state and municipalities primarily in bond funds (debt service payments) for new construction and renovation projects valued below these thresholds.”
SB 350 was passed out of committee on March 10 just before the legislature shut down due to the pandemic and is now being brought back to life in special session with some possible changes, according to sources.
Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, criticized the calling of a special session to pass bills that he said could easily wait until the 2021 legislative session.
“Based upon this agenda, there is no need for a special session right now when nearly all of these bills could wait for the regular session to allow for more thought and public input,” Fasano said in a press statement. “I am honestly surprised that Democrats want to bring so many people to the building to vote on bills that are not fully vetted by the public and that can wait for the regular session.”