NEWINGTON - The Anna Reynolds School Project Building
Committee is discussing whether to move forward with renovating the old
building or whether building a new one would be a better option.
One of the town’s contracted construction companies,
Newfield Construction, brought forward the possibility that building a new
building may cost less than renovating the almost 70 year old building as new,
which was the option that passed a referendum vote last year.
Chair of the committee Stephen Woods said the committee
looked “in depth” at the possibility of building a new building early on in the
process, but discounted that option for a variety of reasons, including time
and cost. He does not believe Newfield Construction has presented any
information that would change the committee’s recommendation.
“As far as I’m concerned, the decision has been made. We’re
moving down the path of renovating as new,” Woods said.
Newfield Construction Project Executive Tom DeMauro
presented a chart of the potential costs of building a new building versus
renovating as new at the committee’s latest meeting Thursday. Renovating as new
means the building will receive the same certifications new buildings have to
have once the renovation is completed.
The chart suggested it would cost the town more to renovate
as new, mostly because of a reimbursement penalty from the state for having a
greater square footage than allowed.
However, Woods said a representative from the state’s Office
of School Construction Grants & Review assured him they would not penalize
the town for that space because it is an inherited building.
Woods also pointed out the potential new building that
Newfield Construction presented would only have about 54,000 square feet of
usable space, whereas the current building has about 63,000 square feet. He
said the school needs all the space they currently have.
Michael Camillo, one of the town council representatives on
the committee, said he believes the school could function with less space than
it currently has. Camillo also believes the committee needs more information
before discounting Newfield Construction’s idea. He joined the committee
recently, and he believes they did not do enough testing beforehand, so they do
not have enough information to make a decision.
“I want all the information that should’ve come out a couple
years ago,” Camillo said. “When you start a new project you should do your
homework and figure out everything, but that wasn’t done.”
Camillo is not certain whether building a new building is
the best option, but he has concerns about construction happening in the same
building where children are learning. He also worries a renovated building may
not last as long as a new one, and if constructing of a new building would
potentially cost less, it might be the best option.
“Why wouldn’t you give the kids a brand new state-of-the-art
school?” Camillo asked.
Newfield Construction also said building a new building may
take less time than renovating the current building as new, but it is unclear
if that is true because of the time it takes to bring the project back to a
referendum vote and to secure the new permits.
The discussion of whether to change course has not slowed
down the process of preparing to renovate the current building, Woods said.
At the meeting, some residents expressed concern that
Newfield Construction was pushing too hard for a new building and may not be
the right partner for the project if they decide to renovate as new. DeMauro
told the Herald he was just trying to present the town with information.
“It doesn’t matter to us which they do. It’s up to the
town,” DeMauro said.
Bridgeport: Roadwork at Boston, Seaview avenues not linked to Remington Woods development
BRIDGEPORT — After over two decades the city is moving
forward with improvements to the intersection of Seaview and Boston avenues and
Bond Street that were originally connected with a proposed office park at the
nearby Remington Woods/Lake Success property.
The public facilities department recently advertised for the
roadwork and is examining the responses from three contractors ahead of
awarding the bid.
Meanwhile Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration has insisted the
effort — most of it paid for with around $10 million in long-dormant federal
earmarks — is for the benefit of the new Warren Harding High School and
surrounding neighborhood, and should not be misinterpreted as a sign Remington
Wood’s private owner is moving forward with any redevelopment there.
“I don’t know what the original intent (of the roadwork)
was. This is a 20-, 25-year-old earmark received and never acted on,” City
Engineer Jon Urquidi said.
Urquidi said the opening of the new Harding building three
years ago along Bond Street on the former General Electric site resulted in “a
lot of congestion issues” in that area, with Seaview Avenue “in pretty poor
shape” from years of underground utility work and from neglect.
According to the state Department of Transportation, the
project’s scope includes the realignment of the intersection at Seaview and
Barnum avenues, “pavement rehabilitation, drainage improvements, replacement
and upgrade of traffic signal equipment, new sidewalks and streetscape
enhancements,” along with the reconstruction of over half of Bond Street up to
Stewart Street.
“It’s the full kind of gamut of civil improvements,” Urquidi
said.
But when originally envisioned in the late 1990s, according
to the DOT’s records, those improvements were linked to an effort to transform
part of the Remington Arms Co.’s one-time blue collar munitions test site at
Remington Woods/Lake Success into a white collar business park.
“Our design is not intending to absorb any traffic” from any
future redevelopment, Urquidi said.
The 420-acre property, partially located in Stratford, is
currently owned by a subsidiary of Dupont Corporation and the focus of a
years-long cleanup of industrial contamination involving the state Department
of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
The
office park concept has languished for two decades and been consistently
opposed by neighbors and conservation groups who want to preserve as
much of the natural habitat in the woods as possible. The Sierra
Club has dubbed the land “Bridgeport’s urban forest (and) lungs” and
argued it should be saved for cleaner air as well as educational and passive
recreational opportunities.
A Dupont spokesperson did not return requests for comment
about future uses. According to the state DEEP, remediation work continues,
particularly at Lake Success with the “processing of ... sediments in order to
separate remaining discarded military munitions.” That is scheduled for
completion in March 2023.
Urquidi said Dupont was recently consulted on the Seaview
plans.
“When we design things like this we have to take into
account future (traffic) volumes,” he said. “They said there’s no traffic
volume from anything we develop.” He said in the past it has been suggested
vehicles would enter an office park from the Stratford side.
“I can’t say what they’re development intent is. It’s private
property. I suppose they could do whatever they want,” Urquidi added of Dupont.
“But from the city’s perspective, we’re building this for safety improvements,
roadway improvements, pedestrians and bikes.”
When last year Urquidi and staff from Bridgeport’s economic
development office briefed City Council members on the planned revival of the
long-in-limbo Seaview/Barnum/Bond work, they were met with suspicion the end
goal was Remington’s redevelopment.
“I really feel that’s the reason,” Councilman Matthew
McCarthy said.
“The people in this district don’t want Remington Woods
developed,” said Councilwoman Maria Pereira.
William Coleman, Bridgeport’s deputy director of economic
development, responded at the time, “The Seaview Avenue project is really
envisioned as one that will create a better and safer network of roads for
local uses.”
“It’s not Dupont’s driveway,” Coleman said. “It’s not.”
He also noted that the city’s 10-year master plan adopted in
2019 deemphasized building at Remington.
That online
document states that “significant areas, such as the Remington
Woods/Lake Success property, present the city with a chance to increase its
publicly accessible open space and protected natural habitat, while also
generating opportunities for economic development.”
The plan goes on to specify that the city will work in
partnership with Dupont and “interested conservation groups ... to advance the
environmental clean-up and reuse of this site in ways that may advance the
preservation of, and public access to, the urban forest.”
With apartment boom still raging, Greater Hartford developers focus on amenities to lure tenants
Residents at the new 160-unit Cromwell apartment complex
dubbed The Landon will have access to an upscale fitness center, coworking
space and a dog spa, in addition to other perks.
About 5,000 square feet of the complex is dedicated to such
amenities.
Up to about a decade ago a building with all those bells and
whistles outside a major city would likely be an outlier, said Michael
Belfonti, CEO of Hamden-based Belfonti Cos., which developed the Landon. But
today, such features are necessary to compete for tenants.
“In the old days, if people could buy, they would never rent
— rent was thought of as a second alternative,” Belfonti said. “That’s not the
case anymore.”
In an effort to serve a combination of empty nesters and
well-healed Millennials who are renting apartments instead of buying houses,
Belfonti and other developers with projects in Greater Hartford say that
highly-amenitized buildings are becoming their default.
And as many white-collar workers shift to a hybrid work
setup in which they spend more time at home, features that once seemed opulent
are becoming necessary to attract such tenants.
The trend of developers including more amenities in new
residential buildings predates COVID-19 and the resulting work-from-home
arrangements. A study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard found
renters with a household income of at least $75,000 accounted for
three-quarters of the growth in U.S. renters between 2010 and 2018, a period
during which apartment dwellers grew by 3.2 million.
Hartford-based developer Marty Kenny said that for about a
decade developers seemed to be trying to outdo each other by including
increasingly extravagant features to buildings and complexes geared toward
young professionals and empty nesters.
“The amenities thing for a while was like a nuclear arms
race,” said Kenny, president of Lexington Partners LLC. “Some of it’s silly,
like do I really need a rock climbing wall in my building?”
But the market appears to have reached a new normal in which
market-rate apartment developments cannot, for example, simply stick a
treadmill and dumbbells in an open area to serve as a gym, and still be
competitive.
Fitness centers with state-of-the-art equipment and common
areas for socializing are must-haves for new complexes, Kenny said.
In June 2020, tenants started moving into The Borden, a
$32-million apartment complex Lexington Partners developed on the Silas Deane
Highway in Wethersfield. The five-story, 111-unit building includes a fitness
center that has a golf simulator, rooftop lounge and pet spa.
It only took about five months for the building — which is
currently advertising a studio unit for $1,560 per month and a two-bedroom at
$3,068 — to reach 95% occupancy, Kenny said.
“Renters now aren’t renters by necessity, they’re renters by
choice,” Kenny said. “People are looking for a social life, and for amenities
that distinguish an apartment building from an ordinary… apartment complex.”
Critical lifestyle
If the market for multifamily housing was trending toward
more amenities before COVID-19, the pandemic has increased the importance of
features like coworking spaces and yoga studios, said Randy Salvatore, founder
and CEO of Stamford-based RMS Cos.
As white-collar employers in Greater Hartford and across the
country are largely converting their workforce to hybrid schedules, allowing
employees to work from home at least one or two days per week, renters seem to
be opting for buildings that have common areas for work and recreation,
Salvatore said.
RMS is currently building the North Crossing development in
downtown Hartford near Dunkin’ Donuts Park. The project’s $50 million first
phase will include 270 apartment units at the corner of Main and Trumbull
streets. It will also have about 14,000 square feet of space housing amenities like
a gym with interactive training screens — similar to Peloton — outdoor grilling
areas and a bowling alley.
There will also be a rooftop deck with views inside the
baseball stadium.
The targeted renters are people who may start the day
working from their apartment, migrate to a coworking area for coffee and a
change of scenery, take a break to work out at the gym and finish their day on
the rooftop, where they can relax and socialize once they’re done with work.
“These are critical lifestyle things that are so much more
than ... the four walls where you’re going to sleep,” Salvatore said. “We’re
elevating things because of the amount of time people are now spending in their
apartments.”
Many prospective tenants won’t even look at buildings
without 5G internet, not amenable to pets and that lack at least some upscale
features in common areas, said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the
quasi-public Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA). But now-a-days, many
are also seeking out an urban lifestyle complete with easy access to
transportation, and restaurants and entertainment within walking distance.
In the past, young professionals working in Hartford opted
for buildings in nearby suburbs like Manchester and Rocky Hill, said Freimuth,
who has overseen the conversion of downtown office buildings into more than
2,000 residential units in recent years.
That’s not really the case anymore, he said.
“Today, they’re more likely to be headed to downtown
[Hartford], and are comfortable with downtown,” Freimuth said. “The folks who
are coming downtown are generally new to the area … [and] receptive to urban
living.”
City living
For Kenny’s two current projects in downtown Hartford, urban
living is the main amenity the buildings offer, he said.
Kenny is part of a development team — that also includes LAZ
Parking’s Alan Lazowski and Shelbourne Global Solutions — that is converting a
former office building at 99 Pratt St. and 196 Trumbull St. into 127
residential housing units, and will break ground on a project converting 42
townhouses on Temple Street into multi-tenant apartment buildings in September.
As the projects move forward, Kenny and partners are also trying to revitalize
Pratt Street in an effort to make the area a draw for prospective urbanites.
In order for downtown buildings to really attract the rising
demographic of renters-by-choice, the city will need to add more restaurants,
entertainment and retail options, Kenny said.
There is a window of opportunity for growth, Kenny said,
with a number of residential buildings set to come online in the coming months
and years, and vacant commercial and office buildings in the area. If the right
mix of arts and entertainment venues, restaurants and services open to serve
people moving into apartments, every downtown apartment building will be able
to offer prospective tenants the city living they desire without the price tag
of New York or Boston.
Kenny said a tenant at one downtown Hartford building
Lexington owns, Spectra Pearl, moved from an apartment in New York’s Theater
District into a penthouse unit in Hartford.
“He’s found something where he has a quality of life he
didn’t have,” Kenny said. “He’s got more space, and he’s still living an urban
lifestyle.”
Pandemic doesn’t slow CT private college campus expansion plans
Michelle France
Colleges in Connecticut and nationwide have been in a campus
construction arms race for years — spending billions of dollars annually to
build shiny new buildings in hopes of attracting potential student recruits.
And it appears not even a global pandemic will slow those
efforts, as three Greater Hartford colleges — University of Hartford,
University of St. Joseph and Wesleyan University — prepare to debut, or start
construction on, newly renovated or brand new, multimillion-dollar facilities.
And while the new buildings are located on different
campuses and in different parts of the state, they all share one thing in
common — they’re catering to growing degree programs in health care, science
and technology.
Those are all sectors that are expected to see significant
job growth in the years ahead, and have become major competitive areas for
local colleges, which have been increasingly fighting over a shrinking consumer
base.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment
in computer and information technology occupations, for example, are projected
to grow 11% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all job
categories. The labor bureau projects there will be more than 531,000 new
jobs during that time.
Employment in healthcare occupations are also projected to
grow faster than average, according to the labor bureau, which estimates jobs
in health care will grow 15% by 2029, adding 2.4 million new jobs.
Growing opportunity
Nursing is the largest healthcare program at the University
of Hartford, but the school is also seeing an increase in students seeking
other related programs like physical therapy, respiratory care and radiologic
technology, said Cesarina Thompson, the school’s dean of the college of
education, nursing and health professions.
For those reasons, the private college built The Francis X.
and Nancy Hursey Center for Advanced Engineering and Health Professions, which
is on track to debut later this month.
The school is spending $58 million on recent construction
projects including the new 60,000-square-foot building and upgrades to other
classrooms and lab space on campus.
The University of St. Joseph (USJ) in West Hartford had the
same idea when it expanded and renovated a nursing education and simulation
center at the college.
USJ President Rhona Free said the college has seen the
greatest growth in healthcare programs, including nursing, health science,
nutrition, exercise science, public health, pharmacy and physician assistant.
“That’s where we see the most interest from students and
where we see great workforce needs, so we really wanted to make sure we were
providing outstanding education in those areas and that requires having the
right facilities,” said Free.
In the last four years, healthcare and science majors, such
as biochemistry and biology, have increased from representing 45% of USJ’s
student population to 49%, for a total of 1,200 students, she said.
Meantime, Wesleyan University, the private, liberal-arts
college located in the heart of Middletown, is planning to build a new $255
million, 193,000-square-foot science center that would replace its aging
Hall-Atwater Laboratory building.
“It’s not adequate for the admissions of the laboratory work
and the teaching of sciences that we want to continue in the future,”
said Wesleyan President Michael Roth of the preexisting structure.
While the project is still in the design phase, it’s on
track to move into construction planning this fall, Roth said, with the
project’s debut still a few years away.
New buildings, new offerings
The plans for Wesleyan’s new science center, which will make
room for a new environmental studies program and a minor in integrated design,
engineering and applied science, come before the school finishes another large
renovation of its Public Affairs Center. That $55 million project began in June
and should be completed in 2024, according to Roth.
While the size of the Public Affairs Center will remain the
same, the renovated space will offer advanced learning in programs such as
computational analysis in campaign advertising, machine learning and artificial
intelligence, Roth said.
“This will serve more of our students and classes than any
other building on campus,” he said.
The University of Hartford’s new Hursey Center will feature
technology-focused labs for advanced studies in areas such as robotics, 3D
printing, mechanical engineering and cybersecurity. It will also include
several labs, such as a simulation suite, to advance the school’s health
sciences programs.
Specialty insurer Hartford Steam Boiler recently announced
it was sponsoring an Internet of Things lab at the new building that will be
equipped with smart technology capabilities, giving UHart students hands-on
training with sensors and other related technology.
The new facility also created a path for the school to offer
two new programs: exercise science and occupational therapy, according to
Thompson.
The University of St. Joseph’s newly renovated and expanded
Center for Nursing Excellence will grow the school’s lab space and move toward
simulation learning, Free said.
For example, the school will now offer students learning on
high-fidelity manikins, which can mimic human body functions, like breathing,
heart palpitations and a pulse rate.
Health care, however, is not the only growing program at the
school, Free said, adding that USJ has also had an increase in students
interested in athletics or fitness.
To meet this demand, the school spent about $16.2 million to
renovate and expand its O’Connell Athletic Center that will double in size to
31,000 square feet.
Funding strategies
The colleges have taken various routes to fund their
projects, but they are each tapping into the bond market.
UHart is mostly funding its campus construction projects via
a 30-year public debt offering. The remainder was funded through donations and
industry partners like Hartford Steam Boiler, Stanley Black & Decker,
Hartford HealthCare, and Pratt & Whitney, the college said.
There is also a $2 million pledge for an endowment gift to
cover future expenses related to the new building.
Wesleyan’s science center will be funded through green
bonds, donations and money the school put aside over the years that was
invested and grew to about $60 million, according to Roth.
“That helped us have confidence to go to the bond market
knowing that we were building up our reserves,” Roth said. “And given the low
interest rate environment, it made sense to put money in the endowment and
borrow at a very low interest rate.”
The college has also been fundraising for the projects,
which has been exceeding expectations, Roth said.
The University of St. Joseph’s athletic center was primarily
funded with bonds through the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities
Authority, and its Center for Nursing Excellence was funded by gifts from
trustees, alumni and friends of the university, according to the school.
And USJ is not stopping there.
Free said that in a few months, another $3 million project
to construct new labs for the pharmacy program, which is relocating from
downtown Hartford’s XL Center to the school’s main West Hartford campus, is set
to begin.
The project is expected to be completed by next summer.