Windsor’s Great Pond Village mixed-use development
experienced more than a decade of delays and many plan changes before its first
phase debuted in 2019, with the opening of the 230-unit Preserve at Great Pond
luxury apartments complex.
Now, additional development on the 653-acre site is
accelerating, with construction set to begin this June on a 750,000-square-foot
distribution center; fill-up/retail plaza; and $15 million in road and
infrastructure work.
Several other projects are lining up, including a data
center, age-restricted residential community, 185 units of additional housing
and a research and development facility for an international biotech company,
according to Adam Winstanley, a principal for Massachusetts-based Winstanley
Enterprises, which is Great Pond’s master developer.
“Things are accelerating right now, and it will
super-accelerate once all the road infrastructure is in, because it is a lot of
land and people don’t really understand what’s really happening here,”
Winstanley said.
About 60% of developable land at Great Pond is already
either purchased, under contract or deep into negotiation for sale, Adam
Winstanley said.
Selling points
Winstanley was chosen in 2008 by ABB Combustion Engineering
as a partner in development of the company’s site along Day Hill Road and now
is co-owner of the property. ABB spent about $150 million cleaning the site,
which had once served as a testing facility for nuclear propulsion as well as a
center of nuclear fuel production for submarines.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
last November signed off on cleanup of what had been the most heavily-polluted
sections of the property, Adam Winstanley said. That allows build-out of Great
Pond’s northern portions, including a 93-acre site where Massachusetts-based
NorthPoint Development will build the planned distribution center.
Just south of the NorthPoint building site is a 40-acre
parcel open to light manufacturing or a data center under Great Pond’s master
plan. Winstanley said his company is in talks with a Fortune 500 company
interested in building a data center there, but that no agreements have been
signed.
That would be the second potential data center for Great
Pond Village.
Last November, Verizon paid $3.4 million for a nearly
30-acre property within Great Pond, where it plans to build a data center,
according to Windsor development staff and Winstanley representatives.
Verizon declined to discuss its plans for the property.
Linda Costanzo, senior vice president and asset manager for
Winstanley, said completion of the Preserve at Great Pond apartments spurred
further interest in the overall site, as has a growing scarcity of alternative
development sites in the region and state. (The Preserve at Great Pond
apartments, which had recently been more than 90% occupied, sold last summer
for $63 million to a New Jersey-based real estate investment firm.)
“Like everything in life it’s timing and I think the timing
is right — where the market is, the Preserve being completed, a limited supply
in and around the market,” Costanzo said.
A 40-acre parcel along Day Hill Road is under purchase
contract for a new biotech research and manufacturing center, according to Adam
Winstanley.
The new fueling station — on an 8.6-acre site — will include
a convenience store, electric vehicle charging stations, ice-cream shop, car
wash and, potentially, a brewery, Costanzo said.
Another 34-acre site is under contract to a developer with
plans for a 55-and-older residential community, Winstanley said.
Separately, Winstanley plans to use 30 acres building a mix
of 185 “starter” houses, duplexes and townhomes featuring a “thick” package of
amenities. More than half of that $100 million development will be
single-family houses, he said.
One of Great Pond’s big selling points is its inclusion of
numerous natural amenities, including miles of trails winding through woods,
past Great Pond and the Farmington River. There are plans for a pondside park
and perhaps even a bird-watching tower.
Winstanley worked with the town to create a special zoning
district for Great Pond Village that leaves about half the site as open space.
The plan details what types of development are allowed in different areas,
right down to design elements such as types of siding that can be used.
The district allows town planning staff rather than
government boards to sign off on project proposals, meaning a significantly shorter
permitting process.
In addition, up to half of property taxes generated by new
development within Great Pond Village will be used to pay for new roads,
utilities, sidewalks and other infrastructure within the site.
“The town of Windsor is extremely forward-thinking to create
basically a site with its own taxing district,” Winstanley said. “I’m not aware
of anything else in Connecticut that has been quite like this.”
Evolving plans
Plans for development within Great Pond Village have changed
considerably over the long run-up to construction. Winstanley said market
shifts prompted a big reduction in residential density and the addition of
industrial space.
In 2008, the master plan called for 4,010 residential units,
85,000 square feet of retail space and 768,000 square feet of office space in
addition to research and development and community spaces and a hotel.
Now, the plan’s main components include 865 housing units,
970,000 square feet of flex industrial space and 750,000 square feet of
warehouse space. There will also be much smaller footprints for food and
beverage, commercial, retail, car wash, convenience store and clubhouse spaces.
Adam Winstanley said his company has spent $7.5 million
fostering Great Pond through planning and permitting over 14 years.
“This kind of development is not for the faint of heart,”
Winstanley said. “This is a long journey. It’s extremely capital intensive and
time intensive.”
Why the Connecticut construction boom is costly for homebuyers, tenants and developers
Since Newport Realty prepared to build a 55-and-over
community of detached condos in northern Plainville, the materials budget has
skyrocketed.
“Just since last October, garage doors are up 100 percent,
front doors 100 percent, sheetrock up 30 percent, exterior trim 70 percent,”
Newport partner Mark Lovley said.
In South Windsor, T&M Building Co. Inc. is just
completing 155 townhouses, duplexes and detached homes; during the course of
construction, lumber prices added an average of $18,000 to each one, said
President Greg Ugalde.
And even though Bristol’s Carrier Construction Co. has been
a major homebuilder in the region for decades, this year it’s struggling to get
some types of vinyl siding and plywood that usually are abundant. In a sharp
reversal of the usual pattern in construction, Carrier now starts jobs by
buying long ahead of when products will be needed.
“Before we even start digging for the foundation, we have
sign-offs from our customers on all the exterior selections and all materials
are ordered months in advance,” Construction Manager Ryan Carrier said.
Contractors and developers across Connecticut agree their
industry is going through a time like none other in memory. Demand for new
housing is intense at all ends of the market, while labor costs are soaring and
construction materials are often scarce and sometimes staggeringly expensive.
The same pressures are hitting commercial contractors
building highway bridges, shopping plazas, banks and schools, part of a
nationwide pattern that appeared during the pandemic.
Supply chain disruptions abruptly make some once-common
building materials almost impossible to find. In many fields, production
backlogs drive up the prices further, sometimes driven by COVID-related plant
shutdowns overseas.
The end result is that new homebuyers and new businesses
shouldn’t be too optimistic about their delivery schedule or final purchase
price, and almost certainly need to be flexible about selection of anything
from floor tiles to windows to appliances.
“The pivotal word now is ‘pivot’,” said Avner Krohn, a
prominent developer with major apartment projects under way in Bloomfield, New
Britain and elsewhere.
“Every day is a new challenge. And if you think you can be
locked into one kind of kitchen finish, well those days are gone,” Krohn said.
“It’s about availability of product, and across the board. When delays are
incurred because of that, there’s additional expense.”
Carrier summed it up this way: ”Decisions need to be made a
little sooner, and the customer may have to wait a little longer.”
Jonathan Vosburgh, whose Roswell Development LLC recently
completed 32 houses in Granby, is braced for plenty of fast, deadline decisions
if he pursues his new plan for 34 three-bedroom houses in Canton.
“Price and availability are so volatile right now you never
know what’s going to happen the next day. The only way to manage is to be
flexible and make sure your clients are flexible, too,” Vosburgh said.
More than a dozen developers who talked with The Courant in
recent weeks agreed that their designers, cost estimators and subcontractors
are all scrambling to deal with three distinct, sharp pressures: Material
prices are wildly volatile, shortages appear — and vanish — with no
predictability, and labor costs are spiraling.
Those factors hit just as a massive building wave hit the
state: Virtually every community in central Connecticut has one or more
mid-size to large apartment building in the planning phases or under
construction.
Once-sleepy Berlin is suddenly a competitive market for
developers. Structural steel is going up in predictable places, such as
affluent West Hartford, but also in middle-of-the-road suburbs like
Southington, Bloomfield and Newington, as well as cities like Bristol and New
Britain.
“We finally broke out of the slump that we’d been in for so
many years. But we’re really not ready on the supply side — in Connecticut,
we’ve fallen behind the housing demand,” said Ugalde, a past chairman of the
National Association of Home Builders.
So even as materials — from exotic chemicals and coatings to
ordinary drywall — became scarce at various points during the past two years,
more builders have been chasing them.
“There are people hoarding materials. When they can get
something (scarce), a sub or contractor will buy as much as they can,” Krohn
said.
This spring, many are wishing they’d stocked up on some
specialty electrical products.
“I just heard from a lender about someone with 150 completed
units, but they can’t get what they needed for electrical. They’re sitting with
a fully completed project, paying interest on debt,” Krohn said.
Like Krohn, Lovley and his partner, Tony Valenti, are
seasoned builders with established credentials but are facing fresh challenges
this year.
The first phase of their Steele Center mixed-use development
alongside Berlin’s Amtrak station is awaiting an electrical panel that’s deeply
back-ordered.
“We ordered in early February, they just told us we won’t
see it until June 30. We have this building almost 100 percent done but without
power,” Lovley said. “We don’t have electric meters — our purchase order was
Dec. 28, we still don’t have them yet.”
Krohn, who is finishing 111 apartments in Bloomfield and
starting the foundation for 107 in downtown New Britain, has seen similar
surprises in project after project
“For each of our teams, it’s a full-time job sourcing
subcontractors and material — materials have been the number one biggest
issue,” he said. “On heating, ventilating and air conditioning, were seeing an
increase in cost for the same unit size of 40 percent between labor and
materials. And with availability, we’re constantly scrambling.”
For homebuyers and future tenants, that means new expense.
“Year over year, our materials increases are around 20
percent. That’s incredible, right?” Ugalde said. “So on the cost of a $300,000
build, you’re adding $60,000. That’s tough for buyers and for contractors.”
Commercial construction faces many of the same pressures.
“You don’t know when you’ll get materials or what it will
cost. There’s a chemical for cement that went from $2,000 per container to
$20,000. Imagine what that does to your prices,” said Donald Shubert, president
of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association.
“All these things are coming at once. Contractors are risk
averse, we’re all about certainty in pricing. We like certainty,” Shubert said.
But contractors bidding on large commercial or
infrastructure jobs now face a very unfamiliar market. Road-repaving bids, for
instance, took into account volatility in liquid asphalt prices, but banked on
stability in other costs.
“Now it’s everything. If you have a two-year contract and
you bid at a 3 percent labor increase, now the numbers are much higher. Look at
the pressure that puts on your company,” Shubert said.
Pay rates for skilled equipment operators, engineers,
tradesmen and iron workers have shot up in the past year, and companies that
were sidelining crews in the spring of 2020 are now hustling to fully staff
their projects.
Connecticut construction employment dipped at the start of
the pandemic, but reached 62,700 last month, a 5.4% increase since February of
2020. About two-thirds of the country has had a rise in construction jobs, and
Kenneth Simonson chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of
America, doesn’t anticipate any imminent change.
“We’re seeing nationwide strong demand for multifamily
housing — and the expectation for very strong (industrial) growth once the
federal infrastructure money filters through state and local agencies,”
Simonson said. “On the whole I’m pretty optimistic about the demand for
construction going forward.”
Shelton developer bringing 55+ housing to city
SHELTON — Ben Perry has stumbled onto what he believes will
be a profitable addition to his development portfolio.
The local developer, owner of S&G of Shelton, is in the
process of constructing
phase one of The Crossroads, a 55 and older active adult community, the
first such development built in the city since the 1970s, according to the
nearly lifelong Shelton resident.
“I thought there was a need for this in this area, and it
has been quite a success already,” Perry said as he walked through one of the
12 units located at 96 Long Hill Cross Road. “Many people are looking to
downsize. Many are looking for a second or a third home.
“I have people moving here from other states. They have
homes in other places but have family close, so they are coming here,” Perry
added.
But Perry, who has spent most of his life in the building
business and has owned Shelton-based Connecticut Waste Transfer, was not
planning on this type of development in the initial planning process. He simply
wanted to develop condos on the property.
It was during the Planning and Zoning application process that
he began to see the benefit of this type of project — and in the end he sees
this has the niche he was looking for.
“This is working out very well,” said Perry, who already has
eight of the 12 units in phase one sold and deposits in place for a handful of
the 18 units to be built in phase two, which will not begin until next year.
“P&Z talked to me about this, and I’m fine with it,”
Perry said. “The people are buying, and they are pleasure to deal with.”
S&G of Shelton originally filed a proposal in 2018 to
develop this 5.57-acre site — which sits between Bridgeport Avenue and Route 8,
essentially behind the Crown Point Center retail area and near a large
recycling facility — that was denied by the commission. Perry then appealed the
ruling in court.
The
appeal was ultimately settled before the pandemic, with Perry agreeing to
make 10 percent of the units (three total) affordable under the state statute
8-30g — which governs qualifying affordable units under state law. All units
are deed restricted to individuals 55 and older.
“This was one of the tools we used to get the project moving
forward,” Perry said about the inclusion of the affordable units. “There really
is not a big difference in price point between affordable and regular sales. I
needed this to get this project moving, and I was happy to include it.”
The Crossroads offers five-room townhouses that are about
1,600 square feet with one-level living, Perry said. The units have open floor
plans, with a large kitchen, full bath, master bedroom and washer-dryer on the
first floor for convenience, Perry said, adding the second floor is loft style
with a second bathroom.
There are one or two garage units available. The final
approved proposal calls for 88 spaces on site after the entire project is
complete.
“Shelton is a hot spot right now,” Perry said, adding that
the low taxes and location near access to major cities like Bridgeport, New
Haven and Hartford are a key drawing point. “Availability of services, quality
of living, central location. Shelton has become its own hub. You have
everything here.”
This is the latest development for Perry, who began his
career as a youth working alongside his father on contracting jobs in lower
Fairfield County.
“I have been in the construction industry my whole life,”
said Perry, who grew up in Shelton, graduating from Shelton High before
volunteering his time and even running for political office in the city. “I
owned (Connecticut Waste Transfer) for 13 years, then moved on, and now I’m
developing and building again.”
Perry’s company has completed housing developments in
Seymour as well as Perry Hill Estates, some 20 units, in Shelton as well as a
handful of single home builds in the area.
But these adult communities may be his development of choice
in the future.
“There is a definite need, and I feel S&G of Shelton can
answer that need,” Perry added. “This is going to be a big part of our work
going forward, I think.”
Aquarion warns of traffic delays in Greenwich as work begins to replace water mains on three roads
Annelise Hanshaw
GREENWICH - Motorists should expect traffic delays and
possible detours from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Monday on three local roads
while workers replace water mains.
Aquarion Water Co. expects construction to be complete by
the end of July on all three projects.
Crews will replace 930 feet of water main on Woodland Drive
and 2,700 feet of water main on Keofferam Road and Nawthorne Road. Aquarion
said the work will improve water quality, reduce leaks and cut down on
water-main-break-induced service interruptions.
“We greatly appreciate residents’ patience during this
project,” Aquarion’s manager of utility programs Justin Xenelis said in a
statment. “We will work closely with our customers, contractors, and town
officials to coordinate the work and minimize any disruptions.”
Final paving will then be scheduled in coordination with the
Town of Greenwich.
An Everbridge notification system will inform customers
about work times. To sign up for this free service, go to aquarionwater.com/alerts.
Justin Farrell is available to answer project-related
questions at 203-362-3048. Aquarion Customer Service services water or service
issues at 1-800-732-9678.
GREENWICH — The town took a major step toward
building a new Central Middle School, but the clock is already ticking
on the high-priority project.
The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved creating a
building committee to lead the constriction project. Now the race is on to
appoint, interview and approve the committee’s members before the
Representative Town Meeting goes into its summer recess.
“We want to stay on a very aggressive timeline,”
Superintendent of Schools Toni Jones told the selectmen at their meeting
Friday. “We don’t want to lose the summer without getting the building
committee together.”
The committee members are nominated by the Board of
Selectmen and approved by the RTM. Potential members are usually suggested by
the Selectmen’s Nominations Advisory Committee and then interviewed by the
selectmen.
Establishing a building committee is standard procedure for
major town capital projects, especially new schools. The committee, made up of
volunteers, oversees the construction process and coordinates among the town,
the architects and the construction firm. For the Central project, the
committee will also oversee creation of the plans for the new school.
Selectwoman Lauren Rabin, the board’s liaison to the
nominations advisory committee, agreed that the town must move quickly.
“We would need to source and interview to get on June (RTM)
call,” Rabin said of the nominations. “Our deadline would be May 20. We have to
operate rather quickly.”
First Selectman Fred Camillo said the board has already
received “some good resumes” and said one “really good one” was on the way. He
said the board would start considering possible members next week.
Anyone who wants to serve should step forward and “do so
quickly,” Selectwoman Janet Stone-McGuigan said.
To apply, Rabin said candidates should visit www.greenwichct.gov/719/Selectmens-Nominations-Advisory-Committe and
fill out the forms.
Camillo said he also wanted to add liaisons to the committee
who would not have voting power but could speak for key groups, with
representatives from the neighborhood around Central Middle School, Greenwich’s
community of people with disabilities and the town Energy Management Advisory
Committee.
“I want them to be at the table when we’re doing these
things,” Camillo said. “They wouldn’t be voting members, but they’d be at the
table to try and help. … I think this could be a template going forward for all
building committees.”
Jones agreed, saying, “It’s going to be an enormous project
that’s so important for the community.”
The Board of Estimate and Taxation last Tuesday approved
$2.5 million in architecture and engineering funds in the proposed
2022-23 municipal budget. That money would be used to begin drawing up plans
for the new school.
The RTM will hold the final vote on the budget on May 9, and
it is expected to support the project.
Building a new school became a top priority after the town
was forced to close Central for several weeks in February due to structural
concerns. The
school reopened to students and staff after emergency repairs were
made. Additional work will be done over the summer to shore up the building until
the replacement is finished.
Under the Board of Education’s timeline, plans for the new
school would be drawn up this coming fiscal year, leading to a budget request
for construction money the next fiscal year and a completed new school by
January 2026.
Preliminary estimates put the price tag for a new Central
Middle School at $67.5 million.
To keep to the district’s aggressive schedule, the selectmen
said they will have to act quickly.
“We have our work cut out for us starting next week,”
Camillo said.
SOUTHINGTON – Gov. Ned Lamont promised that the next five
years would see “the most important investments in infrastructure since Ike” at
the annual meeting of the Connecticut Association of Street and Highway
Officers (CASHO) Friday.
At the meeting, which was held at the Aqua Turf Club, Andrew
Tierney, president of CASHO’s Board of Directors and Hebron town manager,
introduced Lamont as a “longtime supporter of CASHO.”
“I want to thank you for how we got through covid,” he said.
“We were the top state in America for how it was handled.”
Lamont then discussed his plans for state infrastructure
improvements.
Over the next five years, Lamont said, he plans to utilize
federal funding to invest $1 billion a year in infrastructure improvements in
Connecticut. He promised to work to get Connecticut to the front of the line
for funding.
“We don’t have to look far in Connecticut to find
100-year-old roads and bridges,” he said.
Lamont also said he hopes to see Amtrak run 30 to 40 minutes
faster with “dramatic improvements” to rail service.
The governor said there are more people than ever using
Connecticut roads, more even than pre-covid numbers.
“We got through covid better than most states,” he said.
“New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were hit hard during the first few months
but we kept our construction open. We were the first state in New England to
get our schools open, which I think made it easier for people to get back to
work. I hope that it also made a difference for the kids. We also kept our
parks, beaches and golf courses open. Being able to use these outdoor spaces
was cheaper than a therapist and it made an enormous difference for a lot of
people.”
As a result of these decisions, Lamont said, the state’s
population is now increasing by 40,000 people a year.
“For years you heard about people fleeing the state but now
things are moving in the other direction,” he said.
Lamont also said, for the first time in his life, there are
more jobs available than people to fill them. He said that between this, and
the availability of federal funds, it would be a shame if he did not make use
of these circumstances to get infrastructure improvements done.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to rehabilitate
our roads and bridges,” he said. “I am asking people to talk to their nieces
and nephews and tell them to get into construction and engineering.”
Lamont joked that he wished he could put forth an executive
order that “no one younger than me could retire in the next five years” since
there is such a need in the workforce.
As the state works its way through the legislative session,
Lamont said, the state is looking at a surplus, some of which he said will be
set aside “for a rainy day.”
“We have to budget for not just this year but next year and
years to come,” he said. “We have to get out of this cycle of feast and famine,
boom and bust, and steady things out. I come from the business world so I know
how important that stability is for the taxpayers in our state.”
The state budget, he said, has been balanced for the last
three years. The state is also eliminating the property tax and the
401K/pension tax as well as providing a $5,000 tax credit each year to
businesses that forgive the student debt of their workers.
Lamont concluded his speech by saying that rebuilding the
state’s infrastructure would not be possible without the support of
organizations like CASHO.
“Just let me know what I can do to help,” he said.