East Hartford Silver Lane corridor redevelopment plans advance
Joseph Villanova
Development along East Hartford's Silver Lane moved forward
last week, with town officials making a key approval and setting the date for
another.
In a 6-1 vote, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved
zoning changes on Wednesday for the 26-acre lot of the old Showcase Cinemas,
proposed for construction of a 477-unit apartment complex.
New Britain-based Jasko Development plans to construct
“amenity-rich” apartments at the site, with features including a dog park,
swimming pool, and clubhouse.
The Town Council authorized the mayor to execute a sale
agreement on the Showcase Cinemas property in September 2021, which would see
the town sell the property to the developer for $1 after a number of
prerequisites were met.
The Town Council approved development and tax agreements for
the apartments in February, and officials expect the sale agreement to be
finalized next year.
An application for the zoning changes states that the
apartments would consist of 477 units spread across eight buildings — two
four-story and the rest three-story.
The zoning changes include a master plan for the site and
the movement of six parcels within the Showcase Cinemas site from the B-6
business district to a new Planned Development District 1 to facilitate
development of the apartments.
The Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously Friday to hold a
meeting July 20 to finalize a redevelopment plan for Silver Lane and send it to
Town Council for approval.
The plan recommends the town purchase properties and make
zoning changes to facilitate development of the Silver Lane Revitalization Area,
which runs from Mercer Avenue to Forbes Street.
The plan, generated by consulting firm Goman & York,
focuses on specific parcels, including Charter Oak Mall and Silver Lane Plaza,
and does not recommend any changes to existing residential zones or properties.
Donald Poland, managing director with Goman & York, said
at a meeting May 25 that the firm is confident the primary uses for the
corridor will be residential and community-scale retail.
The Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously
Wednesday to send the plan to the Redevelopment Agency for its approval.
Once the Redevelopment Agency approves the plan, Town
Council will consider it for adoption.
The plan’s proposed acquisitions would be aided by a $10
million grant for the town approved by the state Bond Commission on May 26. The
town’s grant application states that the funds will be used for the purchase
and redevelopment of parcels in the Silver Lane corridor, including Silver Lane
Plaza.
Sherman Street bridge in Norwich to close June 27 for reconstruction
Norwich — Construction equipment arrived Monday and a
small orange sign warns Norwich motorists that the Sherman Street bridge will
close to traffic beginning June 27.
Manafort Bros. Inc. was awarded
the contract for the $10.3 million project to replace the aging double
bridges over the Yantic River and adjacent former mill canal. The company brought
in equipment Monday and placed a sign at the bridge. Equipment is parked in the
Upper Falls Heritage Park.
Beginning June 27, the park vehicular entrance will be
closed throughout construction, but the park will remain open for
pedestrians, with access from a staircase on Sherman Street.
Public Works Director Patrick McLaughlin said the original
plan called for reopening the bridge during the winter. But with the project
starting about two months later than planned, the bridge might need to be
closed and work continue during the winter months.
"Right now, we're saying it's to be closed
indefinitely," McLaughlin said. "We have some time to make up to get
it done by next fall."
Developer seeks 152-apartment plan for River Road in Shelton
SHELTON — Plans have been filed for construction of a
152-apartment development on River Road.
Developers, listed on the application as KWIZZ, LLC, of
Oxford, are seeking a Planned Development District, or PDD, for the nearly
10-acre site listed as 435 River Road. The lot is zoned commercial and was
approved for a PDD in the past, but the owners are seeking a new one.
The vacant property is across the street from Cumberland
Farms and Hook Line and Sinker as well as the entrance to Jordan Avenue.
The plans are before the Inland Wetlands Commission, with
the developer’s presentation beginning last week and continued to the
commission’s next meeting.
“You’ve done a very nice job,” said Inland Wetlands
Commission Chair Gary Zahornasky about the plans proposed for wetlands
mitigation during the June 9 meeting. “You have eliminated a low value wetland
and created a nice wetland mitigation area.”
Plans have also been filed with the Planning and Zoning
Commission, which earlier this month voted to impose a temporary moratorium on
high density developments. The moratorium began June 10, but all applications
submitted prior to that date must be heard.
The development calls for the construction of four separate
buildings — each with 38 apartments — and a 5,500-square-foot clubhouse. Each
of the apartment buildings are proposed to be 11,800 square feet. There are 274
parking spaces proposed.
The property is bounded by residential housing to the north,
residential and commercial to the south, commercial to the east and Coram Road
to the west. There will be access to the site from River Road as well as from
Coram Road, according to the proposed plans.
DOT looks to improve congested Westport intersection
Kayla Mutchler
WESTPORT — There were 29 total crashes at the intersection
of routes 57 and 136 within the past three years, according to state collected
by the state Department of Transportation.
Of those, about 80 percent were rear ends. Now, the
department is looking to make the notoriously congested intersection safer and
less confusing with
a proposed project near the Merritt Parkway.
Project Engineer Shraddha Joshi said right now there is an
uncertainty for drivers as to who has the right of way.
The project is expected to cost $6 million with 80 percent
federal funding and 20 percent state funding. There will not be a contribution
from the town, according to DOT.
“Efforts to improve the area go back nearly 20 years, with
various concepts and proposals being developed, but no satisfactory solutions
were ever advanced,” Principal Engineer Marissa Pfaffinger said at a recent meeting on the
project.
In 2019, the Western Connecticut Council of Governments on
behalf of Westport requested the DOT investigate the intersection, where it
re-evaluated older concepts, as well as developed and refined new ones.
The current plan includes replacing the existing flashing
beacon with a traffic signal at the main intersection of route 57 and Route
136. There will be an additional traffic signal at the intersection of Wassell
Lane and Route 57, using the same controller as Route 57 and Route 136. A green
light will only come on for Wassell Lane when there is a vehicle waiting to
approach.
“The only change to Wassell Lane properties is that the
access point to change is now going to be signalized, but there is no actual
property impact,” Joshi said.
According to the public
meeting notice, the existing traffic signals at the intersections of Route
57 at the Merritt Parkway northbound and southbound ramps will be replaced
because they are beyond their expected service life. The pavement markings will
also be revised to provide a longer left turn lane to the Merritt Parkway
southbound ramps.
The project includes widening roads at the intersections so
there can be 11-foot-wide thru lanes, 10-foot-wide turn lanes and a 5-foot-wide
shoulder to accommodate bicycles. The plan also proposes replacing sidewalks
and installing pedestrian crossings at all four approaches in the area.
Joshi said that the existing bypass will be removed, and
grass will be added. It will also remain within state right of way and the duty
maintenance forces will maintain it.
The state will negotiate to acquire the needed right of way
property rights.
Construction is expected to be over one season lasting from
March to November. The staging and sequencing of the construction will be
decided during the design phase in coordination with Westport. Residents who
live in the area will be able to get to thier homes throughout the project.
The DOT expects to relocate 11 utility poles and one fire
hydrant.
The state also has other possible proposals in their
alternative analysis, including roundabouts.
“The roundabout layout that would be necessary in order to
accommodate all of the traffic is what we would call a two-by-two roundabout,”
Pfaffinger she said, “so two entering lanes on every approach and two
circulating lanes.”
However, she said a single-lane roundabout is better for
drivers, as it is less confusing than the two-lane option. She also said the
roundabouts were not selected as a preferred alternative because it could cause
additional impacts on the surrounding properties and backups to the Merritt
Parkway with traffic signals.
A comment period is open until June 24. The DOT will then
assess the level of support from the community and town. Comments can be sent
to DOTProjectPP-158-009@ct.gov.
‘Catastrophic’ Middletown water main break could have been much worse, officials say
MIDDLETOWN — When Downtown Business District Coordinator
Sandra Russo Driska first learned of a large
water main break Friday night, the busiest dining day of the week, she
sprung into action.
The city sent a text to newsletter subscribers around 5:15
p.m., saying service was affected citywide, and urged people not to call 911 as
they were already aware of the breach at Main and Court streets.
The city sent a text to newsletter subscribers around 5:15
p.m., saying service was affected citywide, and urged people not to call 911 as
they were already aware of the breach at Main and Court streets.
Within minutes, Mayor Ben Florsheim posted on Facebook that there
were no health concerns associated with the break. Although initially people
were told they may have to boil water, it turned out to be unnecessary.
Without knowing which and how many businesses were directly
affected, Russo Driska contacted Water and Sewer Director Joseph Fazzino, and
began sending a series of messages to DBD members with updates as she received
them. She also used social media.
It turned out that businesses and restaurants south of the
rainbow Pride crosswalk at Main Street Market to College Street were affected,
while those north of the crosswalk had water restored earlier in the night.
Russo Driska set out on foot to alert business owners, some
of whom ran outside.
Fazzino, who said Monday it was a “catastrophic” break, got
the call at 4:45 p.m. The pipe had a section missing on the side, he said.
He wasn’t able to determine if it occurred because of age,
or a pressure surge — or water hammer.
“It wasn’t a sheer crack,” he said. “The side of the pipe
blew out.”
Although it was installed in 1895, the main had undergone
cleaning and lining repairs about a decade ago, and new four-way valves were
installed at the intersection, Fazzino added.
“It was like new, but you never know what could happen,” he
said.
By 6 p.m., all the valves surrounding the intersection had
been closed off, he said.
Merchants did have water — but only a trickle, Russo Driska
said, including her own home.
“A restaurant can’t function that way,” she said, explaining
that eateries had customers already being served or were working on catering
jobs.
In all, only six businesses were affected, among them Fiore
II, Typhoon, La Boca and Amici Italian Grill, and four had service restored
within an hour, Russo Driska said.
“The water department identified the problem, and was able
to [contain] it so that everyone else’s pressure rose back up, and their water
was back to normal,” Russo Driska said.
“For the few restaurants affected Friday night, it wasn’t
bad, then, they repaired it. It
was fixed by Saturday morning, which was honestly incredible,” Russo Driska
said. “In 14 hours, they had it identified and fixed.”
She added that “it was full business by Saturday night.”
City construction crews had to proceed slowly to avoid
worsening the problem, Fazzino said. They toiled throughout the night to get
service restored by start of business the next day.
The road was paved as a temporary measure with gravel, and
later, two inches of asphalt, the water and sewer director said. Once it
settles, crews will return to make it a foot thick.
In December, the American
Rescue Plan Act Task Force earmarked $2.7 million to implement
much-needed upgrades to the water and sewer systems, which Fazzino said, won’t
fully fund the “quite a bit more” that needs to be done.
A large, capital improvement plan study was conducted by a
consultant, which examined the area with the most frequency of water breaks,
and critical nature of each main, with recommendations on priority areas, the
water and sewer director said.
Oak Ridge Drive is one of those, because of multiple breaks
in the past, Fazzino said. In the near future, a water main line on Saybrook
Road will also be replaced with the money.
The Water Pollution Control Authority, Common Council, and
mayor will decide on further infrastructure projects, Fazzino said. To fund
that, a referendum for additional money could be put to voters in November or
Middletown may apply for a state infrastructure bond, he said.
Russo Driska commended city crews for working diligently to
resolve matters “to make sure businesses suffered as little as possible.”
She originally thought the issue could persist throughout
the weekend.
“It was so far from that happening,” she said. “For such a
big issue on a Friday night, it could not have gone smoother.”
STAMFORD — A planned new K-8 school in the under-served
south Stamford area could be housed in two separate buildings about a mile from
each other, officials said.
The tentative plan is to use the current KT Murphy
Elementary School site for a new building that could either serve students in
grade K-4 or 5-8. Another building, the former Rogers Magnet Elementary School
at 83 Lockwood Ave., would house whichever of those cohorts doesn’t go to the
Murphy site.
Superintendent Tamu Lucero spoke about the plan at a meeting
of the city’s Long Term Facilities Committee last week.
She said the students who would attend the proposed split
K-8 would come from the current Murphy and Toquam Magnet Elementary School
attendance zones.
However, because Toquam is a magnet that takes students from
outside of its attendance zone, a decision would have to be made on whether or
not to continue the magnet program or turn the south Stamford sites into
neighborhood schools.
A school building master plan presented in February called
for building
or expanding four schools, including a potential new K-8 school in south
Stamford. As part of the plan, four schools would shutter: Cloonan and Dolan
middle schools, Toquam and Murphy.
Initially, city and school officials had studied Cove Island
Park as the potential home for a south Stamford school, but
that plan was quickly abandoned after swift opposition from local
residents and the Audubon Society, all of which sought to maintain the park.
Cummings Park and Czescik Park were also eliminated as possibilities.
“We were unsuccessful with finding a location for (a full
K-8 facility) in the South End,” said Lucero during the meeting.
The Lockwood facility was not considered at first because
school administrators said they had hoped
to convert that space into a pre-school facility to house about 675
students, a project that would cost roughly $51.7 million. They submitted that
proposal to the state and were told the state would reimburse 20 percent of the
cost.
But officials withdrew the project once it became clear that
federal dollars would not be available to help fund it, said Lauren Meyer,
spokesperson for the office of Mayor Caroline Simmons.
Currently, the 100,000-square-foot building at 83 Lockwood
Ave. houses the Children’s Learning Centers of Fairfield County pre-school program
and the nonprofit Domus Kids, which runs a number of programs inside the
structure.
The desire to bring a neighborhood school to south Stamford
is nothing new. In many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, students
are mostly bused to other schools in the district.
Lucero said representatives from architecture and design
firm SLAM Collaborative are conducting tests on both the Lockwood and Murphy
campuses to determine whether or not the city will be able to build a K-4 on
one campus and a 5-8 on the other.
She said the change in grade at the Murphy site in
particular was viewed as a plus by the contractor, as it would allow them to
fit more into the potential new building.
“We think we are going to be in a good place,” Lucero said.
If approved, the city would be eligible for a reimbursement
rate of 60 percent for the two projects. Previously, Stamford received a 20
percent refund for school construction projects, but that
was changed through special legislation on the state level.
Lucero said the city could receive an 80 percent refund from
the state if the district decided to make the new south side educational
facilities inter-district magnet schools. That means 25 percent of the
classroom seats would have to go to students outside of Stamford.
But at the June 8 meeting, she said staying a fully Stamford
school would make more sense.
“It really doesn’t make any financial sense to give up 25
percent of our seats,” she said.
If officials agree to split a new K-8 between the Murphy and Lockwood sites, grant applications for each would needed to be submitted to the state by June 2023.
High pay attracts workers, but construction’s employment gap widens
Rising hourly wages brought more workers to construction in
May, but the industry still posted a record number of job openings to start the
month, according
to analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.
About 36,000 new employees donned hard hats and reported for
work on jobsites in May, according to BLS data, but that didn’t come close to
filling the 494,000 construction job openings at the end of April, a 40%
increase from the number of openings in April 2021.
The increase in openings represented the largest total since recording of it began in 2000, according to AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson.
For hourly workers in the trades, pay rose in May by 6.3%
year over year, the highest increase since December 1982, according to
Simonson. As those wages increased though, earnings in the overall private
sector rose 6.5%. The slightly higher increase for all workers only steepens
the uphill battle contractors must climb to find workers.
In addition, the number of unemployed construction workers
fell by 39% to 392,000. That could indicate fewer experienced jobseekers remain
for builders to hire, Simonson said.
“I think the implications are that contractors would have
hired far more workers in April — perhaps twice as many — as they were able
to,” Simonson told Construction Dive. “The same patterns of record or
near-record openings and of openings exceeding monthly hires has prevailed for
the past several months but never or seldom had happened before. This indicates
construction employment is being held down not by lack of demand but lack of
supply of qualified and willing candidates.”
For better or worse, Simonson said the solution to labor
woes is pretty simple.
“For contractors to get more workers on board, I think
they’ll have to raise pay even more,” he said.
Since construction employers cannot offer the flexible hours
or remote work other industries have adopted, contractors will have to pay a
higher premium, Simonson said, to attract workers to their jobs that often
entail working outdoors doing physically demanding tasks in various weather
conditions.
Even turning to modular or offsite construction won’t solve
the problem, Simonson pointed out, as that still requires workers skilled in
the trades. At a time when other issues plague the industry, the labor shortage
seems set to continue for the foreseeable future.
“I expect workforce challenges to outlast materials cost or
supply chain issues,” Simonson said.
Why Amazon’s warehouse pullback is good news for contractors
A slowdown by Amazon is a boon for others in the warehouse
sector, especially for procurement of materials, according to industry sources.
Last month, Amazon announced plans to shed at least 10
million square feet of warehouse space after reporting slow growth and a weak
profit outlook that it attributed to overbuilding, according
to Bloomberg.
As the e-commerce giant hits the brakes on expansion, that
should translate to shorter lead times for currently scarce materials such as
roofing components, roofing insulation, bar joists, precast and steel, said Tom
Belanich, industrial director at Messer Construction, a Cincinnati-based general
contractor. Other materials that might become more available include warehouse
dock equipment, HVAC equipment and electrical equipment, said Belanich.
“When Amazon was ramping up, extremely active and building
new facilities, the lead times for those materials began to stretch further and
further out,” said Belanich. “Then, obviously, the demand for those went up
significantly, which caused the price to go up.”
Now, Amazon hitting the pause button on its warehouses
should have the opposite effect.
“When you reduce the demand for those things, certainly it’s
going to improve the lead time and we should start to see some easing of the
cost implications for those materials also,” Belanich said.
‘Fighting over Amazon’s bucket’
Charles Byerly, CEO Of Westport Properties, an Irvine,
California-based owner and operator of self storage, multifamily and industrial
properties across the U.S., said the slowdown by Amazon will undoubtedly free
materials up for other new development.
“When you look at roof trusses as an example, those have
been six to 12 to 18 months [out], depending on exactly what they are,” said
Byerly, and noted that Amazon’s slowdown “is certainly going to put priorities
in different buckets other than just Amazon’s, because everybody was fighting
for that bucket.”
Amazon went on a massive spending splurge during the
pandemic in order to capitalize on booming demand for e-commerce and home
delivery. In some cases, Amazon
bought everything in production for months, putting significant
pressure on an already strained supply chain. That was further exacerbated when
contractors turned to hoarding
materials earlier this year.
Amazon was the largest builder of warehouses over the last
three years, totaling $10 billion, or about 6% of the total construction
activity, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.
But including projects built specifically for Amazon by
developers like NorthPoint Development and others, Amazon’s market share jumps
to around 13%, said Dodge Chief Economist Richard Branch during a construction
outlook webinar.
Amazon is “such a large player in this market that if they
start pulling back on construction activity, it will pull the market down with
them,” Branch said, referring to overall warehouse starts. While that means the
warehouse sector could slow as well, a pullback is welcome in other ways.
That’s because an Amazon slowdown has positives beyond just
material availability, said Bob Smietana, vice chairman and CEO of HSA
Commercial Real Estate, a Chicago-based national full-service commercial real
estate firm. The land market should ease as well.
“With one of the big players in space allocation for
distribution real estate in the U.S. slowing down, for some of us that’s
actually good news,” said Smietana. “It’s going to eliminate some additional
competition.”
A booming sector
Even if warehouse starts slow as a result, there’s still
plenty of work to go around.
For example, Brian Sudduth, president of Miller Construction
Co., a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based general contractor, said there is still
enough demand in Florida and that the projected Amazon pullback hasn’t affected
its outlook. In fact, Miller’s warehouse backlog in 2023 is greater than what
it had coming into this year.
“I don’t see [a slowdown] here in central South Florida,”
said Sudduth. “When you add in all the other industrial developments that have
happened throughout the state, it hasn’t resulted in a slowdown.”
Prologis, a San-Francisco-based REIT that invests in
warehouses, also still sees room to grow in warehouse development. Non-Amazon customers
in the first quarter of 2022 accounted for 85% of new e-commerce leases, up
from 66% in 2020, according
to a Prologis report.
At the same time, commercial real estate consultancy CBRE
forecasts 850 million square feet of leasing in 2022, down from the record of 1
billion square feet in 2021.
But if that projection becomes reality, it would still be
the second-highest leasing year on record.
Similarly, Smietana said HSA Commercial’s outlook on the
sector remains strong.
“In the markets that we’re in, we’re still seeing projects
going forward and spaces getting leased,” said Smietana. “Maybe that ends up
being reduced a little bit, but we’re still embarking on new projects.”