Park in New Britain now underway
NEW BRITAIN – A $10 million renovation of Osgood Park kicked
off this week, with Mayor Erin Stewart behind the controls.
Of an excavator, that is – as the mayor took the first stab
at demolishing a former pool house on the property that most recently served as
a food pantry.
“It’s very exciting; this has been a long time coming,”
Stewart said Thursday morning after stepping down from the machine. “Seeing
these buildings come down really signifies the start of this project.”
Osgood Park first opened in 1960 and has never been the site
of a large renovation, until now. The city has partnered with Gerber
Construction to construct new basketball courts, a turf field, a splash pad, a
new playground, lit walking paths and more parking to accommodate youth
sporting organizations, like the New Britain Police Athletic League (PAL).
“The kids who play football for PAL are so excited – this is
going to be their home field,” the mayor said.
The goal is to have the field up and running by the end of
October and the project completed in a year’s time.
At the center of it all will be a new, state-of-the-art
recreation facility with indoor and outdoor spaces. The laying of the
foundation is expected to begin very soon.
“The amount of work, time and planning that has gone into
the redesign of the park has taken us the better part of two years,” Stewart
said.
The construction team is hopeful that materials will come in
on schedule, despite delays the past several years due to the covid-19
pandemic.
“If anything, with any kind of luck we should be ahead of
schedule,” Gerber Supervisor Kevin Santo said, adding, “It’s been good dealing
with the town; public works has been helping us out.”
City officials meet with the construction team on a weekly basis for updates, according
New Haven, Spinnaker dedicate 135 units at Audubon apartments; break ground for 66 more
NEW HAVEN — City officials joined the developer of the Aububon
New Haven apartments Wednesday both to dedicate 135 new units and
break ground for 66 new apartments around the corner on Audubon Street.
Both sections are part of a total 470-unit complex that
takes up more than an entire block bounded by Audubon, Orange, State and Grove
streets. The latest Audubon Street section is on the opposite side of Audubon
Street from the part that’s already completed.
The first phase was completed in 2020 and included 269 units
at 367 Orange Street and retail space for the El Segundo Mexican restaurant.
The recently completed second phase includes 135 units and
6,900 square feet of retail space at 335 Orange Street. The third phase will be
a townhouse-style building, which will consist of an additional 66 apartments
at 29 Audubon Street.
The complete complex also will about 11,000 square feet of
ground-floor retail space, with an Orangetheory Fitness also on the way.
“We’re about building communities,” said Clay Fowler, CEO
and founding partner of developer Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, during a
ribbon-cutting at the building’s Grove Street entrance. He thanked the city
“for allowing us to be part of the growth” of New Haven, “which has been
stunning.”
He called Connecticut “a rising star” and New Haven “the
best city between Boston and New York” and said, “We are pleased to be here.
We’re proud of what we do” and “we hope it shows.
“This wouldn’t happen without a lot of help from a lot of
people,” Fowler said.
General Manager Ann D’Eugenio said rents in the complex
range from $1,850 for a studio apartment to $3,800 for a three-bedroom.
“We are on the higher end of the market,” appealing both to
people connected with Yale, medical students and other professionals, she said.
In recent months, “there’s definitely been an increase of demand for apartments
in the market.”
City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli
called the complex a connection between “the innovation economy” and a “high
quality of life.” It is part of a total of 2,6000 units of new housing “in our
pipeline right now,” he said.
Over the next year, “we’re going to be on State Street a
lot” as other projects — including one Spinnaker is involved in on the former
site of the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum — take shape, begin
construction and are completed.
“It’s not lost to any of us that this is being done on old
parking lots,” Piscitelli said.
“New Haven is hopping,” said Mayor Justin Elicker. “We see
each other so often” because there is so much going on.
Elicker pointed out that the Aububon New Haven complex will
have 470 units total. “That’s more than 500 new residents,” he said.
The complex pre-dated passage of the city’s new inclusionary
zoning ordinance, designed to promote construction of affordable housing by
requiring it as a percentage, ranging from 10 percent to 15 percent depending
on location, of all market-rate housing projects.
From now on, any new housing built in New Haven will include
an affordable component, said Alder Eli Sabin, D-7.
Right now, the city is still short about 3,200 units of
market-rate housing — and 8,000 units of affordable housing — from the total
that it needs, he said.
He pointed out that nearby restaurants such as Sitar and
Zoi’s “get new business from having new development on this block.”
“When I was growing up just 1.5 miles down, this property
was a parking lot,” Sabin noted.
He thanked Spinnaker “for investing in our neighborhood.”
Asked about whether the Audubon New Haven complex could
have been built had inclusionary zoning been in place when it was approved,
Fowler said “as long as it’s 10 percent,” it’s doable. (The city’s ordinance
requires 15 percent in certain area, such as downtown.)
If you add affordable housing to the mix, “it is more
difficult,” Fowler said. “I would tell you that it’s a burden that most
developers take on heartily, if not happily.
Elicker said it’s not just affordable housing that the city
wants to attract. “The integration” into market rate complexes “is really
important,” he said.
The Audubon New Haven complex has an array of amenities on
the first floor, including a pool with cabanas, grills, a fitness center, a dog
run adjacent to Trinity Baptist Church on State Street, an indoor dog spa, an
art room and a communal kitchen.
Construction begins on Norwalk’s first new school in 50 years
NORWALK — City and public school officials broke ground on
the new Cranbury Elementary School on Thursday. The school construction is the
first new school to be built
in Norwalk in over 50 years.
Construction
on the 62,288-square-foot building will proceed throughout the school
year. The existing Cranbury Elementary will remain in operation during the
construction. The new school, being built directly west of the existing
building, will open in fall 2023.
The new school will accommodate nearly 500 students in
grades pre-kindergarten through fifth. The $45 million project does not qualify
for the new 60 percent reimbursement rate for school construction and will be
built at the original 22.5 percent reimbursement rate.
The new Cranbury will feature a larger library and separate
cafeteria and gymnasium. Outdoor upgrades will include an outdoor classroom, a
redesigned pickup and dropoff area that separates bus and parent locations. A
new softball field and tennis courts will also be added.
Windsor developers break ground on 750,000-square-foot warehouse and $15 million roads project
Great Pond Village, the massive multi-use project in Windsor
planned for more than a decade, is advancing to the second stage as builders
prepare to erect a 750,000-square-foot warehouse and a network of new roads and
utilities.
Town officials along with Gov. Ned Lamont and Sen. Richard
Blumenthal attended a groundbreaking Tuesday to mark the start of the second
phase of Great Pond Village, a project that ultimately will encompass 650
acres.
NorthPoint plans to spend about a year constructing the
warehouse and logistics center.
“It’s exciting that out of 169 towns, the developers picked
Windsor for such as huge development as this,” Mayor Donald Trinks said Wednesday.
“They have serious plans for the future. And the area is
great — it’s far enough away that you can put up a lot of things without
negatively impacting residents,” Trinks said.
Online pet products retailer Chewy had been expected as the
warehouse tenant, but decided in the spring to postpone or cancel plans for
leasing. NorthPoint decided to go ahead with construction anyway, and will seek
one or more new tenants.
Winstanley Enterprises initially talked with town officials
about Great Pond in 2008, and at the time was looking to build as many as 4,000
houses, condos and apartments for nearly 8,000 residents. That version of the
plan also included 850,000 square feet of civic, retail and office space.
The company has been modifying its plans in the years since,
and the town has revised its vision, too. Currently the plan is for more
intensive development north of Great Pond itself, with new housing and hundreds
of acres of open space to the south.
“The large area north of Great Pond is buffered on all sides
by a large, dense conservation area and is intended for larger-scale office,
warehousing, industrial and research facilities,” according to a 2020 guide
written by the developers.
“Access to this area is via a dedicated truck route that
avoids the village center. ... The daytime population of this area will also
greatly support the restaurants and retail within the heart of the village,”
the guide said.
Trinks said the town would benefit if more industrial and
commercial development is done.
“The original plan was for mixed-use retail and housing.
That’s exciting enough, but now they’re putting this whole industrial piece
in,” he said. “We though it would just be a village of residents and small
retail, but now there’s looking into some big industrial building — not
warehouses, but tech. These are high-end, top notch developers who don’t do
things halfway. Winstanley is a total class act.”
Winstanley completed the Preserve at Great Pond, a 230-unit
apartment complex, several years ago, and plans more housing. Part of the
second phase of development is roughly $15 million in road work and new
infrastructure to accommodate future buildouts beyond the warehouse.
“You go up there now and there are backhoes, bulldozers and
dump trucks. The developers are confident they’ve got enough interest that
they’re going ahead and putting up the building,” Trinks said.
The long-term build-out of the site will provide Windsor
with a steadily increasing boost to its tax base, he said.
“This plan is really for the future. When I look at the Day
Hill Road corridor, I’m awed by what the guys in the ‘50s did — we have
thousands of industrial acres up there with hardly any houses nearby,” Trinks
said. “My predecessors had a vision for the town. And I think this project is visionary.”
DOT Pauses 'Buy America' Provision to Provide Relief to Already Strained Industry
LUCY PERRY
Challenges in sourcing American construction materials,
coupled with continued supply-chain issues and industry concerns, have pushed
the DOT to temporarily suspend President Biden's Build America, Buy America
(BABA) requirements. The suspension will allow time for development of new
standards for the program, which is part of Biden's 2021 jobs act.
During the program's pause, contractors can research
domestic construction material sources and stockpile supplies for federally
funded transportation construction projects.
The DOT concluded that avoiding the disruption to civil
infrastructure (particularly transportation and transit) projects constitutes a
rare and appropriate use of the agency's authority, said John Smolen and Steve
Park, Ballard Sphar law firm.
Commonly Used Materials
The IIJA, signed this past November, included a crucial
provision that imposes Buy America requirements for construction materials.
The materials list includes stone, sand or gravel,
non-ferrous binding agents, plastic- and polymer-based products, glass, lumber
and drywall.
Smolen and Park said the rule requires, generally, that all
iron and steel, all manufactured products and construction materials used in
federally funded infrastructure projects must be produced in the United States.
The AGC outlined domestic sourcing requirements in the
guidance, issued in April:
Steel and Iron — manufacturing processes from the
melting stage to applying coatings occurs in the United States;
Manufactured Products — an end product must be
manufactured in the United States and that 55 percent of the total cost of
components are sourced from the United States; and
Construction Materials — all processes for
manufacturing construction materials are taking place in the United States.
These items include non-ferrous metals, plastic and
polymer-based products, glass, lumber, drywall and more, according to the law
partners.
But final guidance on the exact meaning of the term
"construction material" has not yet been released, said AGC.
The provision requirements are observed by contractors and
subcontractors, project sponsors, builders and design and construction
professionals.
The White House also "provided preliminary guidance in
an OMB memorandum highlighting that a public-interest waiver may be appropriate
where a procuring agency determines that the requirements are inconsistent with
other important policy goals," Smolen and Park noted.
The industry reacted quickly. The AGC issued a statement
saying the administration's move to "place unrealistic limitations on
firms' ability to source key materials" when the industry is struggling
makes no sense.
Stephen Sandherr, CEO, said AGC "supports sensible
efforts to effectively incentivize the growth of America's domestic
manufacturing capacity."
But the association believes the Biden administration is
doubling down on failed procurement policies with its new Buy America mandate,
he said.
"This is the kind of red tape initiative that
undermines American's confidence in the federal governments' ability to
effectively use their tax dollars."
He noted that supply-chain shortages are already prompting
firms to avoid bidding on new projects.
He cited as an example an Army Corps of Engineers project
that received zero contractor bids because of regional concrete scarcities.
Worse, said Sandherr, the new mandate requires individual
federal agencies to run waivers by the White House for materials not made in
America.
"This means that contractors, in addition to facing a
patchwork of inconsistent, and likely conflicting, guidelines from individual
agencies' waiver processes, will also have to wait as the highest office in the
land verifies them."
He likened the scenario to asking the Department of
Education to verify each child's permission slip to miss a day of school.
"Instead of improving infrastructure for the benefit of
communities across the nation, firms will have to spend more time waiting for federal
officials to decide whether a project is in compliance with the
administration's latest layer of red tape," said Sandherr.
Any gains in construction material production the mandate
might generate will be offset by the cost of new construction, slower building
schedules and hamstrung projects, he said.
"Americans were right to be excited about the potential
for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to make our economy more efficient, our
commutes faster, our water safer and our economy stronger," said Sandherr.
"But this new mandate will leave too many taxpayers wondering where the
trillion dollars went while they are still stuck in traffic, still hearing
about boil water orders and still wondering why we can't have better transit
systems."
Slowing Its Roll
The association was happy when in May the DOT proposed
slowing rollout of the Buy America requirements to allow for development of
enforcement and compliance guidance.
Suspension of provisions was intended to "provide for
strengthened enforcement over time," according to the DOT.
During negotiations of the infrastructure legislation, AGC
secured exemptions for concrete, asphalt and aggregates from the definition of
‘construction materials,' the association reported.
"AGC supports this move by the department and will
voice that during the comment period."
At a time when transportation contractors are still facing
historic disruptions to the material supply chain, "it is self-evident
that more time and collaboration among industry partners is needed to be able
to meet these new requirements," said AGC.
Smolen and Park attribute the waiver to the inclusion of
construction materials, which have not been previously subject to these rules.
"USDOT sought comments from affected industry
participants as to whether to provide a broad, temporary waiver."
The industry responded and the waiver came about. In doing
so, the agency noted it would allow implementation of the Buy America
requirements in a way not overly burdensome.
DOT issued the waiver in light of ongoing supply-chain
issues and other regional challenges in sourcing domestic construction
materials.
"The de-facto transitional period affords USDOT the
time to develop the Biden administration's enforcement and compliance
mechanisms," said the Ballard Spahr partners.
"It also provides state DOTs the time necessary to
update their standards and specifications, allows contractors and industry
participants to incorporate the relevant Buy America contract provisions and
better informs the FHWA in addressing its noncompliance and oversight
processes."
Gauging Industry Hardship
AGC expressed concerns with the Buy America provision back
in January, warning that Biden's regulation could delay infrastructure projects
funded by the law itself.
"The IIJA provides funding for physical infrastructure
like roads, water systems, the electric grid, and more," said the
association. "The new and expanded Buy America requirements apply to all
federally funded programs and include manufactured products, like iron and steel,
and also construction materials used on projects within those programs."
The AGC pointed out, too, that federal agencies had voiced
concern over whether project sponsors would be able to complete projects with
these requirements as they stand.
The association said at the time it was working with various
agencies as well as other industry stakeholders in addressing this issue.
"Many products manufactured in the U.S. do not meet the
requirements because some component or material used in production is globally
sourced," said AGC. "For instance, a pump manufactured in the U.S.
that includes an impeller produced overseas does not satisfy the
requirements."
AGC considered EPA's model "successful in getting funds
out the door through its state revolving fund programs for drinking water and
wastewater projects and still abiding by similar requirements since the
Recovery Act of 2009."
In July, DOT published a request for information on the
provision requirements that specified construction materials be produced
domestically.
The agency wanted to know how the requirement should be
interpreted and implemented.
DOT wanted to gauge present availability of U.S.-produced
construction materials commonly used and how the requirements might impact
DOT-funded projects.
"AGC helped lead an effort with 41 other national
organizations calling on the administration to extend the 180-day waiver to
ensure that projects are not needlessly delayed," the organization said.
"AGC continues to be concerned about the current availability and pricing
of construction materials and the unintended consequences that this new
provision could have."
The National Law Review noted that various federal agencies
have historically implemented their own domestic materials provisions over the years.
Those have included standalone provisions that apply to
particular grant and infrastructure projects.
The new guidance, however, is applicable to all federal
financial assistance programs where funds are available for infrastructure
projects, according to the Review.
This, regardless of whether the funding comes from the IIJA,
although limited exceptions might be available for emergency response
expenditures, said David Gallacher and Ariel Debin.
New rules and further updates are likely to be formalized in
the coming months, they reported.
But if an agency has existing Buy America requirements that
are more stringent than these new requirements, then these new requirements may
be superseded by the more restrictive requirement.
"Interpreting the government's various requirements can be tricky, especially where compliance with one does not necessarily mean compliance with another," said Gallacher and Debin.