Jonah Dylan
EAST HARTFORD — Local officials have approved an $81 million project that Mayor Mike Walsh says would be the first apartment complex built in town in nearly 50 years.
The town’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved the project at its meeting on Wednesday. Plans call for the apartment complex — Concourse Park — to include a pool, dog park and other amenities, and officials hope the development will help bring more people to the town and the surrounding area.
The project will create 406 temporary construction jobs and will bring an annual economic impact of $14.1 million to the community, according to the town’s website.
Concourse Park will be developed by Jasko Development and Zelman Real Estate. It will include 470 units, Brian Zelman, of Zelman Real Estate, said at an August planning and zoning commission meeting.
“It’s a very highly amenitized building,” Zelman said. “Probably great amenities than any project that we’ve toured or been a part of in the region.”
Concourse Park — which is close to moving forward and just needs the land to be transferred from the town to the developers — is part of a larger plan to revitalize the area around Silver Lane Plaza.
The town is negotiating with the current owner of Silver Lane Plaza to buy the property, Walsh said, and is considering using eminent domain to take control of the property. As that stalls, Concourse Park and a Rentschler Field Logistics Center project that could generate 2,000 new jobs are closer to becoming a reality.
Robert Pryor, director of site engineering for Solli Engineering, told officials at the August meeting that the Concourse Park site will be easy to develop because of its developmental history, when it was owned by Showcase Cinemas.
“This is a great project,” he said. “Typically, we’re trying to make the argument at these things, about how the development of sites is not going to be worse for various engineering aspects. The nice thing about this site is it’s all been developed before. We’re really actually redeveloping an existing site. The infrastructure is generally here.”
The town plans to transfer the property to the developers for $1, Walsh said. The project will be funded by $7 million in Urban Act State Bonding and $3 million in Silver Land Corridor GO Bonding, according to town documents.
Walsh said he was pleased to see the Concourse Park development moving forward, but noted that he wants all of the project near Silver Lane to be successful to really revitalize the entire area.
“It’s part of a larger mosaic,” he said. “We just can’t take these things as one-offs and feel like we had a good day. East Hartford has a lot of work to do, and Silver Lane is an example of just how good East Hartford can be.”
Long-dormant Cheshire property could attract 300 apartments and a national grocery store chain
Luther Turmelle
A long-dormant Cheshire commercial property, located near the intersection of two major Connecticut highways, is springing to life with residential construction that is likely to lure a national grocery chain to the site, according to New York City-based retail consultant.
Officials with Eastpointe, a Fairfield developer, have presented Cheshire's Planning and Zoning Commission with plans for a 300-unit apartment complex that would be built within Stone Bridge Crossing. The 107-acre mixed use development, is located near the intersection of Interstates 691 and 84 as well a main entrance off of Route 10,
If approved by the town's PZC, it would join a town home project that a Southbury-based developer began construction on earlier this year near Cheshire's border with Southington.
A Massachusetts-based developer, W/S Development first proposed the idea of a large lifestyle center on the property in 2008. W/S would then shift its plans to an outlet center before scrapping them entirely in July 2015,
The two residential developments that are part of Stone Bridge Crossing are expected to drive interest in the development's retail component. And at the centerpiece of that development is a planned grocery store tenant that a well-known New York retail consultant said is likely to be either a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods Supermarket.
Town officials are declining comment on who that tenant might be. Dan Zelson, a principal at Westport-based Charter Development, said he could not comment on specific tenants.
"But we are making very good progress with a number of fantastic national and local tenants," Zelson said.
Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, said it is likely either Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.
"Connecticut is still significantly under-stored when it comes to supermarkets," Flickinger said."To me, this is a race between Whole Foods and Trader Joe's to see who gets to prime retail spaces first. That location is prime because of its easy access to highways."
Trader Joe's "is looking to fill holes it has in New Haven County as well along much of the Interstate 95 corridor from New Haven to Boston," he said.
"They have stores in Danbury and in West Hartford," Flickinger said. "Having a store in Cheshire would split the distance between those two stores along I-84. And it's well beyond the five-mile radius that Trader's Joe's has in terms of providing their stores with at least a five-mile unique trading area."
Officials with Texas-based Whole Foods, which is owned by technology giant Amazon, were not immediately available for comment.
The California-based grocery chain has eight stores in Connecticut, but Orange is its only New Haven County location.
"Trader Joe's is fully saturated in Fairfield County, but has room to expand in both New Haven and Hartford counties as well as southeastern Connecticut," Flickinger said. Currently, the chain's only Hartford County stores are in Manchester and Corbin's Corner in West Hartford.
Nakia Rohde, a spokeswoman for Trader Joe's said the chain "considers many locations. "
"All of the locations that are opening soon are listed on our website," Rohde said. "Unfortunately, Cheshire is not on the list at this time."
Cheshire has an ordinance that limits retail development to 50,000 square feet or less. Charter Development's online leasing information has the two largest retail space in Stone Bridge Crossing one that is 23,000 square feet and another at 22,000 square feet.
The 22,000 square foot space is listed on the Stone Bridge Crossing web site as having a lease out, while larger space was listed as still available. Charter Development officials were not immediately available Thursday to respond to questions regarding the retail portion of the project.
Flickinger said the smaller space is more in line with a Trader Joe's location than a Whole Foods.
He said Whole Food's scrapped its experimental 365 locations, which were supposed to deliver the chain's high-end groceries at a cheaper cost. But Flickinger said the company is still experimenting with locations as well as fully automated stores.
"Whole Foods seems to have its new format figured out this time.," he said. The 365 store concept launched in the the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles in 2016, but Whole Foods scrapped the entire concept in 2019.
"Whole Foods has stores already in existence that are as small as 25,000 square feet, so I'm sure they can handle something a little smaller," Flickinger said.
Whole Foods is currently working with Charter Development on building a new store in South Windsor's Evergreen Crossing lifestyle center and Flickinger said, adding "Whole Foods likes to stick with the same developer, when they find one they like."
"They like to stick with a winner and Charter definitely fits that category," Flickinger said.
Plans also call for a hotel and a gas station/convenience store to be built as part of Stone Bridge Crossing. Charter's website lists the hotel as "under contract and the gas station/convenience store as already leased
Mike Glidden, Cheshire's town planner, said Eastpointe's apartment complex plans will be formally read into the record Monday night with a public hearing scheduled for Oct. 24.
Construction of the town homes, which is named The Reserve at Stone Bridge, got underway earlier this year. The developer of the project is Southbury-based EGHome and models are expected to be available for prospective buyers to tour early next year, though sales are getting underway this fall.
Information on The Reserve at Stone Bridge website has town homes with tandem two-car garages priced from the high $400,000 range. Carriage homes, with a primary suite on the main floor, start in the high $500,000 range.
When asked about which grocery store chain is going into Stone Bridge Crossing, Glidden said "we've heard a lot of things, but we can't really comment."
"My guess is you will see the gas station/convenience store built first," he said. "Once they have a bunch of anchors in place and are ready to build, it could really pop out of the ground at a quick rate. But every one is waiting to see that first residential roof right now."
City Council backs developer’s request for grant funds to convert factory into housing
Michael Gagne
MERIDEN — The City Council this week voted to support a developer’s application for state funding to rehabilitate a former factory site on Tremont Street that city officials say has been under-utilized.
The council voted to approve an application in partnership with Trinity Financial, a real estate development firm, to seek $1.49 million in brownfield remediation funds from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Trinity, which has offices in New York and Boston, previously presented to the city’s Planning Commission its proposal to gut and rebuild the four-story former Aeolian factory at 85 Tremont St. into a residential development with 80 one, two and three-bedroom apartments.
The commission voted to back the project, which seeks to convert the former factory into housing under the city’s adaptive reuse program created in 2019.
Buildings that qualify for the program must be at least 50 years old, at least 15,000 square feet in size and must be “no longer productivity utilized” or severely “underutilized.”
The site is the former home of the Aeolian Organ and Music Co., established in 1887. The company at its height employed 500 people, manufacturing automatic organs and a successful line of player pianos called pianolas.
Meriden Economic Development Director Joseph Feest said even though the site is currently occupied by what he described as “good businesses,” the building is under-utilized.
Feest said the city was approached by Trinity representatives more than two years ago “to upgrade this building and make it into beautiful homes for people.”
The apartments would benefit lower to moderate income tenants, Feest said.
“I really think it’s going to be an upgrade,” he said, describing the designs, including the exterior, as “a huge improvement to what you see now.”
Feest said the company has a “very good track record” repurposing under-utilized buildings, including repurposed buildings in Norwalk, Boston, and Providence, Rhode Island, according to Trinity’s company website.
“They’re very well versed in how to rehab a building of this sort,” Feest said.
City Councilor Michael Rohde, who chairs the council’s Economic Development, Housing and Zoning Committee, similarly described the proposal as “a good reuse” of the factory building.
Mayor Kevin Scarpati, like Rohde, has indicated his support. Scarpati’s public remarks came during a City Council meeting in July, when a similar request for state grant funding for the project came to the council for approval.
At the time, Scarpati said the proposed reuse would “help turn around that whole neighborhood.”
A Trinity representative did not respond to a request for an update on the project, including other funding the firm might be pursuing.
In February, Dan Drazen, Trinity’s vice president of development, told the Planning Commission, “We really appreciate your support and we look forward to working with you and the community.”
Drazen also said, “We were drawn to this because of the historical significance of the building and the Aeolian company. We were excited to see the city had an adaptive reuse zoning district.”
“We think we fit right into the framework you folks established,” Drazen added. When Drazen presented the proposal to the City Council in July, the cost estimate he shared was $52 million.
City Councilor Michael Carabetta, who was not present for Monday’s meeting, voted to support the request made in July.
During the July meeting, Carabetta had asked Drazen whether there would be sufficient parking for the number of apartment units proposed at the site. Carabetta stated he was concerned the apartments would impose new burdens on city schools and first responders.
On Wednesday, Carabetta said while he did end up voting to support that previous application, he “did make it clear this would be the last new housing thing I would be voting for.”
Mixed-use apartment development eyed for Berlin Turnpike
Hanna Snyder Gambini
A development firm is looking to construct a new multi-building, mixed-use project along the Berlin Turnpike with more than 100 residential units and commercial and retail space.
Nicholas R. Morizio, a broker with Colliers International and manager for property owner 550-554 Berlin Turnpike Associates LLC, submitted applications to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission in July for the development project and a zone change from BT-1, Berlin Turnpike 1 designation, to BTD, Berlin Turnpike Development.
The change, along with the site plan and special permit, would allow for development of a mixed-use project containing 106 residential units throughout three new buildings, with 20% of them affordable, a new retail building and reconfigured parking areas at 502, 522 and 554 Berlin Turnpike.
“The purpose of the BTD zone is to promote mixed-use development, including housing opportunities and commercial development, along the Berlin Turnpike in a unified master plan,” the application reads.
An industrial building currently occupied by ABC Supply Co. Inc., at 554 Berlin Turnpike, will remain open and operational, Morizio said.
The other two parcels are vacant and underdeveloped, making the space ideal for this project, Morizio said, giving residents convenient access to housing opportunities, shopping areas, workplaces and major highways like routes 9 and 91.
The residential area in the new development would cover more than 145,000 square feet with 84 one-bedroom and 22 two-bedroom units. The application states that 212 residential parking spaces are required, but only 180 are proposed. Parking for ABC and the new retail building would increase from 25 spaces to 36.
The property at 502 Berlin Turnpike consists of 2 acres appraised at $240,000, and 522 Berlin Turnpike is a 12-acre site appraised at $212,000. The 554 Berlin Turnpike site has nearly 6.5 acres of land and the ABC building, with a total appraised value of nearly $1.9 million.
The properties are largely vacant sitting in between Woodlawn and Deming roads and busy retail centers there. The property abuts the Mattabesset River, and the application will also require town Inland Wetlands board review.
A public hearing on the applications has been scheduled before the next regular Planning and Zoning meeting Oct. 6, where the board could take a vote.
Judge orders halt to Rhode Island truck tolls, rules system is unconstitutional
Patrick Anderson
A federal judge has slammed the brakes on Rhode Island's truck tolls and sided with the long-haul trucking industry's complaint that the highway charges were unfair and unconstitutional.
After U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith ordered Rhode Island officials to stop collecting truck tolls within 48 hours, Rhode Island Department of Transportation spokeswoman Lisbeth Pettengill on Wednesday afternoon said the tolls would be shut off "probably this evening."
At that point, Gov. Dan McKee was still reviewing his options and the administration had not said whether it would appeal the decision.
The state has collected $101 million in truck tolls since the first one launched in 2018. Without the dozen toll locations across the state, Rhode Island would lose an estimated $40 million annually in revenue.
In a 91-page ruling that recounted the put-down that Rhode Island is “little more than a smudge on the fast lane to Cape Cod,” Smith wrote that by discriminating against out-of-state trucks, the tolls placed an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce.
"Because RhodeWorks fails to fairly apportion its tolls among bridge users based on a fair approximation of their use of the bridges, was enacted with a discriminatory purpose, and is discriminatory in effect, the statute’s tolling regime is unconstitutional under the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution," Smith wrote.
Rhode Island is the only state in the country with a truck-toll system like the one Smith struck down. The trucking industry fought it since 2018 in large part to prevent any other states from trying their own.
On Wednesday the industry celebrated.
"This is a tremendous day for our industry – not just here in Rhode Island, but across the country – had we not prevailed, these tolls would have spread across the country and this ruling sends a strong signal to other states that trucking is not to be targeted as a piggy bank,” Rhode Island Trucking Association President Chris Maxwell said in a news release.
And Rhode Island Republicans who had opposed the tolls and warned of this outcome for years got to say "I told you so."
"As House Minority Leader in 2016 during the floor debate on this bill this is precisely what I and the rest of the House Republicans predicted would happen," Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, tweeted. "Barring an overturn on appeal this is a wholly preventable fiscal disaster for RI brought to you exclusively by Democrats."
Senate GOP Leader Jessica de la Cruz warned that the ruling against tolling only trucks would spur ruling Democrats to instead toll all vehicles.
“It was ridiculous that the General Assembly would adopt a plan that called for new tolls statewide and millions in debt with so little information," de la Cruz said in a news release. "Anyone who tries to implement tolls on cars as a result of this court decision will face fierce opposition from our members.”
Although State House Democrats were not saying much about tolls, they promised that predictions of imminent car tolls would prove off the mark.
“We want to be very clear: The governor and his administration do not support and would not implement a tolling program on passenger vehicles," McKee spokesman Matt Sheaff said in an email. "As this ruling has just come out, our team is reviewing the decision and evaluating next steps.”
In a joint statement, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said the Assembly "prohibited the tolling of passenger cars, and regardless of the eventual outcome of this lawsuit, that will not change.”
Smith's ruling did not say anything about the state having to repay any of the tolls it has collected; the DOT's Pettengill said that wouldn't happen.
General Treasurer Seth Magaziner on Wednesday said the state had considered borrowing against truck-toll revenue but never moved in that direction, so the ruling should not have any impact on bond covenants.
The state hired Kapsch Traffic Com IVHS Inc. on a $69-million, 10-year contract to build, maintain and run the truck tolls. It was not immediately clear whether, if it comes to it, the contract would cover dismantling.
In addition to the cost of setting up the tolls, the state had paid outside legal counsel Adler Pollock & Sheehan PC $7.1 million as of May to defend the state against the truckers' lawsuit. The legal fight included a battle to prevent Raimondo and former House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello from having to give depositions.
The truck tolls were a signature policy of former Gov. Gina Raimondo, who is now U.S. commerce secretary, and one of her first big legislative initiatives when she took office in 2015.
Smith's decision for the trucking industry hinged at least in part on changes the General Assembly made to the original 2015 tolling bill to mollify local truckers and businesses, such as construction, that use heavy vehicles.
Before the toll legislation was passed in early 2016, lawmakers exempted all vehicles except tractor trailers – including dump trucks and box trucks. They also capped tolls at $40 per day and charged a vehicle only once in each direction at each gantry. All of those changes benefited local businesses over out-of-state operators.
"Rhode Island has a legitimate – even compelling – interest in the maintenance of its ailing bridges," Smith wrote. "But there is no reason that interest cannot be served by a tolling system that does not offend the Commerce Clause. Indeed, many states have implemented tolling systems that fairly apportion their costs across various users and do not discriminate against interstate commerce."
Whether the Rhode Island truck tolling system could survive a legal challenge if it charged all heavy trucks and lifted all caps – as in the original plan – is unclear.
The state could also seek help from Congress, but that path may be even murkier.