Michael Puffer
The XL Center in downtown Hartford is nearing 50 years old,
and is in need of significant upgrades, officials said, to compete for
entertainment acts.
The Capital Region Development Authority is angling for a deal with a Los
Angeles-based international sports and entertainment company that could invest
tens of millions of dollars into the aging XL Center in downtown Hartford.
CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth
recently told his board — which oversees the XL Center on behalf of the city of
Hartford — that Oak View Group (OVG) is interested in a deal that could see the
company putting much of its own funding into the XL Center.
That interest is predicated on a recent study that confirmed the ability to
make desired upgrades to staging and loading facilities at the roughly
47-year-old arena, which is home to UConn men’s and women’s basketball and
hockey — as well as other entertainment events — and is still seen by many as a
key economic development tool for the city.
“We figured out how to resolve the physical issues that were critical to OVG’s
business model,” Freimuth said in a recent interview. “We would like them to
invest in the building. We’ll do the elevators and escalators and we will give
them operational rights to run the building for a longer period of time — try
to share with them the upside and minimize our downside.”
CRDA and OVG are exploring a potential agreement that could put the XL Center
under OVG’s management for an extended period, and which would govern the split
of revenues, expenses, liabilities and future costs.
OVG already manages the XL Center on behalf of the CRDA. OVG took over
management following its November 2021 acquisition of Spectra, a venue
management and hospitality company.
At the time of the deal, Spectra was nearing the end of a multiyear XL Center
contract. That contract with OVG has been extended to 2025 due to the venue’s
prolonged shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, Freimuth said.
Freimuth said he believes OVG might provide $20 million to $30 million for
upgrades directly impacting customer experience. That would offset part of a
$100 million program of repairs and upgrades currently envisioned for the
roughly 15,500-seat venue.
A rendering showing a sports betting lounge now under construction.
Pared down rehab
State and local officials have sought a path forward for the deteriorating and
outdated XL Center for the better part of a decade.
The CRDA board had, in 2018, signed onto a $250 million overhaul recommended by
consultants. But state lawmakers balked at the price tag, sending the economic
development agency and its consultant — SCI Architects — back to the drawing
board.
That resulted in a pared back plan focused on upgrades to the “lower bowl”
portion of the XL, improving staging, adding premium seating close to the
stage, and other upgrades.
Planned improvements include a series of retractable walls that could close off
some of XL’s seating, shrinking capacity to 11,500. That would allow the arena
to meet modern standards for the ratio of bathrooms and concession stands to
seats, improving XL Center’s odds of pulling in more acts, Freimuth said.
The walls could be pushed back for larger events requiring more seating.
Extensive improvements to IT infrastructure and the show-equipment loading area
are also planned.
“We are leaving a lot of money on the table because we don’t have the right
product,” Freimuth said.
“That’s where the $100 million project comes in.”
Those funds need confirmation from the state Bond Commission. Before that
happens, CRDA and state officials hope to secure private money to close the gap
between taxpayer funding and the $100 million renovation plan.
David Lehman, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community
Development, said he is following the negotiations.
He acknowledged the partnership with OVG is not yet certain.
“We think if we can achieve this, this is the best outcome for the building,”
Lehman said. “You are going to have an operator who is going to have more skin
in the game and is going to be focused on more activity, more events in the XL.
…
You are just going to have a lot more going on at the center if we have an
operator that knows how to bring in concerts, that knows how to bring in
shows.”
Revitalization efforts
The state is already spending significant funds on XL Center maintenance before
it dives into the $100 million plan.
CRDA has tapped $40 million approved for the XL Center in 2017 to cover the
costs of $15 million in ongoing repairs and upgrades —including construction of
a highly-anticipated sports bar/sports betting lounge on the edge of the
building overlooking Ann Uccello Street.
Providence-based Dimeo Construction is building the lounge under a contract
that includes improvements to the building’s western concourse, construction of
additional restrooms, commercial kitchen improvements and upgrades to other
systems. The sports betting facility was originally targeted to open this fall,
but its debut has been pushed back to the spring due to supply chain issues.
The XL Center currently runs at a roughly $2 million annual deficit, requiring
a taxpayer subsidy for operations. Boosters say that cost is more than made up
for by sales taxes paid by event attendees.
House Speaker Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) said the venue packs restaurants and
hotels during sporting events and performances.
With 21% of the city’s labor force now working remotely, that’s a draw Hartford
cannot afford to lose, he said.
Ritter said he agrees a public-private partnership is the best route to a
grander renovation that will keep the arena operational and relevant for the
long term. He sees it as a necessary element in the revitalization of Hartford,
a broader effort that has, over the past decade, included the addition of
thousands of market-rate apartments downtown.
“There are some people who say knock it down,” Ritter said of the XL Center.
“That’s just the Connecticut mentality I think we have to get over: ‘Oh we are
just Connecticut and who cares.’ If you had asked people 15 years ago if we
could build over 2,000 units (of downtown housing) and they would be 85% to 90%
occupied, the naysayers would have said that’s absurd.”
Michael Puffer
As a child growing up in Torrington in the 1960s, Elinor
Carbone’s mother would warn her not to play in the Naugatuck River because of
the waste pumped into it by area factories.
“And she would know when we were in the river, because our
white sneakers would come back orange or purple or whatever shade of
contaminant was being dumped,” Carbone recalled.
Now Torrington’s mayor, Carbone is responsible for charting
a new course for a city where large factories have long since shuttered, taking
with them many jobs, and leaving behind enormous crumbling buildings and
polluted soils requiring expensive cleanups.
Sign up for Enews
Carbone was back near the banks of the Naugatuck River on
Oct. 6, this time in the company of Gov. Ned Lamont and other dignitaries,
celebrating the opening of a 60-unit apartment building on a riverside site
that hosted the Torrington Manufacturing Co. for more than a century.
“It certainly meant a lot for me to now have this (new
apartment development), which is almost exactly in the footprint of a former
industry that existed here, with this beautiful view of the river,” Carbone
said. “There is a bald eagle now flying in this patch of the river. Heron and
geese, … I see the restoration and reclamation coming to fruition.”
Once used as open sewers for manufacturing spoils and human
waste, Connecticut’s long-abused rivers have recovered much of their past
allure following stricter environmental laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s,
accompanied by the retreat of large-scale manufacturing from riverbanks.
As rivers have recovered, efforts to capitalize on their
natural draw have also picked up steam through new recreational parks, trails
and commercial development.
Last year Riverfront Recapture announced plans to transform
60 acres along the Hartford-Windsor line into parkland, with docks and kayak
launches, along with 10 acres for complimentary commercial development.
Planning efforts are still underway, but the 40-year-old, Hartford-based
nonprofit is eyeing multifamily housing and a restaurant, maybe a brew pub.
In April, Goodwin University was awarded a $2 million state
grant to help pay for construction of a 32-slip marina on the Connecticut River,
part of a broader plan to spark new housing and commercial development around
the riverside campus in East Hartford. Goodwin officials hope to see an
approximately 150-room hotel developed just above the marina, along with
student housing.
The city of Middletown, in July, unveiled an ambitious plan
to transform 220 acres of dormant industrial land along the Connecticut River
into attractive and educational parks, community spaces, restaurants, retail
and multifamily housing. In September, a newly-formed state board tentatively
approved a $12 million grant to further that vision.
In early October, Middletown picked Spectra Construction
& Development to redevelop three downtown parking lots. Spectra’s plans
call for a manicured public plaza over a 584-space parking garage, flanked by
19 townhouses, buildings with 258 apartment units and 38,000 square feet of
retail space.
Current plans call for the eventual construction of a
pedestrian bridge from the plaza over Route 9, into nearby Harbor Park on the
river’s edge.
Decades in the making
Connecticut cities and towns have advanced efforts to
rebuild riverside properties for decades.
And during that time rivers have become increasingly more
attractive as an amenity to leverage investment, said Donald Poland, managing
director and senior vice president of urban planning at East Hartford real
estate advisory firm Goman+York.
“Historically, prior to the rule changes in the 1970s,
including the Clean Water Act, the asset of the river was a means of waste
disposal,” Poland said. “Therefore, the river wasn’t attractive. It’s not a
place you wanted to spend time. After the rule changes and the cleaning up of
the rivers, they’ve changed as an asset. They are actually these beautiful,
tranquil, picturesque environments that have an aesthetic and recreational
value that attracts us to them.”
Many advocates of riverside development decry highways that
run along riverbanks, cutting the resource off from residents. Route 91 in
Hartford and Route 9 in Middletown are often cited as culprits. Poland notes
that, at least in Hartford’s case, the city “turned its back” on the river a
long time before the interstate was built in the late 1950s.
Hartford’s declining port trade “collapsed” in the 1840s
with the arrival of trains, Poland said. The river was cut off from the city by
a flood-control system of dikes in the 1940s.
Getting on the river
The nonprofit Riverfront Recapture Inc. launched in 1981
with backing from corporate Hartford and a mission to reunite the city with its
river. The hope was to promote it as a resource for both the Capital city and
neighboring East Hartford.
Today, the organization maintains three parks on the west
bank of the river, one on the east, and 11.6 miles of riverside trail — with
more under development.
The nonprofit organizes rowing competitions, walking tours,
a music festival and other events to magnify the draw of its parks. Riverfront
Recapture said its parks hosted 744,256 visitors in 2021.
Those visitors stop for gas, visit restaurants and other
amenities, pumping $2 for every $1 spent on Riverfront Recapture’s activities,
said Michael Zaleski, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, citing a 2015 study by
the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
“We have this majestic river, this 410-mile river that
starts in Canada and ends in Long Island Sound,” Zaleski said on Oct. 9, during
a short break on the first night of a three-day music festival. “Here in
Hartford, in the Greater Hartford region, we have this wonderful section we are
trying to enhance. And, ultimately, we see Riverfront Recapture as an economic
development organization.”
The Hartbeat Music Festival was staged at the Mortensen
Riverfront Plaza, a signature park with landscaped decking over Interstate 91
and steep stairs leading to the river’s edge.
Zaleski said his organization, its parks and events are “an
important piece of the pie” when it comes to the quality of life in the region.
“So, when a corporation is looking at recruiting people,
there are people who are looking for riverwalk trails, there are people looking
for rowing programs, there are people looking for opportunities to get onto the
water,” Zaleski said.
Water attraction
Human attraction to rivers goes back a long way. The
earliest civilizations sprang up alongside rivers, which provided water,
transportation and seasonal floods that irrigated and fertilized agriculture.
There were also practical reasons Connecticut’s earliest
communities have their roots near rivers. Hartford was a major shipping port
for agricultural goods from the surrounding region before the advent of
railroads.
Middletown also had its roots in shipping. The Naugatuck
River and its tributaries provided mechanical power and water for a
metal-working industry that would evolve and grow.
In many of Connecticut’s urban centers, past industrial use
of riverside properties means that no matter how attractive the waterway has
become, redevelopment won’t happen without help from the state and federal
government.
The Torrington development celebrated by Mayor Carbone could
only happen after a $2.7 million state- and federally-funded cleanup that drew
out PCB-contaminated soil as deep as 17 feet.
In Middletown, the city has spent more than $75 million
decommissioning its sewage treatment plant, buying properties and repairing a
shuttered riverside restaurant building as part of its “Return to the
Riverbend” plan.
The state’s new Community Investment Fund board has agreed
to allocate $12 million to Middletown’s riverfront redevelopment efforts. It
was the largest single grant among 26 recently approved by the lawmaker-led
board.
But Middletown had asked for $24 million. Its grant
application acknowledges the broader development plan “will take decades and
hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.”
Still worth it
Despite the expense, there is no shortage of riverside
redevelopment projects being pursued. Boosters often pitch these as a means to
reinvigorate economies damaged by industrial decline while clearing away
polluted eyesores.
In Middletown, the payoff is seen as an improved quality of
life and a stronger attraction for both day-tripping tourists and potential new
employers.
“Anytime we have something where people want to come and
spend time, they are going to spend time in other places in our community,”
said Bobbye Knoll Peterson, Middletown’s acting director of economic and
community development. “If people are making use of the (riverfront parks) they
are going to make use of other things in the community. They are going to go to
our restaurants, they are going to grab that ice cream by the river, they are
going to see an adorable shop like Amato’s (Toy and Hobby) and pop in.”
Middletown’s state grant application offered a
“conservative” estimate of $300 million in private commercial and residential
development accompanying its project.
Spectra, working as a general contractor, is already
refinishing a building on Middletown’s Main Street into 16 apartments for
another developer. Spectra President Daniel Klaynberg said that is how he
learned of the city’s search for a development partner on three lots near Route
9 and Harbor Park.
Under a tentative agreement with the city, Middletown would
share the estimated $35 million cost to build the new parking and plaza,
Klaynberg said. Housing would be added in a second phase to follow in “a few years,”
Klaynberg said, at an estimated $100 million to $120 million development cost.
Klaynberg said Spectra would have targeted Middletown for
development with or without the ambitious riverfront plans. The city has a
vibrant downtown and strong housing market. But the riverfront plan does add to
the appeal, he said.
“I think this makes it a prime location for sure and it’s a
super unique location,” Klaynberg said. “We are looking at housing. It seems
like there is a market to serve.”
Zone changes limit scope of possible warehouse on Wallingford site
Kate Ramunni
WALLINGFORD — Recently approved modifications to the
zoning regulations of the former Bristol-Myers Squibb property at 5 Research
Parkway would likely preclude Amazon from moving to the
site despite two previous tries.
"It's not an easy site because of how big the site
is," Town Planner Kevin Pagini said. "We really wanted to reduce the
traffic and the amount of parking-intensive uses. There is a pretty substantial
buffer between the property and the nearest neighbors. But it may not be the perfect
project that everyone is happy with."
The newest application for the property was on the Planning
and Zoning Commission's October agenda, but an hour before the meeting was to
start, three commission members notified town officials they would not be able
to attend, Pagini said. The applicant, Calare Properties, opted to pull the
application and instead present its plans at the November meeting, Pagini said,
so they wouldn't have to do it twice.
The two prior applications prompted concerns from residents
living in the area, but it may not be the same for this application,
Pagini said, because of changes made to the zoning regulations since then.
"I understand their concerns with traffic and
everything else," he said. "That's why we looked for uses that did
not generate a lot of traffic. Some of their concerns are more the type of
traffic rather than the total traffic. It's understandable, but just the size
of anything that could go on that site I think would potentially be an issue.
Some of the neighbors are understanding because they had the opportunity to
speak on the regulation changes, but I think some of the commissioners felt
like warehousing was something that would be OK in that zone as long as it was
just warehousing and not anything else more intensive than that.
“They specifically prohibited Amazon-type uses and freight
terminals and drop yards with trucks coming in and out transferring the goods
constantly. They didn't want anything of that nature,” Pagini said.
Bristol-Myers Squibb left the site in 2018, and since then
there have been two applications for the property for Amazon warehouse
facilities. Both drew considerable opposition, and while the Inland Wetlands
and Watercourses Commission approved both applications, the Planning and Zoning
Commission denied both. After denying the second application, the zoning
commission approved a moratorium on warehouse applications for the site
while it worked on revising its regulations, which was completed in April.
"We spoke with town engineers, the water and sewer
division, and we consulted with every town department for months and months and
months over these regulation changes," Pagini said.
Tenant not identified
In May, Calare filed its third application with the Inland
Wetlands Commission, which approved it earlier this month. Inland Wetlands has
to approve the application before it can go before the Planning and Zoning
Commission, so it wasn't submitted to zoning until this month.
The plans call for the construction of a 450,000 square foot
warehouse building located in the same spot where the Bristol-Myers Squibb
building was, with 10,000 square feet used as office space. The building would
be on about 11 acres of the 180-acre site. The end user hasn't yet been
identified, Pagini said.
"The size of the buildings and the parking lots are
substantially smaller with this application," Pagini said. The prior
application "spurred regulations changes that we currently have now, and
the current regulations are what allowed this application to go forward,"
he said. "There are parking maximums now, and we reduced building coverage
by a lot. We took out certain uses, specifically Amazon-type uses, parcel
sorting and retail distribution facilities."
While they haven't said who the tenant would be, "they
just want to get approvals for a shovel-ready warehouse," Pagini said.
The revised regulations do not allow freight terminals or drop yards in
the new district, he said. "There are certain uses that were part of the
previous application that we did not want to see moving forward,"
No public hearing
As a result of the revisions, the application is for a site
plan, which does not require a public hearing, unlike the prior
applications. But that doesn't mean residents won't be able to have their say
on the plans.
The commission “generally allows comments related
to the application for a site plan, though it's not a requirement," Pagini
said. "Site plans just have to meet the regulations."
So far there hasn't been much of a response from the public,
unlike with the two other applications, Pagini said. That could be because they
spoke at length at the hearings on the zoning revisions, he said.
"We haven't really heard from residents. They had eight
months to comment on the regulation changes so they voiced their opinion
then," he said. I don't know if they knew it would still allow something
of this size, but it's not being reviewed like it was just a normal project. We
spent hours upon hours upon hours reviewing this. There are extra landscaping
requirements, there are extra stormwater management practices. There's a
parking maximum now. The last application had like 1,700 parking
spaces proposed. This one allows a maximum of about 530, so it's about a
third of what was being proposed before."
The application applies only to the property to be used for
the building and parking, he said. To do anything else on the property would
require a new application.
Ridgefield earns $3M state grant to connect to Redding's portion of Norwalk River Valley Trail.
RIDGEFIELD — The state has approved a $3.06 million
grant to fund a portion of the Norwalk River Valley Trail through
Ridgefield.
The trail is meant to encourage outdoor activities and would
eventually run through four neighboring towns. If approved by the town,
construction is expected to begin on this Ridgefield portion in the summer or
early fall of 2023.
The state Department of Transportation committed the funding
last week for the Ridgefield Ramble, a 1.6-mile section of the 4.3 miles
planned for Ridgefield.
"That's one step in the process. This is agreeing this
is a good project and we will go ahead and fund it with this grant money,"
Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. "Eventually, there will be a
walking, biking trail. That is the master plan. Right now, we're doing bits and
pieces of it."
When built, the 30-mile trail is expected to span from Calf
Pasture Beach in Norwalk, north through Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding and end at
Rogers Park in Danbury.
Proposed mixed use zone could lead to Trumbull Center apartments
TRUMBULL — For years, Trumbull has debated the future of the
Trumbull Center.
A plan to renovate the shopping plaza, which now has
multiple vacant storefronts, including one previously occupied by Starbucks,
and another that formerly housed Porricelli’s Food Mart, has received support
from many of the businesses that currently occupy Trumbull Center. But a
majority of residents at last week's Planning and Zoning Commission public
hearing spoke out against a proposed zone change that would allow mixed use
property, including about 50 apartments, at the site.
"More apartments are the last thing we need," said
Cindy Penkoff, vice chairman of the Trumbull Republican Town Committee. "I
am for this, but it needs be a plan that works for everyone."
The hearing, which lasted roughly two hours, was on an
amendment to a zoning regulation that would permit mixed-use developments on
properties greater than five acres with road frontage and direct traffic access
to both White Plains Road and Daniels Farm Road. If approved, the change, which
first came before the commission in August, could pave the way for a
long-discussed project to mix retail and apartments at Trumbull Center.
Last year, Attorney Ray Rizio, representing Trumbull Center
LLC, came before the commission with a pre-application for a plan to remove two
buildings — an old professional building, and the building that used to house
Starbucks and other businesses — at 900 White Plains Road, which is part of the
Trumbull Center corridor. These buildings would be replaced with the mixed use
property, that would include about 50 apartments.
Most residents who spoke at Wednesday's hearing echoed
Penkoff's fears about adding more apartments to town.
Joe Pifko, another RTC member, implored the commission not
to pass the zoning change. He said he was particularly concerned with the size
of the potential development, which he said would be inconsistent with the
character of downtown.
"I have a a serious problem with a five-story building
in downtown Trumbull, where nothing is like that," he said. "It’s
going to stand out like a sore thumb."
Throughout the hearing, Rizio and Commission Chair Fred
Garrity clarified that what they were discussing wasn't the development itself,
but the zoning change that could allow it.
"What we are looking for is a text amendment that
allows us to go forward with the conversations people are asking for,"
Rizio said.
Before the public spoke, commission members were allowed to
ask questions about the application for the amendment. Commissioner Tony
D’Aquila asked questions for roughly an hour.
One of his requests was for Rizio to show a site conceptual
site plan for what the mixed use development might look like. Though Rizio
complied, Garrity pointed out that the hearing was about the amendment, not any
actual project.
"What we’re talking about here is language to allow a
development," Garrity said. At this point, Garrity said, the development
itself is "pretend. It's a possibility."
The commission did not vote on the amendment Wednesday, but
Garrity said it would likely be on next month's meeting agenda.