Middletown garage to add 600 more spaces to accommodate increased development downtown
MIDDLETOWN — If all goes well, city officials are hoping to
break ground on a sorely needed, multilevel municipal parking garage downtown sometime
this spring.
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The arcade behind Middletown Superior Court on Court Street
was demolished in 2018 due to safety-related issues stemming from conditions of
the nearly 50-year-old structure. The majority of the garage’s lower level was
closed in December 2013.
City officials have been meeting with stakeholders on a
weekly basis to discuss the matter, Mayor Ben Florsheim said.
“The real hope is not just to construct a parking garage, it
is to provide parking that is already needed downtown to meet the needs we’re
already struggling with, which remains as challenging as ever,” he pointed out.
The delay in announcing the developer selected for the
garage project mostly is due to staffing challenges in the office of Economic
and Community Development, as well as behind-the-scenes activity, including
negotiations, design plans and paperwork, he added.
“We are very engaged with the developer. We are very pleased
with the way these conversations have been going for the past couple months,”
Florsheim explained.
The plan is to “zero-in on the scope of work,” he added,
which includes a memorandum of understanding put in place a couple of weeks
ago.
“What we’re working on now is a more formal development
agreement that will stipulate things like who is going to be managing the
parking; how many spaces are being dedicated to the public” — a multistep
process, the mayor noted.
The first phase will involve environmental assessments, such
as having brownfields consultants conduct soil testing to determine how far
underground garage levels could be built.
The hope is to create 600 more spaces, a number of which
will be reserved for tenants of several new apartment projects, the mayor
explained.
The biggest development is the Village
at Riverside proposed by Spectra Construction & Development Corp.
It calls for 277 market-rate apartments and townhomes on a 228,000-square-foot
lot behind the police station, bordered by deKoven and Dingwall drives, close
to where the arcade would be built.
While a portion of the 600 spots won’t be available to the
public, Florsheim noted, the “bulk of it will be."
“If we can get a few hundred spaces underneath, that will
allow us to move forward with a site plan that puts parking first
chronologically, so we can get that underway as quickly as possible to meet
that existing, outstanding need,” he explained.
It would involve building parking above ground “as we work
our way through the rest of the project, without having to compromise the
vision for things like connection to the riverfront; potential new public space
in that area by creating big surface lot-type parking,” the mayor noted.
Adequate spaces for new residents to leave their cars
overnight downtown will become all the more important when other
Main Street housing projects are completed over the next few years.
These call for nearly 350 housing units to be built on and
around Main Street.
Ongoing construction includes 10 units in the top two stories of 418-22 Main
St., where, on the ground floor, the original Amato’s Toy & Hobby was
located in the 1970s, as well as Vinnie’s Jump & Jive dance hall.
At the former Schlein’s Furniture building at 584 Main St.,
12 market-rate apartments are being proposed.
Another project underway to construct 48 flats is
being proposed
for 339 Main St., in the upper levels of the former Bob’s Surplus
store.
In the future, City
Hall may be relocated, an idea first raised by Florsheim in 2020. The
structure is close to “the end of its useful life,” he said at the time.
“That is many years away at this point, but, if we were to
do that, we would most likely look at a parking solution to go along with
that,” he said Monday.
Now, some city employees leave their vehicles at the
courthouse garage, while others use Melilli Plaza and the area surrounding City
Hall.
Most of the Mellili lot traffic occurs in the evenings, when municipal workers
have gone home for the day, Florsheim said, so that arrangement has worked out
well: “We don’t have much of a bottleneck being caused by that issue.”
However, police store various vehicles near the former
arcade lot in the back of the 222 Main St. station, which dips significantly
into the amount of available parking, the mayor said.
“We are thinking about getting more creative or efficient
with how we handle that side of things to free up those spaces for people to
use,” he said.
Toward that end, the city is also looking at creating small
surface lots, including at 7
and 31 Rapallo Ave. in the North End, as well as talking to property
owners in that area to possibly free up some more spaces —at least for the
short term, Florsheim said.
Once
the city’s master plan for redevelopment gets underway, there are
plans for more public parking infrastructure projects along River Road and
elsewhere.
“This will also be something that can hopefully serve the riverfront project
well, because it will be very close to a future pedestrian overpass (intended
to move foot traffic over Route 9),” Florsheim explained.
Future parking demands are also being taken into consideration
for the master plan, the mayor added. “This arcade project is going to be
tightly integrated with whatever the future Department of Transportation plan
with the city is on both the location and design of that plaza.
“We have to think about what this is going to look like in
2025, 6, 7; 2030. That’s how we’re trying to plan it,” Florsheim added.
Solving parking woes will also be beneficial to attracting
people outside the area to frequent shops, restaurants, offices and myriad
other places downtown.
These plans will “go a long way toward making it much more
easy and much more predictable if you’re coming into downtown Middletown. If
you’re coming down on a typical weekend night or one of the big events that we
are trying to do regularly, we want this to make your life a little bit
easier,” Florsheim said.
Groundbreaking held for Great Wolf Lodge at Foxwoods
Brian Hallenbeck
Mashantucket ― By mid-2025, the Mashantucket Pequot-owned Foxwoods Resort Casino, the largest facility of its kind in North America, figures to add another size-based superlative to its collection.
Try “biggest next-door attraction.”
Joined by Gov. Ned Lamont, Mashantucket tribal leaders, Foxwoods officials and local dignitaries, Great Wolf Resorts executives officially broke ground Wednesday for the $300 million indoor water park resort that’s about to rise adjacent to Foxwoods on 13 acres of Mashantucket-owned land off Foxwoods Boulevard.
Might Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket siphon off some of Foxwoods’ patrons? Won’t the water park resort’s 549 hotel rooms ― the smallest of which will sleep six ― divert some guests from Foxwood’s nearly 2,000 rooms?
“We’ll complement each other,” Jason Guyot, Foxwoods’ president and chief executive officer, said. “Some of their guests are going to visit Foxwoods, and some of our guests are going to visit Great Wolf. I don’t see the inventory of rooms as a problem.”
“This is going to be something unique in the United States,” he said.
With Foxwoods having recently reconfigured 275,000 square feet of meeting space, the Foxwoods-Great Wolf complex promises to become a “home base” for many a corporate gathering, Guyot added.
Lamont thanked Chicago-based Great Wolf for showing “confidence in the state of Connecticut,” citing the 450 construction jobs tied to the project as well as the 500 permanent part- and full-time positions the water park resort will provide when it opens. The new jobs will range from senior management, engineering staff and IT professionals to lifeguards, guest service agents and housekeepers.
“And it’s going to be fun,” Lamont said, addressing a standing-room-only audience packed inside a heated tent erected on the construction site.
“Foxwoods and now Great Wolf ― this is becoming a destination,” the governor said. “This is where people want to be, not just overnight, not just for a show, but for a week and for a family.”
State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, state Rep. Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, and Tony Sheridan, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, were among the audience members.
John Murphy, Chicago-based Great Wolf’s CEO, said the water park developer’s resorts “offer a fun-filled getaway that is close, convenient and carefree, and with this new resort we will be able to provide our beloved signature experience to more families across the Northeast.”
Murphy summoned Mashantucket Chairman Rodney Butler to the podium and announced Great Wolf, in conjunction with its financial backers, Blackstone and Centerbridge Partners, was making a $25,000 donation to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in support of the museum’s efforts “to preserve the history and traditions of the Pequot people.”
Butler presented Murphy with a wampum necklace.
Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket will be Great Wolf’s 23rd North American resort and one of four under construction, the others being in Perryville, Md., near Baltimore; in Webster, Texas, outside Houston; and in Naples, Fla.
In addition, Great Wolf is expanding its resort in Scotrun, Pa., in the Pocono Mountains, adding 200 rooms to an existing hotel and expanding the water park by 40,000 square feet, according to Jason Lasecki, Great Wolf’s vice president of corporate communications.
When the resorts under construction are completed, 93% of the U.S. population will live within a five-hour drive of a Great Wolf resort, Lasecki said. Besides Mashantucket, the only one in New England is located in Fitchburg, Mass.
Butler recalled that his tribe first engaged with Great Wolf nearly two decades ago when the company was operating just four or five resorts. In 2007, the partners pursued plans to develop an indoor water park resort on tribe-owned, nonreservation land along Route 214 in Ledyard, securing town approval of a zone change for the project.
“Then 2008 happened,” Butler said, referring to the Great Recession.
The parties resumed talks in earnest in 2020 after Steve Jacobsen, Great Wolf’s vice president for domestic development, emailed Butler “on a cold, winter COVID day about a month into the pandemic.” Butler said.
Jacobsen said Great Wolf maintained its interest in Mashantucket because of the overall strength of the Northeast market, its proximity to population centers in Hartford, Providence and New York City and the presence of Foxwoods.
The main features of the resort will be a 91,000-square-foot indoor water park heated to 84 degrees, with a variety of body slides, tube slides, raft rides, activity pools and splash areas, and a 61,000-square-foot family entertainment center known as the Great Wolf Adventure Park, which will include MagiQuest, a live-action game.
Hotel-room options will include suites with multiple bedrooms for large families or multi-generational groups. Admission to the water park and family entertainment activities will be included in the price of a stay.
Great Wolf also released video of the ceremony, renderings and other details about the project which can be found here.
State plan for Seaside: Demolish buildings, spend $7.1 million on “passive park”
Erica Moser
Waterford ― A plan for Seaside State Park will include “the
removal of the deteriorated buildings,” the Connecticut Department of Energy
and Environmental Protection said Wednesday in its announcement that the state
has committed $7.1 million to implement a “passive park” design using federal
American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
The plan will also include new restrooms and walking trails,
picnic areas, improvements to the shoreline, parking upgrades and historic
interpretation of the property, according to a news release from DEEP. Deputy
Commissioner Mason Trumble said the passive park option does not include any
options for private development.
The former sanatorium has sat in disrepair for years.
Trumble said there’s “not a specific timeline” for the
demolition of the buildings. Seaside, designed by the famous architect Cass
Gilbert, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Being
listed on the register does not prevent a property owner from altering a
property.
A Friends of Seaside Park newsletter last year said the
state unfortunately decided the the Infirmary Building and Nurses’ Residence
must come down, Day columnist David Collins reported in November.
DEEP said at the time, “Demolition of the buildings is one
of the options being considered for the park, but the final plan will be
dependent on funding levels.”
Asked Wednesday why the buildings couldn’t be preserved,
Trumble said DEEP explored a few options ― passive park, ecological park or
destination park ― in its planning several years ago, but “really at the end of
the day it came down to feasibility related to funding.” Now, Trumble said he is
excited at the opportunity to protect a gorgeous site and increase access to
Long Island Sound.
DEEP will convene a working group in the coming months to
start planning for the park design, with input from the public.
Seaside first served as a facility for children with
tuberculosis and lastly a center for the developmentally disabled before
closing in 1996. Developer Mark Steiner spent years trying to build on the
property, but former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy terminated his contract in 2014 and
designated Seaside a state park.
The decision to demolish the buildings “literally comes as a
180-degree turn, and there’s really nothing factually to support it,” Steiner
said Wednesday. He added, “The buildings are deteriorating because they let
them deteriorate.”
After the state park designation, DEEP began a planning
process over several years, and the agency put out a request for proposals for
its vision of a hotel, waterfront enhancements, and the restoration of existing
buildings.
But the state concluded the RFP process with no award, and
Seaside has remained a state park open for passive activities such as walking,
fishing and birdwatching.
“This is Connecticut’s first new shoreline state park in
over 50 years, and we are thrilled to be able to engage in the work, laid out
in the Comprehensive Plan, of a passive state park design at this beautiful
location,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said in the news release.
She added that DEEP looks forward to working with local
officials, the Friends of Seaside State Park and historic preservation
advocates to best “honor the memory of these historic buildings” in the park
design.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with DEEP on the
redesign of the park and enhancing its natural habitat so that this unique
coastal property can be appreciated and enjoyed by all,” Friends of Seaside
State Park President Helen Post Curry, the great-granddaughter of Gilbert, said
in the news release.
“The Town of Waterford appreciates the significant first
step by the state to transform Seaside into a resource which will allow the
citizens of Connecticut to once again safely enjoy this great coastal asset,”
Waterford First Selectman Rob Brule said.
Rep. Kathleen McCarty, R-Waterford, said she is gratified
Seaside is receiving funding from DEEP to move forward on plans for a passive
state park, saying Seaside “must be maintained and preserved for future
generations to enjoy.”
In 2021, former Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, introduced a bill to require the state “to develop and
issue a request for proposals to develop or dispose of the former Seaside
Sanatorium facility in the town of Waterford and to preserve the adjacent area
for a park with public access.” The bill didn’t come up for a vote in the House
or Senate.
The $7.1 million is part of $21.5 million in ARPA funds that
Gov. Ned Lamont and the legislature authorized for infrastructure improvements
at state parks, as part of the $51.5 million Restore CT State Parks initiative.
The other $30 million is bonded.
Inflation is pushing wages higher
Robyn Griggs Lawrence
As inflationary pressures and a continuing labor shortage
push construction wages to record levels, contractors are looking beyond
monetary reimbursement to attract and keep talent.
Contractors are reviewing their budgets to find creative
ways and additional financial incentives to retain workers in today’s
inflationary environment, said Misha Nikulin, managing director at Deloitte’s
engineering and construction practice.
Average hourly earnings for construction workers climbed
6.1% from December 2021 to December 2022, exceeding the 5% rise in average pay
for all private sector production workers, according to Associated General
Contractors of America’s 2023
Construction Hiring & Business Outlook.
Even though 72% of contractors increased base pay rates and
about a third boosted bonuses and benefits in 2022, 80% reported having a hard
time filling positions, the report found. The survey gathered data from more than
1,000 construction firms.
But workers care about more than just a good salary.
“Employees are expecting a competitive and well-rounded
employee value proposition that supports them at every stage of their career,”
said Alison Tripp, national recruiting leader for Redwood, California-based
commercial general contractor DPR.
The problem: Labor shortage inflates wages
The construction industry’s long and well-documented
struggle to find workers shows
no signs of slowing down and is widely believed to have become
endemic. Workforce shortages, which make projects take longer and cost more,
will likely intensify, according
to AGC, with 69% of contractors expecting to need more workers in
2023.
“Construction was dealing with a labor shortage before the
pandemic caused widespread labor shortages that have impacted all industries,”
said Associated Builders and Contractors Economist Zachary Fritz. “Now there’s
more demand for workers, and that made the construction industry’s shortage
even worse.”
On average, 4.8% of construction jobs were unfilled through
the first 11 months of 2022 — the highest on record, Fritz said. In March 2022,
3.3% of construction workers quit their jobs — again, the highest number ever.
And people aren’t staying in the same sector when they leave their jobs.
“Contractors are now competing not only with other
contractors, but also with Amazon and the distribution segment and potentially
jobs that offer remote work,” Fritz said. “So, that’s pushed wages up, and
they’ve particularly accelerated over the past year. Construction wages have increased
faster than overall wages in 10 of the past 12 months and increased at a faster
rate than overall monthly inflation in each of the past six months.”
Construction companies have always had to pay a premium to
attract workers who are willing to work outdoors in the elements and have
limited flexibility to come and go from jobsites, said Ken Simonson, chief
economist for AGC. That premium averaged 21.5% from 2000 to 2019, but this year
— despite wage increases — it has dropped to 18%.
“Construction firms are going to have to raise pay even more
steeply relative to other businesses in order to get back to that historic
premium or go above it,” Simonson said.
Additionally, contractors will have to find ways to reduce
the number of workers on site, or the skill level of their workers, and they
will have to pay more overtime for existing workers to stick to timelines.
Potential solutions: Culture, benefits and owner
negotiations
Unable to compete on salary alone, contractors are
proactively working to make construction more attractive and competitive with
other industries.
After surveying and conversing with craft employees to
determine their needs, DPR addressed employment issues with a new suite of
benefits focused on developing long-term career paths for craft workers. That
included utilizing dedicated employee coaches and Culture Con events in which
employees have direct dialogue with leadership. DPR also restructured its paid time
off to offer every administrative employee four weeks of PTO.
“Our benefits program helps employees prioritize health and
wellbeing and provides resources to plan for the future,” Tripp said.
Firms are also focusing on workers’ mental health, work-life
balance and opportunities to engage in meaningful work, said Greg Sizemore,
ABC’s vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development.
More and more construction companies are moving toward creating employee-owned
organizations.
Contractors may need to promise full-time employment rather
than contract work and offer higher per-diems for workers who travel to
jobsites, said Portland, Oregon-based Eric Grasberger, construction and design
group chair for national law firm Stoel Rives. They also need to consider
schedule and contract revisions with owners.
Owners’ single focus on completing projects on time gives
contractors leverage in asking for incentives to pay for rising labor costs,
Grasberger said. Contractors are increasingly asking for contingency funds they
can tap or price-adjustment clauses to cover higher labor costs.
“Fixed bids are expected to be impacted the most by
increased wages and inflation,” said Deloitte’s Nikulin. “Therefore, the
contracting models and financing arrangements are being actively revised to
reduce the negative impacts.”