Milford developer starts $16M luxury housing complex on River Street
Nick Sambides
MILFORD — Having finished a $22 million, three-building
apartment center on Broad Street this
summer, city developer Robert Smith's Metro Star Properties is starting
construction of a $16 million two-building complex slated for nearby River
Street this fall, he said Monday.
Asbestos abatement continues and demolition will begin of an
old downtown shopping center in October at 44-64 River St. The city issued
the demo permit about two weeks ago, city officials said. The 50-apartment
complex, which includes 12,000 square feet of retail space, is Smith's 30th in
and near downtown since 1999 starting with what is now known as Schooner Wharf, Smith said.
"Our priority is to find a neighborhood grocer to
occupy the first floor," said Smith, Metro Star's founder.
Smith, a lifetime resident of Milford and third generation
real estate developer and construction company owner, is bullish on downtown
Milford and his and other investments made there through the years. His
company sold Schooner Wharf and several other properties to an Arizona
developer for $70 million in 2013.
"We have seen the downtown continue to prosper with the
contribution of other stakeholders like Stonebridge (Restaurant), SBC
(Restaurant and Beer Bar) and Milford Photo, who believed in the potential of
the area and invested time and money," he said. "When driving through
downtown on the weekend its wonderful to see all the people walking around the
green with lines of people waiting to enter Scratch Bakery, all looking to
relax and enjoy the Milford vibe. Many of these people live just steps
away."
The 44-64 River St. apartment project initially consisted of
one 61,928-square-foot mixed-use building, approved in 2021, but the Planning and Zoning Board agreed in February to
split the 50 apartments between two buildings. The board took this action after
Smith relocated the proposed parking garage to avoid delays in getting approval
for an initial entrance on Railroad Avenue.
The complex, which will include 20 electric vehicle charging
stations, consists of a front building along Broad Street that is 51,844 square
feet and a rear building that is 12,303 square feet for a total of 64,147
square feet, according to city documents.
Metro on Broad, the project completed this summer, is 78
units spread across three residential buildings ranging from studio- to
three-bedroom apartments, with rents ranging from $2,095 to $3,295 per month.
It's at 135 Broad St., just off the Milford Green. The first apartment center,
Building 131, was completed and opened in October. The last to be built,
Building 127, opened in July and its last apartment rented in early August,
said Colleen Chrzanowski, Metro Star's assistant community manager who
helps rent spaces in and manage the building.
About 150 people reside there, Chrzanowski said.
"I live in Milford and it was interesting to see how
fast they came up," Chrzanowski said of the buildings' construction.
"It was like one day there was nothing and the next day there was a
building."
The site is historic. It is where early submarine inventor and Milford resident Simon Lake did
his work, Chrzanowski said. One of the buildings on site was fashioned
with a sawtooth roof to commemorate Lake's having kept a laboratory there.
Nautical flags with names of his submarines and other historical terms from his
life hang from the buildings, Smith said.
East Windsor first selectman wants CT council to reject latest proposed solar farm in town
Jamila Young
EAST WINDSOR — First Selectman Jason Bowsza says his town has done more than its share to help state go green. Now he says he is fighting on behalf of his residents by urging the Connecticut Siting Council to reject the latest proposed solar farm in town.
“We have done our part as citizens in Connecticut toward
large-scale renewable energy projects,” Bowsza said in testimony to the Siting
Council on Sept. 7.
On Friday, Bowsza said that Solar Two is "gobbling
up prime farmland" and is contradictory to the town's plan of conservation
and development, which, he told Siting Council, seeks to preserve the “rural,
village and business character” of the town.
Bowsza said that along with the erosion of farmland,
residents have environmental concerns with the proposed solar farm,
including stormwater runoff, groundwater contamination, and fire hazards.
It's
a concern many rural towns across the state have about solar farms, as it
is the Connecticut Siting Council, not the municipality, that has legal
jurisdiction over the location of power facilities.
Verogy Holdings LLC, the applicant for Solar Two at 31
Thrall Road, is a professional renewable energy business that develops,
finances, constructs, manages, and operates solar-generating facilities.
Verogy officials say that the project will help Connecticut
meet its emission reduction targets, as well as meet Gov. Ned Lamont's goal of
becoming carbon neutral by 2040. Pending approval, the project would begin
financing, detailed engineering, procurement, and construction efforts by the
end of this year, with commercial operation planned for the project in
2024.
The town already has two solar farms in operation — NorCap
South on Wapping Road and Solar One on East Road. Solar One, which was
built in 2021 after Verogy developed the property for it, is now owned
by NextEra.
A third solar farm development, Gravel Pit Solar between
Apothecaries Hill Road and Plantation Road, is currently under construction.
Bowsza said that given
Verogy's track record of not addressing resident's concerns of the noise
it emits, the company has demonstrated why it is not a good partner
for the town.
"Verogy did not address the concerns of Solar One to
date. Neither has NextEra," Bowsza said. "Residents who live in close
proximity to Solar One are having an intrusion on their home life. We haven't
gotten anything from the developer or owner."
Residents living near Solar One has long complained of a
high-pitched ringing noise emitting from the solar farm, with one neighbor
describing it as a "whining noise that travels."
Bowsza said that the properties of Solar One and Two are
owned by the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Archdiocese of Hartford, so
the location of Solar Two on its property would be a decision between the
association and the Siting Council.
"They have no problem leasing the property for 30 or 40
years and destroying it, but it's a private transaction," Bowsza
said. "We retained outside counsel; we've hired a law firm with
considerable experience. We're working with state legislators to change the law
over having a municipality have control of siting, making sure communities and
communities like mine are heard or considered. We'll keep trying until they
do."
Bowsza said that if the Siting Council does approve the
solar farm, the town has the right to appeal the decision, which he said the
town will do.
The Siting Council is accepting letters of input until Oct.
5.
CT adds estimated 2,100 jobs in August, moves closer to recovering jobs lost early in pandemic
Connecticut’s private sector has finally recovered all of
the jobs that it lost at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to
preliminary data released Monday by the state Department of Labor — but
headwinds including a persistent labor shortage continue to hinder job
growth.
The state’s private sector had an estimated total of about
1.46 million jobs last month, having recovered 100.6 percent of the positions
that it lost during
COVID-19 pandemic-sparked shutdowns during the spring of 2020. The comeback
reflects rebounds in several industries, including construction, whose
employment has reached its highest level in about 15 years.
Overall, also including public-sector jobs, Connecticut has
recovered 98.5 percent of the approximately 289,000 jobs that it lost in the
spring of 2020.
“It appears that Connecticut’s economy is reaching a new
normal with sustained low unemployment rates and steady monthly job growth,”
Patrick Flaherty, the Department of Labor’s director of research, said in a
written statement. “With job gains across a diverse range of industries,
Connecticut is well-positioned to weather ongoing pressure from inflation and
interest rates.”
Connecticut added a total of 2,100 jobs last month, the
Department of Labor estimated. As it does every month, the department updated
the previous month’s jobs numbers. An originally estimated jobs gain of 2,900
for July was revised down to 1,900.
The state has added about an average of about 2,500 jobs per
month in 2023, a slightly faster pace than in 2022, according to Department of
Labor officials. The approximately 1.69 million payroll jobs that Connecticut
recorded last month was 21,200 positions, or 1.3 percent more jobs than the
total in August 2022. But the uptick lagged behind a national increase of 2
percent during the same period.
Last month's jobs numbers total compared with about 1.70
million positions in February 2020, the last full month before Connecticut
recorded a COVID-19 case, and 1.72 million jobs in March 2008, which marked the
state’s all-time employment peak.
“The August job gains are good to see, especially on the
heels of the positive July report,” Chris DiPentima, CEO and president of
the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said in a statement. “Even
with a downward revision in July’s numbers, the private sector is finally fully
recovered from the jobs lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is still work
to be done as Connecticut still trails much of the country in job growth since
the pandemic and even going back to the Great Recession.”
During the past year, the 10 major sectors in Connecticut
have recorded the following changes in employment levels, on a percentage
basis.
• Construction and mining: +2.3% (compared with
total number of jobs in August 2022)
• Manufacturing: -0.1%
• Trade, transportation and utilities: +0.4%
• Information: +1.3%
• Financial activities: -2.8%
• Professional and business services: +1.2%
• Education and health services: + 3.5%
• Leisure and hospitality: +3.0%
• Other services: -0.8%
• Government: +1.3%
Six sectors are estimated to have gained jobs in August:
education and health services, +800; professional and business services, +700;
construction and mining, +500; trade, transportation and utilities, +500;
manufacturing, +400; and information, +200.
Four sectors are estimated to have lost jobs last month:
other services, -400; leisure and hospitality, -300; financial activities,
-200; and government, -100.
The monthly estimates of employment levels are derived from
surveys of businesses, while the unemployment rate and labor force estimates
are based on household surveys.
“Overall, as the national and state economies recover,
volatility in monthly numbers can be expected,” the Department of Labor said in
a news release summarizing the job report. “Job and employment estimates are
best understood in the context of their movement over several months rather
than observed changes in a single month’s value.”
Ongoing challenges
Amid the job gains, unemployment in Connecticut last month
ran at a four-year state low of 3.6 percent. With the national jobless
rate running in August at 3.8 percent, last month also marked the first
time since May 2020 that the state's unemployment rate has run below the
national level.
With unemployment low, many job openings continue to go
unfilled. There are about 77,000 jobs posted across the state, compared with a
pandemic-era high of about 120,000 positions, according to Department of Labor
data.
CBIA’s 2023
Survey of Connecticut Businesses found that 81 percent of employers
are having difficulty finding and retaining employees, and 46 percent said that
the labor shortage represents the greatest threat to economic growth.
Contributing to businesses’ hiring challenges is the state's
shrinking labor force. The labor force, which includes workers and unemployed
people looking for work, is down about 1 percent from August 2022, and it has
declined in each of the past eight months.
“That is indicative of underlying issues for the state
economy — issues that policymakers must address, like the cost of living,
housing, child care and the high cost of doing business,” DiPentima said. He
added that those are issues that “CBIA and the business community continue to
put forth solutions for addressing, such as private-sector investment in
housing, restoring the pass-thru entity tax credit and incentives for
first-time home buyers … Employers are doing their part. It’s time for
policymakers to do theirs and help build an economy that provides opportunities
for everyone in Connecticut.”
At the same time, many business leaders believe that
increased investments in areas such as infrastructure would also boost jobs
growth.
“There is tremendous opportunity for large infrastructure
projects that aren't happening right now,” Christina Oneglia Rossi, vice
president of O&G Industries, a Torrington-headquartered company that
provides construction products and services in the northeast, said at CBIA’s
economic conference on Sept. 14. She added that, “the money is there, so
we’re hopeful that some of these projects come to bear because investing in
infrastructure has the highest return on investment in terms of job growth and
in terms of improving the state economy.”
Work underway to boost safety at dangerous Route 9 ramp in Middletown
MIDDLETOWN — In an attempt to reduce
motor vehicle crashes on one of the most dangerous highway on-ramps in
the state, the state Department of Transportation is conducting a $50.4
million project to remove the stop sign-controlled on-ramp from Route
17 to Route 9 north in Middletown.
The effort to remove the stop sign has been going on for at
least three decades, ATANE Consulting Engineer Kevin Conroy told
participants, according
to the meeting video.
The state agency hosted an information session Thursday at
the Middletown Police Department to explain the progress on the three-year
project.
The on-ramp’s current configuration resulted in 319 crashes and 27 injuries
between 2019 and 2022, according to the latest UConn crash
data information.
Middlesex Corp. of Portland is the contractor for the
project, which began in late March. Its expected completion date is mid-October
2026.
Motorists will experience some temporary inconveniences such
as lane closures, reductions and detours during the process.
Work includes the construction of a 1,000-foot, full-length
acceleration lane in place of the stop sign, and widening of the area on both
Route 9 and the Exit 23B southbound on-ramp at deKoven Drive. The roadway
will be broadened between 24 and 30 feet, Conroy said.
Also, the Route 17 bridge over Union Street will be rebuilt,
and the Main Street Extension southbound on-ramp will be realigned.
"The real benefit of this project is to eliminate that
stop sign by providing enough of an acceleration lane that allows people to
merge safely without having to look behind them,” Conroy explained.
The present setup forces motorists to “take your chances,”
he added.
Motorists entering Route 9 north from the Route 17 on-ramp
must awkwardly crane their necks to the left, nearly halfway around, to judge
both the presence of vehicles and their speed.
Once construction is complete, Conroy said, drivers no
longer will be able to enter Route 9 north from Harbor Drive, as the street
will end just north of the park entrance.
Eventually, the new lane will be integrated into the DOT's signal removal
project on Route 9 downtown, Conroy said.
"As somebody who's been studying this particular
intersection for going on 30 years, the problem hasn't
changed," Conroy said. "It's always been one of the more
difficult places in the state, especially to merge onto a highway."
As traffic patterns are temporarily redirected, advance
construction warning signs are in place, as well as smart work
cameras, Conroy said. The latter is part of the DOT's
new speed monitoring program.
One attendee brought up a point about whether noise levels
would disturb the peace of those who live close to the project. There will be
some construction done at night, Conroy replied, but sounds will be below 90
decibels, the maximum allowed by industry standards.
The sound of heavy traffic is in the 90 dB range. Loud
noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to the ears, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DOT personnel regularly conduct noise measurements at the
nearest occupied building, which was 65 dB when last taken, Conroy
explained. "We are well below the limit. We're sympathetic to noise,
especially at night, and we do our best to do that, so we don't disturb folks,”
he said.
To watch the meeting video, go to bit.ly/3Rk0wKD. For information, see route9middletown.com, where people can
also sign up for email notifications on the project. For questions, email
DOTProject82-316@ct.gov.
LEARN votes to purchase vacant Waterford school and build new $95M early childhood facility
Daniel Drainville
Waterford ― Regional educational service center LEARN is
moving forward with its plans to acquire the vacant Southwest School building
from the town.
LEARN’s Board of Directors voted Friday to authorize
Executive Director Kate Ericson to buy the 15.3-acre property and school
building at 51 Daniels Ave. for $1.
LEARN will use the site to construct a $95 million bilingual
early childhood school that will encourage students to retain their home
languages.
“What we’re trying to do is to hold on to their home
language rather than wipe it out and become solely English speakers,” Ericson
said Friday.
The new school would feature 568 slots, Ericson said.
Of those, 48 will be for infants and toddlers, 200 will be for pre-kindergarten
students, 100 will be for kindergarten students, 100 for first-graders and 100
for second graders.
The school will be the first of its kind in the state.
Currently, there is no district that has an infant-toddler program attached to
its school.
LEARN currently operates four magnet schools: the Friendship
School in Waterford, the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in New London,
the Marine Science Magnet School in Groton and Three Rivers Middle College
Magnet High School in Norwich.
With two years left on its lease for the Friendship School,
LEARN began to look for a way to reconfigure its schools and the age groups it
serves.
“The challenge with the current configuration of the
Friendship School is multi-layered,” Ericson said. “What we’re seeing is
there’s not a need for pre-K that there was 20 years ago.”
Ericson cited that decline, along with the town’s
development of its own pre-K programs, as reasons why the Friendship School has
become inefficient.
The Friendship School was created around 20 years ago as a
joint endeavor between New London and Waterford. But about seven years ago,
Waterford decided to back out of the partnership, Ericson said. Since then, New
London students have filled about 50 percent of the school’s seats, with the
other half opened to 16 towns in the region, Ericson said.
Because the Friendship School is pre-K only, it had a harder
time getting state funding, Ericson added.
“All of that led us last year to do some hard thinking about
taking the regional needs and thinking about ‘what do we need to do?’” she
said.
Considering all those factors, LEARN began putting together
the idea of a new early childhood school that would help reconfigure its
current school network, Ericson said.
LEARN is looking to obtain state funding for the project. If
that does not happen, it will return the land to Waterford.
“There’s a lot of process that still has to happen for this
to be executed,” Ericson said.
The LEARN Board of Directors submitted a funding grant in
June to the state for review. The General Assembly would not approve any
potential funding until next spring, Ericson said.
LEARN’s goal is to begin designing and then building the
school next July with an opening projected for 2027. The current school would
be demolished.
Additionally, LEARN will reconfigure the Regional
Multicultural Magnet School to be a grade 3 through 8 program. It currently
serves grades kindergarten through grade 5.
“So our families would have a chance to live with us and be
with the LEARN community from possibly infant/toddler all the way through grade
8,” Ericson said, with the option of then applying to the Marine Science Magnet
School, which serves high school students.
“I think this is a pretty significant moment for LEARN,” she
said.
CT city could see $34 million conversion of 2 office buildings into high-profile apartments
HARTFORD — Two prominently-located downtown Hartford office
buildings — one, a historic, former bank on Pratt Street and the other,
directly across from Bushnell Park —
could be converted and add another 120 apartments — and ease the stockpile of
lower-grade, older office space that has gotten even tougher to lease after the
pandemic.
The proposals also would capitalize on the continued strong
demand for residential leasing in the downtown area.
The Simon Konover
Co. of West Hartford is proposing a $7 million conversion of the upper
floor offices of 31-45 Pratt St. — once the headquarters of the old-line
Hartford lender Society for Savings — into 37 market-rate apartments. The
existing Society Room of
Hartford, the banquet and event venue in what was the old bank lobby, would
remain.
Two blocks to the south, the 5-story, 1920s building at 15
Lewis St. would be converted in a $26.7 million project to 78 apartments — 10%
of them at affordable rents — and its main entrance would relocated from Lewis
to Jewell St. The building new name — “The Jewell” — would reflect the change
and new orientation to the park.Subtitle
Lexington Partners,
founded by the late Marty Kenny, a major developer downtown and in the
surrounding region, is partnering with building owners LAZ Investments, an arm of parking
giant LAZ Parking founded by Alan Lazowski, and Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC,
downtown’s largest commercial landlord.
“It’s an obvious recognition that the ‘B’ market space is
done,” Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, said.
“It’s not inconsistent with what we have been doing downtown over the last few
years anyway. The projects that we have been doing is ‘B’ space to a new use.
It’s their recognition of it and they are basically going this route because
they see the market going there.”
Occupancy levels are falling in top-of-the-line, marquee
office towers downtown. Employers are downsizing their leases as more office
employees work from home full- or part-time. There is some hope that tenants
that once sought out ‘B’ space will move up a rung to more modern space and
negotiate favorable leases. That would cut into the space coming onto the
market.
CRDA, which has helped finance apartment redevelopment
downtown in the last decade, is being asked to approve a low-cost,
state-taxpayer-backed $1.1 million loan for the Pratt Street project and a $5
million loan and $2 million equity investment for Lewis Street.
Those requests will be considered Tuesday by CRDA’s housing
committee. They also must pass muster with the full CRDA board of directors and
later, the State Bond Commission.
Since 2013, the downtown area has added more than 3,000
apartments. Another 440 are under construction and an additional 400 are
closing to securing financing. On top of that, another 1,200 are in the
“pipeline,” including the first phase of Bushnell South.
If the Pratt Street proposal were successful, it would join
in a revitalization of the brick-lined, pedestrian-only street in the heart of
downtown The recent conversion of 99 Pratt St., at the corner with Trumbull
Street, into 97 apartments now has a 100% occupancy a year after first
beginning leasing.
The street also is seeing an increasing uptick in new
storefront restaurants, bars and other shops, partly financed by the city’s
Hart Lift grant program.
“Tenants are increasingly hard to come by in ‘B’ office
space in downtown Hartford, and we see the opportunity to turn it into high
quality apartment living in downtown on Pratt Street,” said Newt Brainard,
Konover’s vice president of development and acquisition. “We see that as a
‘win-win’ for both the city and our property.”
According to CRDA, projected average monthly market-rate
rents would range from $1,300 for studios to $1,600 for a one-bedroom. Average
unit sizes would range from 400 to 750 square feet.
The building at 15 Lewis has stood vacant for more than
three years. Prior to the pandemic, there was some consideration given to
turning the structure into a “micro hotel” but that has not been
financially-feasible as the hospitality industry recovers from a battering
during Covid.
While the building’s smaller interior spaces no longer make
it desirable for modern offices, they do lend themselves to apartments, the
developers say. And the pink-colored Sandstone piers and arched windows at
ground-level make a strong statement, they say.
“We believe the site is probably one of the nicest sites
available in all of the downtown,” Jane Davey, director of asset management and
acquisitions at LAZ Investments, said. “The views of the Capitol are
phenomenal. The structure of the building — it’s got some great features in it:
nice high ceilings, great high windows, so we began to revisit the concept of
doing housing there.”
The new apartment building also would likely have a rooftop
space for tenants and a restaurant would likely occupy the storefront once
leased by Vito’s on the Park, Davey said.
Projected average monthly rents would range from $1,500 for
a studio to $2,300 for a two-bedroom, according to CRDA. “Affordable” monthly
rents would range from $1,400 to $2,000, CRDA said.
Units range in size from an average of 380 to 800 square
feet.
The conversion of the building would complete the
transformation of a block that also once included two highly-visible vacant
office buildings at 101 and 110 Pearl St. Those buildings were converted into
apartments.
“We’re still really bullish on downtown,” Chris P. Reilly,
president of Lexington Partners, said. “There’s still a lot of demand to be met
in downtown. And with the resurgence of retail that we’re going to see over the
next six months, we think its only going to get better.”
If financing were lined up and city approvals are secured,
the projects would be expected to get underway next year.