CT tech millionaire launches effort to bring MLS, NWSL to Bridgeport in new soccer stadium
Andre Swanston, a multimillionaire tech entrepreneur who
attended the University of Connecticut and now lives in Ridgefield, is pursuing
expansion teams in both Major League Soccer and the National Women's Soccer
League, to play in a new stadium in Bridgeport. The project would also include
housing, restaurants and a hotel adjacent to the stadium, Swanston told CT
Insider in an exclusive interview.
Before landing an MLS franchise, a process that could take
years, Swanston said he will pursue shorter-term goals such
as a youth academy and a team in MLS Next Pro, a lower division
affiliated with MLS. He said he has been in "close contact" with MLS
about these possibilities.
Swanston said he was "not as far along" in talks
with the NWSL about a women's team. A spokesperson for MLS declined to comment
on Swanston's efforts, while a NWSL representative did not respond to a request
for comment.
"I don't want to over-promise like, 'Hey, we're getting
an MLS team,'" Swanston said. "What I can say, though, is that
there's been tremendous interest [from investors] in the potential viability of
this project."
Swanston said his effort will be "overwhelming majority
privately funded" but that he will likely seek some amount of public
financing as well. The total cost of the project, including expansion fees
and construction costs, will exceed $1 billion, he said.
The proposed new stadium in Bridgeport would be built on a
property along the Pequonnock River currently home to the Shoreline Star
Greyhound Park, which has been vacant since 2021. Swanston has a purchase
option on the property and intends to partner with its current owners on the
new development, a spokesperson said.
A representative from Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim's office
said Monday the city has been in touch with Swanston about the project. A
spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont said the governor is aware of Swanston's
efforts and "is always looking for opportunities to spur economic
development here that is in the best interests of residents."
Already, Swanston said, he has spent "seven
figures" on staffing, community outreach and market research related to
the proposed soccer franchises over the past three years. He says the research
he commissioned shows that Connecticut is "the most under-served state for
professional sports" and compares favorably against other MLS expansion
candidates.
"Out of the nine or so markets that have publicly
talked about wanting to have an MLS team, Connecticut is more densely
populated, higher disposable income, higher soccer viewership, higher streaming
propensity, higher merchandise sales for both men's and women's soccer than
almost all of them," he said.
Currently, MLS has 29 teams, including two in the New York
metro area and one in Foxboro, Mass., outside Boston. The league plans to add a
30th team, already promised to San Diego, in 2025. The NWSL has 12 teams,
including one based just outside New York, and expects to add at least three
more in the coming years, including one in Boston.
Swanston acknowledged the competition a Connecticut-based
team would face but said regional rivalries would benefit all teams.
Connecticut, and particularly Hartford, often rates among
the top markets for soccer TV viewership, and the state has frequently
hosted matches for both the U.S. men's and women's national teams. Hartford
Athletic, which competes in the United Soccer League, one level below MLS,
has seen steady attendance since launching in 2019.
Swanston's bid for top-level pro soccer in Connecticut marks
the latest in a string of efforts to attract major-league sports to Connecticut
in the years since the NHL's Hartford Whalers left in 1997. The New
England Patriots famously considered moving to Hartford in the late 1990s
before deciding to stay in Foxboro, while efforts to secure a
new NHL team have repeatedly fallen short.
The state did lure a WNBA team, the Connecticut Sun, in 2003
and has attracted various minor-league franchises in the years since,
including Hartford Athletic, the Hartford Yard Goats and several hockey teams.
Bridgeport is home to the Bridgeport Islanders, a
minor-league hockey franchise, and until
2017 hosted the Bridgeport Bluefish, a minor-league baseball team.
Swanston, 42, grew up in the Bronx, New York, the son of
parents who immigrated from St. Kitts and Nevis. He attended several elite
private schools, including The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, before enrolling
in UConn, where he ran track.
After school, Swanston says, he owned a nightclub and
restaurant in Storrs, then worked several jobs in finance. In 2013, he
founded a data marketplace platform called Tru Optik that began in
Hartford and later moved to Stamford. In 2020, he sold the company
to TransUnion for a reported price of more
than $100 million.
Swanston says he worked for TransUnion until last year, when
he left to focus on helping "underrepresented founders and
communities," through investments as well as philanthropy.
CT DOT to close I-95N in Norwalk, Westport to demolish and replace bridge in one weekend
NORWALK — Connecticut drivers should avoid
taking I-95 in Norwalk and Westport this weekend due to a major bridge
replacement project at Exit 17.
A section of I-95 northbound will be closed from Oct. 20 at
8 p.m. to Oct. 23 at 6 a.m. while the Connecticut Department of
Transportation completes the first of two lateral
shifts to replace the bridge over Saugatuck Avenue.
“We’ll be working overnight; crews will be working around
the clock,” said Michael Rosenblatt, project engineer from the Connecticut
Department of Transportation. “They have a 58-hour window from 8 p.m. Friday
night to 6 a.m. Monday.”
DOT can accomplish the bridge replacement in one weekend
because of the use of an accelerated bridge construction method called a lateral
slide. DOT constructed the new bridge on stilts next to the existing
bridge on both the northbound and southbound sides. Using a hydraulic jack
system, the new bridge will be slid into place.
“There’s a roller system so the bridge will be rolled into
place,” said Rosenblatt. “After we demolish the old bridge, it rolls into place
and is then set down in its final landing.”
This accelerated bridge construction dramatically reduces
the time that I-95 traffic will be diverted compared to a traditional bridge
replacement method, officials said.
“The biggest reason we’re implementing (this) at CDOT
is to accelerate the job to have less impact on traveling motorists, just one
weekend as opposed to months and months of reduced traffic,” Rosenblatt said.
All traffic will be diverted onto the southbound side of
I-95 with two lanes in each direction. Rosenblatt also urges Connecticut
drivers to avoid I-95 if possible this weekend.
“We expect heavy traffic on Friday night and Saturday
morning due to the reduced capacity of I-95,” Rosenblatt said. “We’re asking
motorists to use alternative transportation methods like the Parkway or I-84.”
On Friday night, crews will focus on demolition. By Saturday
morning, Rosenblatt said they hope to begin the lateral shift, which is
expected to take about 12 hours. DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan explained
that the bridge can be moved about three feet an hour.
The same process will be completed on the southbound side
from Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. to Nov. 6 at 6 a.m.
Rosenblatt said the bridge replacement is one of the largest
elements of the $104 million Norwalk-Westport
I-95 improvement project. From exit 16 to 17 and the Saugatuck River
Bridge, DOT has been working to improve drainage and safety. By the end of
the project, the shoulders will be wider, and new guardrails will be installed.
“A lot of improvements, mainly drainage improvements in the
median, will vastly improve any flooding that happens in an environmentally
safe way,” Rosenblatt said. “It’s reduced the amount of sediments that are
released into the Norwalk River.”
Once the bridge is replaced, Rosenblatt said improvements to
the Saugatuck River bridge, along with other bridges, are the next step. The
project is expected to wrap up by November 2024.
Bridgeport zoning appeals board to take up revoked permit for 177 apartments at former Testo's site
BRIDGEPORT — Nearly three months after city officials
revoked the zoning permit for construction of a 177-unit apartment complex at
the former Testo's restaurant site, the city will host a series of public
hearings this week on whether that project should be allowed to proceed.
The zoning board of appeals in an unusual move is scheduled
to convene Wednesday and Thursday just to hear testimony for and against the
North End development, an indication of the anticipated sizeable turnout.
"That is surprising," Stephen Bellis, the New
Haven-based attorney hired by developer Amit Lakhotia and his Avon Commons
limited liability corporation, said Monday. "I didn't request that. ...
I'm kind of concise and to the point."
The opposition on the other hand may not be. City
Councilwoman Jeanette Herron said she and her colleague, Aikeem Boyd, have been
pushing to boost turnout at the City Hall meetings, which will begin each night
at 6 p.m.
"I'm trying to get that place full if we can,"
Herron said. "The North End is no longer going to have things stuffed down
our throats."
At
issue is the July 27 decision by Paul Boucher, head of the municipal zoning
department, to revoke the authorization his office issued last October for
Lakhotia's development, located at Madison and Westfield avenues.
The original permit was sought and obtained by
Bridgeport-based contractor John Guedes, prior restaurant owners Mario Testa,
longtime Bridgeport Democratic Party chairman, and Testa's nephew, Ralph
Giacobbe, with representation by the local Russo & Rizio law firm. That
zoning application was submitted in late 2021, before new, more restrictive
citywide land-use regulations took effect the following January that would
limit the proposed four-story building's height to three and require ground
floor commercial tenants.
The sale to Lakhotia and subsequent closure of Testo's were
announced last November although that $3.5 million deal did not close
until April. It also included a handful of neighboring vacant residential
properties owned by Testa and Giacobbe.
Soon after, fencing and a sign advertising the future
apartments were erected around the site, raising questions about whether such a
large redevelopment would require a public hearing and subsequent vote by the
city's zoning commission. In early May Mayor Joe Ganim's office told Hearst
Connecticut Media the zoning application from December 2021 had met the
regulations in place at that time and had been issued. Guedes remained involved
as Lakhotia's contractor.
As a result, neighbors of Testo's and elected officials and
activists from that North End area pressured Ganim's administration to
intercede and either reduce the development's size or stop it altogether.
Ganim, a Democrat running for re-election and a close ally
of Testa's, in early May announced he agreed with critics of the project and
asked the municipal law department to analyze the situation. Boucher based his
July 26 revocation on a municipal legal opinion also released that same day
that found deficiencies in the approval process attributed to zoning department
staff and the applicants.
But by that point not only had the zoning permit been in
place for several months, but the building department had issued an
authorization for a foundation in mid-May and
demolition permits July 17. The loss of the zoning approval resulted in the
foundation permit also being revoked. But the demolition of Testo's and the
vacant homes continued.
Bellis in mid-August filed an application with the zoning
board of appeals, the first stop before Lakhotia can take Bridgeport to
court.
As
previously reported, Bellis is asking the appeals board to consider
the legal concept of "municipal estoppel" as one reason for
allowing his client to move ahead with construction. Estoppel is a legal
argument against "alleging or denying a fact because of one's own previous
actions or words to the contrary."
"That kind of prevents a town from pulling the rug out
from somebody once they've already issued an approval," Bellis said in
August. "Especially if the person had nothing to do with the application
(but) relied on that approval and then spent time and money after getting a
letter saying the project was approved."
He at the time continued, "I represent an innocent
purchaser of the property. (He) did his due diligence and a letter was
written by the zoning department saying he had approvals and he goes ahead and
purchases the property for over $3 million and gets a $14 million construction
loan based on those approvals."
The application Bellis filed with the zoning board of
appeals also claims "there are vested rights to build under a building
permit and the municipality is not allowed to revoke the permit by making a
different interpretation of the regulations ... particularly where on faith of
it the owner has incurred material expense and substantial liabilities."
The board is made up of volunteers appointed by the mayor
and City Council. According
to its website, four of the seven members' terms have expired and a fifth's
expiration date is not listed.
Herron believes the board will "do the right
thing" and deny the appeal.
"I am confident," she said.
Bellis acknowledged the possibility that board members might
be swayed by vocal opposition to the apartments even if his legal
arguments are sound.
"But I don't know that to be true. Maybe not," he
said. "It's always a concern that attorneys have with any application, not
just this one in particular. ... That's why if we're not successful you can
then go to the superior court. That's your remedy."
Final Freight Street Corridor building in Waterbury set for demolition
Demolition of the last remaining building on Waterbury’s
Freight Street Corridor is set to begin this week, city officials said.
A press conference has been scheduled for Thursday morning
to kick off the demolition of the 138,304-square-foot building at 170 Freight
St. In December
2020, the city acquired the 6-acre property containing the old
industrial building for $2.3 million.
It is the last existing building on the Freight Street
Corridor, which includes 130 Freight, 170 Freight and 000 West Main streets.
The three properties, all now owned by the city, had previously been an
industrial complex for the Anaconda American Brass Co.
The full corridor consists of 20.59 acres of
brownfield-contaminated land. After cleanup, the city’s goal is to eventually
offer the site for transit-oriented redevelopment. The area is 0.5 miles away
from the city’s downtown train station and 0.5 miles from access to Route 8 and
Interstate 84.
The city has assembled more than $68 million, mostly from
state and federal grants, to upgrade the Freight Street Corridor.
CT CONSTRUCTION DIGEST MONDAY OCTOBER 16, 2023
Winstanley targets early 2024 launch of $135M Enfield warehouse project
With a court challenge settled, Massachusetts developer Winstanley Enterprises plans to launch construction of an 819,000-square-foot warehouse in Enfield early in 2024.
Winstanley plans to partner with Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development on the roughly $135 million project, at 35 Bacon Road, which will be undertaken on speculation.
That means the project doesn’t yet have a signed tenant.
Adam Winstanley, a principal of his family’s company, is confident tenants will be interested given ongoing demand for logistics space between Hartford and Springfield.
Winstanley received local approvals last year to build on a roughly 188-acre parcel that was previously part of greeting card maker Hallmark’s Enfield campus.
Area residents concerned about potential impacts to two adjacent lakes filed court challenges. Winstanley announced this week a settlement had been reached with neighbors that will allow the project to go forward in the first quarter of 2024.
Details of the settlement were not released. Winstanley described it as an “amicable” agreement reached after repeated meetings with area residents.
“I have worked very closely with the plaintiffs to work through our differences,” Winstanley said. “And we are on a good footing at this point.”
Both sides released a joint statement announcing a settlement.
“The settlement allows the development by WE 35 Bacon Road LLC of the properties and endeavors to balance the interests and concerns of all of the parties with respect to their neighboring properties and the community,” reads a portion of the statement.
Winstanley had previously agreed to donate 22 undeveloped acres to Enfield as a conservation buffer.
The settlement makes no changes to previously approved development plans, which will see half of the site left undisturbed. Winstanley expects to complete construction within 15 months of its launch.
Winstanley said the project is likely to result in more than $1 million in annual tax revenue for the town and would support more than 400 construction jobs. The number of permanent jobs will depend on the eventual tenants, he said.
Winstanley has been active in Enfield since 2015, when it paid $12 million for Hallmark’s former 1-million-square-foot distribution complex and 324 associated acres.
Winstanley refurbished two Hallmark buildings at a cost of $41 million, filling them with three tenant companies in 2018. Winstanley also carved off the site that is the subject of the 819,000-square-foot development plan.
Winstanley operates several logistics spaces for rent in Enfield, including a 500,000-square-foot distribution center leased to Advanced Auto Parts; a 600,000-square-foot office, warehouse and distribution facility leased to Lego and Coca-Cola Bottling; as well as a recently completed 500,000-square-foot warehouse on North Maple Street occupied by Agri-Mark dairy products and life-science company Eppendorf.
Winstanley stressed his company has an ongoing involvement with Enfield, contributing to a nonprofit opera group, Independence Day fireworks and providing job opportunities. Being a good neighbor is important, he said.
“We are part of the community,” Winstanley said. “I want to do a good project. We are not a build-and-flip company that forgets about the projects it leaves behind. We are a build-and-operate company.”
New London to select firm for residential lead pipe replacement project
John Penney
New London ― The City Council on Monday is slated to discuss and possibly award a nearly $5 million contract to a Stratford-based company to conduct the first phase of a long-awaited residential drinking water line replacement project.
Councilors are being asked to approve a $4.94 million contract with the Burns Construction Company for the removal and replacement of approximately 600 lead-lined water pipes in the northern and downtown areas of the city.
The council will meet at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
The lines will be simultaneously replaced with copper-lined versions, part of an overall $32 million, multi-phase plan to eventually replace 3,300 such pipes across the city.
The Burns company, which submitted the lowest project bid, was selected as the preferred bidder by the city’s Water & Water Pollution Control Authority and project consultant Arcadis.
In addition to the Burns application, the city received three other project bids: $5.3 million from the Wiese Construction Company; $5.8 million from Gerber Construction; and $10 million from the C.J. Fucci firm, according to an Arcadis memorandum.
A construction cost opinion by Arcadis pegged the probable cost of the work at $6.6 million.
In the run-up to Arcadis’ recommendation, Burns’ officials provided information on their company’s bonding capacity, safety record and anticipated work schedule. The company cited previously completed water-line replacement projects, including ones in Berlin and Southington.
“They have recent experience replacing water service lines on private property using trenchless technologies,” the Arcadis memo states.
City public utilities’ officials previously said the least expensive and disruptive way to replace the existing lines is via a “pulling pit” method in which the lead pipes are yanked out as new copper versions are slid through at the same time.
In New London, the service lines that run from water mains consist of sections owned by a customer and the city. The mains, not made of lead, ferry drinking water to service lines — many of which do contain lead — and into a dwelling where they feed sinks, shower heads and toilets.
The council on Sept. 18 approved bonding $35.6 million for the three-phase line overhaul to be paid with a combination of state subsidies, low-interest loans and a municipal surcharge fund.
The inaugural portion of construction work, dubbed “Phase 1A,” will likely begin in the spring, to be followed by “Phase 2A,” which will address another 600 or so lines, Public Utilities Director Joseph Lanzafame said.
“We’ll conduct our preliminary investigations this year, including checking basements and any in-road issues,” he said.
He said the last two phases would concentrate on 2,100 residences in the city’s western and southern sections with the first wave of bid notices to be sent out after July 1, 2024 and again a year later.
New $151M bag screening facility at CT Bradley airport to free up space for more gates, concessions
Luther Turmelle
WINDSOR LOCKS — Anyone who has flown out of Bradley International Airport since April has likely noticed the flurry of construction on the airplane side of the terminal, opposite the Sheraton Hotel.
Those staying at the hotel have had a prime view of the project where the Connecticut Airport Authority is building a standalone inline baggage screening space. Construction of the $151 million facility started in April and is expected to be completed sometime in the fall of 2025.
Checked luggage is now screened by large machines adjacent to the ticket counters for the airlines that fly out of Bradley. Travelers get their boarding passes, have their suitcases weighed, and then take them to the station where U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers feed the luggage into the large Computer Tomography X-ray machines for screening.
Once construction of the new screening building is completed, passengers will simply hand their checked bags to the ticketing agent who will tag and place them on a conveyer belt for routing through the new facility. That will involve the use of over one mile of conveyer belt systems, airport officials say.
Moving the security screening functions from what is essentially the airport's lobby areas has multiple benefits, they add. They primary benefit is creating more usable space at Bradley.
"Both this (construction of the freestanding baggage facility) and the vertical circulation projects are done to improve passenger flow, maximize current terminal use, and allow for additional growth," said Alisa Sisic, airport authority spokeswoman.
By moving the baggage function from the front of the terminal building to the air side, Sisic said, it allows for the future construction of new gates and concession space. The relocations will result in a net increase of two new boarding gates at the airport, she said.
The airport's vertical circulation project will expand the terminal by an additional 22,000 square feet to accommodate new elevators and escalators at both ends of the building entrance. The additions will provide passenger egress points directly at the end of each concourse, rather than sending passengers through a single, centrally located exit lane.
The circulation project will also allow for a significant expansion of the existing TSA security checkpoint lines area.
Sisic said Authority officials are uncertain how many other airports have stand alone baggage security facilities. But she said Bradley "is one of the few medium-sized airports that processes baggage screening the way we currently do it."
Michael Boyd, president of a Colorado-based aviation consulting firm, said "making it easier for passengers to get around in airports" is a current mantra for the commercial travel business right now.
"The airport is right in the middle of a real growth area with people moving out of New York City and Boston," Boyd said. "This is a wise move because that airport is a real treasure."
Failed plans, many owners, contaminants: The UConn-West Hartford campus' long road to redevelopment
WEST HARTFORD — The redevelopment of the former University of Connecticut campus in town has been traveling down a long path, with bumps in the road — including failed plans and the site's wetlands and contaminant conditions — keeping the property vacant, rundown, and overgrown for over the last six years.
But with the most concrete proposal for the property on the table — West Hartford 1 LLC wants to turn the former college campus into a mixed-use residential and retail development featuring 620 units of housing, a grocery store, a restaurant and more — a decision on the site's future is looming.
It's been one year since the developers first proposed their plans for the deserted site and there are hurdles yet to clear, including an upcoming Town Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Agency meeting, future public hearings and Town Council debate, before a plan is finalized and shovels on what developers are calling Oakwood Park can go in the ground.
UConn's history in West Hartford
The University of Connecticut eventually opening a campus along Asylum Avenue and Trout Brook Drive in West Hartford can be traced back to World War II, when the university opened a Hartford campus that helped accommodate members of the military returning home, according to a 2016 article published by UConn Today.
The Hartford campus opened in 1946 and would eventually call six different locations home, including the West Hartford campus. As enrollment continued to rise in the 1960s, trustees approved a campus relocation to the Asylum Avenue location in 1962. According to UConn Today, delays in design and construction kept the site from opening until 1970.
In 2013, looking to return to Hartford, the university explored potential sites, eventually landing on the former Hartford Times building, which opened for class in 2017. That left the West Hartford campus behind. After 47 years of educating students in town, UConn had no purpose for the campus or its buildings and began to seek suitors willing to give the site a second life.
West Hartford approves, then declines purchase of the campus
In 2016, before the university actually moved teachers, students, and staff out of West Hartford, UConn offered the town a first chance to buy the 58-acre property consisting of both 1700 and 1800 Asylum Ave.
The site, nestled in the middle of a neighborhood and close to both the University of Saint Joseph and Bishops Corner, is key a parcel of land in West Hartford and remains one of the largest undeveloped sites in town.
The proposal was a popular one for elected leaders at the time. At a June 28, 2016, meeting, Town Council members voted 8-0 to approve the town purchasing the property. The deal? The town would pay a $250,000 deposit and receive a 90-day due diligence period. After that, the town would pay $750,000, before needing to hand over $4 million to complete the sale by the closing date.
In the year that followed that optimistic Town Council meeting, the town's desire to go through with the initial purchase that would have cost a total of $5 million began to wane. During its due diligence period, the town found PCB contaminants on the site and discovered financial challenges due to state budget challenges.
Eventually, in April 2017, UConn's Board of Trustees voted to approve a revised deal, lowering the price of the campus to $1 million "in light of potential environmental issues at the site and the town’s budget challenges," according to a press release from the university. The town agreed to that deal.
But that deal would also come undone. In December 2017, 18 months after the initial agreement, the town officially decided to pass on buying the campus.
"Given the uncertain and potentially significant cost of remediating the UConn property, stepping away from the current purchase agreement is the right decision," said Dallas Dodge in 2017, who was a Town Council member at the time and is currently the town's corporation counsel.
It's a decision that is still resonating today, as the town's decision to not purchase the property was brought up at a recent Town Council candidate debate held on Oct. 4 by the League of Women Voters of Greater Hartford.
Aaron Sarwar, a Republican candidate for Town Council, said it was a mistake for the Democrat-controlled Town Council to not buy the campus, which is now at the center of a town-wide debate over its development six years later.
"The biggest blunder in our town has been this UConn property," Sarwar said. "The decision that the Town Council made to not purchase the property for $1 million from the state — that in itself was a blunder. What you should really think is how did we get ourselves in this position? And that was because of the decisions by the Town Council."
Ben Wenograd, a Democrat who has been on the Town Council since 2015 and is running for reelection, responded to Sarwar's claim, saying that his party was in favor of buying the campus, but decided it would be too costly for the town to remediate into a functional space.
"The Democratic Party was in favor of purchasing the property for quite awhile," Wenograd said. "It went back and forth, but eventually the environmental issues just became too great. While it was for sale for $1 million, our estimates were that it'd be up to $10 or $11 million to clean it up, plus we had reports that PCBs were found in the water, which would have to be remedied with no limit on how much that might cost."
Two more buyers are found
In July 2018, UConn announced it had found another buyer for the troubled parcel in a high-tech Chinese company called the Seven Stars Cloud Group, which would later change its name to Ideanomics. The company had ambitious plans to create what they were calling a technology campus named Fintech Village, which would have been an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars to the site.
Ideanomics agreed to buy the property for $5.2 million and would be required for all environmental cleanup. In one last offer out of courtesy, UConn gave West Hartford one more chance to buy the property, but not for the $1 million discounted price it had previously offered. At a July 19, 2018, special Town Council meeting, the town voted to deny buying the property, paving way for Ideanomics to close on the property in October 2018.
But their plans to build the technology campus and relocate its global headquarters into West Hartford fell apart and were abandoned. The property again sat in limbo until the end of 2021, when Ideanomics sold the property at a loss. West Hartford 1 LLC, the current owners, bought the property for $2.75 million, leading to where the project stands today.
Plans have morphed since they were first proposed in October 2022, when the developers pitched the general concept it has landed on today: a "neighborhood" type village that combines multifamily housing with retail, restaurants, and more. In the year since, developers have appeared at numerous Design Review Advisory Committee meetings, using feedback to shape designs to where they stand now — 620 units of housing split between apartments, townhouses, and assisted living, all existing alongside space for retail, a restaurant, a grocery store, a cafe, and more.
Building on wetlands
It's possible that the campus will be the topic of discussion at a special Oct. 23 Town Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Agency meeting, but no agenda has been posted yet and Todd Dumais, the West Hartford town planner, has not responded to a request for comment confirming that.
Whenever it appears on that committee's agenda, though, it will likely face some resident pushback. In September, after a summer of heavy rains that left some neighborhoods dealing with flooding time and again, residents living near the Asylum Avenue property started a petition they hope will halt or at least change the plans for the site.
Many of the logged complaints, residents said, included the fact that the site sits on around 12 acres of wetlands. Residents have said they are worried that developing the land will make flooding worse. The town does have long-term plans to alleviate stormwater flooding through the installation of larger pipes, replacing culverts and by creating access to new outfall areas, but those plans could take a decade to finish.
West Hartford's own wetlands soil scientist consultant, SLR International Corp., submitted a document to the town dated Sept. 19 detailing some of what developers currently have to contend with. The report was then forwarded to the development group on Sept. 22.
At the site, around 20 percent of the 58-acre property being considered wetlands, consisting of two perennial stream reaches, two freshwater ponds, lawn wetlands, and forested wetlands. The property also has special flood hazards, including 100-year floodplain, a regulatory floodway and a 500-year floodplain.
SLR said in its report that it has so far reviewed site drawings on three occasions and while they noted some improvements, some concerns still remain.
"These comments pertain to the substantial increase in impervious area in the (upland review area), lack of wetland buffers, minimal low-impact design components, increase in disturbance up to and within the wetland boundary, a reliance on wetlands for the site’s recreational program, and inconsistency or lack of detail on the plan sets," the report said. "Collectively, these elements do not allow for a complete understanding of the proposed work’s potential impacts on the physical characteristics of the wetland and watercourse systems."
Megan Raymond, a principal scientist and wetlands and waterways lead with the firm, concluded their September report saying more detail would be needed to gauge the impact on wetlands the development would have. But as it stands now, Raymond wrote the proposed project would have a "deleterious" effect on the wetlands.
"At this point, given the information provided, it is my opinion that the applicant lacks sufficient detail to establish no adverse impacts to wetland systems," Raymond reported to the town. "Without additional detail and substantiation, it is likely that — given the significant increase of impervious area and intensification of use, the activation of wetlands for recreation and elementary stormwater management approach — the proposed project will have a deleterious effect on the site’s wetlands and watercourses."
The developers had previously said in a statement provided to CT Insider that they have "received thoughtful comments from the town’s wetland consultant which we continue to address through plan changes." The group also said they do expect to have a wetlands review in October, which they added will help them finalize their plans for the site.
Pete Harrison, the director of the organization Desegregate CT, has seen numerous housing proposals at odds with wetlands. And while he does think the worries that residents have are in good faith, he said it shouldn't be a reason to not develop the land.
"If we care about runoff water and flooding, that’s a big problem and it’s going to get worse," Harrison said. "But the answer to that is not freezing communities and not building more. The answer is holy crap we need more revenue to build infrastructure to meet that. Flooding is already happening. That’s already there, not because you built apartments, it's because climate change ... is driving a lot of this. Flooding is going to happen if we never build another thing in West Hartford."
Next steps
At times, the UConn campus in West Hartford served over a thousand undergraduate students throughout the day during its near five decades in town. And while it has remained vacant since the university moved to downtown Hartford six years ago, it appears that the parcel of land does have a future in sight, though final plans remain to be seen.
If the proposal clears its wetland hurdle anytime soon, the project will eventually move to the Town Council, where developers will receive feedback on everything from the scale of the project — which includes the construction of 10 buildings, plus townhouses — to how it impacts traffic on Trout Brook Drive and Asylum Avenue. The development, if approved, would be the largest of its kind in West Hartford since Blue Back Square.
Residents, too, will get their say at various public hearings, which will be scheduled once the project is ready for that stage of feedback.
Work has resumed at Lafayette Street site of June 2 partial building collapse in New Haven
NEW HAVEN — Construction has resumed at 188 Lafayette St., the site of a June 2 partial collapse of a seven-story, 112-unit apartment building under construction. Involving more than 4 million pounds of concrete, the collapse injured eight workers, two critically.
All of the injured workers were released from area hospitals within a few days of the accident, although "I think there's two who are not fully recovered," said Rick Fontana, the city's emergency operations director.
An investigation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is continuing and no information or reports have yet been released, said Edmund Fitzgerald, a spokesman in OSHA's Boston office.
"I can confirm that OSHA opened an inspection of Seven Concrete LLC on June 2, 2023, after the Lafayette Street incident," Fitzgerald said. "The inspection is ongoing," he said.
"OSHA doesn’t discuss the specifics of ongoing inspections," Fitzgerald said.
OSHA has up to six months from the start of the inspection to complete its investigation. "It’s too early to estimate a completion date for this inspection," Fitzgerald said.
Lenny Alvarez, principal of Seven Concrete, LLC of Orange, the non-union concrete subcontractor that OSHA is investigating, declined to comment.
Workers were pouring more than 4 million pounds of concrete when a building under construction on Lafayette Street collapsed Friday, injuring eight, Fontana previously said.
They had poured about three-quarters of a total of 4.2 million pounds of concrete on a second-floor slab when the floor collapsed into the first floor and basement, trapping several workers. The amount of work they completed had an accumulated weight of about 3.2 million pounds, Fontana said.
City Building Official Robert Dillion said he has not heard anything yet from OSHA, "and I have not had any inquiries."
But at this point, "We are going forward with the project," Dillion said.
"They have a building permit," he said. "They have a demolition permit to do the repair. It's all designed and engineered."
The project is near the corner of Lafayette Street and Church Street South.
"We opened the site back up after Labor Day," Dillion said. "They went in, they jackhammered ... to get back to the good point."
"They've made the repair to the slab and they poured the concrete for repairs," Dillion said.
The building is owned by RMS Companies. and is on land owned by Yale University, Mayor Justin Elicker said at the time of the collapse.
When it's complete, the building is slated to have seven stories with 112 residential units, two underground garage floors and an above-ground garage floor, officials have said.
There were 36 people at the building site, with some pouring concrete, when the second floor collapsed into the first floor and the basement around 12:30 p.m. on June 2, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said at the time.
The collapse left eight people injured. Firefighters saved workers by lifting them from unstable conditions, according to Fire Chief John Alston.
Three people were partially buried in the rubble, Alston said the day of the collapse. “Victims had to be lifted out before the concrete hardened."
Allston said he thought the concrete might have pooled faster than workers could smooth it out, causing the collapse.
It took roughly 45 minutes from the time of the collapse to when the last victim was extricated, Alston said at the time.
More units planned for massive Newfield multifamily development in Middletown
ANew-Jersey based developer who is building a massive Middletown multifamily housing complex with more than 400 apartments planned, is looking to add another 72 units on the property.
Bob Dale and Newfield Residential LLC already had plans approved by the city Planning and Zoning Commission for 15 multifamily buildings with 414 units on two parcels totalling 50 acres of vacant land at 530-534 Newfield St., built over two phases.
Newfield’s development team in late September submitted an application to city land use boards for a third phase, which would include an additional 72 units and parking on a 7.5-acre parcel that was not previously included in the Newfield Residential development site, bringing the total number of residential units up to 486.
The new lot is landlocked between the parcels on which phases one and two are planned.
“In effect, it is a hole in the center of the development site,” according to the project’s engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill. Newfield recently bought the smaller parcel for additional multifamily development, the project team said.
Phase three will include two 36-unit, three-story buildings and a walking trail, and additional parking for 95 vehicles, bringing the total number of spaces for the complex up to 841, with some covered garage areas and electric vehicle charging stations.
Units will have a mix of one, two and three bedrooms. Buildings in phases one and two are three and four stories, and will have anywhere from eight to 44 units each. Some units will be two floors.
The campus will also include three clubhouse buildings with a great room, outdoor grilling area, fitness center, swimming pool, pickleball courts and other recreational spaces, sidewalks and storage space.
Struggling CT malls eye multifamily housing to fill empty retail space
Two Connecticut mall operators are seeking to convert part of their properties to multifamily housing, as they join the nationwide struggle to reinvent large indoor shopping centers suffering from high retail vacancies.
Redeveloping mall space into apartments is a growing concept that industry experts say can help turnaround struggling retail centers, and boost the limited housing stock throughout Connecticut, which is grappling with a shortage of nearly 90,000 affordable rental units, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The owner of Danbury Fair Mall, California-based real estate investment firm Macerich, has proposed a zoning change that would allow it to convert the 116-acre property into mixed-use, including residential. Other non-retail options that have been floated include an adult day care center, assembly hall, college campus, or even an ice rink.
The redevelopment plan includes 144 new apartments in a 75,000-square-foot former Lord & Taylor department store, along with restaurant and retail space as part of a “24-hour living” environment.
The Danbury Fair Mall contains 1.6 million square feet, which represents roughly 40% of the retail space in Danbury. However, “the simple retail economic fact is that all 1.6 million square feet cannot be maintained as pure retail space into the future,” said Thomas W. Beecher, an attorney who represents the mall owner. “Flexibility of uses are needed.”
That’s the same sentiment shared by the owner of Milford’s 1.3 million-square-foot Connecticut Post Mall.
Austin, Texas-based Centennial Real Estate has been granted a zone change to create a mixed-use “live, work, play” area within Connecticut Post Mall, along Route 1, that could include up to 750 apartments, built in three phases.
Death and rebirth of U.S. malls
The 1970s brought an explosion of mall development. According to Forbes, the number of malls in the U.S. grew more than twice as fast as the population between 1970 and 2015.
A 2017 report by Credit Suisse estimated that 20% to 25% of malls would shutter by 2022, largely because of store closures. Newsbreak.com said the U.S. had around 2,500 malls at its peak, but only about 600 to 700 remain.
In Connecticut, a number of malls in Waterbury, Enfield, Waterford and elsewhere have faced significant challenges with high vacancies, especially in the wake of store closures by major brands like Lord & Taylor, Macy’s and Sears.
Other retail centers, like Westfarms in Farmington, have fared better.
Malls across the country have been reinventing themselves for years, converting empty retail space to various uses like entertainment complexes, healthcare facilities and even pickleball courts.
Housing is a new twist in the evolution of Connecticut malls.
Milford Mayor Richard M. Smith said malls are becoming outdated, and in an age when Amazon has taken over the retail market, “we’ve got to re-imagine.”
Phase one of “The Post” redevelopment includes demolishing a portion of the Connecticut Post Mall — including space formerly occupied by Macy’s and Sears — and building mixed-use areas, with up to 250 apartments and outward-facing retail on the first floor, surrounding an open-area plaza, similar to a town green.
Ten percent of the housing units would be affordable.
Like the Danbury plan, The Post will still contain retail storefronts, but less space should drive down the vacancy rate and help attract higher-profile merchants, especially with an embedded customer base living on-site, the mayor said.
The project is also smartly positioned near other commercial sites, right off the highway and not deep into city neighborhoods, he said.
“My goal was to seek an integration and to create a destination that people know they’re going to want to go to,” Smith said.
Two additional development phases — each with up to 250 apartment units — could also occur, but only if there’s enough demand for more housing, Smith said.
Financial impact, market demand
Milford City Planner David B. Sulkis said the mall’s value, from a tax standpoint, has decreased over a number of years. The property had an appraised value of around $180 million in 2021, down from nearly $212 million in 2017, according to city property records.
Phase one of the redevelopment plan has the potential to increase the mall’s property value by millions of dollars, Smith said, and up to tens of millions if all phases are completed.
The location and its amenities position The Post to be successful as a live, work, play destination, Sulkis said.
“We’re a stone’s throw from New Haven and Fairfield County, not a long train ride to New York. So, it is a very attractive place to live. I think that bodes well for the future development,” he said.
Industry experts agree that outfitting struggling malls with apartments is a smart move to meet existing demand.
Victor W. Nolletti, executive managing director of investments for Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, said the Danbury and Milford/Greater New Haven housing markets are vibrant and not oversupplied.
Residents are facing a “pretty significant systemic housing shortage in the country,” particularly in the Northeast, making multifamily construction attractive, he said.
Malls, especially in dense commercial districts like Milford and Danbury, are prime sites for residential development.
“There’s strong demand in both markets for housing. It’s a matter of how it’s executed,” Nolletti said.
Malls are also not configured to compete with, or be transformed into industrial or logistics centers since they weren’t designed for heavy truck traffic and don’t have adequate ceiling heights, Nolletti said.
“I just don’t know how feasible it is to take a former Macy’s and turn it into a high-bay warehouse where you’d get much less rent per foot for a warehouse than you do for a residential apartment,” he said.
Donald J. Poland, senior vice president of urban planning for East Hartford-based Goman+York Property Advisors, said the Milford and Danbury plans are poised for success partly because the developers are also the owners, an obstacle that other struggling malls and their municipalities have difficulty overcoming.
If 250 units are built in place of empty retail, that creates 250 captive consumers who are likely to shop and dine on-site, he said.
Projects like apartment conversions reduce mall vacancies and make other retailers stronger, Poland added.
“Parts of these malls will almost always remain because there is a market for a portion of that retail, which will become stronger with the residential,” he said.
No hydrogen hub for CT and the Northeast
Connecticut and the Northeast came up losers Friday in the high-stakes competition for regional hydrogen hubs — part of the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s focus on hydrogen as an important clean energy source to fight climate change.
A seven-state consortium led by New York and including Connecticut and the rest of New England except New Hampshire, plus New Jersey, were not among seven hubs selected to share $7 billion. The Biden administration estimates the hubs will catalyze another $40 billion in private investment and create tens of thousands of jobs.
The decision is especially disappointing for Connecticut. The state has a decades-long history with hydrogen, a necessary component of its well-known and regarded fuel cell industry. FuelCell Energy is headquartered in Danbury, and there are expertise hubs at the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) and the University of Connecticut.
“While I am disappointed by today’s announcement, the Northeast’s hydrogen and fuel cell network remains a critical cluster for the development of American-made clean energy,” said U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., who has been an advocate for Connecticut’s fuel cell industry in Congress for years. “I’m proud of our efforts in Congress to secure funding for cutting-edge research in our state and enact tax credits to spur the development of clean hydrogen technologies, and will continue to advocate for Connecticut’s growing fuel cell industry.”
Gov. Ned Lamont thanked consortium members and said in a statement: “Along with our partner states and the hubs selected today, we will continue to explore the opportunity hydrogen provides to decarbonize hard to electrify sectors.”
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes added: “We will keep up the momentum by continuing to work with our Northeast states and partners and the hubs selected to advance a clean hydrogen ecosystem in our region and across the country.”
Joel Rinebold, director of energy initiatives at CCAT, also called the decision disappointing while acknowledging the chosen projects were good and well thought-out.
“It does not diminish Connecticut’s position as a global leader in field,” he said. “It simply may be the Northeast hub will be positioned for a later round of projects. I don’t think this is the end of it.”