Tweed-New Haven Airport Receives $4 Million Federal Grant for Terminal Expansion
Tweed-New Haven Airport Receives $4 Million Federal Grant for Terminal Expansion New Haven, CT – Tweed-New Haven Airport (HVN) today announced that it has been awarded a $4 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through the FY 2025 Airport Terminal Program (ATP).
This funding will support Phase 2 of the airport's terminal expansion, which includes the construction of a new, state-of-the-art, 81,568 square foot terminal with four gates, expanded security screening, new baggage handling systems, and concessions space. This award builds on HVN’s continued progress modernizing the airport’s infrastructure, replacing an outdated terminal built in 1931, which exceeded its useful life. The new terminal will expand capacity at the airport and significantly improve the passenger experience. It will also incorporate a sustainable design, improving climate resilience and safety.
The new terminal’s construction is a critical piece of HVN’s
broader vision to serve a premier travel hub for Southern Connecticut flyers,
enhancing passenger experiences, reducing delays, and supporting the local
economy. “This grant is another huge win for HVN and for the Southern
Connecticut region,” said Michael Jones, CEO of The New HVN. “Once built, HVN’s
new terminal will transform the way we serve our passengers and support our
community, offering modern amenities, a more efficient security process, and a
sustainable infrastructure.
We are deeply grateful to the FAA and Connecticut’s federal
delegation for their continued investment in HVN’s growth and success.”
"Tweed’s record growth is creating good-paying jobs, attracting families
and businesses to our state, and paving the way for greater connectivity for
all of Connecticut,” said Senator Chris Murphy. “By opening up new gates and
upgrading aging infrastructure, this $4 million investment in the airport’s
terminal expansion will allow Tweed to meet the rising demand for air travel in
New Haven, improve the airport experience, and bring a major economic boost to
southern Connecticut.”
“This major federal
investment will enable more air travelers to fly more conveniently,
comfortably, and safely,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal. “While more funds
are needed to support Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure – and I’ll
fight for them – this $4 million is a giant vote of confidence in New Haven as
a hub for air travel.” "The FAA grant is another important and meaningful
step toward the responsible and sustainable development of Tweed-New Haven
Airport,” said Mayor Justin Elicker.
“New Haven is a growing city, and this new terminal is an
important next step, supporting our residents and visitors. I appreciate our
federal delegation’s leadership and strong support for this landmark
public-private partnership.”
“This new funding is a testament to the federal government’s
confidence in HVN’s future, and specifically in the building of a new, modern
passenger terminal,” said Robert Reed, Chairman of the Tweed New Haven Airport
Authority.
“HVN is excited to continue its forward progress and find
new ways to meet the needs of our travelers. We look forward to continuing our
work to deliver a world-class airport that Southern Connecticut can be proud
of.”
This $4 million grant is part of a larger effort to bring
long-needed upgrades to Tweed-New Haven Airport and positions the airport to
play a key role in the future growth of Connecticut’s transportation
infrastructure.
“The New HVN” project
will reduce congestion at neighboring airports and provide more travel options
for the people of New Haven and surrounding communities. Additional information
can be found at www.thenewhvn.com.
Here’s how stormwater drainage is impacting a major Hartford development plan
Hartford officials believe the installation of a roughly
mile-long pipe through an area south of Bushnell Park will accelerate the
transformation of 20 acres of underused buildings and parking lots into a
vibrant mixed-use neighborhood.
For more than a year, staff at the Capital Region
Development Authority and Metropolitan District (MDC) have been negotiating an
agreement that would require the CRDA to help pay for the installation of a
large stormwater drainage pipe, which would accept water flowing from parking
lots and off buildings planned for the “Bushnell South” development area.
That water would then be funneled into the Park River —
which runs through an underground, box-shaped tunnel that passes through
Bushnell Park — before flowing into the Connecticut River.
Concerned about the increasing frequency of severe
storms, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he’s pushing for
greater flood-control measures throughout the city.
In the Bushnell South area, for example, he wants one major
pipe installed to alleviate existing flooding and relieve developers from
having to install stormwater retention basins that eat up otherwise developable
land.
“We are trying to figure out if we could get one major
connection instead of building a bunch of retaining pools for each building,”
Arulampalam said. “This is part of what is slowing down development in the
short term.”
Hartford, like many older cities in the Northeast, has a
sewer system with pipes that carry both sanitary sewage — from toilets, kitchen
sinks and shower drains — and stormwater. All this gets sent downstream to
sewage treatment plants.
That’s usually not a problem. But large rainstorms, which
have increased in frequency in recent years, create sudden spikes in flow that
can overwhelm sewage treatment plants, spilling millions of gallons of
stormwater mixed with raw sewage into the Connecticut River.
Under state and city regulations, builders in Hartford need
to create on their properties drainage basins capable of holding, then slowly
feeding out, stormwater runoff equivalent to the impact of a 100-year storm,
said MDC Executive Director Scott W. Jellison. For larger apartment
buildings, that costs hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to install, he said.
Jellison said he envisions a mile-long pipe of about 24 to
36 inches in diameter that could cost around $4 million.
“Stormwater is really driving development,” Jellison said
during a recent visit to the Bushnell South area. “Properties like this can
flood quickly.”
What’s on tap
The Bushnell South area, long eyed for redevelopment, has
attracted several developers that want to build large mixed-use apartment
projects. CRDA is providing low-interest loans to spur the activity.
Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners is nearing
completion of a $66 million project transforming two former state office
buildings at 55 Elm St. into 164 apartments. The company is working to assemble
nearly $70 million for two additional apartment buildings — totaling 239 units
— on properties wrapping around 55 Elm St.
Early this year, Spinnaker also paid $3.25 million for a
2.2-acre parking lot in the Bushnell South area for future development.
Philadelphia-based Pennrose LLC and The Cloud Co., of
Hartford, are partnered in a $45.35 million plan to convert two former state
office buildings at 18-20 and 30 Trinity St., into apartment buildings that
will host 104 units. CRDA, last year, approved a $6.5 million loan for the
effort.
The developers are expected to close on financing and buy
those properties from the state by the end of this year, according to CRDA
Executive Director Michael Freimuth. Construction is expected to begin
immediately thereafter.
One block over, the New Jersey-based Michaels Organization
was selected by CRDA as the preferred developer of a 2.8-acre parking lot at
165 Capitol Ave. However, the firm is currently working on a revised
development plan, since its original proposal for a $129.6 million, mixed-use
multifamily project with 360 apartments didn’t pencil out.
Obtainable goal
If the sewer pipe project moves forward, the CRDA would be
expected to carry some of the cost for the MDC-led effort. Freimuth said his
agency is basing its contribution on the savings developers will realize by not
having to build individual stormwater retention systems on their properties.
Altogether, that would save developers “millions,” while also preserving
additional land for development, Freimuth said.
“Essentially, the infrastructure improvement is a subsidy to
all projects in the area, not unlike roads or utilities for subdivisions or
redevelopment areas,” Freimuth said.
Freimuth said he anticipates a stormwater pipe investment
would produce an equivalent reduction in loan size for CRDA-backed projects in
the Bushnell South development area. Loans will be smaller and may come with
adjusted terms, like higher interest rates, he said.
City and state regulations don’t allow the regional sewer
and public water company to pay for stormwater systems just to aid specific
developments. But developers and other partners can contribute to a system that
benefits a broader area.
Jellison said the Bushnell South pipe could also be used to
collect stormwater from the area around Hartford Hospital.
It’s an arrangement the MDC has used repeatedly, Jellison
noted, including in a recent agreement for new stormwater drainage around the
planned 322-unit apartment development at the former UConn campus in West
Hartford.
“The goal is the developer pays for their share of the
improvement to the MDC (stormwater) sewer system,” Jellison said. “The MDC will
get a new pipe. We make it bigger to serve the other areas surrounding the
development. So, there’s a benefit to us. There’s a benefit to the developer.
There’s no cost to our customers, and it’s a win, win for everybody.”
Empty parcel near Stamford CT rail station being shopped as site for high-rise apartment building
Could another high rise be going vertical along Interstate
95 next to Stamford's central commuter rail station? That is one vision
for the
owners of a parcel bounded by Atlantic, Dock, Manhattan and Pacific streets,
who are now dangling the lot for any developers to move ahead with a project.
Under a design attributed to the Stamford architectural firm
Marsh + Woods Architects, one potential iteration of the building would include
a residential tower rising nearly 40 stories with 484 units, with a wide base
or a run of ground-level storefronts fronting Dock Street and a larger
parking garage on the lower levels.
That would top the Park Tower Stamford condominium building
as the tallest in Stamford — but any new developer would bring their own vision
to the property at 560 Atlantic St., according to Don Carbo, a commercial real
estate broker with New England Properties Real Estate who is representing the
property owners.
Carbo said he could not divulge details on the listing, and
did not say if the owners are looking to retain any equity portion in a future
development.
"There's a lot of interest on it already," Carbo
said on Thursday. "Calls are coming in."
Stamford is in the midst of an ongoing apartment boom that
has seen the
addition of thousands of units in the past several years, with as many
as 4,500 units or more in the pipeline according to the most recent count by
the city of Stamford's economic development office. That number does not
including the hundreds more that could be built at 560 Atlantic St.
On the south side of I-95 and the Metro-North
commuter rail line, contiguous properties along Atlantic, Dock, Manhattan
and Pacific streets have been cobbled together over a dozen years, including
two purchased last year under limited liability companies listed in the name of
Frank Steinegger, a Darien resident who runs a construction company in
Stamford.
The combined lot is now being packaged for sale to the
highest bidder, without making public any initial asking price in a commercial
listing posted
by New England Properties Real Estate.
The parcel could also become home to a possible corporate
headquarters if any have interest in the site. More than two years ago,
broadband giant Charter
Communications moved into a new headquarters complex on the
opposite side of the Stamford Transportation Center, after moving its
headquarters to Stamford in 2012 from St. Louis, Missouri.
But with plenty of office vacancies already in downtown
Stamford, including the Stamford
Plaza complex on Tresser Boulevard owned by RFR Realty, a residential
development appears the more likely outcome. Across I-95, the first phase
of the
Atlantic Station high rise opened in 2018, with commercial tenants now
moving into Atlantic Station including
Golf Lounge 18.
Over 12 months through June 2022, apartment occupancies in
Stamford jumped about three percentage points to 96.9 percent, the city
reported that year. As of Thursday, Apartments.com listed 1,750 available units
in Stamford, ranging from a Bedford Street studio for $1,540 a month to $7,500
for a unit in the
newly built Smyth residential building at 100 Tresser Blvd. a few
blocks north of I-95 and the Stamford Transportation Center.
Marcus & Millichap analysts calculated last June that
Stamford will have four of every 10 new apartments that come online this year
in Fairfield County, in a review of the region's apartment market.
"As recent as 2019, it cost less to make a mortgage
payment on a median-priced home than to rent a local top-tier apartment,"
Marcus & Millichap analysts wrote. "However, that dynamic inverted
with the ramp-up in mortgage rates in recent years, which has been compounded
by record home prices amid limited for-sale inventory. This is increasing the
prevalence of renters at top-tier properties."
West Hartford's Park Road rehabilitation project would add raised crosswalks and bike lanes
WEST HARTFORD — The town is moving forward with its plans to
reconstruct the busy
commercial and residential Park Road corridor that will reduce car
travel lanes, add bike lanes, and increase pedestrian safety.
Construction is expected to begin next summer on the $2.25
million plan to upgrade the roadway from Quaker Lane South to Prospect Avenue,
which will include roadway resurfacing, sidewalk repairs, improved street
lighting, and other added amenities such as benches, landscaping, and better
wayfinding signage.
"We’re at the very early stages of the project,"
said Greg Sommer, the town engineer, at a public meeting Wednesday. "We
want to really get feedback and input from the community ... to make sure we’re
on the right track. We have time to adjust the design and make any improvements
you might have to suggest."
But the bulk of Park Road's rehabilitation is the way the
town's engineers said they plan to make the roadway — which sees around 8,300
vehicles travel on it each day — safer for cyclists and pedestrians, which
was the subject of the road safety audit the town held last October.
To do that, the town is proposing to raise all crosswalks on
the roadway that aren't controlled by signals, like the one directly in front
of Playhouse and Park. Added bump outs will also help shorten the distance that
pedestrians will have to cross in certain places along the roadway as well.
Sidewalk ramps will also be replaced and made accessible, with improvements to
crossing signals also being recommended.
Bike lanes — which won't be separated or protected, but only
delineated on the roadway by paint — will also be added in both directions
going along the driver-side of the road's parallel parking. The town is making
space for those five-foot bike lanes by reducing the vehicle travel lanes from
15 feet to 10 feet. The
town is currently finalizing its new bike facility plan, which it intends
to use to expand its bike network. Sommer said these bike lanes were
recommended by the town's consultant.
While parking will mostly remain parallel, angled parking
will be added in the area of J.René Coffee Roasters and other businesses, an
area of the roadway that currently has a unique parking setup where cars
essentially drive onto the sidewalk to access parking spaces. Instead, the
parking will be pushed out into the street, with sidewalk space and the bike
lane being moved closer to the businesses, meaning cyclists and pedestrians
won't have to maneuver behind angled-parked cars.
Part of the project will be funded
by $1.5 million in state grant funding that the town received two years ago.
Sommer said they hope to finish the design by the spring, with a goal of
construction starting next summer and finishing in the winter.
The Park Road rehabilitation project is just one of a few
major roadway changes the town will be making over the next few years, with
a $6
million plan to overhaul New Park Avenue in the works, as well as the
town's comprehensive plans to rework both LaSalle
Avenue and Farmington Avenue in West Hartford Center. The state is also
planning a rework of the
intersection of North Main Street and Albany Avenue in Bishops Corner. The
town also recently put the finishing touches on its Trout
Brook Trail.