Construction of National Coast Guard Museum reaches milestone
Greg Smith
New London — Construction of the National Coast Guard Museum
reached another milestone this week with completion of the six-story building’s
steel frame.
Stakeholders in the $150 million project gathered at the
perimeter of the museum’s construction site at City Pier on Monday to watch a
crane hoist a beam topped with a small tree and an American flag to the roof of
the structure. It was part of a traditional topping off ceremony that National Coast Guard Museum Association
President Wes Pulver said was another step forward for a project that was
first pitched as an idea more than 25 years ago.
“This marks a significant moment in this historic project
that’s going to honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the
Coast Guard,” Pulver said. “It really is a pivotal moment of where we are with
the project. This is a moment of pride, accomplishment and a reminder that we
still have an incredible amount of work to do."
Construction of the museum is years behind schedule and
still short of funding by about $48 million, but Pulver said the schedule for
opening to the public sometime in 2027 remains an achievable goal.
Pulver said fundraising continues, but the board is
considering a construction loan and a future long-term lease agreement with the
U.S. Coast Guard to cover the funding shortfall. The initial plan was to gift
the museum to the Coast Guard. The museum is funded with $50 million in federal
funding and $52 million in donations.
Pulver said he does not expect any delays in construction
due to funding issues.
U.S. Rep Joe Courtney, among others to join the group of
dignitaries at Monday’s ceremony, said the museum “represents the best that the
Coast Guard has to offer and will ensure that the Coast Guard’s history and
critical contributions to the safety of our coasts and rivers will be on
display for all to see.”
The museum, whose location in New London was secured in
2004, is expected to attract more than 300,000 visitors a year and, according
to New London Mayor Michael Passero, help to solidify the city as a tourist
destination.
The next phase of construction for the museum will be the
walls and roof, but not before a display helicopter is inserted into the
building. Pulver said that a crane system will be installed to aid in the
construction process.
Construction of a walking
bridge spanning Water Street from the city's parking garage is expected to
follow soon after the museum. Pulver said he continues to work with Manafort
Brothers Inc., the lone bidder for the project, on options for the project
before presenting cost estimates to the state. The bid, not yet released to the
public, was higher than expected and with a longer-than-anticipated building
timeline. The state has pledged $20 million toward construction of the bridge,
which is not part of the $150 million construction project.
The discussion with state officials about the pedestrian
bridge funding, Pulver said, is likely to take place before the end of this
month.
Long-closed, decaying Meriden-Wallingford Hospital targeted for elementary school
MERIDEN—The collection of decaying, boarded up and
graffiti-covered buildings at1 King Place that was once a medical center may
finally have a new purpose.
The Meriden-Wallingford Hospital closed to make way for
Mid-State Medical in 1998. Since then the the hospital campus on a
5.6-acres dating back to the 1800s has fallen into severe disrepair as a series
of attempts to redevelop it for mixed use failed. The city took ownership of
the building through foreclosure in 2014
A key factor in those failed
attempts have been the city of Meriden's unsuccessful efforts to
secure $6 million in state funding to demolish the buildings. That losing
streak continued into 2025.
That factor may be moot now that the city's board of
education has come up with a plan to redevelop the site for a new Casmir Pulaski
Elementary School.
The school board is proposing the construction of a 97,000
square-foot campus for about 700 pre-kindergarten to 5th grade students. The
project would cost about $122 million, but with state reimbursements, district
officials estimate that the cost to taxpayers will be about $14.8 million.
Officials estimate that the district's reimbursement rate from the state would
be about 88%
If approved by the Meriden City Council, possibly in
November or December, there would be a 16-18 month design phase, with bids
expected in early 2028.
Construction would begin in the second quarter of 2028 with
a planned opening in the second quarter of 2030.
The legislature would also need to enact legislation to
simultaneously approve the project to get it into the pipeline for
consideration now, said Meriden Assistant Superintendent of Schools Michael
Grove.
Grove said the school board has been working on the proposal
for about a year and that they had been considering a project at the
current Pulaski School site but felt the property did not have room for the
expansion that was needed..
"This could be good for us and the city," Grove
said. "We definitely need the space."
Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
Redevelopment of former factory into 150 apartments in New Haven's Hill section begins
NEW HAVEN — In a city that currently has new housing rising
all over, much of it classified as "affordable" to various degrees, the
new 150-unit, $73 million apartment complex going up at 10 Liberty St. where
Liberty meets Spring Street and Union Avenue stands out.
It brings brand new, much-needed housing to The Hill section
— one of the New Haven neighborhoods with the oldest housing stock and the
least investment over the years — and it's bringing housing to what had been a
long-closed factory.
The project, on the former Electrix
Illumination factory site, also is about a quarter-mile from Union
Station, the city's transportation hub, making it a perfect example of
"transit-oriented development," officials said Monday.
Of those 150 units, 149 are affordable or deeply affordable
housing, ranging from 30% to 80% of the Area Median Income, or AMI, averaging
out to 60% of AMI, officials said.
And the project, designed to be green, will make use of both
geothermal hearing and cooling and solar energy for electricity to lessen
impact on the environment and help keep utilities affordable for residents,
officials said.
The developer received
City Plan Commission approval in 2022 to build a five-story apartment building
at 10 Liberty St.
All of that adds up to a reason to celebrate, and that's
just what about 50 people, including the developers, lenders and city and state
officials, did Monday as they broke ground for the project, which had been in
the works since the world and New Haven were in the midst of the COVID
pandemic.
"The process of groundbreaking today is a wonderful
opportunity to pause (and) acknowledge all of the collective effort that has
gone into this," said Jonathan Cortell, president of Cortell Development
Group, which is leading the effort — but has plenty of partners.
"We can't say we would be here today without all of
those who are involved," Cortell said, adding that he is looking forward
to a ribbon-cutting to open the complex "as soon as the construction folks
will allow."
Cortell, onetime vice president and director of development
at the New York State Housing Finance Agency, offered praise to New Haven and
Mayor Justin Elicker for the way they have welcomed more affordable housing in
the city.
"I don't know that communities across the country are
embracing the opportunity and potential of affordable housing as this
city has," Cortell said. "We can't wait for what is next."
Both Cortell and Elicker talked about how close the project
is to Union Station, as well as to downtown New Haven.
Elicker offered "huge thanks to the state" for
"the incredible amount of resources" it invested to help make the
project happen, and said there will be additional opportunities around the city
in the future.
The state was represented at the ground-breaking by Seila
Mosquera-Bruno, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Housing; Matthew
Pugliese, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community
Development, and Nandini Natarajan, CEO of the Connecticut Housing Finance
Authority, or CHFA among others.
Resources to clean up the site and build the apartments
included $37 from the CHFA and $16.5 million from the state Department of
Housing, along with private financing from the Bank of America.
"Thank you, Jon, for investing in our city,"
Elicker said. "We love putting shovels in the ground and getting these
projects going." New Haven has "set an ambitious goal of building
10,000 new housing units in the next 10 years," with a goal of having at
least 30 percent of those be affordable, he said.
"We're committed to not only affordability, but
walkability," Elicker said.
Alder Carmen Rodriguez, D-6, whose sprawling ward includes
parts of The Hill, City Point, Long Wharf and downtown, welcomed the 10 Liberty
St. development to her ward.
"This is important. We're in The Hill," Rodriguez
said. "...This is a community that is thriving," and "this is
going to enhance it even more," she said.
"We want to make sure that this is done right,"
Rodriguez said.
The CHFA's Natarajan said it was a long road to get to this
point, "but that's no problem for us." She thanked the mayor and the
Board of Alders for their support.
"Housing is where jobs go to sleep at night,"
Natarajan said, highlighting the importance of this type of housing, which
allows people to live close to one another and to jobs.
"We're proud to support this new development with
almost $37 million in new financing," Natarajan said.
Pugliese of DECD said that "housing is economic
development, and DECD is proud to be here, which provided millions of dollars
in brownfields funds to help clean the site up and prepare it for development.
"The contamination makes reusing these sites a
challenge," Pugliese said, but "for every dollar that DECD invests,
we get almost $20 in private investment."
Erin Galligan, senior vice president of Bank of America, who
grew up in North Haven and now lives in Fairfield, said the bank invested $75
million in debt and equity in the project.
"We're very grateful and proud to be part of 10
Liberty," she said.
Housing Commissioner Mosquera-Bruno, who lived in The Hill
years ago — her first home when she first arrived as an immigrant from Ecuador
and worked in a factory in Branford — also was happy to be part of the project,
to which her department contributed $16.5 million.
"My first home in New Haven was on Kimberly Avenue and
the Boulevard," she said. She used to walk 10 blocks in the winter past
the site with her daughter, she said.
John Bainlardi, vice president of WBP Development, one of
the partners in the project, said he was "so excited to be involved with
the State of Connecticut" and the city.
The project, "steps away from Union Station ... will
transform the long-vacant and contaminated industrial site into a new
five-story development of deed-restricted housing with nearly all affordable,
below-market rate rental units for households between 30% and 80% of the area
median income," the city said in a release.
"The project will also include the development of
adjacent streets and sidewalks, 136 on-site residential parking spaces and
outside storage for 45 bikes on the 1.73-acre site," it said. "The
new complex will utilize
geothermal-powered heating and cooling and a solar array for electricity to
leverage renewable energy sources and enhance energy efficiency among its
residents."
"In total, the project represents a $73 million
investment — funded and financed with support from the Connecticut Department
of Housing, Connecticut Department of Community and Economic Development,
Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and Bank of America — and is expected to
be completed in approximately two years," the release said.
The shuttered Electrix Illumination factory went out of
business in December 2020.
After Electric Boat's Crystal Mall purchase, apartments could follow
Save for the quartet of older men guffawing in a corner, it
was a quiet Monday morning otherwise in late October at Panera Bread in
the Waterford Commons shopping center, just off Interstate 95 on the Hartford
Turnpike across from the Crystal Mall.
Things could be bustling in few year's time, when thousands
of General Dynamics Electric Boat employees will be arriving each day
at a new corporate office in the soon-to-be mothballed mall.
With Electric Boat's purchase of the
nearly empty Crystal Mall, Waterford is set up for a major economic boost
and the possibility of ample new housing. Residential developers
have several apartment projects in the works in Groton where Electric
Boat has
been hiring at its main submarine shipyard, amid an
ongoing housing shortage in the region.
Waterford's housing stock increased 2.8% between 2010 and
2020, with about 254 housing units per square mile that year according to the
Connecticut Housing Data Hub maintained that includes data from multiple state
agencies. Dating back to 1996, developers have filed for permits to build more
than 100 units of housing in just two calendar years according to
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development records, in 2018
and 2021.
Groton had more than twice that residential density as of
2020, with the Naval Submarine Base New London also a major driver of housing
demand in town in addition to Electric Boat. In 2023, developers put in
permits for roughly 440 apartments and houses.
A spokesperson in the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont did not
rule out the state making available a nearly 125-acre, wooded tract for
development that the Connecticut Department of Transportation owns just west of
the mall in Waterford.
"With General Dynamics purchasing the adjacent mall
property, the state is working with GD and the town to determine the best use
of the property," said Chris Collibee, in an email response to a CT
Insider query. "No decisions have been made at this time."
Towns west of the Crystal Mall as far as the Connecticut
River valley could get a look from new hires looking to rent or buy, given the
10 minutes or more that the Crystal Mall office location shaves off eastbound
I-95 commute times compared to Electric
Boat's Groton campus.
"You build a mall in a location where you can attract a
lot of people from a lot of areas," said Mark
Rayha, president of Electric Boat, speaking last week at a news conference
to announce the Crystal Mall purchase. "So doing this here, for us, is a
great opportunity."
Electric Boat has nearly 25,000 employees today, Rayha said,
with plans to hire between 300 and 500 more workers this year and roughly 2,000
people next year. While many of those new hires are replacing workers hitting
retirement, Rayha said the goal is to add 1,000 employees next year to Electric
Boat's Connecticut workforce.
Anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 employees will be located in
Waterford, according to Electric Boat. An Electric Boat spokesperson did not
provide any estimate of the farthest distances Electric Boat workers travel to
work each day from homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Rob Brule, Waterford's first selectman, could not be reached
for questions on whether he expects any wave of development where land is
available for new apartments or houses.
Nearly 140 acres have been on the market for six years
adjacent at the former Waterford Airport site on the opposite side of
Interstate 95, not including about 190 more acres zoned currently for
industrial use.
Construction is nearing completion on a third phase of the
Waterford Woods development that will total more than 430 apartments. That
represents an easy commute for any Electric Boat workers who end up at the
Crystal Mall, which is about 10 minutes north of the complex.
Neighboring East Lyme is already home to a number of
Electric Boat employees, according to Traci Pazzaglia, a broker in the Niantic
office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties. That
includes at the new Edgewater apartments at 94 N. Bridebrook Road, which was
developed by her spouse Jason Pazzaglia with 84 units.
More new developments would
help, Pazzaglia said, whether multifamily or single-family homes
like a $1.3 million listing she has on Rocco Drive less than 15 minutes from
the Crystal Mall. Through the first 10 months of the year, East Lyme ranked
second for new listings of homes available for purchase within the immediate
commuting orbit of Electric Boat, after Groton and slightly ahead of Stonington
and Ledyard.
"I'm hoping that when they do start bringing more
people in for Electric Boat, that it helps us out even more," Pazzaglia
said. "There's always some land somewhere that somebody can find."
To U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd, Electric Boat's Crystal
Mall purchase brings to mind another milestone real estate decision by Electric
Boat decades before — the purchase of the emptying Pfizer office complex in New
London across the Thames River from the main shipyard.
Electric Boat uses that office for engineering teams today,
including those at work designing
a future attack submarine for the Navy that would phase out today's
Virginia-class attack subs.
New London has seen multiple apartment developments since
near the New London office campus, Courtney noted during the Electric Boat
press conference in October. Those include The Beam completed in 2023 with
just over 200 units, and The Docks that opened two years beforehand. with close
to 140.
"Now it's a beehive of activity — and really good
economic activity for the city of New London," Courtney said.