UConn trustees to consider nearly $100M for Gampel renovation; $5M for boathouse in Coventry
The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees will vote
Wednesday on a $99.4 million budget for a comprehensive renovation of Gampel
Pavilion — the venue’s first major update since opening in 1990.
The revised final budget for the Gampel renovation is $63.4
million more than previously approved for the first phase of the project, which
began in May.
The board is expected to approve the increase at its meeting
Wednesday, along with a $4.95 million project to demolish and rebuild a
boathouse in Coventry for UConn’s women’s rowing team.
Both items would be funded primarily through UConn 2000 bond
funds.
The Gampel renovation aims to modernize the 35-year-old
arena and create new revenue-generating facilities, according to documents
submitted to the board. The 171,000-square-foot domed arena serves as home to
the school’s national championship-winning men’s and women’s basketball teams.
The project has progressed through several phases. In April
2024, the board approved $10 million in state bonds for initial upgrades,
including replacement of the original lower-bowl retractable seating system,
replacement of the video board system and upgrades to the lighting. That work
has been completed.
In October 2024, the board approved a revised planning
budget of $1.6
million to study further upgrades, including a market survey of demand for
premium stadium seating in the Storrs/Mansfield and Greater Hartford areas.
Luxury boxes were identified as options, along with upgrades to concessions.
The board approved a $36 million budget in June 2025 for
Phase 1 of construction, which included seating improvements, interior
expansion space and IT upgrades. According to the university’s quarterly
construction report, Phase 1 was 90% complete as of Sept. 30.
A major factor driving the budget increase was the discovery
that the arena’s 39-year-old HVAC system requires significant improvements not
included in the original project scope. According to the budget report, these
upgrades are “essential to mitigate condensation within the arena during events
and prevent water accumulation and dripping onto the court surface.”
The Huskies play home games at both Gampel Pavilion on the
Storrs campus and the larger PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, which recently
underwent a $145 million renovation.
Coventry boathouse
Separately, UConn plans to purchase a property at 44 Lake
St. in Coventry to build a new facility for the women’s rowing team.
The boathouse project budget has increased to $4.95 million
from a previously approved $2.65 million, after an evaluation of the existing
10,000-square-foot structure found “significant structural inefficiencies and
limited overhead clearance.”
That revelation made the original plan to partially renovate
the existing building impractical, according to budget documents. The proposed
facility includes about 4,000 square feet of boat storage space and 2,000
square feet of finished space for locker rooms and restrooms. The facility will
include toilets, showers, lockers, changing areas and storage for rowing
shells, modular docks and launches.
Exterior improvements include a boat ramp and access path to
the lake, site grading, landscaping and parking areas.
The target completion date for boat storage is September
2026, with locker rooms available by January 2027. The revised budget includes
the property purchase cost and closing costs.
The project would be funded by $4.73 million in UConn 2000
bond funds and $220,000 in university funds.
The Board of Trustees meeting begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday at
the Wilbur Cross Building in Storrs and will be livestreamed.
Undeveloped section of Connecticut River could see more than 300 apartments
A remote, largely overlooked section of the riverfront could soon
become one of the more densely developed sections of Thompsonville with
potentially more than 300 new apartments in two mid-rise buildings.
A developer this summer got the town of Enfield’s go-ahead
to build 156 apartments on a narrow road just north of the Donald
Barnes boat launch on the Connecticut River, and a different development
partnership this week will present plans for another 160 slightly south of
there.
Taken together, the proposals would signal the biggest
residential initiative since the massive renovation of the empty
Bigelow-Hartford carpet mill in 1988 created more than 450 apartments in
Enfield’s Thompsonville section. The complex, now known as Bigelow Commons, is
just west of where developers plan the new waterfront apartments.
Enfield has long worked to bring prosperity to
Thompsonville, a section of town that fell into blight and poverty after heavy
industry moved out. With the prospect of a new Thompsonville station for the
Hartford Line commuter rail system, local leaders have stepped up their
campaign to promote density and transit-oriented development nearby.
The riverfront is seen as a rich opportunity for
revitalization, but carries challenges: There is only a thin stretch of
developable land between the Connecticut River shoreline and the Amtrak line.
From Route 190 down to Bridge Lane, for instance, there is nothing but a narrow
line of trees without space for a road let alone buildings.
North of Route 190, though, River Street — barely a two-lane
road, and without street lights — cuts between the riverfront and the railroad
tracks. It is called South River Street below Main Street; on the other side,
it becomes North River Street for less than a half mile before simply fading
out as the space between the tracks and river narrows again.
It’s near the Main Street connection that developers want to
build.
In the summer, town zoning officials approved the first
project, which is planned on a nearly 4-acre abandoned North River Street
property where the mill’s power plant once stood. The proposal is for a long
four-story building fronting the river, with a new public river walk running
along the shoreline. The site along North River Street would get a 175-space
parking field on the east and west sides of the street.
The four-story building would feature a brick-and-panels
facade with large windows designed to look a bit like a historic mill,
according to architects for the developers, Honeycomb Real Estate Partners and
Grava Partners. Grava recently completed the first phase of Founders Square, a
120-apartment mixed-use building in the center of Windsor.
Gregory Vaca, head of Grava, told the town this summer that
the project does more than add housing or clean up a vacant industrial
property.
“This is a contaminated, abandoned site on one of the most beautiful stretches of the Connecticut River in the state. It’s a place where the public has no access, it’s a place that’s almost invisible to Thompsonville,” Vaca said.
“I want people to think about what Thompsonville and this
section will look like after this development,” he said. “We’re talking about a
remediated site, a new North River Street that’s lit and safe and wide.”
Four months after commissioners approved that project,
they’ll hear details Thursday evening on a relatively similar one proposed less
than a quarter-mile south along South River Street. Developer Richard Pinkman
has acquired several small houses along the river, and proposes to replace them
with a five-story building containing 160 apartments.
His Longmeadow, MA-based South River Realty has created a website for the project, but
offers few details so far.
It says the company envisions that area as “a modern,
mixed-use neighborhood featuring thoughtfully planned spaces that complement
the riverfront setting.”
Developer wins court fight to build warehouse on Timex property in Middlebury
MIDDLEBURY—A lawsuit to stop a warehouse development
off Straits Turnpike has been dismissed by a
judge.
Superior Court Judge John Louis Cordani ruled last week
that the Middlebury Planning and Zoning Commission followed local land-use
regulations in granting approval for a site plan and a special exception for
excavation as part of an application to build a 171,000 square-foot warehouse
on 20 acres at 1535 Straits Turnpike.
In his ruling, Cordani wrote that the commission had
repeatedly approved warehousing activity in so-called "LI-80"
districts without the presence of a manufacturing facility on site. The judge
also noted that the approvals were consistent with longtime practices that
spanned many planning and zoning commissions.
Cordani also rejected the group Middlebury Small Town
Alliance's argument that "warehousing" activity is the same as a
"trucking terminal" and that the latter phrase never appeared in the
application, and was never discussed by the commission.
"The court finds that the commission decisions are
consistent with regulations, are supported by substantial evidence in the
record and are reasonable in view of the regulations and the record,"
Cordani wrote. "The appellants have not met their burden of proof in this
appeal."
The lawsuit, filed by the alliance in April, is the second one brought by the group in the past
year.
Each involves large industrial warehouses or distribution
centers, and both sites are owned by Timex, which is selling off its properties
and closing operations in Middlebury.
Developer David Drubner, who is a principal partner with
Southford Park, is a party in the first suit filed by the alliance in an effort
to prevent his family from building a 670,000 square-foot warehouse at the
former Timex world headquarters site on Christian Road.
Drubner said Monday that Cordani's ruling dismissing the
Straits Turnpike lawsuit could help his family's efforts to get the Christian
Road warehouse built. That case, which also involves a decision by Cordani to
overturn a local approval of the project, is going to be heard by the state's appellate court.
"This decision is helpful to us in Southford," he
said. "We're not going to go away."
Aside from that, Drubner said the dismissal also vindicates
the planning and zoning commissioners, who have been under fire from the small
town alliance.
"A judge has said that they interpreted the law
correctly and that's what they should have done," Drubner said.
Jennifer Mahr, who co-organized the creation of the
Middlebury Small Town Alliance in 2023, did not respond to requests for
comment. Mahr, who is now the town's first selectman, was found in violation of the town's code of ethics for
her efforts at a time when she was serving on the board of selectmen.