New Middletown parking garage, refurbished canoe club, open-air music stadium projects taking shape
MIDDLETOWN — Things are moving along on several components
of the city’s Return to the Riverfront master plan of redevelopment, including
a new parking garage and upgrades
to the former canoe club on the Connecticut River.
The proposed, block-size Village
at Riverside mixed-use development, planned for property bordered by
Court and Main streets and deKoven and Dingwall drives, is anticipated to help
the city finally reconnect to its riverfront via a walking bridge over
Route 9.
Some 600 spaces are expected to be created for the public,
retail customers, residents of the development and police.
These will replace parking lost when the municipal
parking lot on Court Street was demolished in 2018.
The Village is expected to include “affordable, luxury”
housing units, with some 19 townhomes, 258 apartments consisting of
studios and one- and two-bedroom units, and about 56 new on-street parking
spaces, Wonder Works Construction of New York has said.
The city is applying for a $250,000 Community
Investment Fund planning grant from the state, according to Economic
and Community Development Director Christine Marques, who provided project
updates during the Dec. 10 meeting.
The program “unlocks” economic potential
for underserved communities, according to the CIF website.
If awarded, she said, the money would be used for
architectural and engineering services for the parking arcade, and could open
up funding for a CIF implementation grant to build the garage.
EDC staff will be putting out a request for proposals for
environmental professionals and an engineering team for the reclamation of
three city-owned properties off River Road, Marques explained.
These include the former Peterson Oil plot at 44 River Road,
former Jackson Corrugated Container at 225 River Road and the decommissioned
sewage treatment plant at 100 River Road.
The New
Haven Center for Performing Arts has proposed to build an outdoor concert venue on
the Peterson property.
The project has received $2.1
million in American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The Connecticut Port
Authority has recommended the project for a $1.4 million grant from
the state Bond Commission, which would require an additional 20 percent or so
match by the city, Marques said.
The Bond Commission still needs to review the request, she
added.
Work on the former Mattabesett
Canoe Club at 80 Harbor Drive, occupied
by Tate’s restaurant since early May, is nearly done, Community
Development Specialist Brian Gartner reported.
All that remains is completion of the second-floor rear
deck, he said.
All design issues have been rectified, Gartner added. The
elevator is also in operation.
Half of the ordered steel is being kept on the north side of
the building, along with wood materials and railings.
Gartner expects the full order will be in sometime this
week.
Middletown Common Council Pro Tempore Jeanette
Blackwell asked about parking spaces for Harbor Park visitors, some
of which have been designated with a sign exclusively for Tate’s.
The small lot at Columbus Point, at the southernmost portion
of Harbor Park, is expected to be expanded, Marques said. Public Works staff
are now in the process of creating a concept plan.
Stratford approves $16.7M floodwall to protect riverside sewage treatment plant
STRATFORD — Town officials are moving forward with a $16.7
million plan to protect the sewage treatment plant from powerful
storms and rising sea levels by building a floodwall around the riverside
facility.
The town council voted unanimously this week to issue bonds
and appropriate funds to pay for the construction project, which is now
expected to start as soon as May and take about two years to complete.
The treatment plant, which has the capacity to process up to 11.5 million gallons of sewage a day, sits in a flood zone on the banks of the Housatonic River, making it especially vulnerable to rising sea levels.
The facility is shielded by a series of earthen dikes that
date to the early 1970s, but engineers believe the protective barriers may not
be strong enough to withstand increasingly intense storms.
Town Engineer John Casey said the roots of the project
stretch back to 2012, when Hurricane Sandy inundated Stratford with so much
water that the facility came within about a foot of catastrophic flooding.
“We had severe coastal flooding,” Casey told the council
during a meeting earlier this month. “We felt that there was a vulnerability
for the treatment plant (and) that our existing protection was not
adequate.”
At a Water Pollution Control Authority meeting last month, David Barstow of GZA
GeoEnvironmental, Inc., an engineering firm hired to help lead the project,
said the floodwall would be 18 feet high at its tallest point.
Barstow also said the structure would be about five feet
taller than the highest point on the existing dikes, ensuring the treatment
plant would be protected from flooding brought by a 500-year storm.
“The plant currently handles most of the wastewater for the
town,” Barstow said. “As you can imagine, if something happens to the plant,
it's going to be a big cost impact to make the repairs.”
Town officials have long eyed increased flood protections
for the treatment plant, which could be forced to temporarily shut down and
stop processing sewage if a storm submerges the facility in flood waters.
A permanent floodwall for the facility was among the
recommendations included in a 2016
coastal residency plan created to outline potential solutions to the
town’s growing flooding issues.
According to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
included in the plan, the sea level of the Long Island Sound at Stratford is on
the rise and is projected to increase between 0.4 feet and 2.2 feet by
2065.
Barstow said the floodwall, which would be built out of
reinforced concrete and have an exposed height of four to six feet, would be
about 3,100 feet in length and would also incorporate parts of the dikes.
“We're looking to improve the existing dikes and reuse those
as much as we can to reduce costs,” Barstow said.
Barstow said he hopes to get authorization to move forward
with the project from the state Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection by March and start construction in May. He noted the work is
expected to take two years to complete.
Once the new perimeter is finished, the facility would be
accessible through a large floodgate that could be closed ahead of storms.
Barstow said the gate would employ steel braces to ensure it is
watertight.
Casey has said the town plans to use $2.7 million in grant
funding that was awarded in 2020 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for
coastal resiliency efforts to help pay for the floodwall.
State poised to borrow tens of millions to incentivize multifamily development
The state Bond Commission is poised to authorize tens of
millions in borrowing Friday to help fund multifamily developments throughout
the state.
Housing development is a big chunk of the $423.1 million
borrowing package going before the bond commission on Friday.
The agenda includes $50 million for the state Department of
Housing’s Build for CT program, which helps developers finance affordable and
middle-income rental housing projects.
The state Department of Housing is up for another $20
million, which will pass to the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority to fund
construction or rehabilitation of 186 housing units.
Friday’s agenda includes funds to pass through the Capital
Region Development Authority as loans to developers. Repayment of those loans
will cycle back to the CRDA to fund future projects.
The CRDA is up for $9.5 million, to fund a loan to help
Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners build 239 apartments in two
buildings wrapping existing buildings on the 3.2-acre property at 55 Elm St.
Spinnaker is converting two former state office buildings on
the site into 164 apartments. The state funding will help it finance two new
apartment buildings. These projects are part of a broader initiative by the
city and CRDA to transform vacant lots and underused buildings around Bushnell
Park into a vibrant neighborhood.
The Bond Commission will vote on a proposed $6.5 million for
CRDA, which the quasi-public agency would lend to Simon Konover to help the
company finance an approximately 150-unit apartment complex in East Hartford.
The development would be located on a 35-acre site at 341 East River Drive,
near the Connecticut River.
The CRDA is also up for a $4 million grant for upgrades at
the Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Renschler Field in East Hartford, including
replacement of metal detectors and repairs of the IT network, sound, video and
TV production equipment.
The University of Connecticut is poised to receive $33
million in aid for several initiatives, including:
$10 million for IT equipment;
$10 million for upgrades to the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs,
including replacement of the lower-bowl retractable seating and videoboard
system, and upgrades to show lighting;
$10 million for scientific equipment at the UConn Health
Center;
$3 million for IT infrastructure at the UConn Health
Center.