Long-vacant Naugatuck Event Center to become apartments and brownfield next to it, a parking lot
Sloan Brewster
NAUGATUCK — Old trucks and junk litter the ground
around the former Naugatuck Event
Center.
But maybe not for much longer.
A $950,000 grant from the Naugatuck Valley Council of
Governments will help the borough remediate the lot. The plan, Mayor N.
Warren “Pete” Hess III said, is to clean up the parcel, grade it and turn it
into a downtown parking lot for the 380,000-square-foot building, which the
town acquired from the state in 2013.
The town is under contract to sell the building
to Corvus Capital Partners, Hess said. Corvus is planning to convert it
into market-rate apartments.
Formerly a warehouse for sneakers for Uniroyal
Chemical, the
building later housed General Datacomm. More recently, the town used
it as an event center.
“We’ve been hosting all kinds of really cool events over the
years,” the mayor said.
Corvus is working on financing the project that will have,
at minimum, 164 one- and two-bedroom market-rate units, Hess said. The town
gave the go-ahead for 270 residential units, but the number may be fewer
depending on how much of the building ends up commercial. The soonest
construction would begin is 2027.
The project is a win for the town as it will bring residents
to the downtown area, who will be able to take advantage of public
transportation at the new train station being built by the state, Hess said.
“The whole point of our transit-oriented development project
is to have people living downtown adjacent to our train station,” he said. “The
idea is to have people on the commercial line living downtown, walking to
stores.”
Last July, the state Department of
Transportation began construction on the new train station, according
to a press release from Gov. Ned Lamont’s office. The new station is
approximately 0.3 miles south of the existing station, bringing it it closer to
downtown. The project is one of several parts of a larger CT DOT initiative
to upgrade
all six stations on Metro-North Railroad’s Waterbury Branch line.
“We’re not just building a train station, we’re building
more momentum for Naugatuck’s future,” Lamont said at last year’s
groundbreaking. “This new station brings public transportation closer to the
heart of downtown, creating new opportunities for economic development,
housing, and walkable neighborhoods. It’s an investment in infrastructure that
connects people to jobs and strengthens communities.”
The station is scheduled to open next summer and will
feature a 350-foot-long high-level platform with a snow melt system, Americans
with Disabilities Act-compliant access via an elevator and stair tower,
real-time arrival and departure displays, and a passenger waiting area equipped
with a ticket vending machine. It will also offer 72 on-street parking spaces,
including electric vehicle charging stations, energy-efficient LED lighting,
and upgraded safety features. The two-story station building will be approximately
2,300 square feet, with a platform area of about 4,400 square feet.
While the bulk of the $950,000 grant is for the parking lot
cleanup, the funds will also help the town complete asbestos cleanup in the
former event center and finish remediation of the former recycling facility on
Rubber Avenue, Hess said. The recycle center has been relocated and the
property is being remediated to allow a commercial building to be put
there.
Montville residents defeat road transfer needed for major retail development
Jack Lakowsky
Montville — Residents on Wednesday defeated a proposal to
give Rhode Island developer Dominic Carpionato control of PTA Lane, an
important early step in his plan to develop a large retail development.
The vote was 375-452.
Mayor Lenny Bunnell on Thursday said he was “very
disappointed” in the result.
“We missed a tremendous opportunity to attract some solid
tax revenue, which we are in dire need of,” he said.
PTA Lane forms a loop with Golden Road, and Mohegan
Elementary School stands where the two roads meet.
Carpionato had pledged to make improvements to the school,
including a new ADA-compliant playground, a security fence and a screen of new
hedges. He also said he would redo Golden Road to ease traffic, especially when
students arrive and leave.
Bunnell said the town also missed out on the $1 million in
improvements Carpionato would’ve made, and said the town now has to take on
that work.
The mayor, a Democrat, said the “reckless spread of
information and intentional lies” by a few local Republicans swayed the vote.
Before the project could’ve moved ahead, a Golden Road
mobile home park would’ve been leveled and its residents relocated to new
homes.
Last week, tenants and owners of homes in the park almost
universally said they don’t want to move. Some have lived there for decades,
raising children and investing equity, building sheds and planting gardens.
Carpionato does not own the mobile home property, according
to town records. He owns about 10 acres on 87 PTA Lane, across the street from
the park. He wants to develop about 24 acres total.
“(While) there is no imminent impact to the residents of the
mobile home park, we plan to honor their leases and rights, and will work with
them respectfully and positively to achieve a positive outcome for all,”
Carpionato said last week.
Officials previously compared the proposal from Carpionato,
who along with his wife donated a total of about $4,000 to Montville Democrats
in 2023, to the Stop & Shop/Home Depot plaza on the opposite side of Route
32, and said it would reduce the property tax burden on homeowners.
The project, details of which have not been shared publicly,
could net the town up to $700,000 a year in tax revenue, potentially making it
the town’s second-highest taxpayer.
But residents weren’t sold. Many pointed to other
underdeveloped and vacant spaces up and down Route 32, and said the need for
housing is more pressing than retail.
Bunnell on Thursday would not disclose who Carpionato’s
client was, citing “confidentiality issues.”
The Carpionato group’s website says the firm works with
major retailers like Lowe’s, BJ’s Wholesale, Whole Food, Staples, CVS, Stop
& Shop and “many national and regional banks.” The group owns the Shops on
Main plaza in Glastonbury, which has restaurants and a few services.
Massive new contract and hiring mean 'exciting times for Electric Boat'
Alison Cross
Groton — As Electric Boat’s record job growth meets the
region’s housing crunch, lawmakers and industry leaders are hopeful that the
U.S. Navy’s historic $76.6
billion submarine contract will trigger a wave of new development.
State and local officials, EB executives and union
representatives met at the City of Groton Municipal Building on Thursday to
celebrate the newly
awarded contract, which calls for the completion of nine Block VI
Virginia-class fast-attack submarines and five Columbia-class Build II
ballistic-missile submarines by 2038.
While the deal was formally announced Wednesday, EB
President Mark Rayha said company leaders knew the contract was coming when EB
committed early this year to hiring 8,000 new workers in 2026 and 8,000 more in
2027.
“We raised some eyebrows when we said 8,000 back in
February,” Rayha said. “All of our growth and all of our employment projections
contemplated these contracts.”
Rayha said that over the last seven months, EB has hired
more than 4,000 people and that the company is on track to meet its hiring
goals.
The growth is unprecedented for the company. In comparison,
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said that EB added 10,000 jobs in the
seven years between 2019 and 2026, growing from 17,000 to more than 27,000
today.
“We can’t stop there,” Courtney said. “This is a contract
that we’re all going to work together — as a state, as a region, as a country —
to execute successfully.”
Peter Baker, the president of the Metal Trades Council of
New London County, said the $76.6 billion contract has opened a new chapter of
“exciting times at Electric Boat.”
“Not only is there record growth in ship construction,
hiring and training. There are jobs for the building and construction trades
(and) upgrades to shipyard infrastructure,” Baker said. “Millions of dollars
will be pumped into the local economy, but this does not negate the need for
affordable housing, daycare, elder care and public transportation.”
In response to housing concerns, Rayha said he is confident
that the multi-year contract will send “a clear signal” to developers that
there will be a large market for buyers and renters.
“We’ll support where we can, but … our job is to build
submarines,” Rayha said. “We certainly will give advice where needed, but we
think our biggest role we can play is to continue to provide high-paying jobs
and let the chips fall where they may in terms of who’s building where.”
Between 2020 and 2025, New London and Groton added a
combined 900 units to their housing stock, according to census
data compiled by the research group DataHaven.
A 2024
report by the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity Eastern Connecticut
found that housing in New London County has failed to keep pace with the
growing number of households in the region. While 60% of households are made up
of one or two people, only 40% of the region’s housing units have two bedrooms
or fewer.
The same study also found that nearly 30% of households are
considered “cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on
housing.
“There’s no question that the capacity right now is not
enough to absorb this increase in population,” Courtney said.
Courtney agreed with Rayha’s position that the new contract
and the growing workforce would attract developers.
“Having this projection of growth that’s going to happen
here, I think it’s going to create its own ripple effect in terms of getting
more housing into the area,” Courtney said. “But we do need to do more in terms
of ensuring that residents — and in particular tenants — are protected through
the change that’s happening right now.”
Courtney said he strongly supports efforts within the state
legislature to expand “just cause” eviction protections to all renters. The
controversial policy, which Gov. Ned Lamont vowed to push across the finish
line at an event
in Hartford last week, would bar landlords from evicting tenants at the end
of their lease if they did not have a valid reason to do so.
Courtney also pointed to provisions in the federal 21st
Century ROAD to Housing Act that promote “more efficient and low-cost ways
to build workforce housing.”
Courtney said he is particularly excited about opportunities
for prefabricated developments, which can expedite construction and drive down
housing costs. Courtney said a 58-unit prefabricated apartment building under
construction in Willimantic will be completed in 10 months after putting
shovels in the ground.
“That’s the kind of innovation that we need. … Those are the
kinds of changes that can help speed up capacity in the region,” Courtney said.
State Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-41st District, underscored
the importance of protecting the region’s single-family housing stock while
growing the number of rental and accessory dwelling units so that families can
buy homes and “young people can actually find apartments here.”
“Just looking at the diversity of hires, there’s so many
different jobs. And as a result of that, there are so many different age groups
and people that are coming into our area, and it’s bringing a lot of vibrancy
to the region as well,” Bumgardner said.
“We’ve heard EB say ad nauseam, ‘We’re in the business of
submarines.’ And that’s where it is so important for the state of Connecticut
in particular, to step up with respect to childcare, housing (and) many of the
layers of infrastructure … that are very important to support the underlying
work being done at Electric Boat,” Bumgardner added.
Sen. Heather Somers, R-18th District, said the contract will
bring “long-term stability to the region.”
“As a former employee of Electric Boat, it is just an
amazing testament to the greatest shipbuilder not only in our country, but
across the world,” Somers said.
“These are high-paying jobs with benefits and long-term
stability, and that should give those who are interested in creating housing
the confidence that they need to be able to take the step forward in providing
housing opportunities for all of us here in Southeastern Connecticut,” Somers
said.