These are the major school construction projects that will get state funding
Natasha Sokoloff
From brand new schools to renovations, several major school construction projects across Connecticut are one step closer to materializing with new funding from the state.
The revised $28.1 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year authorizes millions of dollars in school construction grant commitments, including around $150 million for the six schools on the 2026 priority list and bonds for other projects.
Here are the schools that are getting an upgrade using new state funding approved by the legislature this year.
2026 priority list
Projects in Milford, Norwich, Seymour, Stamford, Waterbury and Westport secured spots on the state’s building priority list for 2026. The budget bill authorizes a total of $150.6 million for these projects, which are expected to cost more than $300 million combined.
The state reimburses towns and local districts for some of the construction costs through state general obligation bonds, with less wealthy municipalities getting a higher reimbursement. Local funds pay the rest.
These are the six approved priority projects, spanning everything from revamping classrooms to constructing a new school:
Jonathan Law High School, Milford
Project type: Extension/alteration
Estimated cost: $12.6 million
Estimated grant: $4.9 million
Teachers’ Memorial Global Studies Magnet Middle School, Norwich
Project type: New school
Estimated cost: $69.4 million
Estimated grant: $55.5 million
Bungay Elementary School, Seymour
Project type: New school
Estimated cost: $60 million
Estimated grant: $38.7 million
Julia Stark Elementary School, Stamford
Project type: Alteration/energy conservation
Estimated cost: $14.3 million
Estimated grant: $8.6 million
Roberto Clemente International Dual Language School, Waterbury
Project type: Extension/alteration
Estimated cost: $38.7 million
Estimated grant: $30.6 million
Long Lots Elementary School, Westport
Project type: New school
Estimated cost: $110 million
Estimated grant: $12.2 million
Other major projects
The legislature also authorized bonds for other major projects for fiscal year 2027, including:
$63,200,000 for the construction of Kinney Hall at Naugatuck Valley Community College;
$70,000,000 for new technology center for the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System;
$50,000,000 for design and construction of Vinal Technical High School in Middletown;
$2 million in grants to the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford for alterations, renovations and improvements to the buildings and grounds; and
$150 million funding boost for the design and construction of a new Windham Technical High School.
The budget bill also includes a long list of other school construction projects receiving waivers, exemptions, reauthorizations or reimbursement changes.
Lamont releases $15.2M to assess, remediate brownfields
A dam-removal project and the assessment of contamination at
the former home of a newspaper are among a dozen projects in 11 communities
receiving a total of $15.2 million in grants and loans from the state.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday that his administration
will release $15.2 million in state funding to support assessment and
remediation activities at the 12 blighted properties across Connecticut. The
funding will help cover the cost of cleaning up these unused, polluted parcels
so they can be redeveloped and returned to productive use.
The grants will be distributed through the state Department
of Economic and Community Development’s (DECD) Brownfield Remediation and
Development Program.
The latest round of funding will support investigation and cleanup activities on a total of 267 acres and are expected to leverage more than $81 million in private investments, state officials said.
The assistance announced under this funding round will
assist the following projects:
Ansonia and Seymour: A $4 million grant to The
Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank Inc. to remove and manage previously
identified contaminated sediments at the Kinneytown Dam, a 170.89-acre
hydroelectric facility that spans the Naugatuck River in both towns.
East Hartford: A $100,000 grant for environmental
assessment and remedial planning activities for a 20.5-acre site at 832 Silver
Lane. The site formerly was part of Silver Lane Plaza, which was previously
occupied by a dry-cleaning business.
Enfield: A $1.5 million loan to abate, remediate and
monitor a 4.9-acre, privately owned site at 132 Weymouth Road. The property was
built as a supermarket but has since been used for other purposes, including a
dry cleaner and a trade school with an auto-repair training center. The project
will enable the building to be reused for multiple purposes.
Hamden: A $100,000 grant for environmental assessment
activities at 344-350 Putnam Ave. The site, formerly an automobile body and
repair shop, has been vacant for more than 35 years. Funding will support
environmental assessment, site characterization, risk assessment and developing
a remedial action plan to enable redeveloping the site into a 16-unit
entry-level and affordable condo project.
New Britain: A $2.67 million grant to the city Housing
Authority to abate, remediate and demolish the Mount Pleasant public housing
facility at 100 Richard St. The 19.81-acre site will be redeveloped into a
mixed-income housing complex.
Norwalk: A $200,000 grant to the Norwalk Redevelopment
Agency to assess a 2.46-acre, privately owned site at 108 Water St. along the
Norwalk River. This will help advance a plan to transform the property into a
mixed-use waterfront development with 59 residential units, a hotel and
approximately 36,000 square feet of office space.
Norwalk: A $200,000 planning grant to the Western
Connecticut Council of Governments, in partnership with Open Doors, to advance
a comprehensive strategy for a cluster of underutilized properties in the
Colonial Village Neighborhood of South Norwalk. These include multiple known
and suspected brownfield sites associated with historical industrial uses.
Plainville: A $541,000 grant to demolish the White Oak
building at 1 West Main St. as part of Phase 3 of the ongoing remediation and
redevelopment project at the 15-acre site.
Shelton: A $1.5 million grant to the Shelton Economic
Development Corp. to remediate a 1-acre site at 255 Canal St. historically used
for power generation and manufacturing. The remediation will enable
construction of a 48-unit mixed-income residential development with public
riverwalk access.
Thomaston: A $200,000 grant to the Naugatuck Valley
Council of Governments to assess the 12.44-acre site at 165 Main St. The
property previously was home to the historic Seth Thomas Clock Factory. The
assessment will enable the NVCOG to establish a plan to convert the property
into affordable housing.
Waterbury: A $200,000 grant to the NVCOG to assess the
2.75-acre site at 389 Meadow St., the former home of the Republican-American
newspaper. There are numerous areas of concern already identified for further
investigation at this site, originally built as a train station, and the new
funds will supplement those efforts. The planned redevelopment of the property
includes a proposal to develop 40 residential apartment units.
Waterbury: A $4 million grant to the Waterbury Development Corp. for Phase 3 of an abatement and remediation project of the 17.46-acre site at 698 South Main St. This grant is part of an ongoing endeavor to remediate the former Anamet factory site.
Hotel, Housing Project Proposed for Long-Vacant Fairfield Industrial Site
Gretchen Webster,
FAIRFIELD — A new transit-oriented development project could soon take shape on a 22-acre parcel in Fairfield’s Commerce Drive Industrial District, a former manufacturing hub.
After Bullard Machine Tools closed its doors in the 1980s, several projects have been proposed on the brownfield sites within the district, but most have never materialized.
The district’s newest proposal comes from Florida-based Amzac Capital Management. The plan includes a 160-room hotel and conference center adjacent to the Fairfield-Black Rock Train Station, plus two residential buildings with a total of 676 units on Ash Creek Boulevard.
The Amzac development team asked the Town Plan and Zoning Commission for a preliminary review of the project by last week.
“We’re not asking for a decision now,” attorney Christopher Russo, representing Amzac, told the commission. “It’s a large property and a big project.”
Russo noted that the Commerce Drive area has taken on a new life with the opening of a brewery, a nearby shopping plaza with a grocery store and pharmacy, and new restaurants within walking distance from the proposed project. He said some of the “defining features” on the property for residents also include courtyards, decks with pools, cabanas and lawn space.
Although the design was praised by some commission members, others expressed concern that it included too many residential units and that more retail space should be provided to help generate taxes and provide amenities for residents.
“This amount of residential without additional retail is bad for the town,” commissioner Veronica Monahan said.
Commissioner Peter Capozzi agreed, saying the project should be “less residential, more commercial” and include affordable units.
In the past, however, new retail spaces sometimes took as long as two years to be occupied, Planning Director Emmaline Harrigan said. “That’s too long a time,” she added.
Vice Chair Jeff Randolph said he’d like to see the residential portion of the project “more humanly scaled,” but added that the redevelopment plan is headed in the right direction.
“It’s exciting to see this squalid, decrepit, graffiti-strewn, forgotten parcel turn into something that could be home to many newcomers to Fairfield,” he said.
Harrigan said the Amzac plan will not be reviewed in detail by the commission and other town departments until the fall, when a code review is conducted by the police, fire, health and conservation departments.
The proposal is the latest effort to redevelop an area that has been changing for years, according to Harrigan. After Bullard closed, the state, town and private property owners entered into a “tri-party agreement” to clean up the industrial contamination and construct a second train station for the town. It was anticipated that new office buildings would be built in the area.
Although the train station — Fairfield’s second station — opened in 2011, the market for office space changed and plans for such buildings never materialized, Harrigan said.
A plan for five residential buildings and a hotel was proposed in 2019, but only one apartment building with 71 units was built. That was followed in 2023 with a seven-building proposal with over 600 units and hotel, which was also never built. Although that project had been received favorably by the commission, Harrigan said, a formal application was not submitted for the project.
Amzac, one of the investment partners in the 2023 proposal, took over and redesigned that plan, moving the hotel adjacent to the train station and incorporating the 71-unit building built in 2019 into the newest plan. Its project also includes a concourse between the hotel and train station with restrooms and a police substation, which had been part of the agreement made decades ago.