First site plan for Enfield MassMutual redevelopment could come soon
ENFIELD — The
planned revamp of the MassMutual site is picking up steam, as the
developer behind it earned another approval and plans to file a site plan
application soon.
The office campus at 85
and 100 Bright Meadow Blvd., formerly home to insurance company MassMutual,
could be redeveloped by Branford-based
MB Financial Group into mixed-use, with 464 apartments and
condominiums planned for the 65-acre site.
MassMutual closed its Enfield offices in 2021, relocating
over the border to Springfield, Mass. Prior to the multi-family proposal, a
previous developer pursued a
sports and entertainment complex in 2023, earning
some approvals for "All Sports Village" in 2024 but never
breaking ground.
MB
Financial Group purchased the properties for $4 million last year and
kicked off a series of applications for the company's planned development.
The most recent, a subdivision application, was unanimously approved at a
Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Thursday night.
Carl Landolina, an attorney representing the applicant, said
at the PZC meeting Thursday that the subdivision was part of the project from
the beginning, and will help the developer with financing and splitting
construction into "phases."
As for the first phase, Landolina said the developer is
"two or three weeks out" from submitting a site plan application that
would lead to construction at the MassMutual property.
Once in effect, the subdivision will split 85 and 100 Bright
Meadow Blvd. into eight lots: three separate lots for portions of the existing
office building, one for the parking garage, one for the existing daycare
building, and three for parking lots and various undeveloped areas of the site,
one of which the developer plans to use for the condos.
Landolina said the daycare building is currently empty, but
that the developer believes there will be some interest when "a couple
hundred families" move in next door.
The approved subdivision application also included a
condition to place a restrictive covenant on a roughly 9-acre lot to preserve
it as open space.
Much of the discussion Thursday night was dedicated to town
officials and representatives for the developer untangling the differences
between a "covenant" and an "easement" for the purposes of
open space requirements, with both parties agreeing on the covenant as their
preferred option.
Enfield board advances plan that calls for building four new PreK-5 schools
ENFIELD — The Board of Education voted to approve the
educational specifications for the PK-5 Master Plan for the Enfield
Public Schools, advancing a
proposal to consolidate the district into four elementary schools and
to renovate Eagle Academy.
The plan calls for building four new PreK-5 schools on
the sites of Hazardville Memorial, Prudence Crandall, Henry Barnard and
Edgar H. Parkman, as well as relocating and renovating Eagle Academy to Enfield
Street School, which serves students with specialized academic and therapeutic
needs.
Pre-K programming would be included at each of the new
elementary schools and moved from the Stowe Early Learning Center.
The Enfield school
board approved the plan Wednesday, and the district is expected to present it
to the Town Council on April 20.
There is also potential for adaptive reuse of several
buildings, including the Stowe Early Learning Center, the Eagle Academy
building, Enfield Street School and the Alcorn campus, officials said.
Some facilities would no longer fall under the Board of
Education, and the town would determine their future use, Superintendent
Steven Moccio said.
The proposal is driven by aging facilities, evolving
educational demands and increasing enrollment, district officials say.
School board Chair Amanda Pickett said the district
cannot do temporary fixes on the old buildings.
“I know this might seem like a high cost to some,” Pickett
said. “But the reality is we are in a place with our schools that something
needs to be done.”
Short-term repairs are not cost effective, she said,
pointing out that the plan is intended to make better use of taxpayer
dollars.
According to Jeffrey Wyszynski, principal at Tecton
Architects, the district’s school buildings are an average of 58 years
old.
“This is about bringing students into a 21st-century
learning environment while also maximizing state reimbursement,” Wyszynski
said.
The project would be completed in two phases. Hazardville
Memorial, Prudence Crandall and Edgar H. Parkman would be scheduled to open in
fall 2030. Henry Barnard and Eagle Academy would follow, with construction
beginning in 2028 and completion expected by 2032, according to officials.
The design phase for the first phase would take place
between 2026 and 2028, with construction beginning in 2028. The second phase
design would run from 2028 to 2030, with construction expected to begin in
2030.
The total cost for all five buildings is estimated at $511
million. Of that, Enfield’s share is projected at $89 million, with
approximately $422 million expected to be reimbursed by the state, according to
the district and Tecton Architects.
If the plan is approved, the district said it would submit
five applications — one for each project — in the June 2026 grant cycle, with
the goal of bringing the proposal to voters in a fall 2026 referendum.
The designs are intended to preserve each school’s identity
while prioritizing student needs, Wyszynski said. Plans include dedicated
drop-off and pickup areas, play spaces and layouts that group grade levels
from PreK through fifth grade, along with early learning programs.
The schools will not be identical, Wyszynski said, and would
reflect the character of their surrounding neighborhoods.
“We know there’s a lot of history here in Enfield,” he said.
“It’s important that each facility reflects the area it serves.”
Antonia Ciaverella, associate at Tecton Architects, said
older school buildings were not designed to support the range of programming
and services that are required today.
“When you focus on student health and providing appropriate
spaces to support their social, emotional, physical and cognitive development,
you can impact how they think and perform in school,” she said.
Plans include dedicated spaces for general education,
special education, physical education, student health services, administration
and performing arts, along with flexible spaces that can adapt to changing
needs.
Southbury, Middlebury voters to decide on $224M bond to build two new elementary schools
SOUTHBURY — A plan to build two
new elementary school buildings in Region 15 will go to a special
referendum next month, where voters in Middlebury and
Southbury will decide whether to approve a $224 million bond to pay for the
projects.
The Board of Education for the Pomperaug
Regional School District 15 wants to replace its two oldest
buildings, Gainfield and Pomperaug elementary schools, both in Southbury.
The two new projects would be completed on the same sites as the existing
schools.
The board approved the language in the referendum question
during a meeting in late March, after holding a public hearing on the projects.
“This was an extremely thoughtful, collaborative process
with both towns. The committee spent a lot of time and research to get here,”
said Joshua
Smith, Region 15’s superintendent of schools. “We understand it’s a big
project for the community. We believe the state incentives available and the
timing make doing the projects now more effective than delaying.”
The new buildings would accommodate more students, with a
capacity of about 550 students in each, and give the district additional
preschool space, Smith said.
District officials estimated Region 15 would be reimbursed up to
64% of the projects’ eligible expenses under the Connecticut’s School
Construction Grant program. After deducting the reimbursements, the final costs
for local taxpayers would be about $86 million, according to district
estimates.
The reimbursement includes a 15% state incentive for
including preschool space in the project, Smith said.
Without that incentive, the district’s reimbursement rate
would be less than 50%, he said.
Timing is an important factor to ensure the district
receives the reimbursement, according to Smith and Jennifer Mahr, Middlebury's
first selectwoman.
With the reimbursements included, district estimates showed
the tax impacts of a 30-year bond for the projects would be a $7 to $14 per
month increase for a median single-family home and a $2 to $4 per month
increase for median condominiums in Heritage Village.
Despite being two of the district's oldest buildings,
neither school has received a wholesale renovation or been completely
modernized. Gainfield was constructed in 1941 and Pomperaug in 1967. Each has
reached the end of its useful life.
In addition to providing modern learning spaces, another
objective for the district is to alleviate overcrowding in Region
15’s Middlebury elementary schools, both of which “are tight on space,”
Smith said. “The long-term plan is to create two new schools that have the
capacity to shift.”
Long Meadow Elementary School in Middlebury is currently
crowded and uses modular classrooms to accommodate an influx of Southbury
students, according to Mahr.
“So one of the benefits of building the new schools is that
the kids will move back to Southbury," said Mahr, who said she supports
the projects overall.
“It’s time to do the right thing for our kids,” she said.
Under the district’s plan, the existing schools would
stay open without interruptions while the construction is underway.
The start dates for the projects, should they move forward,
depend on when the final plans would be completed. Officials estimated that
after construction starts, the projects would take 12 to 24 months to complete.
Developer wants to demolish Sports Haven horse-racing complex off I-95 in New Haven
A Queens, N.Y. developer has submitted a 90-day demolition
application with the city of New Haven to knock down the former Sports Haven
betting parlor on Long Wharf Drive, according to the city's economic
development administrator.
Mike Piscitelli told Hearst Connecticut Media on Friday that
a limited liability company affiliated with Queens, N.Y.-based Criterion
Development submitted a the application to city planning officials. The
demolition plan must be approved by multiple city agencies and the demolition
can not begin for at least 90-days, Piscitelli said. It was submitted on Feb.
4.
"The building is nearing the end of its useful
life," Piscitelli said. "The developer has always been transparent
about the intention to tear the building down."
What Criterion hasn't been clear about is what they plan to
do with the property. Sports Haven closed
for good at the end of November, having been purchased
by Criterion in March 2021. Piscitelli said Friday that Criterion officials
have not indicated their plans for the property and company officials have not
responded to inquiries from Hearst Connecticut Media about the future of the
9.65 acre site.
Piscitelli said a responsible growth plan released in 2019
for the city's Long Wharf section calls for a mixed use of residential and
large format commercial uses. An example of large format commercial use,
according to Piscitelli, could include a grocery store or other type of large
format retail store.
But as recently as 2019, environmental studies have
identified the Long Wharf section as facing
a significant flooding threat over the next several decades as result
of climate change and storm surges from New Haven Harbor.