Former Torrington Company site eyed for new public safety complex as owners propose sale
Sloan Brewster
TORRINGTON – The city of Torrington is
considering building a public safety complex on the grounds of the
former Torrington Company.
All but two buildings on the site were demolished
between 2023 and 2024. The project was funded by a $2
million grant from the Connecticut Department of Economic and
Community Development Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development.
The final two buildings were slated for removal with a
$600,000 brownfield remediation grant from the DECD, said Director of Economic
Development William Wallach.
But Industrial Realty Group, the owners of the 70 North
Street property, lost access to the grant as it requires a commitment to
redevelop. The owners opted against redeveloping it and are planning to
sell.
IRG Marketing Director Lauren Crumrine did not respond to
requests for comment.
When Wallach learned the property was going on the
market, he realized it would be an ideal location for a public safety complex.
The city completed a feasibility study to determine what it
would take to build a new public safety complex in April 2025, Wallach
said. Per the study, the complex would require a 5- to 7-acre lot.
The North Street property has 9 acres, leaving room for
recreational space, such as a park and amphitheater. While the
former Torrington Company’s address is on North Street, it takes up
property on adjoining streets, including North Elm.
The plan is still being developed but the proposal is for
the complex to include a police department and a modified fire
department, Wallach said.
The complex would also likely house emergency management and
an Emergency Operations Center, said Chief of Police William Baldwin.
“The vision is absolutely wonderful,” Baldwin said.
“Obviously it comes at a cost and we would have to determine what that cost
would be.”
The police station, which is housed at 576 Main Street in a
former school built in 1903, is in dire need of replacement, Baldwin said. The
department was moved to the renovated school in 1990.
Before that, the station was in an outgrown and no longer
functional space in city hall.
“Now we’re faced with the same thing,” Baldwin said. “(The
building) doesn’t adequately support the mission of our department.”
The former school does not meet standards and lacks safety
features present in modern facilities, he said. A modern facility would also
help with recruitment and retention.
“It wasn’t designed to accommodate today’s staffing levels,”
he said.
Baldwin said former Mayor Elinor C. Carbone started looking
into the possibility of a new public safety complex and Mayor Molly Spino has
taken on the quest.
He noted it would be ideal if the station was downtown and
said officials also considered the former Nidec Corporation site at 100
Franklin Drive, the former Hendey Machine Company property on Summer and
Litchfield Streets, which burned down last fall, and the Brunswick Mill on
Migeon Avenue.
To modernize the police station would cost about $70 million
while building a new complex would be approximately $90 million, Wallach
said.
The city is looking into funding for a second “deep dive”
feasibility study through the Community Investment Fund, he said. The new study
would delve into site selection, design components and public engagement.
Wallach is submitting an application for a Brownfield
area-wide revitalization planning grant, he added.
Wallach said he has done some outreach to see if it’s
feasible to build the complex on the former industrial site, including hosting
a block party in the municipal parking lot at the corner of Main Street and
North Elm Street.
Spino, members of the Economic Development Commission, Board
of Public Safety, police and fire departments, business owners and residents
attended.
During the party, Wallach announced the idea to put the
public safety complex on the North Street property and showed renderings of the
plan, he said.
Wallach noted that residents are attached to the property as
most know someone who worked there when it was the Torrington Company.
“Now we as a city have an opportunity to reclaim that
property," he said. "It would be a pathway for us to own that
historic piece of land and own it forever.”
Wallach said city officials have had discussions with IRG
about obtaining the property but have not discussed numbers yet.
Assuming the city were able to obtain the property this
summer, it would take down the last two buildings in late fall and begin the
approximately 18-month remediation project next spring, along with planning the
infrastructure and funding.
Wallach said he is hopeful the city can use the $600,000
from the DECD for the demolition and clean up.
“That puts us at like 24 months before we could do any type
of groundbreaking,” he said.
Complaints are that solar projects consume 8% of its land. So CT town sues to block a new one
Claiming that the state Siting Council abused its power and
ignored environmental concerns, East
Windsor is suing to block a 150-acre expansion of the massive Gravel Pit solar field in the
southeastern part of town.
East Windsor is asking a New Britain Superior Court judge to overturn the Siting Council’s unanimous approval of the hugely controversial Gravel Pit solar expansion.
The lawsuit largely repeats the arguments that the town and
East Windsor Residents for Responsible Solar previously made to the siting
council: The project is an environmental risk as well as a serious blow to
northern Connecticut agriculture.
In addition, the suit contends that East Windsor and its
residents already shoulder an unfairly large share of the state’s solar
projects and shouldn’t be asked to take on more.
The lawsuit lists 18 nearby residential property owners who
oppose the expansion, and says the council’s deliberations didn’t give adequate
weight to those concerns.
This month, though, Gravel Pit Solar’s corporate owners won
intervenor status in the case. Judge Matthew Budzik granted their request,
giving them status to directly challenge the town’s assertions about their
project.
“Approximately 18.6% of all solar projects approved by the
council are located in the town,” East Windsor argues in the lawsuit.
“Approximately 31.7% of all solar projects approved by the council that are now
operational are located in the town.”
DESRI — D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments — got permission to
build the original Gravel Pit Solar project five years ago. It’s a 120-megawatt
facility on woodlands and former farmland, and advocates say it’s an important
part of maintaining power to southern New England’s grid.
Last year, the company applied for permission for a
30-megawatt expansion. During the course of extended Siting Council review and
hearings, the town and the local legislative delegation wrote letters in
opposition. Sen. Saud Anwar warned that approval would lead to clearing of 46
acres of trees, and reduce availability of future farmland as well as natural
habitats.
State Rep. Jaime Foster and Rep. Carol Hall also complained
to the council, citing noise concerns, potential for lost tax revenue and the
imbalance of solar facility locations in Connecticut.
But the council noted that the roughly 500 acres eyed for
expansion are near gravel mining operations, the main Gravel Pit Solar
facility, a landfill and a tobacco barn. In addition, the company would develop
only about 150 of those acres.
The lawsuit contends that far too much East Windsor land is
already used for solar facilities. Including the new expansion, the town hosts
projects on nearly 1,400 acres and yielding more than 160 megawatts. In all,
solar facilities now account for more than 8% of the town’s total land area,
according to the suit.
“Connecticut only has approximately 170,000 acres of open
farmland, about 5% of the state, with the amount of soil designated as the most
productive approximately half of that total,” the lawsuit contends.
“The Connecticut Valley is one of the most threatened
agricultural regions in the Northeast. The development pressure threatening the
agricultural land in Connecticut Valley, as well as the town, includes the
development of solar projects.”
But the council determined that the wider public benefit of
expanded solar capacity is significant enough to justify the project.
“The proposed facility expansion is intended to achieve
additional renewable generation capacity efficiently and cost-effectively while
minimizing environmental and construction impacts and avoiding further
modifications to the transmission system,” according to the council’s findings.
Plans for hundreds of apartments in CT downtown take big step forward. ‘As optimistic as ever.’
The
developer of the apartments around the city’s minor league ballpark is
moving ahead with the next phase of nearly 300 units, a nearly $72 million
project that could be completed in early 2028 with financing that is now
falling into place.
The 286-unit project would complete the second half of “The Portrait” apartments, the largest component yet in the North Crossing development and across Main Street from Dunkin’ Park in downtown Hartford.
Construction is expected to get started in the next couple weeks and comes as leasing in the 237 apartments in the first half has demonstrated early strong tenant demand. Leasing launched in early May and 34 units are expected to be occupied in the first weeks of July, according to the developer, RMS Cos. of Stamford.
A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for Thursday.
Office conversions and new construction such as North
Crossing have added more than 3,000 units since 2013 in the downtown area.
But RMS founder and chief executive Randy Salvatore said the
demand he has seen so far at “The Portrait” plus his two other apartment
projects downtown shows him that more residential rentals can be absorbed into
the market.
One of those is the the 270-unit “The Pennant,” the first
phase of North Crossing that opened in 2022, that now has a 98% occupancy,
Salvatore said.
“I’m very optimistic — as optimistic as ever,” Salvatore
said.
The Capital Region
Development Authority, the quasi-public agency, recently approved an $18
million, low-cost, state taxpayer-backed loan for the second half of “The
Portrait.” The loan still needs approval of the State
Bond Commission, but Salvatore said he can push ahead now.
The financing for the second half of “The Portrait” already
includes $17.6 million in developer equity and $36 million in a bank loan.
Together, the two phases of “The Portrait” will encompass
nearly 525 apartments with a shared parking garage of 535 spaces, built in the
first half.
The second phase will be 50 “junior” one-bedrooms, 144
one-bedrooms and 82 two-bedrooms. The apartments will average 774 square feet
with an average monthly rent of $2,115, not including parking. In the first
phase of “The Portrait” there is a $100 monthly fee to lease a parking space in
the garage and a $50 monthly amenity fee.
The first phase of “The Portrait” has a full range of
amenities: a pool in the center courtyard, plus a fitness center and lounge on
street level with windows facing Main Street and Dunkin’ Park. The rooftop deck
with its lounge and picnic area overlooks the ballpark and will offer community
garden space for residents.
“We’re excited to see this next phase move forward,” David
S. Steuber, CRDA’s executive director, said. “It will complete the block across
from the Yard Goats stadium.”
CRDA also approved an $11.8 million loan for “The Pennant”
and a $13.6 million loan for the first half of “The Portrait.” CDRA said RMS
remains in good standing with its current CRDA loans.
North Crossing also includes the area east of Dunkin’ Park
where the city is now dismantling the former data processing center at 150
Windsor St.. beginning first with interior spaces. Once the property is
cleared, the city hopes to build a center for artificial intelligence research.
Salvatore plans to construct a $30 million, 120-room boutique hotel and a
200-space parking garage as a companion development on the same site.