Southeastern Connecticut’s casino-owning Indian tribes, now in the process of forming a joint venture to pursue a commercial casino project north of Hartford, have a little more breathing room.
The tribes’ target, the $800 million resort casino MGM Resorts International is building in Springfield, Mass., won’t open until September 2018, about a year later than had been expected.
In correspondence this week, Blue Tarp redevelopment, MGM’s development arm, informed the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that MGM is pushing back the Springfield casino’s opening to accommodate the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Interstate 91 viaduct project. The highway work, being undertaken in connection with the casino, is scheduled to begin next month and could involve ramp and lane closures from late this year until the summer of 2018, according to Blue Tarp’s “final project schedule.”
MGM now anticipates the Springfield casino’s opening will be Sept. 5, 2018.
Winchester lofts brings New Haven eyesore to life
NEW HAVEN >> Who would have thought? Where once they produced armaments for both World Wars, there is now a 158-apartment community complete with a billiard room, fitness center, study lounges and, to keep the dog-owners happy, a pet grooming station. Welcome to the Winchester Lofts, developer Forest City’s $60 million conversion of a large portion of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. factory at Winchester Avenue and Munson Street to living space that incorporates much of the historical architecture. It is part of the renovation of the factory that was a deteriorated eyesore for decades after it stopped providing jobs for thousands of city residents and contributing to a stable city and a burgeoning middle class leading up to World War II.
Matthew Nemerson, economic development administrator for the city and a former executive director of the Science Park Development Corporation, said Thursday the 1983 vision for Science Park, of which the factory was a central part, was to bring a “little computer company, maybe a little biotech.”
“We had no idea what this was going to be. We just wanted to believe in something,” Nemerson recalled of those early plans to re-use the sprawling industrial space in Newhallville. “Never in our wildest imaginations did we think anyone would have the skill and the true vision and the money and the patience to do what so many of you have done,” Nemerson said at the formal opening of Winchester Lofts on Thursday. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Torrington ethics board votes to take no action against school board chair in plowing case
TORRINGTON >> The Board of Ethics voted to take no action against Board of Education Chairman Ken Traub after a complaint had been made against him when his father’s company was hired for emergency snow removal for the district. Hemlock Construction Co., owned by Traub’s father Richard Traub, was used in two separate occasions, in 2013 and 2014, to remove snow from school properties following two snowstorms. The company was paid $26,000 for the two services.
The complaint was filed by Edward Arum of Torrington on March 18. The complaint said that Traub had violated several Code of Ethics sections, including on conflict on interest, financial interest and disclosure of interest.
The city’s Code of Ethics conflict of interest section states, “No official or employee shall engage in any business or transaction or shall have a private financial interest or personal interest, direct or indirect, which is incompatible or in conflict with the proper discharge of his official duties in the public interest or would tend to impair his independence of judgement or action in the performance if his official duties.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
O&G awarded state contract for Watertown bus maintenance facility
WATERTOWN -- The state Department of Transportation awarded a $75 million contract to O&G of Torrington to build a bus maintenance facility on Frost Bridge Road.
The new facility will provide CT Transit with space for vehicle storage, washing, maintenance and parts management, as well as administrative and operations support. The facility will provide space for 86 buses and 162 staff members. It will replace the company's existing facility on Thomaston Avenue in Waterbury.
In addition to the physical building, the project includes extensive earthwork and conservation measures on the 20-acre site. The efforts include protecting a 100-year-old American sycamore tree and creating a safe habitat for the New England cottontail rabbits during construction. The property, which borders the Naugatuck River, also will have numerous plantings to revitalize the landscape.
Site work at the project began earlier this month. The project is expected to be completed in April 2017.