Vertical construction to start on Berlin mixed-use project
Matt Pilon
Developers on Monday will break ground on an $18 million mixed-use project adjacent to the Berlin train station.
Slated for completion by the end of this year, the building -- which is the first of four planned for the four-acre parcel located along Farmington Avenue -- will contain about 7,000 square feet of retail space and room for outdoor dining, with 16 market-rate apartments above, according to Mark Lovley, who is developing the Steele Center project with his Newport Realty Group business partner Anthony Valenti.
Lovley said the pair hopes to break ground on the second building this fall.
Newport held a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Gov. Ned Lamont last September as contractors began building Steele Boulevard, the road that will connect the Steele Center buildings to the nearby train station and its parking lot.
The project is one of a number of so-called transit-oriented developments spurred by the state’s investment in the Hartford Rail Line.
Mark Zaretsky
NEW HAVEN — New Haven Harbor watchers take note: the
waterway is about to become home to two more large oil tanks.
Not that many people are counting as they whiz by the
industrial corner of the harbor while crossing the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge
— or when they sit in traffic on said bridge — but that brings the number of
tanks on the east side of the harbor to about 100.
The new tanks also mean the storage capacity of Safety-Kleen, an oil recycling and
environmental cleanup company, will increase to more than 6 million gallons.
It brings the total number of tanks on the harbor and lower
reaches of the rivers that feed it to about 115, according to an activist who
has counted them.
In this case, the new tanks, which the City
Plan Commission approved, will be used to store used oil for Safety-Kleen, which already stores
used oil that it recycles in three other, nearby tanks on the same site at 120
Forbes Ave.
The two new, above-ground storage tanks, each 72 feet in
diameter, will add capacity to store an additional 3.64 million gallons of used
oil. That will raise Safety-Kleen’s on-site storage volume to 6.42 million
gallons, representatives said.
One person raised questions about the application when the
City Plan Commission met to consider it.
Chris Ozyck, a neighborhood environmental activist and
boater who lives up the Quinnipiac River in the city’s Fair Haven Heights
section, questioned the need for more tanks at a time when reliance on oil is
waning.
“What will happen when we get beyond the oil-based economy?”
asked Ozyck, who said Thursday that the total number of tanks is about 115,
including several in the Long Wharf area on the west side of the harbor and in
the lower reaches of the Quinnipiac River. “What will happen to these tanks?”
Ozyck also questioned the construction, which will include
the tanks within a berm that previously was constructed to keep the oil in,
should there ever be a major leak. He said the berm would do nothing to keep
floodwaters from rushing in, should there ever be a major weather event.
“It’s not (that I’m) against that issue ... but I do have
questions about climate change and resiliency,” said Ozyck, who is associate
director for the Urban Resources Initiative at Yale but said he was speaking to
the commission as a resident.
“A number of residents complain about the odor when they go
by the tanks,” Ozyck said. “It really does affect people’s quality of life.”
Project Manager John Schmitz, an engineer for BL Companies in Meriden, explained
Wednesday that the containment berm “is specifically designed to contain leaks
from a tank.” It is not constructed to keep floodwaters out of a tank, he said.
If the property ever were to be sold in the future, it would
fall under the Transfer Act and “it’s the owner’s responsibility to clean up
any contamination on the site,” Schmitz said. He said he was unaware of any
contamination currently on the site.
Safety-Kleen official David Paquette said there has been
some contamination found on the site in the past, but “anything found there we
have to remove.”
Responding to Ozyck’s question about what might happen were
society to move from an oil-based economy, Paquette said, “We’re not going
anywhere, even if the oil lines go away in 50 years, sometime in the future.”
Safety-Kleen, based in Richardson, Texas, and founded in
1963 in Milwaukee, has been a subsidiary of Norwell, Mass.-based Clean Harbors Inc. since 2012
Safety-Kleen has owned the site at 120 Forbes Ave, which has
a rail link, since 2016, although there has been a motor oil recycling
operation there since 2001 as part of a larger historic use of the area in the
harbor for oil tank farms going back 100 years.
The company bought
an additional 54,000-square-foot portion of Waterfront Street from the city for
$100,000 in 2019 to enhance the rail connection.
Ben Trachten, an attorney who often represents clients
before the commission but was not involved in Safety-Kleen’s application, spoke
Wednesday in favor of Safety-Kleen’s application to add the two tanks, saying
that “as an auto enthusiast, I’m very aware of recycling” and “I support the
use in New Haven on the site that has rail access and ... infrastructure.
“I think we should be focusing on recycling and not what
will happen in 50 years when we move away from an oil economy,” Trachten said.
Laura Cahn, chairwoman of the New
Haven Environmental Advisory Council, said, “I think this company is looking
out for us and for themselves, and I thank them.”
“I don’t think there’s any question that the current owners
have done a better job than the previous owners,” said Edward Mattison, the
commission’s vice chairman and former longtime chairman.
He said, however, that “I don’t think the city has figured
out where it’s going” yet, with regard to adjustments it might eventually need
to make as a result of climate change.
Westville Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, who is a member of the
City Plan Commission, said, “The point is well taken that we need to be looking
toward the future ... We need to have those conversations,” although it is not
the applicant’s obligation to do so, he said.
The commission, with four members present, voted unanimously
this week in favor of Safety-Kleen’s application.
Greg Bordonaro he Capital Region Development Authority on Thursday approved funding for the redevelopment of the historic 55 Elm St. office building in downtown Hartford into apartments.
Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners has submitted plans with the CRDA to redevelop the 205,000-square-foot office building into 164 residential units as well as co-working space and a restaurant.
Up to 70 units of the $63.3 million project will be constructed so they can be made available for hotel rooms, if the market justifies the need, according to a project proposal submitted to CRDA.
CRDA’s board has approved $13.5 million in support of the project, including a $7 million construction loan and $6.5 million historic tax credit bridge loan.
The next step is for the state Bond Commission to consider and then approve the funding before the deal is completed, according to CRDA Executive Director Mike Freimuth.
The rest of the project financing includes: a $32.5 million conventional mortgage; $7.3 million in equity; and $10 million in federal historic tax credits, records show.
Eighty-percent of the units will be market rate while the rest will be affordable units, according to CRDA.
Spinnaker bought the property and some nearby parking lots just over a year ago for $6.8 million.
The 55 Elm St. project is a cornerstone of the broader Bushnell Park South neighborhood redevelopment, which aims to bring more mixed-use activity near vacant and empty lots by The Bushnell.
Mashantucket Pequots join Mohegans, agree to revised sports betting deal
Mark Pazniokas The last piece of a deal aimed at legalizing sports betting and online gambling in Connecticut fell into place Thursday with the Mashantucket Pequots accepting a revised version of terms unexpectedly announced two weeks ago by Gov. Ned Lamont and the Mohegan Tribal Nation.
If approved by the General Assembly, the 10-year deal would open Connecticut to its greatest expansion of gambling since the opening of the two tribal casinos, Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun, by making every smartphone and computer a portal to casino games and CT Lottery sales.
“Connecticut is on cusp of providing a modern, technologically advanced gaming experience for our residents, which will be competitive with our neighboring states,” Lamont said in a statement.
The state itself would join the two federally recognized tribes in the sports betting business, taking wagers on sports through the CT Lottery.
One of the sticking points two weeks ago was the 20% tax the state proposed to collect on iGaming, the term for offering casino games online. The Mohegans agreed, but the Mashantucket Pequots wanted an 18% rate.
The compromise: An 18% rate for five years, then a bump to 20% for at least the next five years.
The state also would collect a 13.75% tax on sports bets placed with the casinos, online or in person, rates the administration says match or exceed what is collected in other states where sports betting and online gambling are legal.
The tribes formally agree to give up plans to jointly construct a satellite casino in East Windsor for the life of the deal, a project that had been all but abandoned for the foreseeable future.
In a joint press release, the Lamont administration and tribes ignored the tensions of the past two weeks when the Mashantucket Pequots tribal chairman, Rodney Butler, publicly complained of being disrespected by Lamont and the Mohegans.
“We’re proud of this landmark agreement with the State of Connecticut that cements a historic moment for our Tribal Nation,” Butler said. “This agreement bolsters the state’s economic development and growth, and allows us to develop a stable economic foundation for the future of our tribal community.”
The Mohegans, who had signaled their impatience with the Pequots by signing on to the earlier version with the administration, were similarly upbeat. The joint release read like a diplomatic communique.
“The Mohegan Tribe is very thankful to our partners in government, both the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the State of Connecticut, for reaching collective agreement on a path forward for modernizing our state’s gaming entertainment industry,” said James Gessner Jr., the chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Council.
Lamont complimented both tribes, then looked ahead to the passage of a bill, the revision of the state’s gambling compacts with the tribes and the approval of those revisions by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“Our state’s tribal partners have worked with my administration thoughtfully, deliberately, and in a constructive fashion for the past few months, and we have achieved an agreement that is best for Connecticut residents and their respective tribal members,” Lamont said. “We will work to see it ratified and look forward to doing so through a collaborative effort, to include working with elected leaders in the General Assembly.”
With the Mohegans in agreement on how to structure, regulate and tax sports betting and the Mashantucket Pequots close to a deal, the Lamont administration played hardball at a legislative hearing two weeks ago.
The governor’s chief of staff, Paul Mounds, told lawmakers the administration had a deal with one tribe, the Mohegans. Six hours later, the administration and Mohegans issued a joint statement aimed at pressuring the Mashantucket Pequots.
As was the case then, the state’s off-track betting vendor, Sportech, would have no share in the revised deal of the most lucrative piece of sports betting: Offering an online book, or skin, as it is known in the gambling industry.
Instead, the Lottery would be permitted to offer a sub-license to Sportech, allowing it to accept bets at up to 15 locations. Sportech has threatened to sue.
The administration, tribes and lottery will have to address concerns by some lawmakers that turning every smartphone and laptop into a gaming device will increase problem gambling.
David Lehman, the governor’s economic adviser and one of his two negotiators with the tribes, assured lawmakers at the hearing that problem gambling will be addressed.
“We’ve had some conversations about that. We’ve not extensively discussed that. But we’re aware of the benchmarking and what other states are doing,” Lehman said. “We agree that that needs to be part of the comprehensive legislation when it’s done.”
In the early 1990s, in return for a 25% share of gross slots profits, Connecticut gave the tribes exclusive rights to casino games, a deal that has produced more than $8 billion in revenue to the state over the past quarter century while complicating any step toward expansion.
The tribes assert sports betting is a casino game and that the exclusivity agreement and revenue-sharing deal have induced the state to negotiate over who shares in sports betting.
Lamont has tried for a deal on sports betting since taking office in January 2019.
Talks broke off in 2019, then resumed only to break off again last March. The governor’s position then was that sports betting be allowed at the two tribal casinos and that rights to sports bookmaking outside the casinos be opened to the tribes, the CT Lottery and Sportech.
Annual payments to Connecticut by the two casinos peaked in 2007 at $430 million and have fallen steadily in the face of casino expansion in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.
The lottery surpassed the casinos in revenue to the state in 2013. It produced $312 million for the state that year, compared to the casinos’ combined total of $296 million. In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic depressed sales, the lottery produced $370 million; the casinos, $255 million.