East Hartford OKs major Rentschler development
By Joseph Villanova, Journal Inquire
ast Hartford's Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday
unanimously approved two applications on a planned development of a 300-acre
site on the former Rentschler field.
Boston-based National Development filed applications for a
zone change to facilitate its master plan for the site, which includes two
warehouse buildings totaling 2.5 million square feet and two
100,000-square-foot buildings for high-tech manufacturing and research and
development.
The master plan divides the site into five parcels. The two
larger parcels designated for light industrial logistics, totaling 263 acres,
would be used to build the two warehouses.
Ed Marsteiner, managing partner at National Development,
said it is in negotiations with “influencer tenants,” household names that
would bring credibility to the developer and the town while fueling further
development.
Marsteiner added that the company has a deal “essentially
done” with a tenant for the planned 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse on the
east side of the lot and are confident they will have a lease for the 1.3
million-square-foot building on the west side.
An 18.35-acre parcel, occupied by Cabela’s, is designated
for non-specific retail and mixed use developments. A 2.36-acre parcel would be
used for a vehicle service and repair facility, now used by Cabela’s for its
operations. One 17.58-acre parcel, bordering Cabela’s on the north end of the
site, would have the high-tech manufacturing buildings.
Marsteiner said there are no plans to affect the Cabela’s
store, but the developer has prepared a contingency plan.
“Cabela’s has been doing well here so there’s, in the
foreseeable future, no motivation to get them to move on,” Marsteiner said.
Marsteiner said if Cabela’s were to leave, the developer
would plan to build additional phases of high-tech facilities on the site to
create a campus.
Paul Vitaliano, director of land development with VHB
Connecticut, a firm that helped prepare the master plan, said the proposed
development would have 941 passenger-car parking spaces and 1,314 trailer-truck
parking spaces, which is subject to change.
Vitaliano said the developer plans to have a sidewalk system
on the site, but specifics are still being planned.
“Other means of access and transportation are something we
should consider,” Vitaliano said.
Benefits to the town stated in the developer’s presentation
include about 2,000 permanent jobs and over $4 million in annual tax revenue to
the town after stabilization.
Marsteiner said one aspect of the development he’s excited
about is tying the Rentschler Field site into the East Coast Greenway, a
near-complete 3,000-mile walking and bike trail from Maine to Florida with a
“missing tooth” in the area.
“Every project we do, we try to have some component to it
that’s for everyone, and that will also be here for many generations to come,”
Marsteiner said.
Marsteiner said a major aspect that potential tenants look
for in a site is whether they can find a workforce in the area, and East
Hartford presents such an opportunity, with the town’s lower employment rates
and programs such as East Hartford CONNects and Goodwin University’s job
training.
“It’s hard to find talent and employees today to occupy
these buildings,” Marsteiner said.
The developer said at a Town Council meeting Feb. 8 that the
positions created by the warehouse development would pay $20 an hour or more
and provide a number of benefits, and jobs from the high-tech facilities would
be generally much higher.
Orange Intersection Ready; Temple Bridge Next
THOMAS BREEN
Goodbye, flashing lights and detours. Hello, new protected
and signalized intersection: Starting next week, a long-in-the-works
Orange Street crossroads connecting the Hill and downtown will finally open — and
officials will begin pursuing the next step of “Downtown Crossing.”
That next step: The city will seek $22 million more in
federal aid to help create a new Temple Street bridge and open up still
more developable land atop the Rt. 34 corridor.
City Plan Senior Project Planner Donna Hall gave those
updates Wednesday morning during the latest regular monthly meeting of the city
Development Commission. The virtual meeting took place online via Zoom.
Hall’s presentation focused on the latest with Downtown
Crossing. That’s the
$50 million-plus, state and federally funded overhaul of the Rt. 34 mini-highway-to-nowhere
that city officials have been working on for nearly a decade.
The multi-phase project’s goals have included undoing
the neighborhood-demolishing
sins of mid-20th Century Urban Renewal; restitching downtown, the Hill and
the medical district; and promoting the development of lab and office space,
particularly for New
Haven’s burgeoning biotech sector.
Back in 2016, Downtown Crossing Phase 1 saw
the creation
of the College Street bridge and the development of the Alexion building at 100 College
St. A new 10-story, 500,000 square-foot
bioscience tower at 101 College St. right across the street is also
now in construction.
On Wednesday morning, Hall said that Phase 2 — which
features a new intersection connecting Orange Street and South Orange
Street across MLK Boulevard, South Frontage Road, and the Air Rights
Garage Service Drive — will open next week.
“Phase 2 is now substantially complete, and the
intersection is slated to open on Monday,” Hall told the commissioners. “All
detours that have been frustrating the traveling public will be removed at that
time, as well.”
The city has been working on Phase 2 since
at least 2017. Construction began
in the early summer of 2019. The Elicker Administration hosted a celebratory
press conference about the then-in-construction new Orange Street intersection
in September 2020. And Hall led a walking
tour of the still-in-construction intersection for city development
commissioners in October 2021.
“We had some supply chain issues” and some electrical
connectivity issues that made it so that the Orange Street intersection
couldn’t open last fall, Hall told the Independent after Wednesday morning meeting.
Some of the supply chain-delayed products included
pedestrian push button brackets that the city wound up needing to get specially
fabricated. “You need to have all design components related to safety
completed in order to declare substantial completion,” Hall said. “It’s
got to be safe for all users” before this phase of the project could be
declared done.
“All of those issues have been resolved,” she said, clearing
the way for Monday’s planned intersection opening.
What exactly will that look like?
As an interim condition over the past few months, Hall said,
the city has had flashing traffic signals in the Orange Street intersection,
allowing for through-traffic coming off the highway to continue unimpeded
heading west towards Church Street or turning north onto Orange Street.
Come 9 a.m. on Monday, she said, “there is
going to be a signal where you reach Orange Street getting off of
the Connector.”
Vehicles heading north on South Orange Street behind the
police station will also be able to get onto the highway again via that route,
and will no longer have to take a detour across the recently reopened
section of Columbus Avenue to get over to Church Street South and South
Frontage Road before making their way onto the highway.
The turning on of the traffic signals on Monday will enable
cyclists and pedestrians to take advantage of the first bike-protected
intersection in the state, with landscaped islands separating bike lanes from
vehicle travel lanes and pedestrian crossings. New bike lanes are also already
in place at sidewalk level on South Frontage Road, and pointing towards Water
Street and Union Avenue.
Pedestrians will need to make the trip across the new Orange
Street intersection in two phases. After pressing a pedestrian crossing
button and getting the signal, they’ll have to cross four lanes to an island in
the middle of the intersection. Then they’ll have to press another button and
wait for another signal before crossing the one-lane service drive and another
four lanes to get all the way across the intersection.
Up Next: $22M Quest For Temple Crossing
Also during Wednesday morning’s Development Commission
meeting, Hall spoke about the Temple Street connection work that is slated to
take place as part of Downtown Crossing’s Phase 3 and 4.
Phase 3 work has already begun, and all of the
funding for that is already in place, Hall said. That work included raising
South Frontage Road by seven feet and the construction a bridge abutment
on the south side of the planned new intersection to allow for the building of
a new Temple Street crossing.
“Now we are working on MLK and doing some
intersection improvements at Temple Street that will enable safe pedestrian
crossing to the new development site at 101 College St.” That work
should take roughly four months to complete, and should be done by the end of
the summer, she said.
Phase 3, she continued, is all about “teeing up
the connection” for a bridge to be built across Temple Street as part of
Phase 4.
In particular, Phase 4 will include the raising
of MLK Boulevard to allow for Temple Street to cross the Rt. 34 corridor “in
an ADA compliant way”; coordination with United Illuminating around
accommodating the “significant utilities” that currently exist on that
stretch of the future intersection, including UI distribution and
transmission lines; constructing an abutment on the northern side of the
intersection to support a future Temple Street bridge; the construction of
the Temple Street bridge itself; and the construction of certain modifications
to the Temple Street Garage to allow for the new crossing for cars, buses, pedestrians,
and bicycles alike.
It will also open up a new developable parcel of land,
known as Parcel B, atop the Rt. 34 corridor between Church Street and
Temple Street.
“This corridor is all about the future of New Haven and
where we’re going,” Hall said. “We’re reclaiming all this land, which has
really not been an asset for us in terms of urban design,” and — without
displacing any existing business or residents — constructing new transportation
connections and “building out this biotech corridor.”
In order to make all of that Phase 4 work
possible, Hall said, the city is applying for
a federal RAISE grant in the amount of $22 million. That
application is due tomorrow, and the city expects to hear back from the federal
government by the end of August on whether or not New Haven will be awarded
that money.
“Hopefully we will get this RAISE application
funded,” she told the commissioners. “It will allow us to complete this
vision of the Temple Street connection, which will not only connect” downtown,
the Hill, and the medical district, but which will also serve as an “important
relief valve for traffic and congestion” in this part of the city.
Hall said that the state has already committed around $1.6 million
towards Downtown Crossing Phase 4. She said the city will also have to
contribute some money towards the local matching portion of the RAISE grant,
if it is funded by the feds.
She said that, if the application is funded, construction on
Phase 4 should begin in 2025 and should be complete
by 2026.
All of this work, including creating new developable parcels
of land, will mean “new jobs, new taxes, and taking something that was
this edge, this hole, this barrier in the city, and not just creating
connections, but optimizing the use of the land so that we’re achieving
a normalized street grid and having it feel like an amenity,”
Hall said.
Will the parcel that’s going to be opened for development
touch “all four corners of existing streets” at South Frontage, Temple,
Church, and MLK? Development Commissioner David
Valentino asked.
“Yes, that is the plan,” Hall replied. “The access
drives will continue under the new building [at Parcel B] the same way they do
under 101 College St. and [the still-in-construction] 101 College
St. The building will have street frontage on all four sides.”
“It’s amazing how expensive it is to rebuild the city after
the so-called redevelopment” that took place decades ago, Development
Commission Chair Anthony Sagnella said. But, he added, this is all “very
exciting,” and thanked Hall for her presentation and for her work.
Biden to require US-made steel, iron for infrastructure
JOSH BOAK, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking a key
step to ensuring that federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing — issuing
requirements for how projects funded by the $1 trillion bipartisan
infrastructure package source their construction material.
The guidance being issued Monday requires that the material
purchased — whether it's for a bridge, a highway, a water pipe or broadband
internet — be produced within the U.S., according to administration officials.
However, the rules also set up a process to waive those requirements in case
there are not enough domestic producers or the material costs too much, with
the goal of issuing fewer waivers over time as U.S. manufacturing capacity
increases.
“There are going to be additional opportunities for good
jobs in the manufacturing sector," said Celeste Drake, director of Made in
America at the White House Office of Management and Budget. "And as we’re
looking at boosting American content, that means big corporations are going to
create opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises in the U.S. as
supply chains are partially re-shored to try to meet the content standards.”
President Joe Biden has made such guidance a cornerstone for
judging his record ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The Democratic
president says that he can leverage federal spending to create more U.S.
factory jobs and reduce the reliance on China and other nations with
geopolitical interests that diverge from America's.
As Biden faces inflation at a 40-year high, he is betting
that more domestic production will ultimately reduce price pressures, a
response to Republican attacks that his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief
package initially triggered higher prices.
“From Day One, every action I’ve taken to rebuild our economy
has been guided by one principle: Made in America,” Biden said Thursday in
Greensboro, North Carolina. “It takes a federal government that doesn’t just
give lip service to buying American but actually takes action.”
Biden said that the roughly $700 billion the government
devotes annually to procuring goods is supposed to prioritize U.S. suppliers
but the regulations going back to the 1930s have either been watered down or
applied in ways that masked the use of foreign imports.
The administration could not say what percentage of
construction material for existing infrastructure projects is U.S. made, even
though the federal government is already spending $350 billion on construction
this year. The new guidelines would enable government officials to know how
many dollars go to U.S. workers and factories.
Tucked into the bipartisan infrastructure package that
became law last November was a requirement that starting on May 14 “none of the
funds" allocated to federal agencies for projects may be spent
"unless all of the iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction
materials used in the project are produced in the United States.” That's
according to the 17-page guidance being issued Monday.
The guidance includes three standards for these requirements
to be waived: if the purchase “would be inconsistent with the public interest”;
if the materials needed are not produced “in sufficient and reasonably
available quantities or of a satisfactory quality"; or if the U.S.
materials increase a project's cost by more than 25%.
American manufacturers are about 170,000 jobs short of the
12.8 million factory jobs held in 2019, as manufacturing jobs began to decline
before the pandemic began. But the U.S. has 6.9 million fewer manufacturing
jobs compared with the 1979 peak, a loss caused by outsourcing and automation.
Getting more industrial jobs will likely mean adding more
factories and assembly lines — as manufacturers are operating at a 78.7%
capacity, which the Federal Reserve notes is above the historical average.
Emails show more involvement of Kosta Diamantis in daughter’s job search
Dave Altimari, Andrew Brown and Katy Golvala, The
Connecticut Mirror
Konstantinos Diamantis, the former state official under
federal investigation, showed a special interest in his daughter’s quest for
state employment on a number of occasions in early 2020, according to documents
released Friday.
The documents, obtained Friday by The Connecticut Mirror
through a Freedom of Information Act request, were compiled in response to a
federal subpoena issued in October.
Many of the documents had been part of the independent
investigation into the matter commissioned by Gov. Ned Lamont and conducted by
Stanley Twardy of the Day Pitney law firm.
But others provide new insights into the extent to which
Diamantis advocated on behalf of his daughter Anastasia.
The Twardy report established that Diamantis had entangled
himself in Anastasia’s job search. It reported that he pressured an official
with the state Department of Administrative Services to hire Anastasia for a
human resources position in November 2018, and that in June 2020 he had
forwarded an email to Anastasia about a job within the Division of Criminal
Justice — which he had initially received from former Chief State’s Attorney
Richard Colangelo. Colangelo hired Anastasia Diamantis days later for a
different position in his office. Colangelo, who was accused of pressuring
Diamantis to help secure raises for his staff, resigned in early February.
But those weren’t the only instances when Kosta Diamantis
involved himself in Anastasia’s employment efforts, the documents show.
Two state jobs
On Jan. 4, 2020, Anastasia Diamantis forwarded an email to
her father she’d received from a state human resources official regarding a job
at the state Department of Education. The email stated that a staff assistant
position Anastasia had applied for was being canceled and would be reposted
with different job responsibilities in the future.
She forwarded the email to her father two days later with no
comment, the records show. A few minutes later, Kosta Diamantis forwarded the
email to his boss, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw,
with no comment.
“She sent it to me on my personal email just to let me know
what had happened, and I forwarded it to my state email so that I could print
it out at work and have a record of it,” Diamantis said. “The only reason that
personal email ended up in my state email is because I don’t have a printer at
home and wanted to print it.”
Just about a month later, on Feb. 6, 2020, Diamantis learned
that the newly created Office of Workforce Competitiveness needed an executive
assistant, a job that paid as much as $135,000.
Diamantis forwarded the job description to the governor’s
chief of staff, Paul Mounds, and asked “Is (this) something for Anastasia?”
Mounds responded by telling Diamantis that whoever got the
position would eventually report to the state Office of Policy and Management,
the agency he helped lead: “I am agnostic about the who for this position. With
that said, this ES position is current in DECD and is called for to be moved
(to) OPM in the upcoming budget adjustments.”
“I was just being inquisitive about a job opening and
wondering if perhaps my daughter would be qualified for it,” Diamantis said
Saturday. “I was just asking a question to see what the answer might be.”
Other involvements
The documents also raise questions about a second job
Anastasia Diamantis got in July 2020 at a company called Consumer Advocacy
Protection, or CAP, a company that was the construction manager on the
Birch Grove Primary School project in Tolland. Kosta Diamantis, who was the
director of the state Office of School Construction Grants & Review within
OPM at the time, oversaw the state financing for the project.
Included in thousands of subpoenaed documents related to the
school construction grant program was this promotional flyer for CAP, which
lists Anastasia Diamantis as a “project engineer/assistant.”
Anastasia Diamantis was hired by CAP in July 2020, after the
company received a $70,000 contract to oversee construction of portable
classrooms at the school. Weeks after Anastasia was hired, the company received
a $460,000 contract amendment to oversee construction of a new school at the
site.
Kosta Diamantis denied he had any role in his daughter
getting hired, but in an email sent July 2, he copied his daughter when
discussing the project with CAP’s owner Antonietta Roy. It is unclear whether
Anastasia was employed with CAP on that date. According to the Twardy report,
she began her employment sometime in July.
The email dealt with questions from Tolland officials about
the first phase of the school project — the installation of modular classrooms
for students to use during construction.
‘Hint hint’
The documents also show that Diamantis had an email exchange
with Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford and the House majority leader, in July
2020. Rojas begins by thanking Diamantis and McCaw for their “support on many
of my colleagues requests for bonding.” He goes on to raise questions about
projects in Newington and South Windsor, and after a few exchanges, appears to
conclude with “Sounds like a plan.”
Diamantis responded to that email with one line: “On an
aside I hope my daughter gets a good room at trinity. Hint hint.” Diamantis was
apparently referring to one of his other daughters, not Anastasia.
Rojas is the chief of staff to the president at Trinity
College in Hartford.
Rojas responded: “Hmmmmm. Lets see if the states ensure that
we can provide as safe and health(y) an experience as possible :)”
Diamantis responded: “Perfecto.”
“Whenever I saw Jason, he’d ask me how my daughter was doing
in school, because he knew she went to Trinity and I knew he worked there,”
Diamantis said Saturday. “We talked about the school all of the time.”
Rojas said Saturday that he remembers the exchange and that
he took it as a “tongue-in-cheek comment and not serious.”
“It was very light-hearted, and that is how I took it,”
Rojas said. “Obviously, given the circumstances now, it may not look so good,
but I didn’t take it seriously. I couldn’t have helped him anyway. Dorm rooms are
assigned by a lottery that I have nothing to do with.”
More documents to come
Lamont’s attorney, Nora Dannehy, said the documents released
to the CT Mirror on Friday — well over 6,000 PDF files — were only a portion of
what was turned over to the federal authorities last year and that the rest
will be released once they are vetted “for privilege and other exemptions under
the Freedom of Information laws.”
The Connecticut Mirror requested the subpoenaed documents in
early February, shortly after the existence of the federal investigation was
revealed. They include thousands of pages of bid documents, meeting minutes and
emails.
The documents show that Kosta Diamantis was not a prolific
emailer, often responding to long missives from others with responses of just a
few words.
A federal grand jury issued the subpoena to the state
Department of Administrative Services for all emails, text messages and
attachments involving Diamantis and a broad range of construction projects on
Oct. 20, 2021.
Eight days later, he was removed as the state’s
second-highest budget official at the Office of Policy and Management and
placed on administrative leave as the director of OSCG&R. Rather than
accept the leave of absence, Diamantis chose to retire.
The subpoena to DAS on Oct. 20 specifically sought records
from state contracts for school renovations, hazardous abatement disposal and
the new State Pier in New London, along with emails and text messages
involving, among others, Anastasia Diamantis and CAP, where she worked part
time.
Federal authorities later sent a second request with more
than 50 search terms for the state to search among Diamantis’ emails and text
messages.
The “search” list includes names of several contractors,
including D’Amato Construction, which got a no-bid job for the Tolland school,
as well as several other school projects. The search list also included the
words “wedding,” “gift” and “FBI.”
Many of the emails released Friday focused on the Birch
Grove Primary School project in Tolland, which has been a key part of the
federal investigation.
Tolland Superintendent of Schools Walter Willett has since
alleged that local officials in Tolland were pressured by Diamantis to choose
D’Amato Construction for the school construction project. Other school
officials have made similar claims.
Tweed airport growth could mean more state funds for East Haven, but Carfora says it’s not enough
Expansion of Tweed New
Haven Regional Airport — and specifically the construction
of a new, 74,000-square-foot, carbon-neutral terminal with 4-6 departure gates
on the East Haven side of the airport — could more than double the
payments the town gets from the state, officials say.
That would increase the town’s revenue by about $500,000 per
year, said Sean Scanlon, executive director of the Tweed New Haven Airport
Authority.
East Haven currently collects $462,000 a year under the
state Payments in Lieu of Taxes program for tax-exempt property in town, Mayor
Joe Carfora said in his recent State
of the Town address.
In the same speech, Carfora said
he was not prepared to support airport expansion because “the burdens
to East Haven that this terminal will bring ... are monumental and they far
outweigh any direct, limited economic benefit that East Haven will gain.”
Carfora said at the time that “there is no tax revenue for
East Haven, but the burdens are vast, with potentially irreparable impacts.”
While a new terminal would provide no additional real estate
taxes, Tweed officials estimate a new terminal would increase PILOT payments to
the town considerably, Scanlon said.
“The $500,000 figure was our estimate,” said Scanlon, also a
Democratic state representative who represents Guilford and Branford’s 98th
District.
“Obviously, we’re still doing the environmental assessment.
We’re still in a very early phase. We haven’t even designed the terminal,”
Scanlon said. “These are really just rough estimates at this point because
nothing has been determined.”
But a possible PILOT increase isn’t enough to satisfy
Carfora.
“We have been told that estimates indicate that there could
be as much as a $500,000 increase in our PILOT funding should a terminal be
moved to East Haven. My understanding is that New Haven provided that number to
Sean Scanlon who shared it with us,” Carfora said.
“While we have not been provided the methodology used to
create this PILOT impact number, I have no reason to believe that we are being
provided an inaccurate figure,” he said. But, “I think that we can all agree
that any decision regarding an East Haven side terminal is not simply a
financial analysis.”
Nevertheless, “any proposed financial benefit package —
PILOT, other state or federal subsidy, or private payments — that provides a
number like this to East Haven is woefully insufficient to offset the immense
burdens that East Haven residents will bear,” Carfora said.
Beyond PILOT
Carfora previously has talked about the need to create an
“enterprise zone” with financial incentives for businesses in areas affected by
the airport.
Avports, the Goldman Sachs-owned company that has operated
Tweed for the Airport Authority for more than 22 years, has proposed spending
up to $5 million on a package of “community benefits” for areas bordering the
airport. But the shape those community benefits might take has yet to be
defined.
“We’re in the process of working with the mayor to determine
what it is that he would like to see in terms of community benefits for his
city, and we are talking to him and will continue talking with him,” said
Scanlon.
“As things go forward ... from rough estimates to plans, I
think we’ll be in a better position to finalize an agreement,” he said.
So what does East Haven get from a expansion at Tweed in
addition to additional traffic, noise and additional planes flying overhead?
“What they get in addition to easily-accessible air service
... is what we are working with the mayor to define,” Scanlon said. “Whether
it’s traffic” measures or “whether it’s noise mitigation” are details still
being worked out.
With regard to accessible air service, passengers from East
Haven “are in the top three in the state who have purchased tickets so far,”
Scanlon said. He would not say which other two communities had the most ticket
purchases so far.
Currently, “East Haven does collect a small amount of taxes
from private buildings at Tweed. Specifically, the town does assess, and thus
tax, the privately owned buildings that sit on airport property located in East
Haven,” said Carfora. “Since these buildings are located on airport land, we
can only tax the actual structure but not the land upon which the structure
sits, because the land itself is exempt from municipal taxation due to state
law.”
There also are “some small private buildings, hangers and
structures that East Haven is allowed to assess, and for which we collect
roughly $150,000 in real estate taxes,” he said.
Among the taxable parts of Tweed are the buildings and
equipment used by Robinson
Aviation, which operates the General Aviation side of Tweed, located on the
East Haven side of the airport.
“The exempt land parcels on which these private buildings
sit, as well as the other exempt airport land located in East Haven that do not
contain structures (i.e., the portions of the runways that are in East Haven),
are part of the current compensation calculations for our PILOT funding — which
has been, and continues to be, a total of $462,000,” Carfora said.
Of the total amount of PILOT funds East Haven collects each
year for tax-exempt property townwide, “roughly $270,000 is attributable to
Tweed exempt property,” he said.
“But I’d like everyone to fully understand the tax situation
with this new terminal situation,” Carfora said. “The proposed $70 million East
Haven terminal will not be taxable” and “East Haven will not be allowed to
treat it like the small, privately-owned buildings that we currently tax”
because the new $70 million terminal “will also be exempt from taxes.”
“So, in this instance both the $70 million terminal building
... and the land will be exempt from taxes,” he said.
New Haven currently collects $540,056 in PILOT funds on
airport property with a total assessed value of $56.15 million, said city
spokesman Len Speiller.
It also receives an estimated $11,815 in personal property
tax for $276,370 in personal property at Tweed, Speiller said.
In addition, the city and the region are benefiting from job
growth at Tweed, including more than 100 new employees hired by Avelo Airlines
to support its flights from Tweed. Avelo has said it plans eventually to employ
more than 200 people at Tweed.
“Over time, the project is expected to create or support
11,000 jobs throughout the Greater New Haven region, including $70 million in
construction work, which will support local businesses,” Speiller said.
In addition, what had been New Haven’s $325,000 annual
subsidy to Tweed “is cycling down to $0 in FY24,” he said. “In addition,
Avports will replace the city as capital sponsor for major projects, a key aspect
of the public/private partnership.”
Tweed’s longer-term plans call for a broader partnership
under which Avports will invest an initial $70 million, and up to $100 million,
to extend Tweed’s runway from 5,600 feet to 6,635 feet and build the new terminal
on the East Haven side of the airport. A new entrance would be constructed off
Proto Drive in East Haven.
East Haven has nothing to say about runway extension, but
both the terminal and a new entrance would require the approval of town boards.
Tweed already has expanded commercial service in recent
months, all using the existing terminals on the New Haven side of the airport,
which is owned by New Haven and located in both New Haven and East Haven.
Avelo Airlines began flying out of Tweed on Nov. 6, 2021,
making it Avelo’s East Coast base. It has quickly gone from an initial four
destinations in Florida to six — Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers,
West Palm Beach and Sarasota/Bradenton.
It will add four more destinations on May 5 — Nashville,
Tenn.; Savannah, Ga.-Hilton Head, S.C.; Charleston, S.C.; and Myrtle Beach,
S.C. — and then add Chicago’s Midway International Airport,
Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Raleigh-Durham
International Airport on May 26.
Torrington begins site work on new animal control facility
TORRINGTON — Site work has begun on the city’s new animal
control facility, which will dwarf the present building at the front of the
property on Bogue Road.
On Wednesday, a small crew of workers were digging ditches,
clearing soil and measuring areas of the site. Any vegetation on the property
is gone, and the site, while hilly, is completely cleared, with a small gravel
driveway area for vehicles to come in and out of the site.
The older building, built in the 1940s and sitting on the
edge of the city’s 29-acre public works yard, has been deemed unsuitable for
the necessary care and housing for a variety of animals the facility receives,
with outdoor kennels, a tiny office and several other small spaces inside.
The $2.7 million project for the new center was
approved by the City Council in February. Brunoli Construction was
hired to build the center.
According to Mayor Elinor Carbone, Police Chief William
Baldwin and Public Works Director Ray Drew, replacing the aging building has
been in the concept or design phase for at least 12 years. In 2017, the project
cost was estimated at about $1 million, and in 2018, voters approved that $1
million in a referendum. But the cost of the project increased, and Torrington
was unable to find the extra funds.
Today, the cost of the project, because of increased prices
for concrete and steel, is nearly $3 million, according to Drew and Carbone.
When the facility committee put the project out for bid
again in May 2021, the lowest bid they received was $2.707 million.
In early 2021, Carbone applied for a Community Project
Funding Grant for $1.5 million and was told by U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, that
the project was selected to receive it.
Because the city was told it was getting the grant, Carbone
then moved $750,000 from the city’s capital budget to the facility’s budget.
That, combined with the anticipated grant and the $1 million voters approved in
2017, gave the city the funds to build the new facility, she said.
If Torrington doesn’t receive the community project grant,
she said, it can use American
Rescue Plan Act funding.
According to Baldwin, the $2.707 million bidder, Brunoli
& Sons, is willing to stick with that amount.
The chief said the old building has failed a number of
inspections with the state, and it is only a matter of time before the state
shuts it down.
“We’re mandated by state statutes; we keep receiving
inspections from the state canine officer and we’ve failed over and over since
2006,” the chief said recently. “It’s because the state recognizes that we’re
trying to do something, that they haven’t shut us down. It’s time to move and
make this happen for our community.”
The animal shelter was established to give towns in and
around Torrington a place to keep lost or wandering animals. Under the regional
agreement, Torrington provides full-time animal control officers seven days a
week, with shifts running from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. on weekends.
Centre Square's Parcel Three among last areas to be slated for development
BRISTOL – Centre Square’s Parcel Three stands among the last
areas to be slated for development.
“We all know here, and we’ve talked about it at length,
there are huge logistical issues downtown now,” said Mayor Jeff Caggiano.
“We’re going to put up $5.2 million parking lot down there which is great to
accommodate that but we do have the one parcel left that will be tied up with
transition for the next probably two years.”
The mayor said the city may want to consider putting out a
request for proposals of development for Parcel Three. Currently, Parcel Three
will be utilized as a staging area for construction in City Hall.
“Obviously Parcel Three will not be ready for construction
soon but there is momentum, so we don’t want to completely stop what we’re
doing from a development perspective,” said Economic and Community Development
Director Justin Malley. “There’s also the thought that even in six months, that
property theoretically could be more valuable than it is today just by the
activity and construction around the site.”
Malley said the board should take a moment and consider that
a piece of property was being surrounded by development as well as a potential
city green just south of it and a nearby parking structure.
“We may not have always had that luxury on Centre Square,”
said Malley of potential for proposed projects. “But now that we’ve got some
real activity and construction . . . let’s for a minute think we have something
here.”
Among proposed ARPA projects coming to Bristol, city
officials said that a roughly $5.2 million parking garage would potentially be
situated northeast of the bend in Hope Street, set behind anticipated By
Carrier development. By Carrier’s apartments and retail space is set to be
built along North Main Street, just north of its intersection with Hope Street.
The Wheeler Health structure will be north of Parcel Three and just south of
the same intersection. The proposed green space would sit just south of Parcel
Three at the corner of Riverside Avenue and North Main Street.
Parcel Three is a little over an acre and the proposed green
space is also around an acre.
Separate from this development, the city is also looking to
place another parking garage west of the Bristol Police Station.
Caggiano said as spaces fill, parking will soon be tighter,
but the creation of parking garages and the tentative agreement from area
businesses to share parking for downtown events will bode well for Bristol’s
future.