CT Construction Digest Thursday July 31, 2025

Friday August 1, 2025 Bond Commission Agenda

State grant gets riverwalk project between Windsor and Hartford closer to the finish line

Steven Goode

HARTFORD — With the state awarding $517,000 to install new trailside amenities, the long-imagined effort to connect Hartford and Windsor along the Connecticut River has taken another step toward becoming a reality. 

When completed, the Joe Marfuggi Riverwalk will feature a 12-foot-wide, paved multi-modal trail with six scenic overlooks at the river’s edge, connecting the main paved walkway to an existing single-track trail running along the top of the riverbank. 

The riverwalk will extend 2.2 miles north through the floodplain forest on what is currently dirt trails or existing levee maintenance roads and connect to Windsor Meadows State Park.

The grant, through the state’s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program and the Urban Green and Community Gardens Grant Program, will be used to add plantings, signage, and benches along the Connecticut River.

But don't expect to hit the trail just yet.

"Every project in the Connecticut River plain has its challenges," said Mike Zaleski, president and CEO of Riverfront Recapture, which received the grant and is in charge of getting the project — which began in 2017 — over the finish line.

In this case and many others, Zaleski said, the challenges are getting through the permitting process with the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

"It's a fairly complex ecosystem and you have to be careful," Zaleski said. "We have to be methodical."

Zaleski said final permitting is likely to take eight to 12 months and construction is expected to take about six months, with completion within two years.

But that won't be the end of Riverfront Recapture projects.

"Our work will never be done," Zaleski said. "The goal is to connect to towns to the north and the south," which could include Cromwell and Middletown to the south.

As for the Marfuggi Riverwalk, Zaleski said the project will include six overlooks that will offer educational information about different periods in the 410-mile river's history, including its geology, industrialization, and the health of the river today.

Officials in Windsor and Hartford applauded the latest development in the project's completion.

"Windsor is excited for the next segment of Riverfront Recapture’s long-planned, multi-use trail along the Connecticut River," Windsor Town Manager Peter Souza said. "The  grant will help to bring alive the rich history of the river and continue Riverfront Recaptures’ mission to connect the region and its residents to the river."

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said the city appreciates the state's investment in the creation of accessible green spaces in the city.

“These grants are a powerful affirmation of what so many of us in Hartford believe — that every resident deserves access to nature, trails, and clean, vibrant outdoor space," Arulampalam said. "This is about more than preserving acres, it’s about protecting our quality of life and ensuring that Hartford’s future is healthier, greener, and more resilient."

The riverwalk is named after Joe Marfuggi, the late longtime CEO of Riverfront Recapture. For nearly 30 years, he was involved in the redevelopment and creation of a nationally recognized network of public parks along the Connecticut River that attracted millions of visitors and acclaim.

Stamford Officials to Vote on Master Plan as Zoning Hums Along

Angela Carella

STAMFORD – With city officials soon to vote on a 10-year master plan of development, and neighborhood groups questioning the plan, the Zoning Board in July approved or began considering a number of significant projects.

Before they left for their August break, Zoning Board members OK’d a general development plan for tearing down the two remaining St. John’s Towers on Tresser Boulevard and replacing them with 305 affordable apartments.

Board members approved lighting, landscaping and a street extension that will allow F.D. Rich Co. to get its building permit and begin constructing a 198-unit residential tower on Broad Street downtown.

Board members approved a developer’s plan to convert an old office building on Seaview Avenue in Shippan into a high-end complex of 55 “best in class” condominiums with water views.

They postponed until their Sept. 8 meeting a decision on a developer’s plans for a complex of 56 condominiums at 700 Fairfield Ave. in Waterside. The public still needs to weigh in on that project, board members said.

They postponed until September a decision on an application to build a 61,000-square-foot, three-story self-storage facility with 522 units on Commerce Road on the West Side, asking the developer to improve the aesthetics. 

And board members approved a general development plan for Children’s Learning Centers of Fairfield County on Palmer’s Hill Road, near Greenwich. The plan is to build a 17,000-square-foot day-care facility for 250 children, and renovate an empty office building on the site to house support staff.

The approvals, and steps toward approval, come as residents are learning the details of a draft of the 2025-2035 master plan, drawn up by the city’s contracted firm, Sasaki Associates. By state law, towns must write a master plan every 10 years.

Master plan: keep building

The draft, released in mid-July, recommends that the city build more housing because of continuing demand. It says the city should encourage development of “accessory dwelling units” – apartments added to single-family properties – by loosening zoning requirements. 

It recommends that Stamford officials “reduce regulatory barriers” so developers can build more “multiplexes, townhomes, and cluster housing to increase housing choice and affordability.”

The draft also recommends that developers be allowed to convert commercial buildings to residential use without zoning approvals, as long as the project complies with existing regulations.

The Cove Neighborhood Association and others have balked at some of the recommendations, saying the draft master plan does not address the housing, parking and traffic congestion, and number of illegal apartments, that plague residential zones. Thousands of apartments have been built in Stamford since the last master plan but instead of satisfying demand, they have driven high housing costs even higher, neighbors have said.

Development is emerging as a top issue in this year’s municipal election.

Master plan as political point

Mayor Caroline Simmons, a pro-development Democrat who is running for a second term, wrote the introduction to the 2025-2035 master plan. 

“From investing in our neighborhoods and expanding economic opportunity to improving connectivity, accessibility, and affordability, Stamford 2035 offers a practical path forward,” Simmons wrote. “I am confident that by working together, we can turn this plan into real progress and ensure Stamford continues to be an inclusive, vibrant, and innovative city.”

Simmons is being challenged by fellow Democrat Michael Loughran Jr., a retired Stamford police sergeant who is petitioning his way onto the ballot. If he gets the signatures, he will force a Sept. 9 primary against Simmons.

Loughran said people who attended meetings hosted by Sasaki Associates walked around reading poster boards and putting their thoughts on sticky notes, but the subject calls for public discourse.

“It’s a top-down discussion,” Loughran said. “Instead of getting input, then coming up with a plan, they made a plan first.”

There is “no one fielding questions,” Loughran said. “The folks who wrote the plan said there were neighborhood ambassadors. Some of the ambassadors who were contacted said they didn’t realize they are ambassadors. So I don’t think it’s a genuine attempt to get input from the community.”

Too much in the master plan “is not practical,” Loughran said. “It pushes [accessory dwelling units] in single-family neighborhoods, when that failed the first time.”

The state pushed towns to allow ADUs as of right three years ago, but offered an opt-out. Stamford opted out.

“More ADUs will add to all the parking issues in the neighborhoods,” Loughran said. “This plan tries to push people away from using cars. But I don’t know of any people who will go grocery shopping or pick up the kids from school on a scooter.”

Last of the affordable houses

Mayoral candidate Nicola Tarzia, a former Board of Education member endorsed by the Stamford Republican Town Committee, said on social media that he attended a Sasaki open house on the master plan last week.

“I am very disappointed that the public did not have an opportunity to truly voice their concerns about what is being proposed. The new master plan will deeply affect the quality of life of all Stamford residents,” Tarzia wrote. “Most of Cove, Glenbrook, Springdale, Belltown, Bull’s Head and the lower Ridges are proposed to be rezoned from single family to 2-4 family per lot. It’s concerning to me because those neighborhoods contain the last affordable single-family properties in the city. North Stamford and Shippan, the two places where single-family properties will be preserved, are too expensive for middle-class families. I hope that the residents of Stamford pay close attention to this plan.”

Simmons wrote in the master plan introduction that it “reflects the priorities of all who call this city home.”

But neighborhood associations say too many people don’t know about the master plan and did not take part in discussions. The Board of Representatives’ Land Use Committee will discuss it at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Democratic Caucus Room on the 4th floor of the Stamford Government Center, 888 Washington Blvd. Remote access is available here.

‘I can’t see why you would’

During two busy meetings in July, the four members of the Zoning Board – it’s missing a fifth member and alternates – did the work of deciding development. The master plan, once approved, will guide their decisions for the next decade.

Zoning in Stamford is a smorgasbord, the meetings show.

The Broad Street lot where developer F.D. Rich will build 198 apartments has been empty for many years – an eyesore in a prime downtown spot. Board members pushed the developer for better lighting, pedestrian safety, and more greenery.

“I’m looking forward to seeing this,” Zoning Board Chair David Stein said after the vote.

Board members unanimously approved the general development plan for Children’s Learning Centers, noting the desperate need for child-care slots in Stamford. 

They voted the same for the St. John’s Towers project, which helps fill a desperate need for affordable housing.

With so many new residents renting small apartments, there is demand for self-storage facilities – big-box buildings that most people do not welcome in their neighborhoods. Zoning Board members pushed the applicant on the Commerce Road project, Extra Space Storage, to vary the roof line and add interest with color and materials, including faux windows.

Board members quickly approved the luxury condo project proposed for Seaview Avenue. The project manager for developer Sun Homes described floor-to-ceiling windows to maximize the water views, an outdoor deck for every condo, rooftop pergolas, and one 2,000-square-foot condo with a 2,500-square-foot terrace. 

Board member Rosanne McManus said, “It looks beautiful. It’s nice to have condos before us” for ownership, rather than more rental units.

“Does anyone object to this?” Stein asked the board before the vote.

“I can’t see why you would,” member Bill Morris said.

Neighbors grit teeth as Old Lyme school construction hammers on

Jack Lakowsky

Old Lyme — On Wednesday afternoon, Mile Creek Road resident Lee Whitaker was writing in a notebook in her front yard, trying to relax in the shade.

But across the street, the thunderous sound of metal pounding into ledge was unrelenting.

"You hear it all day," Whitaker said Wednesday.

Whitaker said that in addition to weekday work, crews recently began working Saturdays on the Mile Creek School renovation project, beginning at 7 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m.

The Mile Creek School renovation and addition is the major part of the Lyme/Old Lyme school district's facilities project, a $57.5 million endeavor to improve heating, air conditioning and ventilation, handicapped accessibility, security at Center School, Mile Creek School and Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, and to make the buildings comply with fire and building codes.

Project documents state the schools haven't been renovated in at least 20 years; they will accommodate anticipated growth in the student population from 1,300 in 2022 to almost 1,600 by 2031.

The work at Mile Creek "is a different story," according to Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser.

He said Tuesday classrooms are being added to the rear of the building and the parking lot redone to address traffic concerns on Mile Creek Road during pick-up and drop-off. The parking lot won't be completely done until the summer of 2026, but will be accessible when school starts Aug. 27, he added.

Neviaser said crews are working double shifts, cramming in as much work as possible so Mile Creek is accessible for students when school starts.

When voters approved the funding in 2022, officials had aimed to get the project done by August. That's been pushed back. Neviaser blamed COVID-19-era supply issues at the start of the project.

"That has gotten better, but it did slow down the project at the front end," Neviaser said. "If there are any changes or adjustments for students, we'll tell families right away. We have contingencies, but they're not necessary yet."

The addition to Mile Creek should be done by December or January, he said.

Mile Creek Road resident Patricia Shippee, who lives next door to Mile Creek School, recently retired as an art appraiser. She's home more often and said the construction has been hard for her and her neighbors as large, noisy trucks come in and out of the work site, she said.

"Having family over is hard," she said.

Both Shippee and Whitaker said they miss the trees that have been removed for the project.

Neviaser said the 25 trees removed will be replaced by 53 new ones, plus new shrubbery.

"The neighbors have been very patient, and we really appreciate it," Neviaser said.

56 CT projects are vying for part of $950M. Major housing projects and an arts venue made the list.

Kenneth R. Gosselin

There are 56 projects in Connecticut seeking a share in nearly $950 million.

And an ambitious expansion plan for Hartford’s Real Art Ways that has been percolating for years could break ground later this year, with a key piece of financing all but assured to fall into place Friday when the commission that oversees state borrowing is expected to approve $4.5 million for the project.

The State Bond Commission will convene Friday to consider funding RAW’s expansion, which is one of a half-dozen projects in Hartford backed by the Capital Region Development Authority.

Once projects make it onto the bond commission agenda, they are virtually assured of approval.

RAW — the contemporary arts center that has been a fixture in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood for three decades — plans the expansion as part of a larger, $24 million vision for its building on Arbor Street.

The expansion calls for a major addition that will increase the size of the arts venue by 50%. The project also includes the addition of three movie screens, bringing the organization’s total to four. The project also will add a dedicated area for the performing arts, a new café, and more space for educational programs.

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Will K. Wilkins, RAW’s executive director, said Wednesday the arts organization is in the final stages of raising the last $2 million for the project, which could start construction in the fall.

“It is on a forward trajectory, and we’ve been doing great with it,” Wilkins said. “And that’s why we’re getting some of this support from CRDA. They can see this, and, ‘Yup, this thing is happening, and we can help.’ ” We still have some work to do, and that’s happening.”

CRDA’s $4.5 million loan is what is known as a “bridge loan” that will allow the project to move ahead and lock in costs, rather than waiting to assemble all the funding sources and risk construction cost inflation and loss of previously-approved grants that could expire.  The loan would bridge financing such as historic credits, federal funds and capital pledges that will come in within the next few years, according to CRDA.

RAW’s $24 million plan also includes the $4.25 million purchase of 56 Arbor St. — a former typewriter factory built in 1917 — where the nonprofit arts organization had leased space for more than 30 years. The purchase took place in 2021.

The idea behind buying the 4-story, brick building was grounded in diversifying the sources of the nonprofit organization’s revenue to include rental income from tenants, many of whom have a focus of arts and creativity that dovetail with RAW. The overall budget also includes a new roof and elevator for the former factory.

The state’s investment in the project has been considerable: $1 million for the purchase; another $3 million in 2022 for the expansion; and $9.1 million from the Community Investment Fund in 2023 for a total of $13.1 million.

In addition to the RAW project, other CRDA projects on Friday’s agenda are:

♦ a $4 million, low-cost loan for the conversion of a 5-story building at 150 Trumbull St. in the heart of downtown Hartford into 46 apartments over retail space now occupied by Max’s Trumbull Kitchen. The $16 million plans call for the restaurant to remain in the building with improvements to its space. The building is owned by Brooklyn, N.Y-based Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC, downtown Hartford’s largest commercial landlord.

♦a $7 million, low-cost loan to finance the construction of an 84-unit apartment building on Wells Street, opposite Bushnell Park. The new, $21 million apartment building would essentially be an addition to the rear of 525 Main St. The Main Street building — former municipal offices — is being converted into 42 apartments and is across from city hall with two longtime, storefront tenants: Cornerstone Deli and Felix Shoe Repair.

The two structures — being developed by Spectra Construction & Development Corp. — would be connected, allowing residents to enter from Main Street or around the corner at 17 Wells St. and share amenities.

♦ a $1.5 million, low-cost loan to New Haven-based VASE Construction LLC to construct a new building with 20 apartments on Edwards Street, with eight units designated as “affordable” with the balance, market-rate. The project’s expected cost is $8.5 million.

♦a $3 million grant to the Metropolitan District Commission to pay for a portion of a storm water separation project considered vital to the future development of the Bushnell South area, just south Bushnell Park.

This parking lot to the rear of 525 Main Street is proposed for a new apartment building bordering on Pulaski Circle and Bushnell Park. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)

♦$5 million in funding for repairs and safety improvements to garages operated by CRDA at Church Street and Adriaen’s Landing in downtown Hartford.

♦a $4 million grant to the Housing Authority in Hartford to finance critical infrastructure, including storm water management, at the Village at Park River housing complex.

Early plans for former MassMutual site in Enfield calls for several public, private amenities

Eric Bedner

ENFIELD — After a failed attempt to convert the former MassMutual site into a sprawling sports complex fell through, new developers are detailing their early plans for the property, including a variety of new housing, and indoor and outdoor dining for both residents who would live there and the rest of the public.

Developers floated their initial proposal to the Planning and Zoning Commission on July 24.

The vision is to convert the property into a residential community that maintains and adds to the attributes that exist on the campus, said Eric Zuena, founding principle of ZDS Architecture and Interiors out of Washington, D.C., and Providence.

Plans call for converting the office buildings into one- and two-bedroom apartments, as well as between 150 and 160 townhouses to maximize the "vast amenity package that this campus will have," he said.

There are currently several structures on the property, including the office buildings with about 400,000 square feet designed for 2,200 MassMutual workers.

While they are not necessarily ideal for conversion into residential units, parts can be used to build various frills, such as a pet wash and gyms, Zuena said.

For one building, an early proposal calls for the creation of an internal courtyard with an outdoor patio that would be used as a communal space for both tenants and the public, he said.

Townhouses would also have their own designated clubhouse with an outdoor pool, and apartment renters would have their own amenities as well, Zuena said.

The conversion of the office buildings into apartments would coincide with the construction of the townhouses, and later phases would include building a five-story apartment building on the property. 

Some members of the commission were concerned about the height of the new building, but developers said it would likely be as high as the existing buildings due to lower elevation and construction differences between office and apartment buildings.

Specifics will come before the commission in the future.

A massive 20,000-square-foot food court that was intended for MassMutual employees would remain, albeit cut to about 12,000 square feet.

Zuena anticipates food and beverages being served in the space, which would be available to both residents and the public.

He also floated some ideas for tenants, such as a sundry shop, hair salon, or small dry-cleaning service.

The goal is to create as many on-site amenities as possible while ensuring the project is still viable, Zuena said.

Many amenities designed for employees can be maintained, including landscaping, "parking for days" in the parking garage, and the day care, Zuena said.

While the parking garage is a bit of a walk from the office buildings, one idea Zuena floated is valet service for residents.

The day care facility is "an amenity that is going to be a differentiator for the people that are going to inhabit this property," he said. "We think the current campus has all the bones to do something special and smart with what is already there."

Carl Landolina, who spoke on behalf of the developers, said while it is typical for a purchaser of a property this size to come before the commission before buying it, the new owners are confident they can see their vision come to fruition. 

He noted developers are proposing to carve out sections of the property into four separate lots to make zoning changes and financing easier to obtain.

"We're not going to get one lender to go all in," Landolina said.

Developers are expecting to have to go before the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency before developing a master plan, and then a site plan for the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Last week's presentation was "the first step in many steps," Matt Baldino, assistant project manager for Solli Engineering, said.

Sections of WWII-era plant in New Britain to be restored, repurposed with help of $2M state grant

Michael Puffer

Deteriorating sections of a sprawling, World War II-era factory complex in New Britain will undergo a major renovation, thanks in part to a $2 million state brownfield grant aimed at advancing industrial redevelopment.

The grant, awarded to the City of New Britain, will support an $8.5 million cleanup and renovation of roughly 123,000 square feet of long-vacant factory space in a five-building, 551,218-square-foot industrial complex that straddles the New Britain-Berlin town line.

The complex sits on 57.2 acres and is owned by Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty Group (IRG), which acquired the property in 1997.

IRG has gradually restored portions of the facility over the past two decades, securing tenants piece by piece. Today, 12 companies operate within the site, employing more than 100 people, IRG staff said.

This $2 million grant helps make the next phase of cleanup financially feasible, Stuart Lichter, IRG founder and president, said Tuesday during a news conference held amid rusting beams and dry-rotted wood inside one of the buildings slated for renovation.

“We’re highly confident well get a manufacturer with a decent number of jobs and that is going to be a huge, huge asset for the community,” Lichter said.

The grant is part of a larger $18.8 million package of brownfield remediation funds announced in June by Gov. Ned Lamont. The funding supports pollution cleanup projects across 19 municipalities and is intended to pave the way for new housing and commercial development.

Deputy Commissioner Matthew Pugliese of the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) noted the broader impact of the state’s brownfield efforts, which have totaled $170 million in grants since the program began, resulting in the remediation of more than 2,200 acres of polluted land.

IRG’s New Britain project will prepare three spaces within two buildings for future tenants. The company’s national portfolio spans more than 100 million square feet of industrial space in 32 states. In Connecticut, it controls eight properties.

The South Street complex had once hosted the New Britain Machine Co., a manufacturing outfit that emerged from the merger of a manufacturer of railroad engines and a company that made woodworking machines, according to Connecticutmills.org.

The company expanded with a second plant on the southern outskirts of New Britain during World War I, making fuses, machine gun tripods and other wartime goods. More buildings were added during World War II as the company began making aircraft parts and employment jumped from 950 to a peak of 4,100, according to Connecticutmills.org.

After the war, the company returned to making hand tools, mechanics tools, office furniture and precision machine tools. The New Britain Machine Co. later merged with a California-based conglomerate and then closed the New Britain plant in 1990, according to Connecticutmills.org.

CT Construction Digest Wednesday July 30, 2025

Early plans for former MassMutual site in Enfield calls for several public, private amenities

Eric Bedner

ENFIELD — After a failed attempt to convert the former MassMutual site into a sprawling sports complex fell through, new developers are detailing their early plans for the property, including a variety of new housing, and indoor and outdoor dining for both residents who would live there and the rest of the public.

Developers floated their initial proposal to the Planning and Zoning Commission on July 24.

The vision is to convert the property into a residential community that maintains and adds to the attributes that exist on the campus, said Eric Zuena, founding principle of ZDS Architecture and Interiors out of Washington, D.C., and Providence.

Plans call for converting the office buildings into one- and two-bedroom apartments, as well as between 150 and 160 townhouses to maximize the "vast amenity package that this campus will have," he said.

There are currently several structures on the property, including the office buildings with about 400,000 square feet designed for 2,200 MassMutual workers.

While they are not necessarily ideal for conversion into residential units, parts can be used to build various frills, such as a pet wash and gyms, Zuena said.

For one building, an early proposal calls for the creation of an internal courtyard with an outdoor patio that would be used as a communal space for both tenants and the public, he said.

Townhouses would also have their own designated clubhouse with an outdoor pool, and apartment renters would have their own amenities as well, Zuena said.

The conversion of the office buildings into apartments would coincide with the construction of the townhouses, and later phases would include building a five-story apartment building on the property. 

Some members of the commission were concerned about the height of the new building, but developers said it would likely be as high as the existing buildings due to lower elevation and construction differences between office and apartment buildings.

Specifics will come before the commission in the future.

A massive 20,000-square-foot food court that was intended for MassMutual employees would remain, albeit cut to about 12,000 square feet.

Zuena anticipates food and beverages being served in the space, which would be available to both residents and the public.

He also floated some ideas for tenants, such as a sundry shop, hair salon, or small dry-cleaning service.

The goal is to create as many on-site amenities as possible while ensuring the project is still viable, Zuena said.

Many amenities designed for employees can be maintained, including landscaping, "parking for days" in the parking garage, and the day care, Zuena said.

While the parking garage is a bit of a walk from the office buildings, one idea Zuena floated is valet service for residents.

The day care facility is "an amenity that is going to be a differentiator for the people that are going to inhabit this property," he said. "We think the current campus has all the bones to do something special and smart with what is already there."

Carl Landolina, who spoke on behalf of the developers, said while it is typical for a purchaser of a property this size to come before the commission before buying it, the new owners are confident they can see their vision come to fruition. 

He noted developers are proposing to carve out sections of the property into four separate lots to make zoning changes and financing easier to obtain.

"We're not going to get one lender to go all in," Landolina said.

Developers are expecting to have to go before the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency before developing a master plan, and then a site plan for the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Last week's presentation was "the first step in many steps," Matt Baldino, assistant project manager for Solli Engineering, said.

Sections of WWII-era plant in New Britain to be restored, repurposed with help of $2M state grant

Michael Puffer

Deteriorating sections of a sprawling, World War II-era factory complex in New Britain will undergo a major renovation, thanks in part to a $2 million state brownfield grant aimed at advancing industrial redevelopment.

The grant, awarded to the City of New Britain, will support an $8.5 million cleanup and renovation of roughly 123,000 square feet of long-vacant factory space in a five-building, 551,218-square-foot industrial complex that straddles the New Britain-Berlin town line.

The complex sits on 57.2 acres and is owned by Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty Group (IRG), which acquired the property in 1997.

IRG has gradually restored portions of the facility over the past two decades, securing tenants piece by piece. Today, 12 companies operate within the site, employing more than 100 people, IRG staff said.

This $2 million grant helps make the next phase of cleanup financially feasible, Stuart Lichter, IRG founder and president, said Tuesday during a news conference held amid rusting beams and dry-rotted wood inside one of the buildings slated for renovation.

“We’re highly confident well get a manufacturer with a decent number of jobs and that is going to be a huge, huge asset for the community,” Lichter said.

The grant is part of a larger $18.8 million package of brownfield remediation funds announced in June by Gov. Ned Lamont. The funding supports pollution cleanup projects across 19 municipalities and is intended to pave the way for new housing and commercial development.

Deputy Commissioner Matthew Pugliese of the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) noted the broader impact of the state’s brownfield efforts, which have totaled $170 million in grants since the program began, resulting in the remediation of more than 2,200 acres of polluted land.

IRG’s New Britain project will prepare three spaces within two buildings for future tenants. The company’s national portfolio spans more than 100 million square feet of industrial space in 32 states. In Connecticut, it controls eight properties.

The South Street complex had once hosted the New Britain Machine Co., a manufacturing outfit that emerged from the merger of a manufacturer of railroad engines and a company that made woodworking machines, according to Connecticutmills.org.

The company expanded with a second plant on the southern outskirts of New Britain during World War I, making fuses, machine gun tripods and other wartime goods. More buildings were added during World War II as the company began making aircraft parts and employment jumped from 950 to a peak of 4,100, according to Connecticutmills.org.

After the war, the company returned to making hand tools, mechanics tools, office furniture and precision machine tools. The New Britain Machine Co. later merged with a California-based conglomerate and then closed the New Britain plant in 1990, according to Connecticutmills.org.

CT Construction Digest Tuesday July 29, 2025

$50 million Nordic spa starts construction at historic Portland brownstone quarry

Cassandra Day

PORTLAND — Initial construction recently began on a $50 million Nordic spa, situated at the historic Brownstone Avenue Quarry View in Portland. 

The "sanctuary" wellness center will sit in the midst of “dramatic, brownstone rock formations,” according to Nick Cheveldave, senior director of development at Canadian-based Pomeroy Lodging. It will incorporate the unique, natural setting over a 6.3-acre campus.

Excavation crews were out on a hazy Monday morning, clearing the site with the Portland bridge in the distance.

First Selectman Michael Pelton provided a progress update on Facebook June 24 and again July 23.

The project should take 15 to 18 months to complete, he wrote in June, calling it a "huge win for Portland." 

He's excited to see movement, Pelton wrote on social media July 23.

“They're finally getting started breaking ground in earnest," he wrote. "They still have a lot of work to do, but they have big plans and it's going to be beautiful when it's done." 

Darlene Rice and Dean Soucy, former owners of the property, sold it to Pomeroy in early 2024.

Hartford-based Consigli Construction was chosen to execute the project, Cheveldave noted. 

Portland’s quarries “owe their existence to millions of years of prehistoric sediments accumulating in the Connecticut River,” according to the town website.

Features will include hot, warm and cold pools; saunas, steam rooms, relaxation spaces, and a bistro serving locally sourced ingredients, “all designed to complete the hydrotherapy circuit of hot, cold, rest, repeat,” Cheveldave said.

Quarried as far back as the 17th century, the town website said, Portland brownstone “proved soft enough to allow for carving and polishing, making it one of the most desirable materials for gravestone markers and building construction for nearly three centuries."

Portland supplied the sandstone for building projects from New York to Boston to San Francisco in the 1850s, employing more than 1,500 people, according to Connecticut Explored. More than 25 ships brought the stone to the spots in the United States, Canada and England.

The property, adjacent to the Brownstown Adventure Sports Park at 161 Brownstone Ave., will also feature hydrotherapy and massage therapy.

“Given our location at the quarry overlooking the Connecticut River, the views will indeed be spectacular,” Cheveldave said.

Initial site clearing and erosion control measures are complete, and they are selecting rocks for landscape features, he said. 

“As a Nordic spa immersed in nature, the natural beauty and elements of the Brownstone Quarry helped shape our design decisions and are certainly our biggest asset,” he added. 

The design incorporates the “stunning natural environment,” Cheveldave said.

“The experience we offer is inspired by Nordic wisdom, embedded in the benefits of hydrotherapy,” he added, comparing the spa to others owned by Pomeroy Lodging, such as the Kananaskis Nordic Spa in Alberta, Canada; and Alyeska Nordic Spa in Alaska. 

Apartment complex along the Connecticut River in Enfield gets approval

Eric Bedner

ENFIELD — A new apartment complex along the Connecticut River that includes several public amenities is moving forward following the unanimous approval of the Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday.

Developers will be constructing 156 units at the abandoned site along the river at 33 North River St. in an effort to revitalize the riverfront.

Plans for phase one call for the construction of the four-story apartment buildings, a walking trail that spans the entire property, 175 parking spaces, and landscaping.

Apartments will be a mix between studios, and one- and two-bedroom units.

There will also be roughly 5,900 square feet of public amenities, including landscaped areas, a public riverwalk, and seating.

Groundbreaking is expected in the first quarter of next year, developers said.

Fourteen trees that were planned for the project will not be planted due to site restrictions, but will rather be donated to the town to be planted in Thompsonville, potentially along Main Street, developers said.

A lengthy discussion during a public hearing earlier this month included several concerns from commissioners, mainly whether there would be enough frontage and how snow removal would be handled.

The town attorney clarified that the easement and frontage proposed in the developers' application is suitable, Town Planner Lauren Whitten said.

Developers also said that snow would be hauled offsite during storms that drop six inches of snow or more.

"Based on staff's review and analysis, we believe that concerns related to this development have now been addressed," Whitten said. "The proposed project meets or exceeds the requirements set forth in the Thompsonville regulations.

Developers were awarded a $4 million brownfield grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development in December to clean up contamination on the former power facility site.

During a public hearing earlier this month, some neighbors were concerned about potential contamination leaking its way onto their property during cleanup, but developers were able to put commissioners at ease on Thursday.

Lewis Brown, founder and managing member of Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, noted that his firm has built two developments in each Hartford and New Haven exceeding $25 million, and both were constructed on former brownfield sites.

Steve Caprio, director of development for Honeycomb, noted that the state likely wouldn't have awarded the project the $4 million brownfield grant — the largest allocation in that round of funding — if it were not for the developer's history of cleaning up contaminated properties.

Several commissioners, along with Whitten, praised the developers for thoroughly addressing concerns of theirs and residents, with Whitten calling the developers "proactive and easy to work with."

No one from the public spoke during the extended public hearing on Thursday, but several spoke in favor of the project during the public hearing earlier this month, including neighbors abutting the site.

Cleanup of contaminated soil from Ponemah Mills continues

Daniel Drainville

Norwich — The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will not say whether it will penalize the developer or contractors involved with a $40 million project to renovate a section of the historic Ponemah Mills into 148 apartments, after contaminated soil was removed from the site and dumped in nearby towns.

"This remains an active enforcement matter," DEEP spokesman James Fowler wrote in an email last week. "As this remains an ongoing enforcement matter, we cannot comment on specific enforcement actions at this stage."

OneKey LLC of New Jersey and its contractors continue to work on a multi-phase project to renovate the former cotton mill complex on Norwich Avenue into a mix of market-rate and affordable apartments and amenities called the Lofts at Ponemah Mills. The larger mill building on the site, which contains 237 apartments plus another 77 in a rear wing, has been completed and is housing tenants.

Meanwhile, the second half of the renovation — which would create another 148 units in the south mill building, along with a restaurant in a smaller building to the west — is ongoing.

In March, DEEP halted soil removal from the site until it could determine whether the excavated material was contaminated and where it was being trucked. Uncas Health District Director Patrick McCormack has told the city a OneKey representative at the site could not document where the material was being stored on the property, where it was being taken and who removed it.

In May, Phil Biondo, the project manager for the Ponemah Mills project, told the city that excess soil, which was taken from the southeastern portion of the property, had not been identified as being contaminated in three studies OneKey had done. He also identified towns where the soil had been taken and said that DEEP and OneKey were beginning to clean up the sites where soil was deposited.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has also worked with the DEEP to ensure that contaminated fill material from the site is addressed and remediated.

"(DEEP's) initial priority has been ensuring that polluted fill removed from Ponemah Mills and deposited at other properties is excavated and properly disposed of," Fowler wrote in an email July 23, updating on the status of cleanup efforts.

Fowler said in the email that cleanup has been completed at one site in Oakdale and two in Norwich.

"At affected sites, polluted fill is being excavated by a licensed spill cleanup contractor, transported, and properly disposed of at an approved facility," Fowler said. "Confirmatory testing is conducted to ensure that all impacted material has been removed. In some cases, groundwater monitoring or remediation may also be required depending on the circumstances."

Fowler added that two other sites in Norwich will be cleaned once the property owner grants access. Two other non-residential sites, in Preston and Griswold, have not yet been cleaned, but he said OneKey has reportedly hired a contractor to do so.

He said DEEP is not aware of any other locations where soil was deposited.

He did not mention a site in Franklin, where town officials have said they'd received a complaint that a pile of soil at a home construction site looked contaminated. Franklin officials said they were told by DEEP that the soil had come from the Ponemah site.

Fowler wrote that once cleanup at each property is completed, DEEP will document the cleanup in a report. He said similarly, when remediation at the Ponemah Mills site is completed, a final report will also be prepared.

Since beginning its investigation, DEEP has not issued a public update on the status of its investigation.

"Because this is an active enforcement matter, DEEP must balance transparency with preserving its ability to enforce environmental laws effectively," Fowler explained. "Some information cannot yet be shared publicly in order to protect the integrity of the investigation and compliance efforts."

The south mill project in 2020 received a $795,000 state brownfields grant to fund cleanup efforts on the site, including soil remediation.

Fowler wrote the state Department of Economic and Community Development, which oversees the grant, has now "halted all grant-funded work and will reevaluate after DEEP determines the matter is satisfactorily resolved."

In April, after DEEP began its investigation and stopped soil removal from the site, Norwich Community Development Corp. President and Executive Director Kevin Brown said about half of the grant had already been spent for asbestos remediation and sandblasting inside the South Mill.

OneKey representatives and Biondo could not be reached to comment Monday.

State seeks multifamily housing proposals for Stamford train station property

Michael Juliano

The state is seeking plans for mixed-use developments on the 11-acre Stamford Transportation Center property as part of a plan to overhaul the train station, which was built in the 1980s and renovated in the early 2000s.

“The current station, while heavily used, is nearing the end of its useful life and requires major upgrades,” said Joe Cooper, a DOT spokesman. “Rather than continuing piecemeal repairs, CTDOT seeks to replace the station and related infrastructure.”

The Department of Transportation plans to put out a request for proposals to developers in mid-August and expects to close the bidding process in mid-December. It expects to choose a developer during the first quarter of 2026.

“Beyond transit, the (Department of Transportation) aims to create a vibrant, mixed-use district that offers opportunities to live, work, shop and dine,” Cooper said. 

He said the state agency prefers that the mixed-use development include either multifamily residential with ground-floor retail or a more diverse mix of commercial office space, hotels, retail or institutional uses.

“While past planning assumed the station would remain in place, (the Department of Transportation) now encourages proposals that explore alternate station locations within the project site and consider how changes to track and platform configurations could support future service growth,” he said.

A month ago, the DOT chose Gilbane Development Company and MURAL Real Estate Partners to create a new transit-oriented, mixed-use community adjacent to New Haven’s Union Station.

The department is also studying 18 state-owned parking lots for potential transit-oriented development projects including sites in Branford, Darien, Fairfield, Stratford, Wallingford, Waterbury, West Haven and Wilton.

CT’s solar industry clouded by Trump administration policies

On the sunny first day of the mid-July heatwave, Will Herchel and his team walked along the edge of a nearly 18-acre field in Glastonbury three-quarters filled with solar panels. Even though the day was already pushing 90 degrees by late morning, the panels couldn’t take advantage of all that sunshine – yet.

That should happen in late September or early October when all 6,840 panels are in place and able to generate nearly four megawatts of power, estimated to be enough to run more than 775 average homes. The installation, being built by Verogy — the West Hartford-based company Herchel co-founded and now heads, will provide power to low- and moderate-income homes, as well as to small businesses and municipal buildings, through a concept known as a community solar or shared solar. Connecticut calls it shared clean energy facilities.

Regardless of the name, the concept is designed to bring clean energy — almost always solar power — to anyone who cannot install a system on their own property. That generally mean renters, condo or apartment owners, and people whose homes simply aren’t suited to solar due to lack of sun or badly configured roof angles.

Community solar has had a balky rollout in Connecticut. It’s taken years for the state to find the right model with parameters and financial requirements that will have staying power.

But, just as it gains momentum here, that effort may be about to hit a major roadblock — the Trump administration.

Bottom of Form

The tax-and-spending reconciliation bill President Donald J. Trump signed into law on July 4 has the potential to slam the brakes on two of the biggest and fastest-growing sources of renewable power in the U.S. — solar and wind.

The legislation eliminates a valuable 30% federal tax credit for owners of and investors in solar and wind systems. For Connecticut and the rest of New England, the brunt of the pressure will be felt on solar.

“It’s difficult to understand why these technologies were singled out in that way, other than it’s just a more political driven decision,” Herchel said.

Up-front costs

Wind is still the top renewable power source in the U.S. — but solar’s increase the last few years has pushed combined wind and solar beyond 17% of U.S. electricity production, eclipsing coal. A recent U.S. Energy Information Administration report shows solar poised to surpass wind as the top renewable power source during the summer by next year.

Long term, both forms of power will remain much cheaper than conventional sources. For starters, the fuel for the power — wind or solar — is free. But there are fears many people — especially homeowners who want solar — will find themselves priced out because the removal of the tax credit means higher up-front costs and break-even times several years longer than they are now.

The 30% tax credit for homeowners who purchase residential rooftop solar will disappear on December 31 of this year. There will be no gradual rollback, which is what Trump did his first term when he opted to scale back tax credits over several years. The rate was down to 26% when he left office.

The Biden administration restored the rate to 30% retroactively with a 10-year lifespan, transitioning to a gradual rollback in 2033.

People who lease solar for their homes, and all forms of commercial solar and wind projects have a longer runway before tax credits expire. They must start construction by next July or be in service by the end of 2027 in order to get the tax credit. For large commercial projects that’s a tight time frame and on leased systems it is the company that owns the system that gets the tax credit, not the homeowner. But homeowners will still face the owner’s higher costs being passed on to them.

Since the budget bill became law, additional policies have been unveiled that have solar developers like Herchel even more worried.

Three days after he signed the measure, Trump issued an executive order that appears likely to further tighten the parameters of access to solar and wind even while the tax credit is still operative.

The executive order seems designed to restore some provisions of earlier iterations of the bill. Those provisions were more restrictive and were jettisoned to ensure the bill would pass. One part of the order essentially asks the Treasury Department to re-evaluate what it means for a project to be in construction. The goal seems to be to redefine it in a way that would make it harder for projects to meet the timing to qualify for tax credits.

“I think the industry was in a position of relief that they understood what the path forward was,” Herchel said of the original legislation that removed the 30% tax credit.

His company only does medium size commercial and industrial sector solar and has the slightly longer runway before the tax credit disappears.

“The executive order threw a wrench in that whole process,” he went on. The order gave the U.S. Department of the Treasury 45 days to take action, so companies are stuck waiting. “You don’t know how to start construction, and because of that, everyone is concerned and confused as to which projects are going to qualify and which projects are not going to qualify.”

The uncertainty of how, when or even if to start construction is keeping Herchel and his investors up at night.

“The tough part for us is that, in our industry, the longest part of our installation cycle is permitting and interconnection. We don’t control those aspects,” Herchel said. The Glastonbury project, for example, will take three years from concept to operation, with actual construction only accounting for about seven months.

The uncertainty around the meaning “in construction” could mean that contracted projects already in the production process could be thrown into tax credit limbo. “Those projects essentially become non-viable until you understand whether they’re going to qualify,” Herchel said.

“We don’t know exactly what the rules are, and so when you don’t know what the rules are, you can’t appropriately navigate your business and you can’t appropriately invest capital in those businesses,” he said. “We’re all working very hard and diligently with third party counsel and other advisors, accounting firms, to try to understand what’s actually going to happen. But most of their experience is no longer relevant because no individual executive administrative body has behaved in the way that we’re currently experiencing.”

Proactively, Verogy last week asked Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, PURA, to take emergency action help ensure as many solar projects as possible can beat the new tax credit clock.

Jeff Macel, co-founder and managing director of Lodestar Energy, which focuses exclusively on community solar in about eight states, including Connecticut, said he isn’t sleeping terribly well either. He points out the executive order literally contradicts what’s now in statute.

“The legal advice we get is that that can’t happen, but the practical advice is, ‘how are you going to work through that? Is that going to get litigated?’” he said. “So it’s going to be a dog fight, I think, legally.”

He called Trump’s new clean energy policies “100% politically motivated.”

“It’s a difficult time to do business because norms have been thrown out the window and it’s hard to understand what is the status quo,” he said. “I think we take a conservative position and trust lawyers who tell us this is what it says, stick to your guns. And I think you have to.”

Other solar companies and their advocates take great pains to paint the situation in the best light they can, wanting to project that their industry is still valuable and affordable, even at a higher cost. And they note the many policy changes the solar industry has navigated over the years.

“They don’t call it the solar coaster for nothing in this industry,” said Mike Trahan, executive director of the Connecticut Solar and Storage Association, which represents the 50 to 75 solar companies actively operating in the state at any given time and their 2,500 employees. He characterized solar developers and installers as a resilient bunch, used to dealing with disruption.

“It’s an uncomfortable place to be,” he admitted, also referencing the recent policy controversies in the Connecticut legislature. “We’re going to have to do what we did the last time the Trump administration was pursuing changes with the tax credits. You have to find a place where you can be successful. If they’re just going to continue to raise the bar for us, we just have to jump higher.”

“Actively hostile”

Some fear Trump administration actions herald existential threats to clean energy more broadly by encouraging a greater reliance on the fossil fuels whose emissions have caused the climate change the planet is already experiencing.

And, on the most basic level, there’s widespread sentiment that the Trump policies will cause energy prices to go up, emissions to go up and air to be dirtier. States, including Connecticut, will be hard-pressed to meet their renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions targets as a result.

Trump has a long history as a notorious hater of wind power, with solar power not far behind. He reiterated that during his recent trip to Scotland.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, he infamously told a group of fossil fuel industry executives gathered at Mar-a-Lago that if they donated $1 billion to his campaign he would cut their taxes and regulatory hurdles in return. Though he did not get that much money from them, he has indeed introduced multiple policies and executive orders to increase fossil fuel extraction and use. even as most other nations look to switch away from such reliance to greater use of renewables.

Another part of the July 7 executive order would impose stricter rules on products from “foreign entities of concern.” While many components for solar have ties to China — something that has helped to dramatically reduce the cost of systems in recent years — solar panels made in the U.S. are more readily available than they had been, largely due to Biden administration policies that incentivized solar panel manufacturing here.

“At some point our industry does need to stand on its own two legs,” said Sam Schneider, co-founder and chief executive officer of Earthlight Solar and Energy Solutions, which is based in Ellington.

He traveled to Washington, D.C. twice to lobby for better terms in the original legislation. “I can’t say that I’m just jumping for joy, but I will say that it’s much better than where we were, and it gives us runway, and it gives us time.”

In some cases anyway.

Earthlight’s residential solar work is about half of their solar business. About 70% of that is purchased systems, which means the tax credit runs out in less than six months, though Schneider said he still has the capacity to complete projects by then. The rest of the residential solar, which is leased systems, as well as all his commercial work, do have the longer time frame.

“I believe that people are still going to pursue ownership of solar in residential; I one hundred percent believe that,” Schneider said. “It’s not ideal, but it is doable.”

But he faces other tax credit deadlines for related work his company does. The law also ends federal tax credits at the end of this year for a host of energy-saving functions, including the purchase of heat pumps, home and business energy efficiency upgrades, and energy audits. Tax credits for energy efficiency measures in new construction end in June 2026.

Those cutbacks essentially eliminate most other means home and business owners have to reduce their energy bills at a lower upfront cost. It may prove especially troublesome for the low- and moderate-income sector, which often turns to those solutions.

In Connecticut that sector also faces the solar tax credit deadlines in a program specifically designed for them. For 10 years, PosiGen has provided leased solar systems to qualifying low- and moderate-income Connecticut residents — more than 7,000 systems so far.

“This bill is going to have really dramatic consequences for the most vulnerable across Connecticut, generally,” said Kyle Wallace, PosiGen’s vice president of public policy and government affairs and leader of the company’s community impact team.

Leased systems do benefit from the longer deadline, but after that, the increased price likely will be passed along to consumers, Wallace said.

“I think even beyond this, we’re just continuing to see an administration that is just actively hostile to renewables, and we had hoped that they would be more indifferent and not actively hostile,” he said. “They’re going to try every way they can though to hurt renewables.”

Ten days after the July 7 executive order, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced solar and wind projects on federal property would now require personal approval from Secretary Doug Burgum across 69 categories of permitting.

The move is widely seen as a way to slow down approvals, possibly causing them to miss the new deadlines. Its most direct impact on Connecticut and New England would be on offshore wind projects, which are in federal lease areas. But it could have a bearing on federal approvals needed for projects that are not on federal property.

It all worries Harry Godfrey, a managing director at Advanced Energy United who heads up the advocacy group’s federal engagement efforts. He and others note that there is existing statutory language on what constitutes a project being in construction. The Treasury Department could come up with a conflicting standard.

But the notion of predicating a tax credit on an in-service date for a project is new. Projects face unforeseen delays for all kinds of legitimate reasons. The fear is that such a regulation will open the door to governmental mischief designed to deliberately slow down projects to make them less economically worthwhile and therefore more likely to be killed.

“You kill projects in the present through uncertainty in the future and a ‘placed-in-service’ deadline, like that is the thing that cuts the knees out from under projects,” Godfrey said. “That’s made all the worse if those parties are operating in bad faith — intentionally working to kill a project through delay. Between the executive order and recent actions by the Interior Department, that possibility is coming into more acute focus.”

Stability

Trump and Republican operatives, especially those who developed the energy and climate chapters of Project 2025, have long decried solar and wind power as expensive and destabilizing for the electric grid because they cannot operate fully all the time. Solar, for instance, cannot provide power at night. Storage will eventually change that dynamic.

But even without storage, solar has actually become a key stabilizing factor for the six-state New England grid. Matt Kakley, a spokesman for grid operator ISO New England, said there’s thousands of megawatts of solar in New England equal to about twice the region’s nuclear fleet.

To meet consumer demand, he said, solar is playing an increasingly important role.

“We really count on it every day,” Kakley said. “When we are putting together our daily forecast in our schedule we’re looking at what we expect that solar to do, and we’re counting on it showing up.”

In winter, when heat and electricity compete for the same natural gas supply, solar during the day helps stretch daytime heating supplies. On hot summer days, solar has prevented power crunches when air conditioning use is high.

The ISO recently reported that the kind of solar that might be on a residential roof —called behind-the-meter solar — reduced power consumption by 5% in 2024.

During a recent heat wave when power use peaked on June 24 to its highest level in a dozen years and some power plants were unavailable, solar was one factor that helped stabilize the situation. The ISO noted at the time that without behind-the-meter solar, demand would have peaked three hours earlier and more than 2,000 megawatts higher than it did. It also noted that at that time, non-carbon-emitting resources including all solar, wind, nuclear, hydro and battery storage together provided a up to 40% of the energy consumed in the region.

The ISO is predicting demand on the grid will start to rise — 35% over the next 20 years — after years of staying relatively flat and even declining. Whether solar deployment will grow with demand and continue to take the edge off it in the face of the changes that are coming remains to be seen.

There are a few large New England offshore wind projects under construction that will provide large swaths of power in another few years as long as the administration doesn’t stop them. And a large project for transmission of onshore wind from Maine to the rest of the region is in an early planning stage.

But now it’s possible the end of tax credits for heat pumps and electric vehicles may dampen demand. Data center growth, a big energy eater that has caused concern in other parts of the country, has not been a factor in this region.

There’s also a question of whether the solar industry here will contract.

Ken Gillingham, an energy and environmental economist at Yale specializing in renewable energy and efficiency, thinks the residential, small-scale solar industry in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts will shrink.

“I don’t think it’s going to disappear, but it’s likely that some of the smaller, weaker players are not going to be able to make it, and that means job losses,” he said. “We have this combination of losing the tax credits and higher costs, and you put those together, and suddenly solar is less affordable. A worst case scenario — it’s going to become a very, very small market, almost back down to a niche market like it was 20 years ago.”

Despite Trump’s contention to the contrary which he reiterated again in the July 7 executive order, solar power — grid-scale solar in particular — is one of the least expensive energy sources. A United Nations report unveiled by Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week showed onshore wind, solar and hydropower to be the three least expensive sources of power. Solar is 41% cheaper than fossil fuels and onshore wind is 59% cheaper. Both, the report said, are also the fastest to build.

In 2024, the report said, renewables made up 92.5% of all new electricity capacity additions. And it predicted that solar and wind power generation would surpass nuclear power next year and, “In 2029, solar PV electricity generation is expected to surpass hydropower to become the largest single renewable power source, and wind will surpass hydropower in 2030.”

Stepping up

The mantra has been that the states need to step up to fill the void left by Trump administration policies — something they did in the energy and environment sectors during Trump’s first term pullbacks. With so many voids to fill this time around, it’s unclear how that might play out.

In the meantime, the emergency filing Verogy’s Herchel made with PURA asks that the annual cap on community solar and non-residential solar projects be lifted to allow more projects to capture the tax credit before it expires.

“If PURA does not take this action, the likelihood that projects participating in the program will be eligible for the federal tax credits will significantly deteriorate,” Herchel said. “If participating projects cannot avail themselves of the federal tax credits, then the cost of energy required for these projects will dramatically increase. This premium would create a completely unnecessary cost for Connecticut ratepayers.”

PURA did not respond to a request for comment.

He and others have pointed to what Massachusetts put into motion even before the Trump plan had fully passed Congress. On June 20, that state updated its solar energy incentive program — SMART — via emergency regulation to expedite their process for approving projects. Noting that the Clean Energy Buyers Association estimates household electricity costs will increase 6% as a result of the reconciliation package, Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper said: “President Trump and Congressional Republicans are taking us backward.”

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is opting for a more measured approach, with official outreach to developers and other energy stakeholders this month to review new state and federal laws and to gauge their specific challenges. The point, said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes, is “so we can make sure that the steps that the state takes are targeted and effective, especially given the very short time that we’re working in.”

Dykes said DEEP is considering whether to initiate an expedited zero-carbon renewable solicitation for grid scale resources that could qualify for the tax credit if companies can move fast enough.

“We’re making sure that we’re engaging with the developers so that we’re not doing it in a vacuum, and that the steps that we are taking are aligned with what they need,” she said. To that end, DEEP issued a request for information last week to gauge developer interest with a speedy one-week turnaround.

Solar companies and advocates suggest that in the immediate term, the state find ways to speed up permitting and streamline other processes to get as much solar in the pipeline before timing restraints kick in. PURA is already looking at how to update the existing solar programs in Connecticut. A PURA spokesperson said that the federal changes could be part of what they consider.

Trahan, of the Solar and Storage Association, said the situation will require the legislature to step up, in addition to PURA, and reconsider both the restrictions the state has placed on solar over the years and the costs they’re willing to assume for things like labor and grid interconnections.

“The question is going to be, how badly do we want to have a solar industry here?” he said. “If we want one, we’re going to have to make some significant changes in the cost to develop solar.”

Dykes agreed money will be an issue – just as the state is trying to lower energy costs. “There’s going to be some tough questions ahead about how much of the federal tax credit revenue could be offset or made up by higher levels of funding from complementary state programs. That’s a difficult trade off,” she said. “Those will be important things to try to balance.”

Wallace at PosiGen said it would be more important than ever for states and solar businesses to make changes, both short- and long-term, as they face pressures from tariffs, problematic supply chains and high interest rates, in addition to the blow of losing the tax credit so rapidly. Even before the tax credit for his lease customers ends, they might find they are saving only 10% or 15% with their system instead of the usual 20%.

“We need to use the time we have now to find ways to lower costs, to be more efficient, to be able to better serve low-income communities,” he said. “We essentially need to increase the value that’s going to consumers now so that when the tax credit goes away and maybe prices have to increase, there’s enough of a buffer where it’s still a really compelling product.”

At Lodestar, Jeff Macel is already gaming out future plans through the lens of the company’s development pipeline, projects, and their drop-dead date of December 31, 2027.

“We’ve said, ‘okay, let’s work backwards from those dates. What projects can be built by then? We need to make sure we procure labor. We need to make sure we procure equipment. We need to make sure that we have utilities signed up to place them in service,’” he said. “So we’ve started that process internally to rank order our projects and say we can get these built by the date. And those are the sacred projects. Those are the ones we are focused on driving to the finish line.”

So far, companies that specialize in residential purchased systems, which face a much earlier loss of the tax credit, do not seem inclined to pivot to leased systems, which have the longer runway, though statewide data from PURA shows that shift has been happening on its own over the last few years.

“The amount of red tape involved with some of the stuff is cumbersome. So if I can do it without doing that, that would be my primary way to move forward,” said James LaPorta, owner of Litchfield Hills Solar, which only provides purchased systems and is booked through the end of the year. “My bigger concern is how it’s going to affect the whole industry.”

At Earthlight, Schneider said he doesn’t plan to shift the focus of his residential work, which has been mostly purchased systems. “I’m not looking for a doom and gloom here. Our industry has been through a lot over the last 15 years,” he said. “If our industry goes into a small downturn or even a large one, I’m ready for it.”

Herchel at Verogy said his first task is to shore up the immediate pipeline to ensure the viability of the projects underway before passage of the act. Then he will focus on the individual portfolio projects that could be completed before December 31, 2027.

“That’s kind of our narrow, immediate window for action,” he said. “We do believe, at least as we sit here today, there is a viable path for solar as a technology even without the current [tax credit] infrastructure; albeit it’s going to require a higher revenue stream to support it.”

CT Construction Digest Monday July 28, 2025

Meriden wants state guarantee there's funding for bridge projects after FEMA paused money

Mary Ellen Godin

MERIDEN —  The city is seeking confirmation from the state Federal Emergency Management Agency office that its funding to replace a bridge won't be cancelled. 

"If the grant got cut off, we would have to find additional money to finish Phase I," City Manager Brian Daniels recently told members of the Senior Center Building Committee. "We have sent a letter to FEMA asking them to confirm we are not going to get cancelled."

FEMA closed down its federal funding stream in April leaving the city scrambling to complete the work on two bridges.

"We are halfway through that project," Daniels said. "We have to finish that bridge replacement."

The city was set to receive Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities monies for the Cedar Street and Center Street bridges. But FEMA eliminated the BRICs program in April and put several other emergency programs on life support. 

BRIC funding is used in municipalities across Connecticut to mitigate the impact of potentially disastrous floods.

Connecticut and 19 other states are filing suit in federal court over the loss of funding through the program, state Attorney General William Tong said during a recent news conference in Stamford.

“For more than 30 years, states and municipalities have depended on BRIC funding, and Connecticut is no different,” Tong said at the press conference. “And now $84 million has been cut, starting in April.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was recently joined by Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati, who said during a Hartford news conference that Meriden had spent the past decade working with federal and state governments to address its flooding issues, primarily with Harbor Brook in the city center.

Scarpati said these projects are making the city more resilient and attractive for people to move to and open businesses who might not have done so before because of the flooding.

"We have a project that is going on right now that is in jeopardy of coming to fruition and finishing," he said at the news conference. "We literally have shovels in the ground today. We have excavators on site for two bridges that need to be torn down, widened and rebuilt."

He said one of those bridges is already down and has to be rebuilt.

"We are relying on funds from FEMA — these funds to continue this project, funds we've already been awarded," Scarpati said.

Scarpati said it's a two-year project that started seven months ago and now told the city has to finish next month. He said if they don't get the FEMA money, the city will have to go to the city's taxpayers to cover the cost of that project and the two or three flood control projects that go with it.

Daniels told building committee members after the recent press conferences that the city is working with contractor LaRosa Construction to ensure money doesn't interfere with finishing Phase I, even if that means putting it into the city's capital improvement budget in the future. Phase I isn't expected to be finished until late 2026, early 2027.

"We're going to have to see how it plays out," Daniels said. "We can't get any more money, we have gotten our entire grant money for the project." 

The city still has a grant application in to the state to pay to deepen and widen the channels but has not learned its status, as of last week.

Eventually, the city hopes to truck the dirt onto 116 Cook Ave. to raise the lot elevation.  A new senior center is planned for the site, but design and construction work can't begin until the channel and dredging work are complete.

The city initially planned to build a new health department with the senior center at 116 Cook Ave., but officials agreed to separate the two projects and renovate the existing health department at 165 Miller St.

About 20 prospective architectural bidders recently walked through the two-story Health and Human Services building to assess the project. The city will select an architect by Aug. 15 to recommend to the state. The chosen architect will work on design plans that will accompany a Community Investment Fund grant application before a Dec. 5 deadline.

The Board of Education intends to relocate its Success Academy alternative high school program on the second level which would translate into a 70% reimbursement on that part of the overall project.

Health and Human Services Director Lea Crown drafted a public survey asking residents to describe their expectations for a health department building. 

The survey questions were based on specifics included in the grant application, Crown said. They will be distributed by staff and posted on the city's website and other places in early August. 

Crown said that unlike the Senior Center, where people gather for long periods of time, the health department consists of offices, conference space and a clinic.

$20M Waterbury train station renovation will begin in September, DOT says

Paul Hughes

WATERBURY — Work is expected to start in September on a $20 million renovation of the Waterbury train station, including construction of a new indoor waiting room in the former Republican-American building next to the Metro-North Railroad platform.

The renovations to Waterbury Union Station are part of a larger project the state Department of Transportation is undertaking to upgrade all six train stations along the 28.5-mile Waterbury branch of Metro-North's New Haven Line.

The work at Waterbury Union Station includes replacement of the existing platform, construction of a new indoor waiting room on the south end of the former Republican-American building, and installation of a new ticket kiosk, upgraded security systems and elevator. The project budget is $20 million.

DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said Friday construction of the waiting room is anticipated to kick off the project in September, and the platform work is expected to start by the end of the year.

The platform replacement is expected to temporarily halt train service. Morgan said substitute bus service will be provided during this period of disruption. He said DOT officials anticipate bus service starting in the spring of 2026, but the exact dates and duration have not been set at this time.

The new waiting room will be approximately 1,570 square feet and feature 21 seats, restrooms, water fountains and customer information displays. A staircase will lead to private offices for Metro-North and DOT. A new elevator will be installed to connect all three floors, but will not be accessible to the public. The basement will house dedicated spaces for elevator control, and DOT and Metro-North telecommunications and security equipment.

Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. highlighted the coming start of the Waterbury Union Station project in a Facebook post Wednesday.

"This project isn't just about trains. It is part of a broader vision for a more walkable, vibrant downtown and a stronger, more connected Waterbury," he wrote. "The work happening at the station is a symbol of the city's momentum and a clear sign of what's ahead."

Built in 1909, Waterbury Union Station was designed by famed New York City architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. The Pape family, who took ownership of the Republican-American in 1901, bought the building in 1952 and converted it into the newspaper's headquarters.

The former Republican-American building is now being marketed for sale and redevelopment by owner American-Republican Inc. The family-owned company sold the Republican-American newspaper to Hearst Connecticut Media Group in February. HCMG had been leasing space in the building, but the lease ended this month after American-Republican Inc. decided to terminate the lease in May.

Morgan said the September start date of the Waterbury Union Station project is independent of the Republican-American’s recent departure from the site.

The Waterbury branch line carried 269,352 passengers last year, up from 257,076 in 2023, according to DOT figures.

Ridership had declined during the COVID-19 pandemic but has rebounded in recent years. It fell from 243,671 in 2019 to 108,199 in 2020, and then started climb back to 127,378 in 2021 and 197,392 in 2022.

CT attempts to buckle down on overregulation with environmental permitting reform; some argue more is needed

Andrew Larson

Unpredictable, inconsistent and unfriendly are some of the more benign words that business leaders and credit rating agencies have used to describe Connecticut’s Byzantine regulatory approach.
Connecticut consistently ranks poorly in national business climate studies when it comes to the cost of doing business and the complexity of its regulations.

In recent years, investment bank UBS and Regulatory Research Associates, a unit of Standard & Poor’s, have placed Connecticut into their bottom-tier utilities regulatory environment rankings.

Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) is facing fierce criticism from utility companies Eversource Energy and Avangrid Inc. for recent decisions that have roiled investors and crippled the utilities’ ability to recover capital expenses.

In June, Moody’s Ratings downgraded the credit ratings of Eversource subsidiary Connecticut Light and Power Co., calling Connecticut “the least credit supportive utility regulatory environment in the U.S.”

Meantime, CNBC’s 2025 “America’s Top States for Business” index recently ranked Connecticut 28th overall, an improvement from No. 32 in 2024. However, the state ranked worse — No. 32 — in the business-friendliness category.

According to a 2021 report by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, greater regulatory burdens are correlated with regressive effects: increased poverty rates, higher levels of income inequality, reduced entrepreneurship and increased consumer prices.

The report cites research that found, between 1997 and 2015, the effective federal regulatory burden in Connecticut increased by 56%, contributing to a 14% rise in the state’s poverty rate.

Also, between 1999 and 2015, industry-level federal regulatory restrictions increased by an average of 3.78%, according to the study. Based on that average, Connecticut lost about 110 small firms and 1,541 jobs annually as a result of regulatory hurdles, the researchers found.

Cumbersome regulations have been accumulating for decades, not just in Connecticut, but across the country.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s crusade for stronger consumer protections in the 1960s and 1970s led to a wave of landmark regulations, including in Connecticut, where the 91-year-old lawyer and political activist resides.

But the robust regulatory environment that enhanced consumer protections also contributed, in the eyes of critics, to an overabundance of red tape that some view as burdensome for businesses and the economy.

The regulatory environment covers everything from labor and health insurance mandates to the lawsuit/liability climate, industry oversight, permitting and overall bureaucracy.

Now, many business leaders and some state officials — including Democrats — believe the pendulum has swung too far in favor of government regulations, and they are seeking to undo some of the bureaucratic constraints.

“I think there was a period of time where we promulgated a lot of regulations in order to protect the environment, protect health, protect lots of different things,” said Christopher Davis, vice president of public policy at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA). “I think that over time, those things sort of build up and calcify. … Sometimes they’re redundant, sometimes they’re unnecessary, sometimes they’re no longer relevant. And it takes a concerted effort to look back and say which things are still relevant, and which ones are not.”

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is one of the most notorious regulatory agencies in Connecticut — it oversees 125 state and federally mandated permitting processes.

The morass of red tape has created an opportunity for improvement, which DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes has made a hallmark of her tenure at the agency.

“I hear just as much from developers as from our own staff about how important it is to make these processes work better for our goals,” Dykes said. “Because when permitting works effectively, it means that someone who wants to invest in the state is getting an answer faster with less friction.”

When Gov. Ned Lamont tapped Dykes to lead the agency in 2019, he asked her to make DEEP more efficient, she recalled.

“He said he’d been on the campaign trail … and he heard from lots of businesses that DEEP was a black box and that it took too long to get answers, that it was really difficult to know how to navigate the process,” Dykes said.

“I think some of that was a bit misplaced,” she continued, “but we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.”

Dykes launched an effort to streamline DEEP’s permitting processes through an initiative she calls 20BY26. The project outlines 20 performance goals that DEEP plans to achieve by the end of 2026, with the aim of improving the transparency, efficiency and predictability of its permitting.

Uniquely complex

As a densely populated state with an industrial legacy, Connecticut has particularly complex permitting needs, Dykes said.

“As we think about new infrastructure projects, new developments coming into the state, folks are often working with parcels that have been previously disturbed,” she said. “We may be looking at a brownfield. We may be looking at a location that’s close to a lot of population centers.”

Those factors not only make permitting processes more involved, but underscore their necessity to “accommodate the next generation of investments while also protecting human health and the environment,” she explained.

A key component of 20BY26 was establishing a business concierge service, or a “one-stop shop” for applicants, stakeholders, municipalities and developers to obtain information and status updates about applications.

The concierge service debuted in 2021.

“That provides a lot of benefits for the applicant in terms of having clear communication and someone that they can call all the way through the process to help them navigate the different programs within the department,” Dykes said. “It also provides a lot of benefits to our DEEP staff, so that our technical staff, our permit writers, can conserve and focus their time on processing permits.”

During an internal review, DEEP discovered that about 40% of staff time was being taken up with back-and-forth correspondence with applicants about their incomplete applications, Dykes said.

DEEP’s reforms also involve guiding developers toward properties where they will face the least amount of environmental hurdles. The agency has created an online database of endangered and threatened species, which developers can use to find out if a property will trigger an endangered species review, Dykes said.

Also, the newly created Community Renewable Energy Siting Tool helps solar developers find the least environmentally conflicted sites for developing solar facilities.

Further, DEEP has undertaken a wide-ranging review of its 125 permitting processes to determine the reasonable amount of time that it should take to issue a decision for an application for each one.

“I’m really proud to say that over the several years that we’ve been implementing this, we are achieving about 90% on-time completion rates for the 55 different types of permits that we expect to take about three months,” Dykes said.

She said DEEP has made adjustments by repositioning staff resources to where they’re most needed.

In addition to reducing timeframes, DEEP obtained legislative approval during the recent session to consolidate multiple permit types into a single general permit category, simplifying the review process for certain regulated activities.

For example, activities under individual permits from DEEP’s pesticides division were combined into one general permit.

“It’s obviously a faster process for applicants, but also it helps conserve our staff time and our staff resources,” Dykes said.

Transfer Act sunset

The crown jewel of the 20BY26 initiative was developing new and less burdensome regulations to replace the antiquated and unpopular Transfer Act.

The Transfer Act requires property owners to conduct site-wide environmental investigations and, if necessary, remediation whenever certain types of properties are sold. The system has been criticized for being overly broad, costly and a major obstacle to real estate transactions and economic development, especially brownfield sites.

The Transfer Act will be fully phased out on March 1, 2026, and replaced by new release-based cleanup regulations, which trigger cleanup requirements by the actual discovery of a hazardous release — not by the transfer of a property or business.

The new system, which has been in the works for years and was green-lighted by the legislature’s Regulations Review Committee in April, is expected to reduce costs, speed up cleanups, and encourage redevelopment of blighted or underused properties.

Connecticut was one of just two states operating under the Transfer Act system.

Dykes said she hopes the changes will help shift people’s perceptions about Connecticut.

“I feel like Connecticut often has this problem of we’re just kind of negative on ourselves,” Dykes said. “We don’t tell our story very well, and focus on those negatives. … We’ve been making these improvements. Now we need to get the perception to change as a result of it.”

CBIA applauded DEEP’s efforts to optimize its permitting processes, but says disparities between the ease of permitting in other states and Connecticut remain.

“When we talk to employers who have operations in multiple states, there are certain permits, environmental permits, that are more difficult in Connecticut, but also in terms of the clarity around permits,” said Dustin Nord, director of the CBIA Foundation for Economic Growth and Opportunity, the business group’s nonprofit think tank. “To the credit of the state, I think that this has been a point of focus for DEEP in terms of making certain permit timelines more clear and trying to speed up permitting overall. But it’s still a challenge for a lot of businesses.”

Some argue that regulatory reforms within DEEP need to go beyond just speeding up permitting processes.

She said lawmakers must also have greater oversight over how agencies are implementing public policy.

“Without the proper accountability, PURA and DEEP have been able to implement flawed policies, mostly expensive and stringent green energy mandates, which have driven up energy costs for ratepayers,” Liebau said, noting that Connecticut has among the highest electricity prices in the country.

“… Regulators justify their existence by regulating,” she added. “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

State lawmakers did consider a bill this past legislative session that would have mandated closer scrutiny on existing regulations.

The bill passed the state House of Representatives, but was not voted on by the Senate.

The CBIA said it will lobby for the legislation again in 2026.

More to be done

While Connecticut is working to improve its environmental permitting processes, the reality is, the state’s broader regulatory apparatus affects a much wider range of industries, and impacts businesses and the economy in many ways.

The state, for example, has been known to have one of highest number of health benefit mandates that insurance companies are required to cover, which increases the costs of individual and employer-sponsored health insurance — a major issue for small and midsize companies.

A 2014 study by UConn Health’s Center for Public Health and Health Policy noted Connecticut had 46 health benefit mandates at the time, among the most in the nation. A more recent analysis by the state’s nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research outlined more than 70 health benefit mandates that were in effect as of Jan. 1, 2024.

The report noted recently adopted coverage mandates for infertility diagnosis and treatment, and in-home hospice services.

There is also an annual fight in the legislature over new labor mandates. In recent years, Connecticut has adopted a Paid Family and Medical Leave program and expanded its paid sick leave law. Lawmakers have also expanded prevailing wage requirements and fought for things like eliminating the tipped minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits to striking workers.

CBIA has identified areas in which Connecticut can improve the regulatory strain on businesses, particularly in the manufacturing and construction industries.

“Manufacturers, especially, face a heavy burden on regulations, whether it be environmental regulations or labor mandates, things that really make it difficult for them to compete, both nationally and, quite frankly, for a lot of these manufacturers, internationally,” Davis said.

The CATO Institute, a conservative think tank, consistently ranks Connecticut among the worst states in the country for land-use regulations.

Because zoning requirements can vary widely from one town to another, existing Connecticut businesses face obstacles even when expanding within the state, Davis said.

However, efforts by the General Assembly to ease land-use regulations in local communities often face political backlash.

In June, Lamont vetoed House Bill 5002, a major piece of legislation that aimed to address the state’s ongoing housing shortage. The bill would have required towns to plan and zone for a set number of affordable housing units, using a “fair share” formula to distribute housing needs across municipalities.

Lamont, a Democrat, broke with his own party in quashing the legislation, citing opposition centered around fears that the bill would undermine local zoning control.

“I think sort of a comprehensive attempt to look at regulatory structure would be immensely beneficial, and it could help make us much more competitive,” Carstensen said. “… And you’ve got to do this at the granular level. You got to do it, look at each of these things closely, and you have to do it all the time.”

HBJ Staff Writer Michael Juliano contributed to this story.

Coming to a CT suburb: 440 housing units, shopping plaza, hotel. What to know.

Don Stacom 

Contractors are in the late stages of building the biggest mixed-use development in the town’s history, which is bringing about 140,000 square feet of new retail, 300 luxury apartments and 140 upscale townhouses to the I-691 and I-84 area.

Stonebridge Crossing is transforming a little more than 100 acres of former farmland, fields and trees in Cheshire into one of Greater Waterbury’s biggest combination commercial and retail developments in decades.

Most of the heavy construction is done for The Shops at Stone Bridge, a shopping center anchored by Whole Foods and expected to include a Barnes & Noble store, T.J. Maxx, Shake Shack and others. Florida-based Regency Centers, a major national retail developer, is heading that project.

Several of the apartment buildings at the Riverpointe apartment complex are completed, the first wave of tenants has begun moving in, and additional units are leasing from $2,100 for studios to as high as $3,600 for three-bedroom units. Fairfield-based Eastpointe LLC is the developer.

And as of midweek, 108 of the townhouses and carriage homes at the Reserve at Stonebridge Crossing have been sold.

“We’re crushing it. We’ll probably be sold out by the end of this year or early in the first quarter of next year,” said Matthew Gilchrist, president of EG Home, which is building the townhouses that start at $494,000 and the carriage homes that begin at $669,000.

Still to come is a four-story, 117-room Homewood Suites that’s planned on about 4 acres of the site.

At a time when the nation’s bricks-and-mortar retail segment is largely stagnant or contracting, the prospect of an all-new shopping plaza might seem unlikely.

But Assistant Town Manager Andrew Martelli noted that the plaza and its components are significantly smaller than the big box stores and malls that were popular decades ago.

“The retail market was underserved here; Cheshire hasn’t built a retail shopping area since the 1970s. And the biggest building here is going to be 40,000 square feet. Big boxes aren’t the wave of the future,” he said Thursday. “Even the Barnes & Noble here will be 18,000.”

Whole Foods has a regional distribution center in Cheshire, and its new retail outlet will be its only store between Waterbury and Milford, Martelli said.

Decades ago, Cheshire and Southington were trying to build the Apple Valley Mall around the location of Stone Bridge Crossing. That deal never came together, and was abandoned after Waterbury put up its Brass Mill Center. As recently as 10 years ago, the Tanger chain was eying  Cheshire for an outlet store center of more than 500,000 square feet, but scrapped that plan in favor of building at Foxwoods.

Some longtime Cheshire residents are pleased with how it all turned out, since malls and numerous outlet centers have been suffering financially. The Stonebridge Crossing project is a bit closer in nature to The Shops at Evergreen Walk, an upscale retail center in South Windsor where developers have been adding apartments within walking distance.

Gilchrist said the Stonebridge Crossing model’s commercial element offers another feature to residential buyers.

“Cheshire is a desirable town and it’s an easy commute with future access to great retail,” he said.

The company’s marketing pitch emphasizes that, saying “A convenient location offers endless restaurants nearby, myriad shopping options and easy commuting routes.”

Developers are setting aside some acreage as open space, and will be putting in community walking paths.

Gilchrist said most townhouses there sell for under $600,000, while the carriage homes go for $775,000 to $850,000. Solar panels installed in roofs will help constrain the homeower association fees, he said. Buyers range from empty-nesters to young professionals, according to the company.

“The secret for us is we’re production builders You do well what you do often; we have extremely well thought-out homes and we build them over and over agin,” he said. “But we never build the same house twice: Buyers choose their cabinets, their floors, their doorknobs.”

CT has as many as 8,000 lead service lines used in public water systems. In a wealthy town too.

Andrew Brown | CT Mirror, Renata Daou, Shahrzad Rasekh 

When Jarvis Parker was looking to buy a house in Waterbury in late 2019, he had several basic criteria.

He wanted to avoid properties with leaking roofs and flooded basements. And he needed a place with enough space for himself, his daughter and his now 4-year-old grandson.

The modest two-bedroom home that Parker eventually purchased in Waterbury’s East End checked all of those boxes.

Five years later, however, he’s confronting a problem he never saw coming: a potentially toxic water line. Waterbury’s East End

Parker was informed this year that a small pipe known as a service line, which connects his house to the larger water main that runs under the street, could be made of lead.

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The news stunned Parker, a disabled military veteran. He was so concerned about the water line and what it could do to his family’s health that he stopped using the tap water until he could purchase a filter to install on his kitchen sink.

“I got things going on that the doctors can’t even figure out,” Parker said. “And now you tell me that I’ve got bad water, lead water coming in?”

“That right there really scared me,” he added.

Home builders and water utilities were banned in the mid-1980s from using lead plumbing in order to prevent the toxic metal from leaching into tap water and poisoning children and adults.

But as Parker and thousands of people across Connecticut recently learned, there are a significant number of lead service lines installed before 1986 still supplying homes, apartments and other properties in the state.

New data obtained by The Connecticut Mirror shows there could be as many as 8,000 lead service lines still in use in public water systems throughout the state — though that number is likely to change as water utilities continue to inspect basements, unearth pipes and comb through century-old records to verify how much lead remains in the ground.

The data provides the first public look at how many people in Connecticut could be consuming water that travels through lead lines. And it highlights how that aging infrastructure is not distributed equally throughout the state.

A majority of the suspected lead lines are located in lower-income neighborhoods in Bridgeport, Willimantic, Middletown, New London and Waterbury, places that have significant Black and Hispanic populations and are designated by the state as environmental justice communities.

Still, Connecticut’s wealthier suburbs were not spared entirely. More than 1,500 lead lines are also suspected in Greenwich, one of the state’s wealthiest enclaves.

The push to identify lead service lines in Connecticut is the result of a new federal regulation implemented in the aftermath of the Flint water crisis.

That federal rule, which was finalized in late 2024, requires public water utilities across the country — both large and small — to create an inventory of every lead service line in their systems and to replace all of those pipes within the next decade.

The success of that mission, however, could depend on whether the new federal regulation can survive a legal challenge filed by the country’s largest water utility association and possible efforts by President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to roll back the new rule.

A team of CT Mirror reporters spent more than six months reviewing records, analyzing data, knocking on doors and talking to residents and experts in order to understand the scope of the problem in Connecticut.

While it is not yet known how Connecticut compares to other parts of the country, the numbers clearly show the state has a lot of work to do before all of the aging lead pipes are out of the ground.

The data on the lead lines was contained in hundreds of reports assembled by the state’s water utilities and submitted to the Connecticut Department of Public Health, which regulates drinking water safety.

The properties flagged in that data include a variety of locations that serve young children, who are at the greatest risk of developmental delays from lead poisoning.

The CT Mirror found examples where in-home daycares, a local Boys and Girls Club and older elementary schools were listed among the properties with suspected lead lines. That includes Waterbury’s Margaret M. Generali and Frank Regan elementary schools, which predominantly serve students of color.

The number of lead lines located in minority communities was expected. In fact, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicted much of the country’s leftover lead plumbing would be found in lower-income and minority neighborhoods, where there is older housing stock and a lack of investment.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal referenced that reality during a press conference in New London last year, arguing that the state and federal government had a “moral obligation” to remove every remaining lead service line.

“There is a real environmental justice issue here. It’s the dark side of this problem,” Blumenthal said while brandishing a lead pipe that had just been pulled from a home. “Much of this danger is determined by the ZIP code where a child lives, and all too often it’s a ZIP code that affects children of color.”

Questions and concerns

The leaders of some of Connecticut’s largest water utilities said that further inspections and investigations will be required before they can get a true count of how many lead service lines remain in their systems.

They also emphasized that they treat their water with what are known as corrosion inhibitors — compounds that help prevent service lines and older plumbing from leaching significant amounts of lead into people’s drinking water.

Even so, several engineers and former regulators interviewed for this story warned that the aging lines pose a risk to people’s health. And they noted that treating the water supply does not guarantee that lead from older service lines won’t end up in the tap water. That’s especially true if the pipes are disturbed during sidewalk and road repairs or when the water in a building isn’t used every day, like in the cases of schools and daycares.

“Corrosion control does help reduce the amount of lead that gets into water. It does not prevent lead from getting into water,” said Elin Betanzo, a professional engineer who helped uncover the Flint water crisis in 2014, which set off a public reckoning over lead contamination in drinking water.

You can’t see, taste or smell lead in water. So the best way to ensure lead service lines aren’t poisoning people, Betanzo said, is to remove the pipes from the ground.

That’s exactly what the new federal drinking water regulations, which were enacted under President Joe Biden’s administration, are expected to do.

The EPA set a deadline late last year that requires any water utility serving at least 25 people to identify and remove every lead service line within the next 10 years — a monumental undertaking that is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars.

In the meantime, utilities in Connecticut are sending out notices advising customers with confirmed or suspected lead lines to purchase water filters or to flush their sinks for several minutes before consuming the water.

Those notices have ignited concerns and sowed confusion among some Connecticut residents, like Parker. The Waterbury resident doesn’t understand why he is just learning that the water line for his home is potentially made of lead.

“How can you give certain people lead-filled water and not even come and test the water or do nothing?” Parker asked.

“Who’s checking? Who’s doing rounds and telling us?” he added.

Gaps in communication

The CT Mirror spent months knocking on doors at properties with suspected lead service lines, and the reactions from residents at those locations varied from town to town and street to street.

Some said they’d recently been notified that their service line might need to be replaced, while others said they’ve known for years that their property was supplied by a lead service line.

Bill Flaherty, a Willimantic resident, said he learned about the lead line supplying his house in the southeast end of town after utility crews unearthed it during a water main replacement years ago. But he said utility officials repeatedly told him not to worry about it because the water was being treated to prevent corrosion.

Flaherty said he began to question that, however, after he received a notice in the mail last year informing him that utility officials wanted to replace his service line and the more than 300 other lead lines that remained in town.

Denise Deleon, a 48-year-old Waterbury resident, said she did not receive a notice that her apartment had a suspected lead service line, and she would remember seeing that type of information, since she has a history of dealing with lead exposure.

Years ago, while she was living in New York City, Deleon said her daughter began struggling to concentrate in school, and doctors found elevated levels of lead in her blood. As a result, Deleon said her family moved out of their home in the Bronx to prevent her daughter from being further exposed.

While her daughter is now grown, Deleon was troubled to learn that her community may be home to hundreds of lead water lines. She worries what effect those lines could have on the kids she sees playing in her neighborhood.

“I see a lot of children around here, and I’m concerned because I went through that,” said Deleon. “I think about the children around here and if it’s going to affect them the same way it affected my daughter.”

The gaps in communication surrounding lead service lines did not surprise Arthur Denze Sr., a lifelong Waterbury resident. People in Waterbury, he said, have been dealing with environmental hazards for decades, including concerns about air pollution and other contamination from old industrial sites.

“Years ago, we fought tooth and nail against a lot of companies coming in and polluting the area,” said Denze, 87, head of a council that represents the city’s neighborhood associations. “I used to get out of work at night, and a smokestack was sending plumes up. You could see it all the way down the valley. We probably have some of the highest asthma rates in the state.”

He said the city’s water department could be more proactive in informing residents about lead lines and potential health risks that come along with them.

“That should be discussed within the city. It’s a big item. God knows how much they used [lead lines] years ago,” Denze said.

Bradley Malay, the superintendent of Waterbury’s Water Department, said the city sent out notices to properties with suspected lead lines earlier this year. It also provided information about lead service lines to every water customer in the utility’s most recent water quality report.

Malay emphasized that the city is in the very early stages of identifying potential lead service lines, and he said it was largely relying on historical records, which can sometimes be unreliable or out of date.

The city, Malay added, is currently developing a multi-year plan for how to replace the lead lines it finds, and he said the city intends to prioritize line replacements at schools and similar locations first.

‘What do we have to do to protect ourselves?’

Many of the properties that CT Mirror reporters visited for this story were older, three-story walkup apartments and brick duplexes built in the early 1900s — places where tenants are also at heightened risk of exposure to lead paint.

The EPA published research in recent years that found census tracts where lead service lines are located often have higher percentages of renters, low-income residents and people of color.

Federal officials also produced studies that suggest the owners of rental properties are not always as engaged in the conversations and activities surrounding lead service line replacements, partly because they are not the ones drinking the water.

Aquarion Water Co of CT-Greenwich lead service lines. Source: Department of Public Health, The Lead and Copper Rule Revisions • Map: Renata Daou | CT Mirror

That has not been a problem in Greenwich, however, where most of the suspected lead lines are supplying single-family homes.

The news that hundreds of properties in Greenwich could contain a lead service line drew significant attention in the town, where the median household income is $180,000 per year and more than 60% of the housing is owner-occupied.

Jill Boullin, a homeowner in Greenwich’s southwest corner, said she was surprised by the letter she received from Aquarion Water late last year identifying her home as one the properties with a suspected lead line.

“The next thought was, what do we have to do to protect ourselves?” said Boullin, who has two young children, ages 2 and 5.

Bouillin, who closed on her house in 2024, said she quickly contacted the town’s state-certified laboratory to purchase a water testing kit. But by that point, she said, the lab had already been swamped by other homeowners who were seeking to verify that their water was safe to drink.

“They were overrun with the amount of people calling,” said Bouillin, who is now weighing whether to purchase a water filtration system for her and her family.

Warnings

Many of the lead service lines flagged in Connecticut have been in place for more than a century.

The data collected by water utilities shows many were installed between the 1870s and early 1930s, long before the federal ban on lead plumbing.

Lead was used during that time frame because it’s pliable, which made it ideal for snaking under sidewalks and into basements. It is also durable, which is why the federal government estimates there are still between 6 million to 10 million lead service lines in the ground nationwide.

“Lead service lines and lead bearing plumbing have basically been forced on people,” said Yanna Lambrinidou, a co-founder of the national nonprofit Campaign for Lead Free Water. “People did not go to the store and choose lead service lines.”

“Lead lines in many cases were imposed through local plumbing codes and local laws that made them mandatory, or that made them at least one of the acceptable materials until they were banned,” she added. “People were never really told what the health risks would be in essentially using a lead straw to pull in water to drink and cook with.”

Public health officials and advocates warned for decades about the threat those forgotten lead lines could pose to human health. There were high-profile examples over the years, including in Washington, D.C., that highlighted the damage that can be done to children and communities when lead service lines are allowed to corrode and poison people’s drinking water.

But it wasn’t until after the Flint water crisis that federal officials acted by requiring utilities to identify and replace all of the remaining lead service lines in the country.

Flint was a worst-case scenario. Tens of thousands of children and adults were exposed to high levels of lead after the city switched the source of its drinking water to the Flint River and failed to properly treat the water to prevent corrosion in lead service lines and other plumbing.

In the end, the crisis resulted in a massive spike in the number of children in Flint with elevated levels of lead in their blood.

Betanzo, who now runs a company that consults on drinking water safety, said Flint is a dramatic example, but it is also an indicator of what can happen in any community where lead service lines are allowed to remain in the ground.

“Every time there’s lead in the pipes, there is a risk of lead in the water,” Betanzo said. “There is no need for anyone to drink lead in their water.”

“The issue in Flint is that we used children as our warning system,” she added. “And once you test it in children, it’s too late.”

A quiet threat

Lead is not like iron and zinc, which people need trace amounts of. There is no safe level of lead in the human body.

In adults, lead can affect kidney function and can contribute to cardiovascular problems. And in children, elevated lead levels can cause developmental delays, learning difficulties and behavioral problems.

When someone swallows lead particles, the metal accumulates in the body. It gets stored over time in the blood, bones and organs.

Lead-based paint, which was widely used on homes built before the late 1970s, is the biggest contributor to lead poisoning in children throughout the United States.

More than 66,000 children in Connecticut were tested for lead in 2023, the most recent year that data is available. And more than 1,600 of them had lead in their blood above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, which is the new reference level for when cases get flagged.

Local health officials also performed inspections on 96 different properties that year in an attempt to identify the source of the lead poisoning cases. None of those cases was attributed to lead in water.

But public health experts said lead service lines represent another potential source of lead exposure, and the EPA estimates that drinking water can make up 20% or more of a person’s total exposure to lead.

Dr. Carl Baum, a pediatrician who has treated lead poisoning cases in Connecticut for more than 20 years, said infants who are consuming baby formula that is mixed with tap water are at the greatest risk from lead water lines. Another vulnerable population is pregnant women.

Baum, the director of the lead poisoning treatment center at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, said the only foolproof way to protect infants and other people from lead service lines is to eliminate the source of potential exposure.

Lead exposure, Baum explained, is often a silent disease, meaning parents and doctors don’t realize there is a problem until lab testing finds elevated levels of lead in a child’s blood. In Connecticut, the state has a universal testing requirement.

All children between nine months and 35 months must be tested annually for lead in their blood. There are further testing requirements for children who are at heightened risk.

“Unfortunately, we use kids as biological monitors,” Baum said. “We are allowing kids to go into homes where there is a probability that there is lead either in the water or in the paint and we wait until they get a lead level checked and then we say, ‘Oh, this kid is lead poisoned.’”

David Cash, the former regional administrator for the EPA in New England, said the quiet threat that lead poses to children is why the Biden administration adopted regulations that require lead service lines to be removed within the next decade.

“If we care about children’s health and neurological development and success in school, then we should care very much about this,” Cash said.

“You know, having a kid who grows up with full mental and neurological abilities is great for that kid and great for their family,” he said. “But it’s also great for the community, great for the economy.”

‘We saw the writing on the wall’

Connecticut’s community water systems, which collectively serve more than three quarters of the state’s population, are at varying stages of pinpointing and eliminating their lead service lines.

In New London, contractors are already in the process of ripping out and replacing more than 500 lead service lines identified in the city. The city was celebrated in recent years — including at an event at the Biden White House — as one of the most proactive municipalities in the country when it comes to addressing its aging lead lines.

“We saw the writing on the wall after Flint that this was going to become a major problem,” said Joseph Lanzafame, New London’s Director of Public Utilities.

Other utilities, however, are just beginning to research how much lead remains in their systems.

Some of the state’s water systems told state regulators late last year that they were not sure what most of their service lines are made of.

The Southington Water Department, for instance, classified 89% of its service lines as “lead status unknown.” The Manchester Water Department listed 81% of its service lines in the same category. And in Meriden, the city’s water division, said it was uncertain about 84% of its roughly 20,000 service lines.

Dr. Manisha Juthani, Connecticut’s public health commissioner, said those cases highlight the difficulty many utilities are facing, especially when there isn’t historical documentation about each service line.

“For some, it’s very challenging,” Juthani said. “They’re going back to records — literally, paper cards and things — from the 1800s.”

William Norton, Meriden’s director of public utilities, said his team recently asked property owners to help document what their water lines are made of by taking photographs of the pipes where they enter people’s homes. And the utility’s employees are excavating several hundred service lines this year to confirm whether they contain lead.

Many utilities are also using computer modeling and machine learning to help predict where lead service lines are located, based on the age of a home or whether other properties on that street have a confirmed lead line.

Officials with the Metropolitan District Commission and Regional Water Authority, which provide drinking water to more than 800,000 people in and around Hartford and New Haven, said they do not expect to find a large number of lead lines in their systems based on the modeling they’ve done up to this point.

The MDC, which serves the Hartford region, told state regulators that it was confident that roughly 86% of its service lines were lead free. And the Regional Water Authority, which covers all of New Haven, similarly reported that at least 93% of its more than 125,000 service lines did not contain lead.

Meanwhile, Aquarion Water, which serves a large portion of Fairfield County, is estimating it could find nearly 4,000 lead lines in Bridgeport and surrounding towns, based on its current projections.

A financial burden

Identifying the lead lines is difficult enough, but utility officials said replacing all those pipes is likely to be an even bigger feat.

In many systems, water customers own at least part of the service lines — meaning utilities need permission from each property owner before they can begin pulling lead from the ground.

Utility officials said tracking down hundreds or thousands of property owners is an enormous challenge, especially in cities where there are a substantial number of rental properties and absentee landlords.

But the biggest impediment to replacing all of Connecticut’s lead service lines is likely to be money. The EPA estimated in 2019 that it could cost roughly $4,700 on average to replace a single service line.

Lanzafame, who is overseeing New London’s lead service line program, said the price has been even higher in his experience.

Part of the cost of replacing lead lines in New London is being covered by a $6.9 million federal loan, a portion of which will be forgiven. Without that assistance, Lanzafame said, it would be far more difficult for the city to complete the work.

“It is a big financial burden. I think that is one of the biggest challenges, especially being a distressed community,” Lanzafame said. “Without the grants and the funding that we’re getting from the federal government, we wouldn’t be able to carry out this project.”

Federal lawmakers and the Biden administration set aside more than $15 billion through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help utilities across the country to identify and replace lead service lines. Connecticut received $99 million from that pot of money over the past three years, which the state is making available to water utilities through grants and low-interest loans.

But some groups are estimating the price tag for replacing every lead line nationwide could be up to $45 billion or even $90 billion — meaning some replacement projects may not receive federal support.

Lambrinidou, of the Campaign for Lead Free Water, said utilities cannot rely on individual property owners to pay out-of-pocket for the cost of replacing their service lines. If they do, she said, those lead lines will likely remain in the ground.

Many Connecticut utilities told CT Mirror they intend to cover the entire cost of replacement, but in order to do so, they may need to raise utility rates. The Connecticut legislature passed a bill this session that would allow investor-owned utilities, like Aquarion and the Connecticut Water Company, to create a surcharge on people’s water bills to cover the cost of lead removal projects.

Lambrinidou, an affiliate faculty member at Virginia Tech’s Department of Science, Technology and Society, said that is also problematic. It would be far more equitable for the federal government to pick up the tab for service line replacements, she said.

“In many communities, it’s going to be the people — the victims — who are going to be required to pay, at least partially,” Lambrindou said. “If that’s not an environmental injustice, I don’t know what is.”