Flood control work, demolition to change Meriden's downtown
MERIDEN — One of two downtown eyesores will come down this
spring after the City Council voted Monday to include $2.6 million in its
capital improvement budget to demolish
116 Cook Ave. 0:30
The spending is offset by a $2 million state grant, leaving
the city to pay $600,000. Monday's council vote allows the city to hire a
contractor that can begin the demolition as early as February. The costs
includes surveys, borings, easement acquisitions, engineerinig related
equipment, administrative, legal and other related fees, according to the
council resolution.
The council was also given a presentation on the bridge work
and channel deepening and widening in the Cook Avenue, Cooper, Butler and
Hanover streets areas that will bring sweeping changes to the flood prone
neighborhood. Phase one of the project is funded at $16.8 million. LaRosa
Construction began work in October.
"This is a heavily industrialized area," said
Kevin Flood project manager for Fuss & O'Neill. "We're going to
provide additional (flood) protection for 1,700 residents, and 40 buildings
will be removed from the floodplain as a result of this project."
This is the second time Meriden has tied flood control to
downtown improvement. The first project was the 14-acre Meriden Green that
daylighted and dredged three brooks and used natural landscaping to fix chronic
flooding. The Green has won more than a dozen awards for engineering and
design.
The latest project consists of rebuilding three bridges and
creating a waterfront linear trail that links to the Meriden Green. The
demolition of 116 Cook Ave. clears the way for a planned new senior center in
2028, when the flood control project is expected to be completed.
“Once the City Council agreed on a plan for the senior
center (and) Health Department combination, we found out that there was
additional work that needed to be done to mitigate some of the flooding and
brownfield abatement,” said Council Majority Leader Sonya Jelks.
Phase two consists of channel improvements. Costs range from
$10.6 million to $39 million based on a variety of factors. Site engineers
proposed relocating the 23,000 cubic yards of dredged soil to the 116 Cook Ave.
site to elevate it 4 feet out of the flood zone. However, the soil needs to be
tested for hazards before engineers can determine whether it will be trucked
out of state, at a significantly higher cost.
Representatives from Fuss & O'Neill told councilors they
anticipate high levels of ash and other pollutants, but the presence of lead
will determine if it is hazardous. Engineer Dan Jahne estimated
"widespresd polluted fill" and about 30 percent of
contamination.
Much of the area was home to the International Silver Co.
and other manufacturers that rerouted the brook and filled land to build on.
The solution involves capping, or rebuilding structures or paving on the
property. In the case of green spaces or a linear trail, several layers of
clean soil will act as a buffer, the engineers said.
"In any brownfield project, your goal is to balance
soil that goes off site," Jahne said. "The goal is to create a space
for it to go. We're looking at it to balance the grade. Your can potentially
reuse that soil on the project and realize a cost savings."
There are no longre sites in state for contaminated soil,
and the further it travels, the more it costs, he said. Prices can range from
$150 for clean soil to $700 per ton for hazardous soil. Using the dredged soil
will raise 116 Cook Ave. 4 feet from its current elevation.
Despite taking a significant number of properties out of the
floodplain, an existing stormwater pipe that runs below 116 Cook Ave. to Harbor
Brook adds a risk it could flood again, engineers said. The situation can't be
remedied without a significant study on the stormwater system in the
neighborhood.
City officials had questions about the omission of details
in the project that delayed
the senior center project. The engineers said they were not part of that
team and didn't have an answer.
Mayor Kevin Scarpati asked why there was a change in the
timeline from a 2026 completion date to 2027. He was told the deadline included
a work stoppage in the winter.
"I'm going to be an optimist and say that there is
going to be work done in the winter," Scarpati said.
Mixed use retail leads growth in Connecticut, even as some malls fall on hard times
Amid ongoing store closings that plague Connecticut's retail
environment, particularly in mall locations, there continues to be some
bright spots in the market across the state.
Last year ended with four Connecticut malls in Enfield, Meriden,
Waterford and Waterbury losing
tenants, a result of retailers either reducing their number of locations, going
out of business or relocating stores.
With high vacancy levels in those malls, retail and commercial retail experts have said 2025 could be the year that one of the malls shuts down or more likely, begins the process to redevelop for some other use.
"Malls are large plots of real estate that are dying," said John Boyd, whose Florida-based company evaluates commercial locations for companies. "Landlords want to lock a retailers for a multi-year lease but every year there are fewer and fewer of those types of retailers out there willing to do that. Anything short of that is just trying to keep the lights on."
As malls like Waterbury's
Brass Mill Center, the
Crystal Mall in Waterford, the
Enfield Mall and the Meriden
Mall struggle to fill vacancies and remain relevant, the idea of
mixing residential and retail spaces, commonly known as mixed use development,
continues to grow.
By the end of 2025, the retail component of a mixed use
complex in Cheshire, near the town's border with Southington, will be
open. The Shops at Stonebridge will be anchored by a Whole Foods Market, a
Barnes & Noble bookstore, a Saybrook Home furnishings store, as well as a
pet store, other
retailers and several restaurants.
The residential components of the complex will include
apartments and high end condominiums. The 300-unit Riverpointe apartment
complex is currently under construction as part of the mixed use development in
Cheshire, as is the Reserve at Stonebridge Crossing, a 140-unit development of
townhomes and carriage houses.
Further north in Newington is a mixed use complex located
along the Berlin Turnpike on land that was formerly owned by Eversource
energy. The
retail component, Meadow Commons, is complete, but is still recruiting
tenants including a national grocer to fill a 40,000 square foot
supermarket space.
The residential component of Meadow Commons is just a short
stroll away in a luxury apartment complex known as Millard at Meadow Commons.
Boyd said part of the reason for the popularity of mixed use
developments growing in Connecticut is related to the demand for more housing
in the state.
Gov. Ned "Lamont has said creating affordable housing
is a priority and so it makes perfect sense to repurpose dying malls into
places for people to live," he said. "Elected officials around the
country are winning or losing elections based on their ability to increase
affordable housing. That is the mandate they have."
David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac
University's School of Business, said while well-known retail brands are
gravitating toward Connecticut's more successful malls and mixed use
developments, small retailers are starting to make a comeback in Connecticut.
"These are local retailers that provide niche benefits
in terms of service," Cadden said.
Burt Flickinger, managing director of the New York
City-based retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group said Connecticut
remains an attractive market for both national and regional retailers, as well
as small local businesses
"It has the ideal combination: High population density,
a high level of consumer intelligence and a middle-to-high income
shopper," Flickinger said.
Wayne Pesce, president of the Connecticut Food Association,
said he doesn't foresee a great deal of expansion in the number of supermarket
chains serving Connecticut or the number of existing privately-owned grocers.
"I think you might see some shuffling around, with
existing chains opening new stores and closing some," Pesce said. "I
don't expect a lot of growth, more like one step up and one step back. It's a
difficult environment with a lot of intense competition."
One thing that could prevent a more robust expansion of the
grocery store sector in Connecticut during 2025 is some negative U.S. Census
Bureau data that came out at the end of 2024, he said.
The latest data showed that Connecticut lost 117 people each
week to out-migration. Compare that with the New England state of Maine, which
had the best in-bound migration, adding 102 people each week. South Carolina
was tops in the nation in terms of in-bound migration, adding 1,309 people each
week.
Pesce said he will be watching how two potential expansion
efforts in the competitive Connecticut supermarket environment play out this
year.
Upscale grocer Wegmans is expected to open its first
Connecticut store in Norwalk in the second quarter of 2025. Pesce said how
successful that store is could dictate whether the family-owned chain builds
another location in Connecticut.
"Right now, they are just dipping their toe in the
water here," he said. "I don't think they came to Connecticut just to
build one store, but how well they do in Norwalk could determine whether they
build a whole bunch of stores along the Interstate 95 corridor."
Pesce said he is also interested to see how the efforts to
bring a Stew Leonard's supermarket to Orange play out over the remainder
of 2025.
The chain's president and chief executive officer,
Stew Leonard Jr., fought for 14 years to open a store at 161 Marsh Hill
Road in Orange, before giving up on his plan in 2010. Now, he is looking to
open a store at the Colonial Commons shopping plaza at the intersection of
Indian River and Marsh Hill roads, but that
effort has bogged down in a dispute over what the chain would pay for the space
he wants the store to move into.
Stew Leonard's, which was founded in Norwalk, has
Connecticut grocery stores in Newington and Danbury. It also operates
three Connecticut liquor stores.
While Pesce said he doesn't expect significant growth
in the number of grocery retailers in Connecticut, Flickinger said he expects
to see further supermarket growth in the state. The growth, he said, will come
from both supermarket chains that already have a presence in Connecticut,
like Aldi and Big Y, as well as new players coming into the state, like
discount grocer Lidl and Sprouts Farmers Market, a Phoenix,
Arizona chain that has been expanding in middle Atlantic states like New
Jersey and Pennsylvania."
Flickinger said he also expect the nation's two dominant
warehouse clubs, BJ's Warehouse and Costco, to add a few more stores in
Connecticut, including at one of Connecticut's under-utilized malls with high
vacancy levels. BJ's Warehouse has 13 stores in the state while Costco has
eight.
Flickinger said the two warehouse clubs typically like to
keep each of their stores between three-to-five miles apart in densely
populated areas, and between 15 and 25 miles apart in more suburban
areas.
The two warehouse clubs have made inroads against Stop &
Shop, which is Connecticut largest supermarket chain, because the
Massachusetts-based grocer has switched from having meat cutters in its stores
to having the work done at centralized facilities.
"Costco is doing $1 million a week, just in the meat
department alone," Flickinger said.
CT Water replaces nearly 18 miles of water main in 2024
Clinton-based utility company Connecticut Water announced
Monday that it replaced more than 93,500 feet, or roughly 18 miles, of water
main in 2024.
The work consisted of 22 projects in 18 municipalities, at a
cost of about $44.5 million, according to Connecticut Water.
Some of the pipes replaced were more than 120 years old,
including one in Killingly with a date of 1905 on it, the utility said.
Fire hydrants were also replaced as part of the initiative.
The effort was part of the utility’s Water Infrastructure
and Conservation Adjustment program.
Connecticut Water said its goal is to replace 1% of its
nearly 1,800 miles of water main every year. It prioritizes aging or
under-sized water mains.
Among the projects in 2024 were replacement of the entire
Beechwood distribution system in Killingworth and the completion of all phases
of replacement in downtown Naugatuck.
Also, more than 10,000 feet of water main was replaced in
Guilford.
The program is funded by a semiannual interim rate
adjustment on customers’ bills.
Connecticut Water provides water service to more than
106,000 customers in 60 Connecticut towns, and wastewater services in
Southbury.