A 164-acre cluster of properties along Hopmeadow Street in
Simsbury has sold for $6.25 million to a local developer planning a
120-room Holiday Inn Express as part of a broader mixed-use
“Olympic village”-type development.
According to deeds recorded Nov. 4, Adam Westhaver of
Simsbury purchased five parcels from a limited liability company affiliated
with industrial real estate firm Indus Realty.
The parcels include 54.2 acres at 1503 Hopmeadow St., where
Westhaver recently received town approval to build the hotel, which will be
located just north of the International Skating Center of Connecticut.
Westhaver also partially owns the roughly 95,000-square-foot skating complex,
which hosts public skating and competitive events and serves as home ice for
numerous youth and high school hockey teams.
In addition to the hotel, Westhaver plans to develop the
1503 Hopmeadow St. property with athletics-oriented businesses, restaurants,
retail and other uses that complement the neighboring skating center. He
envisions a network of trails connecting “New England village”-style buildings.
“We want to make sure it fits into an Olympic village-style
of development,” Westhaver said. “We don’t want any strip malls on the
property. This is a pretty special community. We want to make sure we develop
it the right way.”
Westhaver declined to estimate construction costs for the
hotel — a project he aims to launch early next year and complete in two to
three years. He said the entire redevelopment represents an investment of “tens
of millions” of dollars.
He plans to construct buildings tailored to tenants he is
now recruiting. If ongoing talks with prospective tenants succeed, the site
could be fully built out within five years — though it might take up to a
decade, he said.
The skating center alone already draws thousands of visitors
for tournaments and special events, often from beyond Connecticut’s borders.
“We had an event a few months ago that drew 6,500 in one
weekend,” Westhaver said.
Westhaver does not yet have a definitive plan for the
remaining 109.8 acres of former farmland. Much of that land has a high water
table, which makes construction difficult. He is considering several
possibilities, including passive recreation areas, parkland, sports fields or a
combination of those uses.
Rich Correia, an executive vice president with RM Bradley,
helped market the property and secured the buyer.
Three unions bolt CT AFL-CIO after failure to oust leader
Three building-trade unions representing more than 10,000
laborers, heavy equipment operators, plumbers and pipefitters have left the
Connecticut AFL-CIO after a failed effort to oust Ed Hawthorne as the president
of the state labor federation.
The leaders of two of the unions, the Laborers and Operating
Engineers, confirmed the decision to disaffiliate with the AFL-CIO but declined
comment on what led to the challenge and the split. The leader of the third,
Pipefitters Local 777, could not be reached.
Keith R. Brothers, the leader of the Connecticut Laborers
District Council, said his union formally disaffiliated on Oct. 1, a month
after a slate opposing Hawthorne and other top leaders dropped their challenge.
The slate was led by Joelyn Leon, who was the AFL-CIO’s political director
until recently, and included Brothers.
Brothers also is the president of the State Buildings Trade
Council and was general vice president of the AFL-CIO. The Building Trades
Council will remain affiliated with the AFL-CIO, but Brothers and an Operating
Engineers official, Tiana Ocasio, will be replaced Friday as AFL-CIO
officers.
What the changes mean for the labor movement and how it was
playing at a two-day AFL-CIO convention was unclear. Hawthorne declined an
interview request, and the convention, where he is expected to be reelected
before adjournment Friday, was closed to the press.
But he suggested in an emailed statement that differences
were inevitable within such a large, diverse federation.
“The Connecticut labor movement has a vast and diverse
membership — from nurses and teachers to bus drivers and machinists to fire
fighters and construction workers,” Hawthorne said. “While we may not always
agree on every issue, every union in our state remains committed to fighting
for workers’ rights and advancing policies that improve the lives of working
people. And we understand that every union must also make the choices they feel
are best for their members.”
Tensions within the AFL-CIO are not new. The building trades
nearly bolted four years ago, complaining that the federation dominated by
public-sector unions was not always supportive of its issues.
One of the issues then was a belief they were not adequately
supported as they lobbied for Gov. Ned Lamont’s unsuccessful effort to return
tolls to pay for infrastructure projects that produce construction jobs. The
industry and the trade unions spent $1.5 million lobbying for the tolls.
The building trades have maintained cordial relations with
Lamont, whose administration has agreed to project-labor agreements on major
projects and backed the expansion of the State Pier in New London, which has
been important to off-shore wind projects and their union jobs.
Hawthorne’s relationship with the Democratic governor, who
is about to launch a campaign for a third term, has been fraught at times. He
blistered Lamont after the governor vetoed an AFL-CIO priority: a bill that
would have provided jobless benefits to strikers.
“Gov. Lamont has failed to hear the voices of thousands of
working people who urged him to stand with striking workers,” Hawthorne said
then. “The governor had a choice — stand with corporate CEOs or stand with
working people. Unfortunately, he chose corporate CEOs.”
One of the unions that backed Hawthorne against the
challenge slate was SEIU 1199, whose president, Rob Baril, also has been among
the more aggressive union critics of Lamont over his opposition to a more
progressive tax code and greater state spending.
Baril confirmed he backed Hawthorne but downplayed its
significance in ending the challenge. “I think reports of my importance in Ed’s
retaining leadership are greatly exaggerated,” he said.
Baril is a member of the Connecticut AFL-CIO executive
board, but he was on union business out of state and not attending the
AFL-CIO convention. He said he had no insights on what was driving the
departures.
“I haven’t been following closely who’s left and who hasn’t,
and I don’t really have a strong opinion on it,” he said.
Baril’s parent union, the Service Employees International,
has its own rocky history with the national AFL-CIO. It left the federation in
2005 and became part of a short-lived Change to Win coalition that promised to
be more aggressive than the AFL-CIO in organizing new members. SEIU later
returned to the fold.
Hawthorne comes from the public sector: He was an AFSCME
official and lawyer at the state Department of Labor when he won his first
term, running on a slate with Shellye Davis, an AFT official who represented
paraprofessionals in the Hartford schools.
Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, a retired UAW executive who
is co-chair of the legislature’ Labor and Public Employees Committee, predicted
that the building trades will remain an important voice on labor issues,
even if they are outside the AFL-CIO.
Daniel McInerney, the president of the Fairfield County
Building Trades, was expected to take Brothers’ seat in the AFL-CIO leadership,
leaving the trades with a voice inside the federation.
In his statement, Hawthorne expressed optimism that the
unions still will work for common goals.
“We all understand the moment we’re in and the enormous
challenges we all face,” Hawthorne said. “To build a strong labor movement to
meet this moment means we have to find a way to work together. I’m hopeful we
will be able to do that.”
Groton Voters Approve $14.3 million bond referendum for Athletic Stadium Improvement
GROTON – Voters overwhelmingly approved the bond
referendum for a $14.3 million upgrade of the athletic stadium at Fitch High
School. The measure drew 3916 yes votes and 1758 voted no, according to
Groton’s registrar of voters.
“I’m grateful to the voters for passing the
referendum. This means we’ll be able to replace aging facilities with a
modern stadium that is accessible to all,” said Town Manager John Burt.
The stadium is part of a $56 million multiphase project that
would also upgrade the town’s athletic fields at Sutton Park and the property
that holds Claude Chester Elementary School, which closed in 2021.
The project “Athletic Field Improvements” is touted by
Groton School District and many residents as critical as existing facilities
have been degrading due to age, and the need for facilities including playing
fields, public bathrooms and bleachers, has grown with an increased number of
athletic programs and teams over the years.
Voters interviewed at the polling sites on Election Day said
the project strikes a chord. Some are parents with children in the school
district involved in school athletics. Others are community members who say the
athletic fields are a shared space that the entire community uses.
Martha Gilmore, a Groton resident, has a 16 and
13-year-old, enrolled in the public schools, and voted yes on the bond
referendum. Her son’s marching band practices on another field, Gilmore said,
because there’s a lack of field space.
“Taxes are going to go up $15 to $30 a year anyway, whether
we get a football field or not. They’re going to find some way to spend it,”
she said. “If taxes go up it’s going at least it’s toward something that’s
going to mean something for the area-like parents can use the track.”