Bad Bunny concert highlights need for XL Center improvements: 'Logistically, it was difficult'

Liese Klein

Reggaeton star Bad Bunny not only brought 14,000 fans and a financial windfall to Hartford's XL Center early this month — he also brought 33 trucks of gear. 

Those trucks had to navigate Asylum Street and the XL Center’s out-of-date loading docks, highlighting the need for a $100-million-plus upgrade of the arena’s infrastructure so it can keep drawing top shows, the facility’s manager said on Thursday. 

“Logistically, it was difficult but on the other hand, they pulled it off,” said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, which manages the XL Center. “We're fighting antiquated electrical systems and elevators and roofs, so that's a dynamic we're in, trying to get through it.”

An XL upgrade is especially urgent as UConn seeks state funding for a planned $100 million renovation of Gampel Pavilion on its Storrs campus that could divert games from Hartford. 

OVG, XL’s operator, has been in talks with UConn on its planned project and its impact on Hartford games, along with promoters seeking modern venues for their shows. With pressure mounting, Freimuth said CRDA is pouring resources into getting XL renovations started despite a failed initial round of bids.

“It's gotten white-hot and it will be for the next six, eight months,” Freimuth said. 

State officials are also working to expand the funding for a comprehensive revamp of the XL Center after the first round of bids for the project came in far above the initial $100 million budget. The current funding allocated for the project can’t accommodate some of the needed improvements, Freimuth said. 

“We're walking the line between simply rebuilding the building and trying to build the business,” Freimuth said. “The governor did indicate he gives us a little bit more running room on the budget.” The budget crunch — due to higher construction costs and interest rates —  has forced the CRDA to scale back improvements to the loading docks, Freimuth said. “We're gonna have to try to figure out how to live with that operationally.”

The new plan for the XL renovations is scheduled to go out for bid on May 1, with bids coming in by the end of June.

Big-ticket shows and sports at the XL Center are key to enlivening Hartford’s downtown and sparking continued economic development, Mayor Arunan Arulampalam told the board on Thursday. The city is planning more events around XL shows and games like the successful  UConn Men's Basketball NCAA Championship victory parade on April 13. An estimated 60,000 fans attended the parade in downtown Hartford this year, up from 45,000 at 2023’s event.

The Bad Bunny show at the XL generated nearly $4 million in net earnings, and along with recent concerts by Andrea Bocelli and Nicky Minaj set new revenue and attendance records for the arena.

“The economic impact of getting XL filled more nights a week and bringing people into our city is  I think potentially huge,” Arulampalam said. “People are having a great experience in Hartford and hopefully coming back on days when there aren't shows or parades and just having a great time in our city.”

Danbury leaders scrap middle school in revised Career Academy plan due to high school overcrowding

Michael Gagne

DANBURY — The former Cartus Corp. building would be used solely as a high school and not for grades 6-8, if the Board of Education adopts school officials’ new plan for the building.

Officials’ original plan for the building on Apple Ridge Road was to establish a grade 6-12 program dubbed the Danbury Career Academy and house the Board of Education offices. The building that formerly housed the Cartus Corp. is slated to open in the 2025-26 school year, three years after city voters approved a $208 million education bonding package that included a $164 million plan for the school.

Leaders’ original plan sought to place 1,040 grades 9-12 students and 360 grades 6-8 school students in the building — serving a total of 1,400 students. 

Now, under the plan outlined by interim schools Superintendent Kara Casimiro Wednesday night, the building could serve 1,400 high school students instead. It would still house the district’s central administration.

Casimiro cited the immediate need to reduce Danbury High School’s severe overcrowding. At the same time, the city’s middle school enrollment has remained high, but has been manageable, Casimiro said. 

By narrowing the building’s grade level focus, educators would be able to introduce a new career pathway, clean energy and green design, into the larger citywide career academy program the district is launching with the building’s opening. With the addition of that program, the building would be home to three career academy programs. Officials previously proposed two.

The interim superintendent also cited a potential cost savings by narrowing the program’s scope to high school. Casimiro shared the findings with the Board of Education’s Sites and Facilities Committee.  

Casimiro cited projected middle school enrollment figures over the next eight years. Those enrollment numbers showed the building capacity for the city’s current middle schools can accommodate 2,824 students. The projections forecast 2,783 middle school students would be enrolled in the 2024-25 school year. The projections forecast an enrollment surge in the 2028-29 and 2029-30 school years, based on the fact that there is a large number of students currently enrolled in second grade who by then will be in middle school. After that peak, leaders expect enrollment will decline in both the 2030-31 and 2031-32 school years. 

Casimiro said educators “have since lived through the enrollment bubble” in the middle schools. Now that bubble is moving into Danbury High School. The city currently has a large population of second grade students who will enter the city’s middle schools in the 2027-28 school year, spurring what leaders expect will be a three year long bubble during that time. Projections showed middle school enrollment could exceed building capacities during the 2028-29 school year, for example, by more than 50 students.  

Casimiro said the middle schools will be “able to tolerate being a little uncomfortable” enrollment wise for a couple of years, as the enrollment numbers are expected to stabilize after those three years. 

Furthermore, “it’s far less money to expand high school than to have a separate high school and middle school component,” Casimiro said. 

According to figures the interim superintendent shared, the 6-12 program is expected to cost $13.8 million. That total includes salaries and benefits for teachers, administrators and other support staff, as well as the cost of student transportation and start-up materials. The cost of launching a program focused solely on high school would be just over $11.1 million.

Casimiro said leaders have had conversations around the usage of the Cartus Corporation building itself. Budget considerations are one of the reasons for those revisited conversations. Another reason, Casimiro said, is that leaders are “really trying to maximize everything we’re doing on the site and on the campus.”

The interim superintendent said having middle school and high school programs on the site lacks scalability — “when you’re talking about having to bring all of the same staff over, nurse, secretaries, custodians, social workers, psychologists and auxiliary staff for 360 [students]. It’s the same amount of staff that you bring over to do a school set up for a 700-seat facility." 

Casimiro said the setup is something that not everyone was comfortable with. The thought process, she said, was to help alleviate the population of students who are already in the middle schools and now into the high school, which has a “big clog,” Casimiro said. 

The new proposal, Casimiro said, would allow leaders to better use the space and achieve a greater return on the investment toward the project. 

Casimiro said by only enrolling 360 middle school students, the original plan is “not enough to make the impact for the level of investment” the city is making. 

By increasing the high school enrollment, the building would enable leaders to spread out that enrollment “a little more and create more ideal conditions than what we have now.”

Board members had questions about how the projected savings would be achieved and sought specifics about the staffing of building administrators. 

Board member Juanita Bush Harris asked specifically about staffing. Casimiro responded that leaders estimate the program will need 30 fewer full-time employees, including certified educators, administrators, and auxiliary staff, than under the original proposal.

“I need to see the details for the new staffing, what we need, as opposed to what the original plan was,” Bush Harris said. 

Developers withdraw plans for vacant Regal Cinemas in Branford

Susan Braden

BRANFORD — The vacant Regal Cinemas building may stay that way for some time after developers shelved plans to redevelop the site at one of the town’s busiest intersections. 

CP Branford LLC withdrew its application at the Planning and Zoning Commission’s April 18 meeting.

Developers wanted to transform the theater, which closed in 2022, into a self-storage facility, add a three-story 116-unit apartment project and a commercial building to house an urgent care center and coffee shop.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

The attorney for the applicant, John Knuff, was not available for comment Wednesday.

Perry Maresca, Branford’s Economic and Business Development manager, however, says he is “definitely confident” the developer will be back before the commission with a revised plan and a new application.

“It wasn’t withdrawn with a ‘that’s it we’re out of here, we’re going to another town,'” Maresca said. “There’s no reason to believe they’re not going to be moving forward with the project.” 

Maresca added, “This happens all the time, especially with larger projects. They’ll pull back, and they’ll tweak some things, and that’s pretty much what it is.”

First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove said redevelopment of the high-profile site would benefit the town.

Because of its “close proximity to the interchange exit 55, Route 1, we don’t what to see any parcel or building remain stagnant,” Cosgrove said. “If it’s a development that will enhance further economic activity, it would be very welcome to see.”

“The site, the location has a lot of potential to not only be productive, but also to have a positive impact on some of the neighboring properties, businesses, as well the town as a whole,” Cosgrove said.

The plan, which first went before a public hearing March 21, encompassed the 13.75-acre property at 329 E. Main St., near the southwest corner of the Exit 55 interchange between Interstate 95 and Route 1.

That public hearing was continued to April 4, then postponed and continued again to April 18, when the plan was withdrawn.

Currently, a Walgreens occupies a corner of the parcel, which is assessed at $6.6 million by the town, according to town records. 

Developers were seeking to have the parcel rezoned as a Planned Development District (PDD) that would allow the multifamily development and self-storage facility not currently permitted in the Local Business (BL) District. A commercial building, allowed in the BL zone, was to have housed the coffee shop and urgent care medical center.

CP Branford LLC submitted four separate applications for the site with three different architects for each portion of the project: the theater, which would be remodeled as the self-storage facility, the new apartment complex and one commercial building for a medical office and drive-thru coffee shop.

One application was for a zone change to a PDD as part of the town’s Master Plan; another was for the site plan to be approved as a PDD; the third application was for subdividing the property; and the final application was a special exception for grading.

Town Planner Harry Smith had given the applicants a 12-page memo days before the first public hearing that suggested several changes to the plans, a few of which the applicants made before the March hearing.

The applicants modified the apartment complex from a four-story U-shaped building with 119 units and 10 percent deed-restricted affordable housing to two connected three-story buildings with 20 percent affordable housing.

The latest version of the apartment buildings was to give it a “traditional New England mill village” look, the architect for that building told the commission.

The other planned buildings were to be designed in keeping with that style using materials that would complement it.

Smith had suggested there be more green space for passive recreation. He also listed suggestions for lighting and landscaping in addition to comments on the exterior design of the self-storage building.

Smith said in the memo that the project’s scope presented “some very unusual challenges in creating a cohesive site layout.”

Cracks filled, lane reopens on I-95 in East Lyme

Elizabeth Regan

East Lyme ― Cracks about 60 feet long on Interstate 95 north between exits 74 and 75 closed the right lane Thursday afternoon for several hours while crews investigated the integrity of the road and worked to resolve the problem.

The fissures were due to settling caused by the failure of a temporary retaining wall designed to support the highway as part of a four-year, $148 million reconstruction project, according to resident engineer Bob Obey of the GM2 project management firm.

The closure was announced at 1:06 p.m. by the state Department of Transportation. The highway was reopened around 5:35 p.m.

“There are lots of cracks and big cracks,” Obey said of the damage covering the right lane. “Major cracking.”

The retaining wall is being installed by contractor Manafort Brothers of Plainville to allow for the expansion of the bridge over Route 161. The soil nail wall design involves nails drilled into the earth with grout reinforcements.

Before the lane reopened, Obey said workers were reinforcing the wall and bringing in asphalt to patch the road.

“We’re going to obviously look to minimize the duration (of the closure) but at the same time it’s got to be safe,” he said. “Safety has to be the number one driving force.”

He attributed the problem to soil conditions on the northbound side of the bridge abutment. The same retaining wall design was used successfully on the other side of the bridge, where the soil was not as sandy.

“We’ll have to go back to the drawing board for a different solution than what we’ve been using,” he said of the design.