Most expensive project in Stonington history almost complete

Joe Wojtas Mystic — The $85 million Perkins Farm project, the most expensive development in Stonington’s history, is almost complete and developer David Lattizori acknowledges that there were many times when he didn’t think it would come to fruition. "There were so many hurdles that could have destroyed the whole project. (Not receiving) one approval could have stopped it. We had public hearings at every step but we got all unanimous approvals,” he said Wednesday. “It’s been quite a roller-coaster," he added. “I’ve had to learn at every twist and turn. It’s been difficult from the get-go. But the result is we have a project everyone loves.” The project is composed of Harbor Heights, a 121-unit luxury apartment complex with amenities including an outdoor pool with LED lights that change color at night, a high-end fitness club with Peloton and other interactive equipment, and a yoga studio. The apartments have 9-foot ceilings, open floor plans, wide plank style flooring, Shaker-style cabinetry, nickel hardware, light granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. It is a nationally recognized green energy building and will soon be solar powered. Rent for one-bedroom units starts at $1,600 a month and two bedrooms start around $2,000 per month. A private ribbon-cutting was held earlier this month. The project also contains a 50,000-square-foot Hartford Healthcare facility, which opened in January at the intersection of Coogan Boulevard and Jerry Browne Road, and an almost complete 50-unit townhouse condominium project situated around a village green. There is also a dog park and walking trails. There is space left on the site for a professional office building but at this time Lattizori said he has no plans for that development. Lattizori’s father had tried for more than 20 years to develop the site for a mix of commercial and residential use but those projects were successfully opposed by residents. In 2011, the commission approved a 36-lot subdivision of single-family homes for the site. Lattizori has said he was a week away from selling the site and its approval in 2015 when a retired doctor, who lived at StoneRidge retirement community across the street, suggested the idea of a project with a geriatric health component. Lattizori then began meeting with a committee of StoneRidge residents to discuss the project with them and gain their supportLattizori then put together plans for the current project, which were met with widespread support in part because it preserves more than half the site as open space. The extensive buffering and vegetation on the property make it virtually impossible to see the apartments and condominiums from Jerry Browne Road. Lattizori said Wednesday that the key to getting approval was to listen to and compromise with the community. “I spent a couple of years listening to what people thought,” said Lattizori, who received his final approvals in 2019. He said it helped that Mystic is his hometown. “I know this town. It’s where I grew up, I’m not an out-of-touch, out-of-town developer,” he said. “But I had to listen to what people had to say.” Lattizori said 95% of the apartments have been leased. He said the tenants are a mix of empty nesters wanting to downsize and young professionals, all of whom are looking to enjoy Mystic. He said there are no school-aged children living in the project. Lattizori said he lost some apartments leases at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but was able to fill the complex because the amenities cannot be found in any other project in the area. He said 60% of the townhouses have been sold and he expects they will sell out by the end of the year. “It was a big risk but a big reward,” he said of the project.

New London finds city overspent by $3.1 million on Public Works projects

Greg Smith New London — Between 2009 and 2015, the city’s Public Works Department overspent its budget by $3.1 million on various projects. The recent discovery by the city's Finance Department has forced the city to borrow the funds in order to replenish its coffers and avoid a cash crunch during future projects. The City Council approved the bonding measure with a 6-1 vote on Monday. There is no immediate impact on the current budget. “How does this happen?” was the first of several questions from City Council President Pro Tempore Alma Nartatez, at a recent council meeting. Finance Director David McBride said the cost overruns were discovered not by an audit but rather by Finance Department personnel working to reconcile accounts as it transfers data into new financial software, known as Munis. The answer as to how it happened is not exactly clear, McBride said, though he suspects projects went over budget and the city had to pay contractors for work performed. “This is not occurring now nor has this occurred recently,” McBride said. “We have processes in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.” He said procedures currently in place require purchase orders and approvals for all expenditures, a process that involves the city’s purchasing agent and City Council when approvals for added expenses are needed. The cost overruns took place in 2009, 2014 and 2015, when the city was run by former City Manager Martin Berliner and Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio, who served as mayor from 2011 to 2015. Public Works overspent by $418,000 on various parks and playground projects in 2009 and by $203,000 on paving and road improvement projects in 2015. In 2016, Public Works overspent $2,075,000 on street improvement projects, which included the municipal parking lot on Eugene O’Neill Drive, and another $434,000 on additional street projects relating back to a 2009 bond offering, information provided by the city shows. The projects predate the current administration and occurred under different public works and finance directors. John Satti, the lone dissenting vote on approval of the bonding measure, expressed skepticism over the lack of details presented to the council. “How can we have cost overruns in the millions?” he asked. “I’m not sure. None of us were around when these things took place,” McBride replied. “We have Public Works employees that overspent budgets by millions of dollars yet this council’s never heard anything about disciplinary action taking place against these employees. What’s going to stop the next employee ... from doing it again?” Satti said. Satti implied at one point that cost overruns are still occurring, referencing what he called the “debacle” at Greens Harbor Beach. Managed by the city’s Public Works Department, the estimated $1.9 million project, partially funded through grants, was completed in 2019 with a price tag of more than $5 million due to unexpected costs related to excavation, drainage and associated work under Pequot Avenue. At the time, councilor and mayoral candidate Martin Olsen argued the city skirted charter provisions by beginning the added work without prior council approval.The city had, in part, used previously approved funding sources to pay for cost overruns on that project. Extra funds to complete the project were approved by the council at the time. None of the money being bonded to cover the past cost overruns is being used for the Greens Harbor project, McBride said. Mayor Michael Passero said he took issue with Satti’s characterization of the Greens Harbor project. “Greens Harbor Beach was not a debacle by any stretch of the imagination,” Passero said. “The project got into trouble well after it was underway. There’s no comparison to what we inherited here. I take offense to that.” The missing $3.1 million was not immediately discovered because the city has a rolling capital improvements budget that is replenished each year for various projects. But, Passero said, “that $3 million is $3 million in cash that we don’t have that we should have.” Ultimately, Nartatez and others expressed confidence in the work of McBride and the Finance Department improving the system to ensure mistakes of that magnitude are not made again. McBride said the new Munis system, which at some point could be linked to the school district’s Finance Department, is providing a needed upgrade that will allow the city to track budgets and its hundreds of accounts in real time, as opposed to a system that dates back three decades. McBride said that in conjunction with the $3.1 million bond issuance, the city plans to refinance $8.2 million in bonds approved by the council in March. “The market after the Council approval fell out of favor due to the (COVID-19) pandemic and now the timing is good to refinance that debt again and use some of the savings from the refinancing to cover the next few years of debt service associated with this new offering,” McBride said in an email.

All’s not well with the new salt mountain at State Pier

David Collins When I asked state environmental regulators last week about alarm bells ringing around town over the potential risks of the big new mountain of road salt the Connecticut Port Authority has put on one of its piers in New London Harbor, they said they would get back to me. It's a good thing no storms packing wind and rain are in the forecast, since the salt looks precariously close to the water. A spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which actually has its own seat on the port authority board, said in an email Monday someone would be out this week to evaluate the new waterfront salt mountain and determine whether it complies with stormwater permits. Maybe those folks I've heard from, who have been wringing their hands, concerned that a lot of that salt may wash or blow into the river, have nothing to worry about. Maybe it would just be more salt into salt water. To me, the salt mountain is, more ominously, a striking new symbol of all that went wrong with agreements negotiated by the corrupt quasi-public agency, which operated so long without accounting controls and made so many insider deals with friends and the politically connected. The mountain also could be a warning sign for anti-trust allegations that could be raised in lawsuits against the port authority. Indeed, the owner of the salt, Steven Farrelly and his DRVN Enterprises, strikes me as a very prominent victim of the port authority's dealings, having been evicted from State Pier by Gateway Terminal, the new port operator put in place by the port authority. Gateway runs its own big salt business out of its competing port in New Haven. Eastern Connecticut towns began paying considerably less money for salt once DRVN started operating out of New London. Those towns can now expect to pay more again, with DRVN shut down by its competitor. Farrelly has hired a lawyer who specializes in anti-trust law, Robert Langer of Wiggin and Dana, who has identified himself in recent port authority board meetings as representing DRVN. Farrelly was originally evicted and ordered out earlier this summer, but he got a reprieve, now allowed to stay until the end of the year, since he hired the lawyer. The new mountain was created when the port authority ordered Farrelly to move the salt, which had been stored on higher ground, to the low-lying pier, so that soil testing on the higher ground could begin, to make way for the $157 million wind turbine assembly terminal Gov. Ned Lamont and the port authority have promised to Eversource and its partner, Danish wind giant Ørsted. I reached out to attorney Langer to ask him about his client's plans, now that Gateway has shut New London to traditional port traffic, with shipping diverted to the competing port it owns in New Haven.He declined to comment. I don't blame him for not wanting to share legal strategy, as the end-of-the-year eviction of his client looms. The New London port is closed, even though not a single one of the many state and federal permits needed to convert it for wind turbine assembly has been granted, and no construction is underway. Other victims of the port competition busting include the union New London longshoremen, who were fired by Gateway, which runs a non-union port in New Haven, and fishermen who have been given only limited extensions to their own evictions. Logistec, the Canadian company that operates some 34 North American ports, lost out to competition-killing Gateway, even though its bid, as requested in the bidding specifications, promised to operate New London as both a traditional port and a wind turbine assembly facility. But neither Scott Bates, the deputy secretary of the state who was then port authority chairman, nor the agency's executive director showed up for the interview with Logistic executives on the company's bid. They didn't get the courtesy of an interview, after running the port for 20 years. The fix was in, it seems, to give the port to a competitor who didn't even follow the bid rules for proposing a dual-use port. An anti-trust lawsuit might help illuminate how we got here, with a mountain of salt surrounded by water.

Renewed Interest in Energy Buoys Outlook

Lucy Perry As American Wind Week 2020 kicked off with a tribute to the wind industry workforce the week of Aug. 9, the outlook for the renewable energy sector as a whole is strong. A multitude of both wind and solar projects as well as retooling plans launched this summer across the country have buoyed the heavy machinery industry, creating both temporary and ongoing construction jobs. Total construction starts increased 6 percent in June, according to the Dodge Index, marking the second consecutive monthly gain in starts following the COVID-19-induced declines in March and April. In fact, utility/gas plants moved 108 percent higher in the month as more than $2 billion in renewable power projects were launched. New York State announced 21 large-scale renewable energy projects. Four utility-scale wind projects and 17 major solar projects have been selected. Two of the solar projects will include energy storage to integrate solar energy into the electric grid. With these projects, New York's will advance its goal to obtain 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2030. The projects translate into more than 2,000 short- and long-term jobs and increases in local tax payments. Once the projects are completed, New York's carbon emissions should equate to 300,000 fewer cars on the road. On the West Coast, the $600 million Golden Hills Wind Project in Sherman County, Ore., got off the ground, as did the $438 million Athos I solar facility in Desert Center, Calif. With jobs to fill, the renewables sector is attracting workers from other markets. Unpredictable ups and downs — and the fast crash this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic — have driven many career employees from the fossil fuel and oil and gas markets toward jobs in wind and solar. Jobs creation and an energized local economy are two of the points that sell renewable energy projects. In rural Colorado, more than 6,300 jobs have resulted from renewable energy ventures since the year 2000, generating almost $400 million a year in economic activity for the eastern part of the state. A study from Denver, Colo.-based environmental group The Western Way shows that 40 projects, including seven in development or under construction, are set for completion by 2024. By year's end, nearly 5,000 megawatts of power will have been generated, and another 1,100 megawatts will be added as projects are completed during the next four years. Let the Sun Shine The study noted that the economic impact of renewable energy project construction in the region totals nearly $6 billion. Plus, it's generated close to 13,000 jobs from both construction workers and the dollars they spend. New York State will be the site of a large-scale solar project in Chautauqua County, that will include a 20 megawatt battery energy component. Renewal Energy Developer ConnectGen predicts the South Ripley Solar Project will create about 600 jobs during peak construction and 220 full-time equivalent jobs. The project will contribute a meaningful amount of renewable energy toward the state's identified clean energy supply goal of 70 percent of electricity generated by 2030. It should supply enough electricity to power approximately 60,000 average homes in New York annually. Under a plan to install 30 million solar panels in Florida by the year 2030, five solar projects recently launched in the northeastern part of the state. Approximately 200 jobs are anticipated with the newest project, in St. Johns County, according to Florida Power & Light. Baker, Clay, Nassau and Union counties are home to other solar farms under construction, expected to add 500 permanent jobs to the area. Some 1,200 workers will be needed to fill jobs at the peak of construction. In Kentucky, a 50-megawatt solar park is to be constructed in the western region of the Bluegrass State. U.S. developer Community Energy reports it signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Henderson Municipal Power & Light. The park will generate 117 million kWh annually once it's completely online, in 2023. Community Energy announced in May a similar agreement with Big Rivers Electric Corporation for 100 megawatts of solar parks in the state. Minnesota Power is investing $40 million into three solar projects with a goal of tripling its solar portfolio through the addition of 20 megawatts of renewable energy. Daily Energy Insider reports that if the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission gives the project the nod, the three facilities will be located in the northern part of the state. Drawing from existing electrical infrastructure, they'll begin construction next year. "Planned solar projects will boost the tax base of local economies, add solar panels from regional manufacturers when possible, and support local construction jobs," said Bethany Owen, president and CEO of Duluth, Minn., energy company ALLETE. Blowing in the Wind The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that utility-scale solar generating units are predicted to grow by 17 percent in 2020. Wind generation is close behind, and should see a 14 percent growth spurt this year. Both on- and offshore wind farms are more visible than ever now. In the Montana Rail Link Yard in Laurel, Mont., the towers for PacificCorp's Pryor Mountain Wind project sit, waiting for delivery to the job site. Arriving by train, the towers will wind up in Bridger, Mont., on a large wind farm installation project there. Spencer Hall of PacifiCorp reported that four structures were being put up earlier this month. "I think there's going to be 10 in the next week or two," Hall said in an interview with the Billings Gazzette. "Folks in the area can expect see a lot of trucks going by."At its peak, the project will see 300 workers on the 114-turbine farm site. Some 240 megawatts of capacity is the goal for what will be the largest wind farm in Montana, providing renewable energy for out-of-state customers.\ Specialized flatcars were designed to transport the lengthy turbine blades and other components. "A single wind turbine blade runs over the length of two rail cars," said Ross Lane of the Montana Rail Link. Construction equipment is carried to the railyard by truck, and a crane will load the parts onto trucks for transport to Bridger. Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis is the project's general contractor. The company will oversee public road improvements and creation of access roads to each turbine site, as well as foundations, underground collection, substation, operations and maintenance building and towers. "We are delighted to be working with PacifiCorp to construct our fifth wind project in the Big Sky State, which will increase the state's wind energy portfolio by 30 percent," said Tim Maag, vice president and general manager of Mortenson's wind energy team. "Montana has great potential for wind energy and manufacturing, as it is known to be one of the U.S.'s windiest states." Once it's online, Pryor Mountain Wind will increase energy by 30 percent and generate enough power for 76,000 homes. Other Renewable Projects Clean energy storage is trending in the renewable energy construction sector. Electrical energy can be stored when electricity is plentiful and inexpensive or when demand is low. The energy can then be returned to the grid when demand and prices go up. Storage facilities are part of the current wave of renewable energy construction projects. The Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) tapped Catamount Solar of Randolph, Vt., and Northern Reliability of Waterbury, to construct the Pinnacle Ridge Solar and Storage Project at VELCO's headquarters in Rutland. Work includes a 500 kW solar array tied to a 1.2-megawatt energy storage system designed to reduce VELCO's energy use at times of high-cost, peak system demand and increase electric grid stability. As prime contractor, Catamount is responsible for site work and construction of the infrastructure, power distribution and utility connections. Northern Reliability will oversee the battery energy storage system, including design, component integration and containerization, on-site construction, installation and testing. The Pinnacle Ridge Solar and Storage project is slated for completion by the end of this calendar year. Robbie Hunter, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, wants urgent action to create local jobs and fight climate change. His solution is long-duration clean energy storage construction to address California's "long-term needs, help us build a cleaner, more reliable electric grid, create and support thousands of good-paying jobs and provide new economic opportunity in long economically neglected communities." Writing for calmatters.org, he points to two shovel-ready storage projects, the Eagle Mountain pumped hydroelectric project in the Inland Empire and the San Vicente Pumped Storage Project in San Diego. "Together, these projects will support more than 20,000 good paying jobs, many in underserved areas with skyrocketing poverty and unemployment rates," said Hunter. The projects also will support industries ancillary to construction, such as building materials, heavy equipment and transportation. And, apprenticeships will be a part of these construction crews, he said. Another trend in the energy sector is renewable reformation, where fossil-fuel processing facilities are retooled to handle renewable energy in one form or another. In Cheyenne, Wyo., the last barrel of crude was being processed at the Cheyenne Refinery before the plant is repurposed to produce renewable diesel. "We ran the last barrel of crude on August 3 and expect to run the off final intermediates and products inventory in August," Tim Go, HollyFrontier's chief operating officer said during the company's second-quarter call to investors. "We will then begin the conversion of certain units for renewable diesel production and continue to anticipate the Cheyenne Refinery conversion to be completed in the first quarter of 2022," he added. The company also plans to build a pretreatment unit at its Artesia, N.M., refinery for feedstock flexibility for the renewable diesel unit being built at the plant. Hybrid ventures demand construction projects as well. In a tdworld.com article, Enel Green Power detailed its approach to construction of the Lily solar + storage project. The company's first hybrid project in North America marrying a renewable energy plant with utility-scale battery storage, Enel can store generated energy for delivery when needed. Enel has a goal of expanding its position in the national market. The company plans to install about 1 gigawatt of battery storage capacity across its new and existing wind and solar projects in the United States over the next two years. The Bottom Line As renewable resources become mainstream in the U.S. energy sector, the need for more and bigger production and storage facilities will grow. These mega projects are a boon to both local and state economies. For the construction sector, they spell demand for heavy equipment and full crews on the job site. The outlook is long-term, but the picture is a bright one. CEG