CT's Bradley airport gets $10M boost after sinkhole that's 35-feet-deep forms on perimeter

Vincent Gabrielle

WINDSOR LOCKS — The Connecticut Airport Authority has confirmed that a sinkhole formed at the perimeter of Bradley International Airport in December. In a statement provided to CT Insider, CAA spokesperson Brian Spyros said that the sinkhole had been "temporarily filled and stabilized." 

"The location of the sinkhole is isolated and is in no way compromising the safety of the airport or affecting flights," Spyros wrote in an email. No one had been injured by the sinkhole, he added.

According to agency officials, the sinkhole formed around Dec. 4. The 20-by-20 foot sinkhole grew to a depth of 35 feet, large enough to swallow a car or small truck. 

The sinkhole was caused by a failed underground storm pipe, agency officials said. When excess water leaks underground, it can erode finer-grained sediments, carrying it downward into pockets in the bedrock. As soil erodes, air pockets can form underground. If there is not enough structural support for the land above, the surface can suddenly collapse. 

Spyros told CT Insider that the CAA was currently assessing how much it would cost to repair the damage and the storm pipe. The CAA had increased Bradley International's capital improvement funds by up to $10 million while the agency looks into alternate sources of funding. The CAA will look for federal and other funding sources to cover repair costs. 

Bradley International is New England's second busiest airport, according to the CAA and government officials.

In September, the Windsor Locks airport got approval for $99.27 million in federal funds for construction projects. Of that, $76.14 million was for a new inline baggage screening building, $17.96 million for a vertical circulation project and $278,643 for a taxiway extension project. 

It's all part of an overall $151 million upgrade to Bradley's TSA baggage screening systems and expanded ticketing counters, which CAA officials say will help reduce lines and save travelers time. The new inline baggage screening building includes construction of a new TSA secure baggage inspections and baggage handling system, involving over a mile of conveyer belt systems. The airport's vertical circulation project will expand the terminal by an additional 22,000 square feet to accommodate new elevators and escalators at both ends of the building entrance. Construction on the project started in April and is expected to be completed sometime in the fall of 2025.

Developers plan to build 150 affordable apartments in New Haven's Hill section

Mark Zaretsky

NEW HAVEN — A former factory site in the Hill section will soon be home to 150 affordable apartments.

 $1 million in state grant funds to help a developer demolish four old buildings to clear the way. The $995,600 grant, which Gov. Ned Lamont announced in December, will pay a portion of the demolition and remediation costs for the former Electrix Illumination architectural lighting property at Liberty, Putnam and Spring streets.

The developer, 10 Liberty Street Owners LLC, received City Plan Commission approval in 2022 to build a five-story apartment building at 10 Liberty St. It will have 150 units available to people who earn up to 80 percent of the area median income.

The Board of Alders' Community Development Commission, chaired by Hill/City Point Alder Carmen Rodriguez, D-6, in whose ward the development would be, unanimously approved the city's request to apply for and accept the grant Wednesday night.

The project will include streets, sidewalks and 140,000 square feet of living space, officials said. 

It also will include 136 parking spaces, as well as inside and outside storage for 45 bikes, a team that included Helen Rosenberg of the city's Economic Development Department and Jonathan Cortell, of 10 Liberty Street Owners, told committee members.

Cortell said the developers are "not contemplating public-facing ground floor retail spaces," but will look to include some ground floor amenities that might "reach out to immediate neighbors" on Putnam, Liberty and Spring streets.

"We want to provide for life and activity that will be dynamic," he said.

Any matching costs for the grant would be passed through to the developer, Rosenberg said.

Cortell, of Maplewood, N.J., said he expects the remediation and demolition covered by the grant to take about six months. Actual new construction is likely to begin in the spring of 2025 and take two years to complete.

"Preliminary remediation was done as part the preparedness for this step," he told the alders.

The developer plans to enhance the neighborhood "by delivering quality workforce housing within a short walk" of Union Station, Cortell said.

The shuttered Electrix Illumination factory, which consists of four buildings currently owned by Vesta Liberty Street LLC, went out of business in December 2020.

Rodriguez, who represents Ward 6, Vice Chairman and Dwight Alder Frank Douglass, D-2, and alders Frank Redente Jr., D-15, Brian Wingate, D-29, and Kimberly Edwards, D-19, all voted in favor of the resolution.

"I'm very happy to see what the developers have presented," said Rodriguez. "It's going to take a little while to go through ... but I think this is in agreement with what's on the agenda for affordability." 

Cortell said they had reached out to neighbors but might want to do more before construction begins.

Rodriguez said that the previous time the developer aired the plan to neighbors was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the meeting was held on Zoom. 

Wingate also supported the project.

"I think this project is in line with what we're pushing for affordable housing," Wingate said. "I am excited about it." 

New Greenwich ice rink plans on ice: Dorothy Hamill replacement timeline unclear

Andy Blye

GREENWICH — The Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink in Byram needs to be replaced, but officials did not include more money to plan a rebuild in the latest budget proposal.

First Selectman Fred Camillo said the town is working diligently to replace the rink, but they need to follow the proper process.

“We're gonna get it done. … but we gave our word that we’d follow the process and we’re waiting for (Municipal Improvement Status),” he said.

Municipal Improvement status, commonly referred to as “MI,” is granted by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Department of Public Works started presenting its rink replacement plan to the commission last year, but has not yet received MI.

There are no rink replacement funds in the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget request, but there is $980,000 listed in the 2025-26 budget, which would be for architectural and engineering planning.  Additionally, there are $23 million planned for rink construction in 2026-27, but these future budget items are subject to change and all require multiple approvals.

Camillo said the town may seek an interim funding request later this year, ahead of schedule, to secure these planning dollars, but at this point it is too early to say when, or if, that might happen, or how much the request might be for. He said he is "200 percent" behind the project and that he has verbal commitments of support from members of the Representative Town Meeting and the Board of Estimate and Taxation, which both need to approve major spending requests.

Officials had included $950,000 for architectural and engineering planning in its budget last year, but this money was ultimately removed by the RTM at the request of the Rink User Committee, which is helping coordinate the replacement project.

The committee said in May 2023 that it would seek MI status with the Planning and Zoning Commission before asking the town for money, a plan that Camillo is holding to.

Once MI is granted, the project will move to the Board of Selectmen for approval. Camillo said that could happen within the next month or so. 

“It’s time has come, there’s no reason not to do this,” Camillo said.

Camillo also said he has talked with “an eager resident” who is ready to help cover some of the project costs through a public private partnership, though he would not name the person.

Camillo previously helped secure a $5 million donation from residents Steven and Alexandra Cohen to help fund construction of the Cohen Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, which will open to the public later this year.

The current plan is to build a new ice rink on Strazza Field, which is next to the Hamill Rink. Once the new rink is built, then the old one will be torn down and a new baseball field will be built in its place.

Some neighbors have expressed concerns about the plan (nearby seniors won’t be able to watch baseball games in the redesigned park, for example) and Planning and Zoning commissioners also said they needed more convincing about the plan during its Dec. 5 meeting.

The Hamill rink was built in 1971, originally as an outdoor, seasonal rink. It was renamed to honor Dorothy Hamill, a former Greenwich resident, after she won the gold medal for figure skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

The roof and walls were added years after the rink was built and the rink itself is shorter than regulation.

“The rink has now reached fifty (50) years of service and is beyond its useful life,” town officials wrote in documents submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission in November. “It was constructed as a patch work of additions… The building lacks thermal insulation and proper ventilation. Most importantly, the piping system below the rinks concrete slab is aged steel piping that has begun developing leaks.”

The effort to replace the rink started in 2017, when the Department of Parks and Recreation organized a committee to offer preliminary planning suggestions, according to Planning and Zoning documents. Camillo established its successor, Rink User Committee, in April 2021.

The Rink User Committee’s next meeting is on Feb. 21 at Town Hall.

CTDOT Seeks Public Input on Plan for Route 146 in Branford & Guilford

The Connecticut Department of Transportation is seeking public input on strategies for a corridor plan for CT Route 146 in Branford and Guilford.

The Corridor Management Plan will include a list of strategies to preserve and protect “the intrinsic and unique qualities” of the Route 146 Corridor – a National Register listed transportation corridor – paying attention to roadway safety for all travelers, the desires of local residents and businesses and the need to increase resilience against climate risks like flooding. 

The study area includes the 13-mile stretch of Route 146 from Route 1 (North Main St.) in Branford to the intersection with Route 1 (Boston Post Road) in Guilford. According to the plan’s website, nearly all of the route was designated a State Scenic Road in 1991. The route includes the Route 146 Historic District in Guilford and runs through three other historic districts. A map of the study area is available here.

The public survey on draft strategies for the Corridor Management Plan is open until 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16. A handout of the potential strategies can be found here and a link to the survey here.

Development will bring 154 apartments to New Britain in 2025

Skyler Frazer

The massive redevelopment of a former factory building in New Britain will add more than 150 new apartments to the city early next year, city officials and developers said.

Officials from WinnCompanies and WinnDevelopment, a Massachusetts-based developer and housing management firm, visited New Britain this week for a progress tour of 321 Ellis St., which is being converted into a senior- and affordable-housing hub with 154 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment units.

The 115-year-old building, which was added to the state’s historic registry in 2022, is part of the former Landers, Frary & Clark factory, which manufactured electric appliances at the site until 1965. Much of the property has sat vacant since then.

The redevelopment will include 79 one-bedroom units, 59 two-bedroom apartments and 16 three-bedroom units geared toward young professionals, middle-income households and fixed-income seniors earning 30%, 50%, 60% and 80% of the area median income. The property will also have a fitness, community and game rooms, flex workspaces and outdoor seating areas, developers said.

The $85 million project broke ground in July 2023, and is about 30% completed, developers said, with an expected completion by early 2025.

Mayor Erin Stewart said the project is another example of the city’s focus on finding adaptive reuse opportunities for New Britain’s many former factory buildings. Between several other projects in the city, hundreds of new apartments are opening in New Britain over the next several years. The city provided $950,000 in HOME Funds to support the project. 

The development has had the support of the state, too. The state Department of Housing (DOH) provided $4 million in funding through one of its programs and an additional $3.85 million in federal funds through the National Housing Trust Fund. DOH also plans to provide 11 Section 8 vouchers for future residents. 

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority has also provided tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and opportunity funds for the project. The state Department of Economic and Community Development provided a brownfield loan to support environmental remediation work at the site as well.

WinnDevelopment officials said the company typically begins leasing out apartments about six months before work on the building is completed, so that process could start this fall. The property is the ninth apartment property in Connecticut owned by WinnCompanies — the company also owns and operates multifamily communities, totaling 1,511 units, in Bristol, Broad Brook, East Haven, Thompson, Waterbury and Wethersfield.

201-unit apartment complex planned in Windsor

Hanna Snyder Gambini

APennsylvania-based development team looking to make its mark in Connecticut is a step closer to building its first multi-building housing complex in Windsor, which would bring more than 200 apartments to town.

Pennsylvania-based A.R. Building Company Inc. has won approval from the town Planning and Zoning Commission on conceptual plans for Dunfey Lane Apartments. The $20 million project includes four new buildings on now-vacant parcels at 450 and 462 Bloomfield Ave., and 60-80 Dunfey Lane.

The design calls for 201 one- and two-bedroom mostly market-rate apartments, with 10% deemed affordable. All buildings would be four stories high, and three would contain 51 units. 

The fourth building would have 48 apartments along with offices and a clubhouse. The complex would also include an outdoor pool, surface parking for 300 vehicles, sidewalks, outdoor space and open space. 

This would be A.R. Building’s first Windsor development, although the company has done several projects in Connecticut, including The Docks and 60 Mansfield, both in New London, and Pleasant Valley Apartments in Groton. 

Projects are also in the works in Meriden and Newington, and the western part of the state including Brookfield, said A.R. Director of Development Emily Mitchell.

The company has more than 370 open or constructed units, Mitchell said, with more than 500 to 600 under construction or in the planning phase, and another planned 200 at the Windsor site.

The company does primarily residential developments, and owns, builds and operates all its properties, which are also found in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama. 

Mitchell said A.R. is looking to grow in Connecticut, and that Windsor was an ideal location with highway access, close to retail sites and within walking distance to the bus line. The company is under contract to buy the Windsor land from owner Joseph Cicero Jr., pending all town land-use approvals, Mitchell said.
 
The approval is the first in a two-step process in Windsor for any design development district, which allows for more flexibility and time and cost savings for the developer by bringing conceptual plans to land use boards for feedback before the full site plan application, Economic Development Director Patrick McMahon said. 

It also allows the town to have a more complete package brought for review and approval, he added. This plan is in the Highway Interchange Development District, for which residential is allowed.

Several housing or mixed-use projects have been built in Windsor under the design development district concept, McMahon said, including the Founders Plaza project and Bowling Green.