Waterford opens the door to data centers at Millstone

Kevin Arnold

The town has taken the first step to bringing data centers to the region.

The Board of Selectmen, in a joint meeting Wednesday with the Representative Town Meeting, agreed to become the host municipality for a data center project, the first of its kind per Attorney William McCoy, who represents the developer, NE Edge, LLC.

The town is set to receive more than $231 million over 30 years from the developer, including nearly $18.6 million in the first year of the deal. Payments would increase annually and would make NE Edge the second-largest taxpayer in town behind Dominion Energy, LLC.

“This revenue will serve as a cushion to help us ease the tax burden for our property owners and help fund critical fire, police, school, public works, recreation and other human services our town relies upon,” First Selectman Rob Brule said.

“In a word, this project has great potential for keeping Waterford more affordable,” he added.

The project calls for a pair of two-story buildings to be built on Dominion’s Millstone Nuclear Power Plant property, one with a footprint of 568,000 square feet, and the other with a footprint of 214,000 square feet. The structures would occupy 4.8% of the more than 500-acre parcel.

Both buildings will be used for cloud and data storage servers and would be directly supplied by Dominion’s two nuclear power facilities on the site.

Under legislation passed by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2021 to attract projects such as this, towns cannot tax data centers’ equipment or buildings but are allowed to negotiate fees in lieu of such taxes as part of a host municipality fee agreement.

If NE Edge were to back out of the agreement prior to the 30-year mark, which McCoy said he does not foresee, the buildings would automatically become taxable at the end of the agreement.

The agreement does not mean that the entire project has been approved, as explained by Town Attorney Nick Kepple, but rather is an agreement for the payments. The rest of the project is still subject to local, state and federal reviews and approvals.

Kepple called the host fee agreement a “door opener” for the entire project.

“The only question before Waterford right now is does Waterford want to become a host municipality under this recent legislation,” Kepple said.

In a letter to RTM Moderator Paul Goldstein dated Feb. 16, Kepple explained that although the Board of Selectmen acts on all town contracts, the RTM has the ability to terminate the contract if there were to be a default in payments. The RTM was limited to an “up or down vote” meaning it either supported the Board of Selectmen’s decision or not. It unanimously agreed with the board and voted to hold onto its right to terminate the contract, instead of delegating that power to the board.

No impact on Millstone operations

Millstone Site Vice President Michael O’Connor explained at the meeting that the power plant entered a memorandum of understanding with NE Edge. He called the developer a “good partner to have.”

He added that the piece of land proposed would go unused if not for the data center proposal and confirmed the project would have no impact on the plant’s day-to-day operations.

“To continue to operate Millstone we have been in the business of ensuring that we have off-takers for many, many years to come,” he said.

O’Connor said the 10-year purchase power agreement involving the state, Millstone, Eversource and United Illuminating from 2019 was incredibly important for the power plant to stabilize operations and revenue stream. He said the current licenses of the plant extend to 2035 and 2045, and Dominion has the ability, later this decade, to extend those licenses to 2055 and 2065 for the two units. He added that Dominion is currently working with the state to extend the purchase power agreement past 2029.

O’Connor said that safety is top priority at Dominion, and this partnership will bring in funds to allow the plant to continue to upgrade its units as required. He mentioned a recent addition of a $100 million main generator on Unit 3 to allow it to run for another 30 years and plans to do the same on Unit 2. The project stands to use 200 to 300 megawatts of the 2,100 the plant produces.

“What the plant needs, the plant gets,” he said.

Five-year construction project

The project would generate between 1,500 and 2,000 construction jobs, which union representatives such as Keith Brothers, the general vice president of Connecticut American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and Chris Bachant, a council representative for the Carpenters Local 326 Labor Union, strongly supported. McCoy said the construction is expected to take five years to complete and will start with the larger of the two buildings.

Brothers added that Waterford residents and military veterans will have priority for the construction jobs. Fourth-District Representative Michael Bono, a technology teacher at Waterford High School, said he has students who would be willing to take those jobs “right now,” and called the project “forward thinking and responsible.”

The back wall of the meeting room was lined with union trade workers.

Selectwoman Beth Sabilia said between the money coming back to the town, the jobs created and the ongoing relationship, this project would allow the town to take a step forward.

“I can’t see how, as the Board of Selectmen, we could say no to pursuing this fee agreement,” she said.

Once completed, the data centers would require anywhere from 200 to 500 full-time employees. McCoy estimated it would be at least a year before construction would begin due to the process of acquiring permits and going through state and federal agencies.

Fourth-District Representative Susan Driscoll noted the average of $7.8 million per year in payments is a lot less than if it were to face regular tax burdens. She asked Brule if he negotiated the best deal possible.

Brule said that, due to the legislature in place, it was “irrelevant” to argue tax figures. Instead, he said he spent the better part of two months of negotiations trying to double what other host municipalities agreed. He called the deal “fair” and a “win-win.”

“I feel very comfortable I represented the town of Waterford and its taxpayers very well,” Brule said.

Noise and traffic experts

The chief concern from critics of the project is the noise created by the data centers. This was such an issue when NE Edge proposed a similar project in Groton that the town chose to discontinue the effort and enact a one-year moratorium on such projects.

Brule said the agreement calls for a noise analysis conducted by NE Edge. A baseline will be established over a week’s period to determine the level of noise that currently exists. The town will hire its own expert to review the study’s results and confirm that the results meet its standards.

“This provision of the agreement with the developer of these data centers puts the town in charge of the adequacy of measures to be taken to assure these buildings will be good and quiet neighbors,” Brule said.

McCoy explained that the application and permit fees in this process will total roughly $9 million, funds the town can use on a noise and traffic consultant. He said NE Edge will hire a project coordinator to assist the town as well.

NE Edge Co-Founder Manager George A. McLaughlin III is a career attorney who has spent the last 32 years investing in real estate projects where he purchases, develops and sells properties. His counterpart, Thomas P. Quinn, who was not in attendance Wednesday, has more than 33 years of experience as a property owner, developer, broker, investor and designer.

Though neither partner has experience with data centers — as pointed out by Fourth-District Representative Dan Radin — McLaughlin compared it to his days convincing juries on subjects he previously had no experience in. He said the plan is to surround the development with experts in the field, such as Turner Construction, to get the job done.

McLaughlin said that he is not concerned about the hurdles in the project’s way. He called the project “cutting edge” and “not for the faint of heart.”

“If you can put a man on the moon, you can solve a traffic problem,” He said. “You can solve a noise problem.”

Lead paint chips falling off CT bridges, DOT reports

Dave Altimari

Chips of lead paint are falling off hundreds of bridges in Connecticut at such a rate that the state Department of Transportation has put out an alert to municipalities and intends to hire contractors to clean it up.

“Bridge structures statewide have been experiencing a sudden, unexpected release of lead-based paint chips, which is believed to be related to the recent extreme swings in temperature,” said the DOT alert first issued to its own employees on Feb. 17.

The DOT’s bridge maintenance unit spent last weekend inspecting more than 2,100 bridges across the state and determined that lead paint was cracking and falling off hundreds of them.

“This discovery is not unique to Connecticut,” said DOT spokesman Josh Morgan. “Although paint chips on the ground pose little danger, members of the public should not touch any debris seen under bridges or on roadways. The flaking paint also does not pose a safety hazard for those crossing these structures.”

After that discovery, Mary Baker, the principal engineer for bridge safety and evaluation at the DOT, sent an alert to municipalities, warning them that they should inspect their local bridges.

“Last week, the Department of Transportation experienced a sudden failure of the paint coating on many steel bridges,” Baker said. “In response to the coating failures, the Department’s Environmental Compliance unit began remediation efforts to address the paint chips that had fallen.”

This photograph was included in a CT Department of Transportation “safety alert” regarding lead paint chips falling from bridges. CT DOT

Baker’s memo to municipal officials said “paint chips are suspected of containing lead, [and] the remediation efforts are initially focused on areas that are accessible to the public,” such as those near bike paths and walking trails.

“Cleanup efforts are already in progress, and a larger statewide mitigation plan is in development,” the alert said. “In the coming weeks, the Department intends to utilize contractors to remove failed paint that still remains on the bridge beams.”  

The alert directs employees to take a series of steps if they encounter fallen paint chips, including warnings not to handle them and to avoid walking through debris on the ground because of the risk of tracking the contamination elsewhere.

It wasn’t clear Thursday night how many Connecticut bridges were painted with lead paint or for how long that paint type has been used.

Tweed New Haven airport gets unanimous City Plan permission to expand parking by 34 spaces

Mark Zaretsky

NEW HAVEN — The parking crunch at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport will ease slightly, at least for the short term, following the City Plan Commission's unanimous approval of Tweed operator Avports LLC's application to increase its past parking expansion by 34 spaces.

Commission members, after rejecting for a second time a request by Tweed neighbor Gabriela Campos Matteson to intervene in the proceedings, approved three elements of a site plan modification Wednesday night to increase last fall's expansion from 203 spaces to 237.

Members approved a coastal area management review, an inland wetlands review and a site plan review for the application by identical 5-0 votes. The vote not to grant Campos Matteson intervenor status, which would have allowed her to present testimony from her own experts, was unanimous this time. It failed Jan. 25 on a 2-2 vote.

"It is not before us today to decide on whether or not we think the expansion of Tweed New Haven Airport is a good idea. ... Just for the record, I do hear the concerns of the residents of that neighborhood," said commission Chairwoman Leslie Radcliffe prior to the vote on the application.  

"I believe that there's a lot that could be done" to alleviate parking issues at Tweed, Radcliffe said. But "I don't see that there's any negative effect on the environment" from the application before the commission.

Parking has been an issue at Tweed as Avelo Airlines continues to grow. During holiday peak periods, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, existing parking came close to filling up some days

As was the case previously, most of the 10 or so members of the public who spoke at the hearing opposed the parking expansion plan.

The applicant's lawyer, Joseph Williams of Shipman & Goodwin, said it amounted to little more than moving a fence within an existing paved area and painting stripes on existing pavement.

"More parking at the airport means less traffic in the neighborhood, which is a top priority for everyone," said Michael Jones, CEO of Avports subsidiary The New HVN LLC, Thursday. "More parking also means a more predicable passenger experience as we approach spring and summer."

Tweed New Haven Airport Authority Executive Director Tom Rafter said of the approved plan, "I think it's an improvement for the environment and for the airport. ... It will improve the current situation and allow us to expand a couple of spots."

The additional spaces in the more distant of Tweed's two front parking lots were removed from a previous application for 203 spaces approved in October because the 34 spaces involved moving a fence within a regulated inland wetlands and coastal management area. 

The city's building official subsequently issued Tweed two cease-and-desist orders for doing work without a permit — something that City Plan Commission members noted during discussion leading up to the vote.

"We have high expectations for the behavior" of those the commission does business with, said Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, the Board of Alders' representative on the commission. He said he was concerned "because I think they did damage to the already-challenging relationship" the airport and the city have with airport neighbors.

But "having said that, I feel that the application meets the standards that we hold these applications to" and the commission should approve it, Marchand said.

Wednesday's decision followed a nearly three-hour continuation of a public hearing that began with nearly five hours of public testimony on Jan. 25. City Plan Commission members said at that time that they were moved enough by neighbors' concerns about runoff to want to study it further.

City Plan Department Executive Director Laura Brown presented the commission with a memorandum from consultant CDM Smith that found proposed improvements with respect to stormwater "provide more than sufficient water quality treatment" and "treatment is provided prior to stormwater runoff combining with the existing groundwater."

According to the memo from CDM Smith's Cynthia Baumann, the proposed work, including installation of porous pavement, "provides an improvement with respect to water quality treatment" and the developer provided about five times the required stormwater storage volume. An additional filtration system "is not warranted at this site," it said.

Campos Matteson, a Morris Cove resident, said during public testimony that the purpose of an inland wetlands agency is to stop any random, unnecessary or undesirable activity within the wetlands. Tweed has "many violations ... that are well-documented," she said.

"It is unsafe for the people. It is unsafe for the environment," she said of the proposed parking expansion.

"I know that it's stated that it's just a fence, but it's not just fence," she said.

East Haven resident Lorena Venegas said that attorney Williams "said the work would be done. But the fact is, the work already was done," which prompted the cease-and-desist orders.

She suggest that rather than expand parking, Tweed could provide expanded shuttle service to offsite locations, as it currently does during peak times.

She also suggested that Tweed could move its rental-car lot farther from the terminal and use that lot for parking.

Morris Cove neighbor Ed Fitzgerald said "the precursor to moving that fence was to install sediment control barriers," and said Tweed didn't do that. In addition, "they were blowing construction material" in video he shot.

"There should be ramifications, as I said, for that, in general," he said. "... I feel very strongly that this application should be denied."

Joe Giordano of East Haven, who spoke in favor of the application, said granting intervenor status "is totally not necessary." He said application opponents were "grasping at straws, nitpicking ... trying to create issues that do not exist."

That prompted Radcliffe to admonish him and ask him to keep his comments to the application.

Lori Foster of Uriah Street said that in the wake of the cease-and-desist orders, "we are going to question everything that Tweed does. We want it done by the book, and if not, there should be ramifications and consequences."

Anstress Farwell, who lives on Elm Street, lamented "the lack of transportation improvements in the area." She also said she was "disappointed at the denial of the petition" for intervenor status.

New Middletown Big Y supermarket to bring 150 jobs, $2 million to grand list

Cassandra Day

MIDDLETOWN — Area shoppers soon will have an additional supermarket option with construction set to begin on a $22 million, 52,000-square-foot Big Y World Class Market in the southernmost part of the city.

The Springfield, Mass.-based chain would create about 150 new jobs (50 full-time and 100 part-time), and “substantially increase” the tax base in Middletown, according to the application. It will be located on the site of the vacant Frontier Communications fleet maintenance facility off South Main Street, at 502 and 550 Highland Ave., on 7.31 acres.

Once opened, it is expected to add $2 million to the list of taxable properties. The store will be a stop on the 9 Town Transit route.

“It improves the grand list and economic development opportunity,” city Land Use Director Marek Kozikowski said. “It provides closer access to grocery shopping for the residents in the area.”

Kozikowski this week was working on the final zoning approval. Once he finishes the associated paperwork, Big Y will have the go-ahead to proceed once it obtains building permits.

Big Y will have to submit a soil and erosion control bond before it can start construction, Kozikowski said. “The city will hold some of their money to make sure that, if for some reason, once they disturb the site and moving dirt and everything, they walk away or don’t complete the project, the city can use the money to stabilize the site."

The new address and main customer entrance will be 850 S. Main St.

The application from local developer Mike Stone, who runs Stone Point Properties, was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in September, with a few conditions such as additional screening to block delivery truck headlights from public view, Kozikowski said.

Big Y also will be moving a retaining wall on Highland Avenue to meet setback requirements, he said, and agreed to add sidewalks along Highland Avenue.

The PZC had requested the company install sidewalks on South Main Street, but Kozikowski said “the Big Y team made the representation that there wasn’t enough room.”

Other prohibitions in the area include wetlands and Pine Grove Cemetery across the street, he added. 

Kozikowski required the company to install fencing around the building site, so when crews begin moving soil it doesn’t go into the roadway.

The state Department of Transportation concluded the projected site traffic volumes and analysis indicated there is “sufficient excess capacity” to accommodate the store. The agency recommended that Route 17 be widened at the Big Y driveway to provide a dedicated left-turn lane going southbound, and a traffic signal installed.

To accommodate the turn lane, the land use director said, the road will be widened slightly.

Middletown has three other national grocery store chains: Aldi and Price Chopper, about three miles away on Washington Street, and Stop & Shop on East Main Street, some two miles from the Big Y site.

This will be the largest commercial project the city has seen in a number of years, according to Kozikowski. 

The national retailer was founded in 1936 by the grandfather of Big Y co-owner Matt Demore. The company has 65 stores in Connecticut and Massachusetts, plus 13 express stores that allow consumers to scan product bar codes with an app on their smartphone and skip the lines.

Big Y has nearly 11,000 employees, and routinely donates to food banks and area nonprofit organizations, Demore has told The Press.

The supermarket is expected to open in summer 2024.

Hill Properties Sold For 194-Apt Plan

THOMAS BREEN 

A California-based developer has purchased nine Hill properties for a combined $4.35 million — advancing plans to construct 194 new apartments on Congress and Davenport Avenues.

Those were among the latest property deals recorded on New Haven’s online land records database. (See below for a full roundup.)

Across five different transactions with four different sellers on Feb. 14 and Feb. 15, Catalina Buffalo Holdings 3 LLC purchased 326, 348, 354, 370, 380, and 384 Davenport Ave. and 859, 865, and 879 Congress Ave. for a total of $4.35 million. 

Those properties — which include half-empty warehouses, an office building, and a service garage, as well as an occupied three-family house and an occupied four-family house — were last appraised by the city as worth a total of $2,910,700 for tax purposes. The sellers included Herbert Mandelker and Robert Rawden, Clark-Son Company, Paragon Construction Company, and Adam Scheps.

The new owner of all nine properties is an affiliate of a company called Catalina Buffalo Holdings, a family-run real estate business with properties in California, South Dakota, and Connecticut.

The sale took place roughly four months after the developer won site plan approval from the City Plan Commission to knock down all of the existing buildings on these nine properties and build up in their stead a new five-story, 194-unit apartment complex at the address of 354 Davenport Ave.

Thanks to the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, 5 percent of those apartments — or 10 units in total — will be set aside at below-market rents. The remaining units will rent out at market rates, with the developer estimating last year that one-bedroom apartments could cost around $2,000 to $2,300 per month.

“Catalina Buffalo Holdings Co is pleased to announce that it has closed on the purchase of the
land parcels which will contain its future multifamily development,” Catalina Director of Investments and Operations John Lockhart said in a Wednesday email press release.

In a follow-up phone interview with the Independent, Lockhart said that the next immediate step for his company is to ​“go to all to the tenants” of the existing commercial and residential properties, ​“give everybody notice, and figure out where they want to go, if they want to stay in New Haven or move elsewhere.” 

As promised, he said, his company will help the six or seven remaining residential households at these properties find new places to live. He said Catalina will be ​“helping with security deposits and moving expenses. We’re kind of just going with what’s needed.” Catalina is also going to help relocate an existing autobody shop and another current commercial tenant at one of the Congress-Davenport properties.

“I’m hoping that we get everybody moved out in four to six months’ time,” Lockhart continued. Then his company will apply for the necessary demolition permits and ​“hopefully demolish the buildings by the end of the fall.”

Lockhart confirmed that his company will stick with the plans already approved by the City Plan Commission last October. 

Has the housing market changed significantly between then and now? How might that affect these building plans?

“It’s definitely a lot different than it was a year ago in terms of the financing. Interest rates have gone way, way up,” Lockhart said. He said his company remains confident that there is enough demand in New Haven to fill these 194 new apartments with renters. ​“Our residences are not going to be priced anywhere near” what the newer housing developments downtown cost, he said. 

Other recent local property sales included: 

• On Jan. 11, a holding company affiliated with the self-storage real estate development firm Mequity Companies purchased a vacant parkway-adjacent property at 129 Amity Rd. for $1.75 million from a holding company controlled by Glen Greenberg. That property last sold for $800,000 in 2018, and the city last appraised it as worth $642,000 for tax purposes. Back in August 2021, the City Plan Commission granted approval for the construction of a new 64,000 square-foot, four-story self-storage facility with an office, 481 storage units, and 10 parking spaces at that property.

• On Jan. 12, a holding company controlled by William Roach, Mercilla Roach, and Latanya Barnes purchased the four-unit retail-office building at 9 Atwater St. for from a holding company controlled by Filemon Coronel. That property last sold for $465,000 in 2021, and the city last appraised it as worth $399,400.

• On Oct. 14, a holding company controlled by Shneor Edelkopf bought the three-family house at 78 Shelton Ave. for $285,000, and then flipped it on Jan. 4 for $360,000 — or at a $75,000 markup — to a holding company controlled by Raphael and Karmit Badouch. The city last appraised that property as worth $167,600.

• On Oct. 3, an affiliate of the megalandlord Mandy Management purchased the single-family house at 1634 Ella T. Grasso Blvd. for $161,250. And on Dec. 8, another Mandy affiliated purchased the three-family house at 132 Derby Ave. for $278,000.