CT Construction Digest Friday July 14, 2023
As the Carrier Companies kicked off construction of a 104-unit apartment complex downtown, contractors were erecting structural steel for Wheeler Health’s new headquarters across Hope Street and other crews were working on the $33 million city hall renovation on the other side of North Main Street.
“It’s the hottest construction season ever in downtown Bristol,” Mayor Jeff Caggiano proclaimed to a crowd of several dozen community leaders at the site of the former Bristol Centre Mall.
The family-owned Carrier Companies’ groundbreaking for Centre Square Village marks the third and final major redevelopment job at the long-blighted mall property. The city bought the 17-acre parcel in 2005 and struggled for more than a decade to find a new use for it, going through one failed redevelopment idea after another. Each year, the sprawling vacant lot in the heart of the city remained a eyesore and civic embarrassment.
That started to change in 2019 when Bristol Hospital opened a three-story, 60,000-square-foot medical office building and lab. Nearby, Wheeler Health earlier this year started work on a 46,000-square-foot headquarters and health center.
Caggiano said Centre Square Village, which will include more than 15,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, completes the goal of making Bristol a “work, live and play” city.
“Bristol Health and Wheeler Health are going to bring work downtown, hundreds of jobs,” Caggiano said. “The thing that lots of people have been waiting for is the ‘live and play’ — ‘where are all the restaurants, where are people going to live, we’ve got to see people walking around all the time.’ That’s what the Carrier project is.”
Ryan Carrier, a construction manager in the family-owned Carrier Companies, talks to a reporter next to a rendering for the Centre Square Village at the former Bristol Mall location on Thursday, July 13, 2023. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
The Carrier Companies will build twin four-story buildings along North Main, and is starting the first now. Each will have 52 apartments with individual balconies, along with garages or carports. Ryan Carrier, a construction manager in his family’s company, expects work will take 18 months; the second phase will begin as soon as the first is done.
The first building will also front on Hope Street, the second will be bordered by the McDonald’s property. All apartments will be leased at market rate, Carrier said. There will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and some of the two- and three-bedroom models will have two bathrooms.
Kurt Barwis, president of Bristol Hospital, said he’s pleased that the Carriers are in charge of construction, saying the company is local and well-established with a generations-long reputation for quality work.
Caggiano compared artists’ renditions of Centre Square Village to apartments in the region’s wealthiest suburb.
“It’s going to look just like West Hartford, and I love saying that because everybody says ‘We can’t be West Hartford.’ We’re going to have two buildings that look like West Hartford,” Caggiano said. “Fifteen thousand square feet of retail space, half of that is going to be dedicated to sit-down, fine quality restaurant space. Nobody in Bristol has told me we have too much of that.”
The city now has just one acre of the mall property left, and can’t sell that now because contractors need it as staging space for the various construction jobs in progress, said Caggiano, the sixth mayor to work on the mall redevelopment since Gerard Couture’s administration first bought it.
Work began at the former Bristol Centre Mall during the groundbreaking for the Centre Square Village on Thursday, July 13, 2023. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Howard Schmelder, vice chair of the city’s economic development commission, said he wasn’t sure he’d live long enough to see the property become vibrant again. Schmelder, 80, has served on the commission for 47 years, and was a young bank teller when an urban renewal campaign leveled the existing downtown businesses in 1962.
“That was the thing to do back then, knock it down and rebuild,” Schmelder said.
The city’s post office, police station and court complex, fire headquarters and city hall were all erected in the early 1960s to replace the old buildings on the west side of North Main Street. On the east side, developers put up the Bristol Centre Mall with hopes of cashing in on what was then the cutting-edge trend in retailing.
“It was successful when it opened, with restaurants and all that. It was very active. Then Westfarms mall opened and it slowly went down,” Schmelder said.
After the city bought the dying mall and demolished it two years later, the national economy tanked and new redevelopment hopes fell through.
“Seriously, I didn’t think I would live long enough to see this happening,” Schmelder said, pointing to the new wave of construction. “I sat for many hours of meetings with all these proposals that didn’t happen. They were going to build a big hotel, that didn’t happen. But this is doing it right.”
Hartford commission OKs river crossing permit for controversial fuel cell project
HARTFORD — The city’s Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission voted unanimously to issue a permit for the river crossing needed for a gas line and fuel cell project near Weaver High School.
The Connecticut Natural Gas Co. project is intended to serve a University of Hartford fuel cell. While the plan had called for a gas line to run under the school, CNG officials said that they would tie into the pre-existing gas line on Weaver High School’s property, but would not run it underneath the building.
Inland Wetlands Chairwoman Josye Utick recused herself and did not vote on the permit or lead the public comment portion of the meeting on it.
Following the wetlands approval, CNG officials said they will move forward with additional permitting for a railroad crossing that is also needed to complete the project.
The project has drawn sharp criticism from residents over transparency, safety and community notifications about the work.
According to information presented about the project, the Hartford City Council in September 2022 approved an easement to allow CNG to extend an existing pipeline on the Weaver High School property. The line also provides gas service to the school building. The existing pipeline also runs through the adjacent neighborhood to provide service to homes, according to the presentation.
The pipe would convey gas to power a 1.84 MW fuel cell for electricity generation at the university, according to the presentation.
The proposal was first introduced in March 2022 and received a public hearing on April 18, 2022. It received a review by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and there was a presentation on the proposed easement by the city Department of Public Works at the June 8, 2022 meeting of the City Council’s Public Works, Parks, Recreation and Environment Committee.
At the June 29 public meeting, University of Hartford Associate Vice President for Capital Planning & Management for Facilities Chris Dupuis said some of the benefits include the project being part of the state sustainability initiatives to have more green and clean energy by 2035, reducing strain on the electrical grid in Greater Hartford, and supporting campus sustainability initiatives.
“Having fuel cells on campus greatly reduces our carbon footprint, our air emissions, and long term, we could tie these into our micro grid system for emergency power to phase out the use of our diesel generators. They’re currently powering up our micro grid system. So those are some of the highlights of the general benefits of the community,” he said.
However, at the July 11 meeting, residents continued to voice their concerns.
Weaver High School’s PTO President Beverly Hines wanted the wetlands commission to consider postponing the final decision, as the panel had until Aug. 8 to make a final decision on whether to issue the river crossing permit to CNG.
She, and other residents, said that many people still are unaware of the fuel cell project and that another community meeting should take place – as many parents are on vacation or are unable to attend commission meetings, due to other obligations or a lack of transportation and internet access.
Commissioner Guy Neumann asked Hines about what she had to done to share what she learned about the project. A person on the online meeting disagreed with the question, writing in the online chatbox: “Why is the PTO responsible for communicating to the community? Why is it her job vs the city or CNG?”
Asked by Neumann whether she supported the fuel cell project, Hines said that she was unable to answer that question for herself or for the 700 parents that she represents, as neither has enough information to make an informed decision.
Greater Hartford African American Alliance Health Equity and Environmental Justice Committee Chair Angela Harris agreed, saying the project should be advertised by CNG and the University of Hartford — as they have bigger budgets — to make sure the community has correct information.
“The requested communication could have (fallen) on deaf ears had it not been for Blue Hills Civic Association. One meeting without representation of 700 Weaver students, their families, faculty, staff and hundreds of residents, families, business owners and stakeholders is not sufficient,” she said.
Greater Hartford NAACP President Corrie Betts said he was only was recently notified of the project. He also requested the CNG presentation materials and minutes/additional notes from the June 29 public meeting.
Other residents echoed concerns shared by Hines and Harris about transparency and communication involving the project, Resident Joan Bailey said that many in the community are not aware of the fuel cell project at all.
“I’ve spoken to my neighbors and they have no clue about this. I don’t have enough information to make an informed decision too,” she said.
CNG officials said they will now move forward with additional permitting for a railroad crossing that is needed to complete the project. They said that the project team foresees this decision being made in the next two to four weeks.
“The Connecticut Siting Council has specific requirements of residences and businesses within a 2,500-foot (approximately half a mile) radius that must be informed of any project work. Doosan, the company that is executing this project, followed this protocol,” CNG officials said.
Per the request from the wetlands commission and residents, CNG plans additional outreach to the broader community in coming weeks, along with keeping their commitment to meet the Weaver Parent Teacher Organization in the fall when school resumes, company officials said.
Wetlands Commissioner Jonathan Harding said that while he understands the community’s frustration with the lack of communication, he did not see anything that would cause him to pause when it came to the application.
Gill said that although the decision was made to issue the river crossing permit, this should not stop CNG and the other companies from continuing to provide additional outreach meetings for the community about the project in the near future.
CNG officials also clarified that it is a component of the project, not its leader.
“Our construction is necessary to facilitate a Class 1 Renewable fuel cell project between Doosan (Fuel Cell Co.) and the University of Hartford. We are simply responding to a request from a large community stakeholder and taking the necessary action to fulfill the requirements of the project.”
Doosan Fuel Cell Co. did not respond to a request for comment.
Construction begins on Mystic Seaport boutique hotel
Carrie Czerwinski
Mystic ― Construction of a new boutique hotel has begun on the grounds of Mystic Seaport Museum on the site of the former Latitude 41 restaurant.
Work began on the site of the future Delamar Mystic Hotel in March with the demolition of Latitude 41 and the Shipyard Tavern by Mystic Seaport, and construction began last month, after the site was handed over to Greenwich Hospitality Group.
“I'm excited to bring the Delamar brand as well as exceptional food and beverage offerings to this special destination where we plan to create great memories and experiences for our guests and the local community," said Charles Mallory, founder and CEO of Greenwich Hospitality Group, in a statement Thursday.
Mallory is a former member of the museum's board of trustees and developed the Stonington Commons project in Stonington Borough.
Billed as a “waterfront luxury boutique hotel,” on the company’s website, the Mystic location will be one of six in the Delamar Hotel collection when completed in late 2024.
Delamar Hotels are owned and operated by the Greenwich Hospitality Group, and the project, being completed in conjunction with Clearview Investment Management, was approved by the Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission in 2020, however work was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Erin Kenning Spiegal, director of public relations and communications for Delamar Hotels, said Wednesday that the hotel will have 31 rooms and suites with floor-to-ceiling windows providing views of the Mystic River and the museum, a 3,000-square-foot event space, and a restaurant featuring New England coastal cuisine with 90 indoor seats and 100 outdoors.
Restaurants in all the Delamar hotels are owned and operated by the company, and Spiegal said the Mystic location will be run by Executive Chef Frederic Kieffer, who is currently the executive chef at l'escale in Greenwich, Artisan Southport, Artisan West Hartford, and La Plage in Westport.
Plans also call for a pool and outdoor patio with seating overlooking the river and an existing dock which will allow for dock and dine access to the restaurant as well as charter cruises.
There will be eight valet parking spots along a circle in the front of the hotel which will be accessed via a shared driveway from a parking lot that would serve the future Mystic River Boathouse Park.
The rest of the parking will be across Route 27 in the large museum lot.
Why Greenwich's Central Middle School construction pushed to 2024, 10K books may be cut from library
Jessica Simms
GREENWICH — Members of the Central Middle School building committee are waiting for a revised cost estimate from the architects and construction manager team. The project's start date has also been delayed by several months.
At a Wednesday night public forum, which took place at the current CMS building, presenters provided updates on the size, scope and site plan of the school, which is now slated to start construction in November 2024. Previously, the estimated start date was June 2024, but that got delayed because the project did not meet the June 30, 2023 deadline for state reimbursement.
Since the last forum, which took place in May, the CMS building committee approved a schematic design and site plan for the new middle school building. Tony Turner, chairperson, said these are preliminary and may change once SLAM Collaborative, the project architects, and Turner Construction, the project construction manager, present revised cost estimates by July 31.
“Now we have Turner Construction and SLAM down the path of coming up with a project cost estimate separately so that then we can compare the two numbers, work out any differences and then decide in conjunction with the Board of Education where we go from there,” Turner said at the end of the hour-long forum.
Turner was one of those presenting at Wednesday's meeting, with others including members of SLAM; a representative from Construction Solutions Group and someone from Turner Construction.
At the past two forums, attendees could only ask questions via a notecard or virtually, but this time, a few in-person audience members had the chance to ask questions directly to the presenters. One of the in-person questions was about the media center.
In previous design plans, SLAM architects were going to put the media center on the second floor. That has since changed since it can be a community-use space, said James Hoagland, lead designer from SLAM.
“We did want to move it to the first floor, so we’ve located that with some natural light into the courtyard and that will be located right off of the public lobby,” he said.
The current media center is 6,427 net square feet. According to the revised educational specifications, the new media center is going to be 4,565 net square feet and Hoagland said some of the media center's square footage broken up into academic pods throughout the building.
As a result of this size change, some of the current media center’s book collection has to be reduced.
Clare Lawler Kilgallen, vice chair of the building committee, said at the forum the collection will be reduced by about 10,000 to 15,000 books.
“The reduction in the collection was reviewed by (CMS Principal) Tom Healy … As we’ve gone through this design process, we think of who owns the building and the person who is running it day in and day out, it’s Tom Healy,” she said. “He’s been hand in glove with the team and as they’ve gone through these iterations and these considerations and how do we make everything fit in the board of ed’s ed specs and how do we design that. That’s been collaborated with Tom heavily.”
Attendees who joined the call via Zoom, and those who did not want to ask their questions live, could ask questions online, which will be answered on the project's website. The presenters addressed a few of these questions, and included queries about sustainability, safety and how to get construction to begin faster.
Tim Klepps, project executive from Turner Construction, said there are steps the project has to go through before being able to break ground and begin construction but they are finding ways to streamline the process.
“We’re looking at opportunities to try to reduce the duration of the estimating phases that happen in between each one of (the stages),” he said. “We’re also looking at opportunities on the procurement side when we go out to bid with the sub-contractors to try to reduce those durations as well.”
The proposed new two-story building is 124,407 gross square feet, with 81,005 net square feet designated to educational programming.
The existing building is 110,682 gross square feet, with 77,256 dedicated to educational programming. The building size difference is 13,725 gross square feet.
Some of the questions during Wednesday's forum also had to do with sustainability, including how many trees will have to be taken down during construction. Henry Withers, lead site designer and landscape architect from SLAM, said there will be "quite a bit of landscaping that goes into this project" due to new improvements, which include fields, 122 parking spots and entryways into the school property.
"We're going to be screening quite a bit with landscaping and we're going to be preserving as much of those existing trees that we can," he said.
Turner said that the project is entering the municipal improvement process, with the first step being that the project will be on the Planning and Zoning committee's agenda on Tuesday and that this process "will go on for several months."
$2.85 million rehabilitation project at Manchester dam could take 16 months
Joseph Villanova
MANCHESTER — A $2.85 million project to rehabilitate the Union Pond Dam is scheduled to begin on Monday and last until November 2024.
When construction begins, the parking lot at the west end of the pond off Union Street will be closed, but the road itself will remain open.
Town Engineer Jeff LaMalva said no traffic delays are expected as a result of the work, as the work will be done directly at the dam.
LaMalva said the work to be done includes structural concrete repairs and clearing of trees near its northern end. The pond will be lowered in September to allow the contractor's equipment to access the side of the dam bordering the pond.
The rehabilitation is primarily funded from Public Works bond referendum votes held in 2017, 2019, and 2021.
In May, the Board of Directors approved $750,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project to keep up with cost increases. At a meeting Tuesday night, Directors approved moving roughly $206,000 in capital project reserve funds to the project.
The town received five responses after opening the project to bids in April, ultimately selecting the lowest bidder, Massachusetts-based New England Infrastructure Inc.
WEST HAVEN — City planners approved a zoning change Tuesday that officials expect will face forward for development while maintaining residential views of the beach.
Residents in the area of the Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary in April organized against a provision that potentially would have allowed for developers to build as high as six stories with a special permit. At that meeting, some commissioners noted that the character of Beach Street in the area of the bird sanctuary is different from that of Captain Thomas Boulevard west of Stowe's Seafood, where the lots are bigger and there are fewer homes in close proximity to one another — despite both parts of the shoreline being included in the same zone on the city's planning map.
On Tuesday, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved new regulations for its Shoreline Design District and approved a zone map change to enact those new regulations. The new district includes properties east of Washington Avenue down to the Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary, covering two blocks from Beach Street to Thomas Street.
“This is not something we’re writing out of the blue,” said Commissioner Greg Milano, who wrote the first draft of the new regulations in collaboration with Vice Chairman John Biancur. “I think this is a really good, happy medium, and trying to please everyone is not easy.”
Perhaps most notably, the SDD only allows for the new construction of two stories, although a maximum of four stories is allowable with a special permit. Any story used for parking is considered a story.
The primary concerns raised by residents, which commissioners agreed to assuage, related to views of and access to the beach and the ability to receive enough sun exposure in their homes to make solar power viable and accessible.
Kathie Hebert, a neighbor who initially opposed the proposal that would have allowed for up to six stories of construction and who helped to facilitate neighborhood participation in a discussion with the two commissioners who authored the new regulations, said the process behind the design of the new zone is "the first time I really felt heard."
"You listened to us," she said.
Beach Street is home to at least three once-thriving and iconic commercial properties that since have been abandoned; in the last two years, two of those sites have been purchased by developers who have signaled their intent to begin new projects once an ongoing project to raise Beach Street is completed.
Developers for the former Chick's Drive-In site have nearly completed the construction of 12 townhouse units in the area of the former restaurant's parking lot, with a verbal commitment to pursue a new restaurant concept where the former Chick's building stands. Jeffrey Gordon, president of Codespoti and Associates and a frequent representative for the owners of the former Captain's Galley property before the commission, said his clients are generally "pleased" by the commission taking action on new regulations, although he had questions about the ability to rebuild damaged buildings amid changing flood elevation maps.
Jonathan Perlich, HAVN Ventures chief operating officer and a representative for the developer of the former Debonair Beach Motel, however, urged the commission to delay its vote over the "hastiness" of the process, which he said did not incorporate consultant feedback. He said the parking and maximum level story components to the regulations should be subject to additional conversations.
Because of the property owner's intention to develop a hotel at that location, the regulations would "drastically impact the project," Perlich said. Perlich said the property was purchased with the intention to develop under a set of regulations in which a bigger project would be possible. He warned that the site "will remain a derelict property" without the ability to develop.
Biancur said the conversation about the zoning changes and new regulations had been ongoing for months, so he did not believe the process had been completed hastily.
“I think it's time we brought this to a conclusion,” he said at the end of the public hearing before a commission vote. “It does not mean it cannot be amended over time.”
One topic raised several times during the public hearing was the impact of rooftop dining in the area. Commissioners told the public that a conversation on that, which would be bound by the city's ordinance on outdoor dining as well as its noise ordinance, would apply citywide and is conversation the commission intends to take up in the future.
Grant may lead to redevelopment of Pawcatuck mill into 58 apartments
Carrie Czerwinski
Stonington— Though one half of the historic William Clark Company Threadmill was converted into The Threadmill Apartments in 2016, the other half, owned by Pawcatuck Riverview LLC, has continued to deteriorate and even saw part of its roof collapse last fall.
The blighted property may soon see residential redevelopment after receiving a $200,000 grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
At Wednesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough thanked Selectwoman Debbie Downie for advising the town on the brownfield assessment grant application and said she was excited about the prospect of adding more housing in town.
The town, in collaboration with the developer, Lee Properties of Haverhill, Mass., applied for the grant this spring to conduct environmental assessments on the property.
The grant, one of 15 Municipal Brownfield Grants awarded by the state, will pay to determine the extent of remediation necessary to redevelop the 5.5-acre property into the The Mill at the Marina, a 58-unit apartment complex in the vacant half of the building.
According to the grant application, the property and building are known to be contaminated with hazardous materials such as asbestos, lead paint, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and various solvents among others due to the property’s various industrial uses since its 1899 construction.
“The Mill at the Marina is a tremendous opportunity to redevelop the historic 1892 William Clark Company Threadmill into fulfilling unmet housing needs in the region,” said Susan Cullen, the town’s director of Economic and Community Development on Wednesday.
She explained that in 2018, the region was calculated to need 7,180 units of housing, prior to Electric Boat’s announcement that it would be hiring 18,000 workers by 2030.
“This redevelopment of the dilapidated property will clean up an existing brownfield, provide much needed housing in the region, utilize existing utilities and provide walkable housing units to downtown Pawcatuck/Westerly including a connection to the train station. This is an efficient example of utilizing the infrastructure already in place and not adding miles of water or sewer lines that would have to be maintained for future generations at a significant cost to Stonington taxpayers,” she said.
Cullen said that the town is committed to the project, which will bring a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments to the area and will continue to partner with Lee Properties to pursue funding for remediation of the property once the extent of contamination is determined.
Downie suggested cautious optimism for the project, pointing out the grant only pays for the assessment of contamination but not the actual cleanup.
The Lee Properties website indicates The Mill at the Marina project will work with preservation experts to maintain the historic integrity of the exterior.
Conceptual designs for the property submitted to the planning department show a drastic transformation of the property, to include a pool, a potential bocce court and putting green, two outdoor kitchens with dining areas and a dog park.
The interior of the building would include elevator access to all floors, and 6 of the 58 market rate units would be handicapped accessible. The proposal also boasts amenities such as an exercise room, internet café, communal lounge, Zen garden, roof deck and a 40-space parking garage.
The developer will present conceptual plans to the Planning and Zoning Commission on July 18 at the former Pawcatuck Middle School.
Stratford town council hears plan for black box theater at former Shakespeare site
Richard Chumney
STRATFORD — Mayor Laura Hoydick’s proposed replacement for the old American Shakespeare Theater would feature about 500 to 550 seats, according to the architect who helped design the venue.
The yet-to-be-approved concept for a black box theater, which Hoydick unveiled last month alongside a larger $11.5 million redevelopment of the riverside site off Elm Street, would be a much smaller venue than the historic 1,500-seat playhouse arsonists destroyed four years ago.
In a presentation to Town Council members on Monday, William MacMullen, an architect with the firm DTC who designed the black-colored building, described the proposed performance space as a minimalistic theater.
“It's the type of theater that Shakespeare would have had. It's very intimate,” MacMullen said “They call it black box because the interior is very dark. You rely on lighting and sound — and the actual players on stage.”
MacMullen said the size of the venue was based on feedback from residents who had urged the town in the months after the fire to build a small theater or arts facility while maintaining open space near the waterfront.
He noted the team of architects considered emulating larger venues around the region, including popular performance spaces in Greenwich and Westport, but ultimately felt a more modest proposal would work best for the property.
“Stratford isn’t Greenwich,” MacMullen said. “Stratford is Stratford and the middle ground is what we thought would be the best for the town.”
Though once a popular attraction in the 1960s and 70s, the original theater eventually saw the size of its audiences dwindle. The last official show was held in 1989 and the theater largely sat unused until it was burned to the ground in early 2019.
Hoydick’s proposal represents a smaller version of a more ambitious project pitched by the American Globe Center. That organization has proposed building a historically accurate version of William Shakespeare’s Globe as a part of a $90 million arts complex next to the Housatonic River.
Tom Evans, the executive director of the group, urged council members during Monday’s meeting to allow the organization to formally present their proposal to the 10-member body. He argued the Globe Center’s proposed overhaul of the site would be more popular than a black box theater and could generate tens of millions of dollars in economic development for the town.
“We believe that we can operate this as a nonprofit but be profitable,” Evans said. “It's based on an investor model, not a donor model. So we know we will be successful where the old theater failed.”
In addition to the small theater, Hoydick is proposing to construct an open-air food court with food trucks and a music pavilion on the site. In a letter to council members, she said the project would be built in three stages, beginning with about $3 million in infrastructure improvements.
The state has already set aside funds to help redevelop the property. The State Bond Commission voted last spring to award the town $3 million in grant money to kickstart the effort.
Design plans hosted on the town’s website show the planned music pavilion would be located roughly at the site of the razed theater. The structure would cost around $3.1 million and would be built during the project’s second phase. MacMullen said the open-air space would be able to accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 people.
“This is something that could be used for anything as intimate as one person doing a concert or a lecture or also having a big band up there,” MacMullen said.
In the third and final phase, construction crews would build a $5.4 million black box theater directly behind the John Benjamin House on Elm Street, a historic property also known as the White House. MacMullen said the theater would largely be powered by rooftop solar panels, reducing energy costs.
MacMullen also noted that the White House, which sits near the site’s entrance, would be attached to the theater and could serve as a ticket booth or reception space for the venue. He said the upgrades would make the more than 180-year-old building accessible to those with disabilities.