Buttigieg says infrastructure faces a 'once-in-a-lifetime moment' as bridges, roads get C- grade

Joe Bousquin  While offering few new details of the Biden administration’s forthcoming Build Back Better plan, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg told a virtual conference of engineers that now is the time to act on a generational opportunity to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure.

During a presentation of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ infrastructure report card, which gave the U.S. an overall C- for the condition of its roads, bridges, ports, drinking water systems and electricity grids and identified a $2.59 trillion spending gap, Buttigieg said it was time to get to work rebuilding the country.

“We’ve got a long way to go, and our infrastructure is in tough shape,” Buttigieg said. “We are past the point of allowing ‘Infrastructure Week’ to be a Washington punchline once again.”

That was a reference to former President Donald Trump’s multiple attempts to rally policymakers to pass meaningful, bipartisan infrastructure legislation. But like President Barack Obama before him, Trump’s efforts resulted in scant tangible results.

Asked during the conference if he believed the Biden administration had the political will necessary to change that, Buttigieg answered affirmatively.

“I think we do, or at least I think we can,” Buttigieg said. “Look, the American people already want us to do this. And I think infrastructure is already one of the most bipartisan things that this administration is taking on.”

Rescue, then recovery

Echoing President Joe Biden’s sentiment that infrastructure isn’t a “red versus blue state issue,” Buttigieg made the case that now was “maybe a once-in-a-lifetime moment to invest.”

“Interest rates are at historic lows. Underemployment and unemployment are higher than they should be,” Buttigieg said. “There's never been a better reason for politicians, regardless of party, regardless of ideology, to want to get this done.”

Buttigieg called on his own experience as former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to put ASCE’s findings, which identified 50,000 bridges across the nation as “structurally deficient,” in context.  

“This is the time of year when a lot of people think about daylight coming back and springtime temperatures. There are others among us who just think of this as maximum pothole season,” he said, explaining that as South Bend’s mayor, he heard about potholes everywhere he went. “And I think the pothole has become a symbol of the bigger needs that we have.”

Asked for specifics, Buttigieg pointed to Biden’s call for 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations around the country, increased public transportation options and even “micro mobility,” like electric bikes and scooters within cities.

While more details weren’t forthcoming, Buttigieg did put in context the lack of a clearer expression of the administration’s infrastructure plan thus far, which was originally slated to be presented to a joint session of Congress in February, but was later pushed back as the administration focused on a COVID-19 relief package first.

“These big infrastructure opportunities are ahead, but we have something even more immediate before us at this moment,” Buttigieg said, explaining that the administration is “very focused right now on the first step of this ambitious two-step plan, which is rescue, followed by recovery. Right now, we're still in the rescue phase. We've got to get shots in arms.”

Nothing to brag about

Buttigieg’s comments closed ASCE’s full-day conference where the organization announced, for the first time in 20 years, that the nation’s infrastructure had received an overall grade higher than a D, but just barely. ASCE’s C- grade for the country overall highlighted the $2.59 trillion funding gap in America’s infrastructure spending, a figure that has grown by a rate of $259 billion per year over the last decade.

Cumulative infrastructure needs, in billions

Source: American Society of Civil Engineers

While the C- rating showed at least a slight improvement from the organization’s last quadrennial report in 2017, when it was a D+, ASCE’s executive director Thomas Smith said it still wasn’t anything to brag about.

“This not a report card anyone would be proud to take home. We have not made significant enough investments to maintain infrastructure that in some cases was built more than 50 years ago,” Smith said in a statement that accompanied the report. “As this study shows, we risk significant economic losses and higher costs to consumers, businesses and manufacturers – and our quality of life – if we don’t act urgently.”

Looking to the future

The event, which follows on the heels of each presidential inauguration, has always been marked as a rallying cry from infrastructure stakeholders to call on members of Congress to act on the country’s infrastructure needs. This year's virtual conference was a who’s who of U.S. government officials, infrastructure stakeholders and industrial titans. 

Much of the agenda was focused on passing an infrastructure bill in this administration, where previous administrations have failed.

“If we can't find consensus on infrastructure across the aisle, then I'm not sure we can find bipartisan agreement on anything,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who detailed a 90-minute meeting he had with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House last month. “I talked about how I really believe that infrastructure was an issue that we should and could find bipartisan consensus on, because this is something that both Democrats and Republicans say should be a top priority and something that both business and labor leaders say should be a top priority."

Leon Topalian, CEO of Nucor, the nation’s largest steel company, pointed to the nation’s 50,000 crumbling bridges as an example of something private business would never allow to happen among its own assets.

“For me and every executive in our company, it would be unacceptable to live with something that we knew might injure someone,” Topalian said. “So as I think about where we stand on infrastructure and those 50,000 bridges, if our elected officials are waiting for one of those to fail, waiting for a waterway to collapse, waiting for injuries to occur or God forbid, fatalities to occur because a bridge failed, the strategy is flawed. Our time to act is now.”

House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who has focused on expanding infrastructure investment in his district as well as South Carolina’s ports, said he hoped the Biden plan would have an expansive view of infrastructure, including funding to expand internet connectivity in rural areas.

“I remember when we first came up with the internet, we called it the information highway,” Clyburn said. “The information highway has to be treated the same way that we treat the interstate because broadband is going to be the key to the 21st century in rural America, just as electricity was the key to rural America in the 20th century.”

New London middle school construction project hits snag

Greg Smith  New London — The City Council has rejected the $39.3 million price tag for construction costs associated with the renovation of Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School because of a possible increase in costs to taxpayers, threatening to further delay the project on the eve of the start of construction.

The council voted 5-2 against the so-called guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, acting in part on advice of Finance Director David McBride and Mayor Michael Passero. The move halts the awarding of contracts by O&G Industries, the construction manager, to the trade contractors who bid on the project.

McBride said that while the project is technically within the $49.5 million construction budget, the state has so far deemed too many elements of the proposed project to be ineligible for 80% reimbursement from the state. As a result, McBride said more of the costs than expected would be shifted to taxpayers.

When taxpayers in 2014 approved the reconstruction of the high and middle schools at a total cost of $165 million, the middle school project had $55 million allocated to it. At an 80% reimbursement rate, the cost to the city for the middle school project would be $11 million.

McBride said while a certain percentage of school projects often contain ineligibles, the middle school project as designed is already beyond the $11 million the city expected to pay. He predicts that while some costs will become eligible, at least $2.3 million of the total costs will remain ineligible for the full 80% reimbursement.

“As a result, before a shovel hits the ground," McBride said, the project is not adhering to the 80%-20% reimbursable rate.

Councilors at a meeting on Monday appeared torn on whether to move ahead or risk months of delays if the project has to be rebid into a volatile construction market that could lead to higher costs.

Representatives from Colliers International, which is managing the project, said it already has spent months working to reduce costs and bring them in line with the budget. The GMP previously was approved by the School Maintenance and Building Committee.

Councilor Curtis Goodwin at Monday’s meeting acknowledged the risk of cost escalations but said the city needs to manage the project to protect taxpayers. He voted against it.

Councilor James Burke, a member of the School Maintenance and Building Committee, and Councilor Alma Nartatez both voted to approve the costs. Both said that while there were missteps in the past, the benefits of moving forward with the project would outweigh the potential delays and the near certainty of future cost increases.

The answer to what happens with the project is unclear.

“Quite frankly, I’m not sure what the next steps are,” Burke said. “We’ve done extensive value engineering and worked hard to get this project within budget. I stand by the fact that we need to get going as soon as possible.”

He said he is willing to move forward with cost-cutting measures but would not be happy if cuts impact school programming.

Mayor Michael Passero, who has expressed his frustration with the project budget and the fact the central office was not part of the renovation plan, is scheduling a meeting with representatives with the state Department of Administrative Services’ Office of School Construction Grants and Review in an attempt to work to reduce the costs.

Talks about using $5.5 million of the middle school contingency funds for the central office renovation have ceased, however, since cost estimates were beyond the budget.

McBride said his hope was that the state would agree to a higher reimbursement rate for ineligibles but said the school district might also consider dropping elements of the project that are not part of the construction — things like artificial turf for the school courtyard or new computers.

Councilor John Satti, chairman of the School Maintenance and Building Committee, said one of the reasons he voted against the GMP was what he considers redundancies in the two construction projects.

The school district has developed plans for three magnet schools: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math); International Baccalaureate, and Visual and Performing Arts. The high school, along with high school STEM and IB pathway students, will host an arts pathway for both middle and high school students in expanded art spaces.

Middle school STEM and IB students at Bennie Dover also will have newly constructed arts spaces — chorus, band and digital arts areas — as required by regular middle school curriculum.

Satti said portions of the middle school are being torn down only to have spaces that already exist rebuilt.

“I’m fiscally conservative and I have a responsibility to protect the purse strings of the city,” Satti said. “My problem is we’re spending tens of millions of dollars at the north campus to create performing arts space and we are also spending millions and millions of dollars recreating space where we already have space.”

The Bennie Dover school project earned site plan approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission in October. Plans call for a phased project that includes demolition of an older portion of the school, an addition, extensive classroom renovations, reconstruction of an interior courtyard and expanded outdoor space.

The $108 million construction project at the high school is underway.

Harbor Point sale: Stamford apartment building sells for $105 million

Paul Schott STAMFORD — An apartment building in the fast-growing Harbor Point section of the city’s South End has sold for $105 million, Stamford’s largest property sale of 2021.

The sale price for 101 Washington Blvd., which is also known as 101 Park Place, compared with an appraised value of nearly $126 million, according to property-transfer records filed this week with the Stamford Town Clerk’s Office.

Built in 2009, the 15-story building includes about 340 units, according to the Vision Appraisal database. It changed hands in 2013 for $135 million, according to property records.

The seller was TR Park Place Corp. It listed “C/O Barings LLC,” at “One Financial Place” in Hartford, as its business address. Global investment manager Barings has an office at that location, whose official name is “One Financial Plaza,” but is more commonly known as “the Gold Building.”

An entry in the grantee/buyer category in the property-transfer records was left blank, but a special warranty deed included in the sale’s documentation references Lakewood, N.J.-based AJH Management.

In late 2019, the neighboring Infinity apartment tower, at 201 Commons Park South, was bought for $90 million by two limited liability companies that listed their business address with AJH Management.

Messages left this week for Barings and AJH Management were not immediately returned.

The sale generated $787,500 in conveyance taxes for the state and $523,500 in conveyance taxes for the city.

Investors have long eyed Harbor Point, a mixed-use development where several thousand apartments have been built in the past decade. In 2016, Harbor Point’s developer, Stamford-based Building and Land Technology, sold five apartment buildings for a total of nearly $400 million, to the Manhattan-based Gaia Real Estate.

During the past few years in Stamford, apartment building sales have tended to not result in major day-to-day changes for residents, but new owners often look to improve those properties.

“We’re going to upgrade the amenities and make them more functional,” Gaia Managing Partner Danny Fishman said at the time of his firm’s Harbor Point acquisition. “Those types of services add a lot to the lifestyle and overall experience of living in these buildings.”

Harbor Point has maintained its momentum amid the coronavirus pandemic, as the surge of people relocating to Connecticut from New York City and other areas has fueled demand for housing. In addition to the building accommodations, Harbor Point’s waterfront setting and proximity to the downtown Metro-North Railroad station and Interstate 95 are significant draws.

Last month, BLT officially opened the newest apartment tower in Harbor Point, the 435-unit “Escape” building. Several neighboring buildings are under construction.

“There’s always been good demand, and I think that the demand has gotten better and better every year,” BLT Co-President Ted Ferrarone told Hearst Connecticut Media in January. “We saw really strong demand over the summer, especially with people coming out of New York City, and I think they’re coming because you just get good value. You can rent a two-bedroom apartment here for less than you can rent a one-bedroom in the city.”

Busy market

Stamford has seen a number of other major commercial property sales in the past few months.

A few weeks ago, a two-building site at 1111-1177 Summer St., sold for about $12 million.

In the city’s largest real estate deal of 2020, telecommunications giant Charter Communications bought for $100 million the downtown office building at 400 Atlantic St., which has served as its headquarters since 2012. The company still plans to open a new headquarters later this year a few blocks away, in a new 500,000-square-foot building at 406 Washington Blvd., next to the downtown Metro-North station. BLT owns 406 Washington.

A few blocks from 400 Atlantic, the office tower at 1055 Washington Blvd., sold late last year for $24 million in a “leasehold” deal. The approximately 183,000-square-foot property stands next to the Parc condominium building and across the street from Mill River Park.

Also last fall, the site of the former Stamford Sheraton hotel, which closed last October, sold for $6 million. The property appears to have been considered for uses such as military veterans’ housing, but the buyers have not publicly disclosed their plans.

New Canaan Police building committee signs contract with architect

Grace Duffield  A firing range is one amenity the Police Building Committee discussed before they landed on a design agreement with Brian Humes of Jacunski Humes Architects, LLC.

The committee voted unanimously to hire the Berlin, Conn. based architectural firm on Wednesday, Feb. 24 to determine the site needs and options for the department presently housed in the 95-year-old facility.

The 27,000 square foot retrofitted school on 174 South Ave. lacks space for law enforcement needs not foreseen 38 years ago when it was last renovated, such as lockers for female officers, a simulated training area and ample space for computer equipment, police officials say.

Humes was asked to focus on three options on the same property for a building he expects to be 24,000 to 26,000 square feet and designed to accommodate 50 sworn-in officers. Humes said his preliminary design work would probably take 12 weeks.

Option A entails renovating or rebuilding the existing building, with the existing façade. Option B includes demolishing the existing building and considering a façade that emulates the current building. Option C would be to build a new headquarters behind the current building and re-purpose the existing building for town use.

The small architectural firm has just seven employees, but has done other projects for the town including constructing the EMS building, building garage additions, replacing a boiler and completing a roof repair.

Humes gave a presentation on Thursday, Feb 11 to show what other buildings the firm has built and renovated, including the $43 million Stamford Police Department designed to accommodate 350 sworn-in officers.

The neighboring city’s building includes an eight-lane firing range, a new-age booking area and cells that are considered safe for detainees. The facility is 100,000 square feet and has a 100,000 square-foot, four-deck parking structure.

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the committee should consider a firing range. The present range, located in the basement, is no longer usable.

Committee member Amy Murphy said she thought the committee was “off” the fire range proposal and it was no longer being considered.

“No, no, no. No, we are not off the firing range,” Police Commission Chairman Paul Foley said.

Committee member Penny Rashin said the town could still go forward and get costs, but “we are not committed to it, just seeing what the parameters are.”

Moynihan has considered joining forces with Wilton on building a range, but the town would share costs, which he estimated would be around $500,000.

Foley asked Humes if the police headquarters currently being built included firing ranges.

Humes said less that 50 percent of new police headquarter projects included the addition of firing ranges, since it makes sense to share them. He said that the rarely-sed facilities have equipment “rugged enough to last.”

Humes referenced Darien’s firing range, which was nearby.

Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said that he had spoken with Darien Police Chief Donald Anderson and he “is not that thrilled with additional use of his range,” because the noise created when in use disturbs people in nearby offices. Also, there are issues with the ventilation, the chief said.

Committee member Stuart Sawabini said if New Canaan had a firing range, three lanes would probably suffice.

Humes touted his experience renovating several firing ranges, and said he “brought back to life” Trumbull’s which had been out of use for years.

He also said New Canaan could also consider a simulated range in a 25 by 30 foot space.

Furthermore, Humes showed pictures of Stamford station’s cells designed to prevent suicide of detainees and said there has never been an “accident” at any of the facilities his firm has built or renovated.

He also showed two booking rooms to process arrests where mug shots can be taken and the police are behind a barrier designed for “officer safety and security.”

In his presentation he gave examples of repeat customers such as in Dennis, Massachusetts where he started in 2005 by building a police headquarters and has been hired back to do five other projects including town hall and the senior center.

The present 27,000 square New Canaan Police Station could be renovated, but some of the requests listed by the committee, such as a larger community meeting room, could not be accommodated, since there are existing walls and construction that is limiting.

He cautioned that if the present space is renovated, the town would need to find places for three important police functions while the construction is taking: one for prisoner detention, another for dispatch and a third for personnel and administration.

He explained that during Darien’s recent addition, the police chose to stay in the headquarters and Hume’s firm set up the dispatch area in a bullet-resistant trailer.

Some towns share cells with other towns while they are in transition, he said.

He warned that putting the personnel in another town building would mean the town would need to outfit the facility with lockers and shower areas.

The main house at Irwin Park has been discussed as a potential ‘swing space’ for the police during a renovation.

Co-Chair Bill Walbert said it not “not like moving Town Hall,” referring to when the town moved town hall workers during that renovation.

The police building sits on one of two parcels of town-owned land totaling 4.68 acres. There is 1.78 acres where the headquarters, the EMS building, the ambulance building and parking are located. There is another 2.90 acres housing the South Avenue Cottage, the School House Apartments, the Day Care Center of New Canaan, a playground and a parking area for the three entities.

Mayor: Federal money cleaning up old Star Pin site in Shelton

Brian Gioiele   SHELTON — Millions of dollars in federal funds and private investment will bring new life to what was the historic Star Pin factory site devastated by fire nearly nine months ago, Mayor Mark Lauretti said.

The federal government has provided $2 million, Lauretti said, to clean up the property, once home to a 145-year-old structure but now sequestered from the area by a fence restricting access to the gutted, contaminated site.

“This property should be ready to go in couple months to begin a new work program,” Lauretti said while walking along Canal Street East, adding that “we look forward to more productivity along Canal Street.”

The fire destroyed the six-story vacant brick building on the banks of the Housatonic River in a blaze that burned for hours with asbestos billowing from the site and falling, like snow, along the immediate area. The property was known to contain lead, PCBs and asbestos.

The cause remains under investigation, according to Fire Marshal James Tortora.

Lauretti said the city had taken the property in a tax foreclosure three years earlier — the prior owner owed the city nearly $700,000 in back taxes when he vacated the building — with the intent to restore and rehabilitate it and return to the tax rolls.

“Buildings like this are not anything new to Connecticut or the northeast of the United States,” Lauretti said. “Once upon a time we made everything in the world in this great state, and Shelton is part of that equation.

“When all that changed, these buildings became abandoned and run down and became a blight and a drag on the tax tolls,” the mayor said.

Lauretti said new construction on both sides of the railroad tracks over the years has resulted in more tax money coming to the city. The Star Pin site would be another property turned from eyesore to asset.

“We’ve done this for 28 years,” Lauretti said, adding that, overall, the city has brought some $23 million in federal money to rehab contaminated old factory sites all along Canal Street. “Shortly after this fire at Star Pin, the federal government, through DEP, approached me and wanted to participate in the cleanup. That was welcome news to me and the city.”

The fire came three months after the city agreed to sell the property to Primrose Companies, owned by John Guedes, for $500,000. At that time, Guedes told officials he would be submitting plans to convert the building into 77 market-rate studios and one-bedroom apartments.

The Board of Aldermen approved the sale in March 2020. Lauretti stated that the fire has forced the city to start the process from scratch and while he expects Guedes to remain the buyer, the purchase price and development plans will be different.

Guedes said, on his end, the scope of the project will be different now the building is gone but the intent remains the same — to continue the redevelopment of Canal Street into a vibrant piece of the city’s downtown.

“I can’t implement the design I had envisioned when I started putting this together,” Guedes said, adding that his plans included refurbishing the historic structure. He said one possibility is constructing a new building — with a similar number of units — that attempts to mimic the old structure.

“I’m excited about this project … about the rebirth of Canal Street and the downtown,” Guedes said.

As part of the original deal, Guedes said he had planned to purchase a neighboring lot for parking. With the building now gone, he can design a building with parking underneath, he said. The prior plan using the original structure did not allow for under-building parking, he said.

In 2019, the state Department of Economic and Community Development approved a $750,000 grant for remediation of hazardous building materials at the site. The grant money was earmarked for lead, PCBs and asbestos removal from the 118,000-square-foot building. Work was under way when the fire occurred.

Over the past 30 years, the property housed a variety of manufacturing firms, some of which conducted plating operations. The property has been largely vacant over the past 15 years and age and weather were beginning to exact a toll on the building’s structural integrity, officials said.

The Star Pin company was founded on Sept. 25, 1866. Its first location was along the Far Mill River in the Wells Hollow area of Shelton. The company moved to Canal Street in 1875. After more than a century, the company closed its doors in December 1977.

Star Pin manufactured pins, hair pins and hooks and eyes for clothing. Its peak came during the 1920s, when 400 employees toiled there. By the early 1950s, the company also produced folding paper boxes and numbered 140 employees.

According to ConnecticutMills.org, one of the founders and early officers of the company, James C. Hubbard, is credited with inventing one of the first automated hair pin making machines in the United States.

Hubbard’s son, Henry Franklin Hubbard, joined the company during the 1890s and was active with the firm for 57 years. During his time, he attained the title of “dean of American pin makers,” after designing the machine that produced the first “bobby pins.”