Tweed-New Haven Airport Receives $4 Million Federal Grant for Terminal Expansion

Tweed-New Haven Airport Receives $4 Million Federal Grant for Terminal Expansion New Haven, CT – Tweed-New Haven Airport (HVN) today announced that it has been awarded a $4 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through the FY 2025 Airport Terminal Program (ATP). 

This funding will support Phase 2 of the airport's terminal expansion, which includes the construction of a new, state-of-the-art, 81,568 square foot terminal with four gates, expanded security screening, new baggage handling systems, and concessions space. This award builds on HVN’s continued progress modernizing the airport’s infrastructure, replacing an outdated terminal built in 1931, which exceeded its useful life. The new terminal will expand capacity at the airport and significantly improve the passenger experience. It will also incorporate a sustainable design, improving climate resilience and safety.

The new terminal’s construction is a critical piece of HVN’s broader vision to serve a premier travel hub for Southern Connecticut flyers, enhancing passenger experiences, reducing delays, and supporting the local economy. “This grant is another huge win for HVN and for the Southern Connecticut region,” said Michael Jones, CEO of The New HVN. “Once built, HVN’s new terminal will transform the way we serve our passengers and support our community, offering modern amenities, a more efficient security process, and a sustainable infrastructure.

We are deeply grateful to the FAA and Connecticut’s federal delegation for their continued investment in HVN’s growth and success.” "Tweed’s record growth is creating good-paying jobs, attracting families and businesses to our state, and paving the way for greater connectivity for all of Connecticut,” said Senator Chris Murphy. “By opening up new gates and upgrading aging infrastructure, this $4 million investment in the airport’s terminal expansion will allow Tweed to meet the rising demand for air travel in New Haven, improve the airport experience, and bring a major economic boost to southern Connecticut.”

 “This major federal investment will enable more air travelers to fly more conveniently, comfortably, and safely,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal. “While more funds are needed to support Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure – and I’ll fight for them – this $4 million is a giant vote of confidence in New Haven as a hub for air travel.” "The FAA grant is another important and meaningful step toward the responsible and sustainable development of Tweed-New Haven Airport,” said Mayor Justin Elicker.

“New Haven is a growing city, and this new terminal is an important next step, supporting our residents and visitors. I appreciate our federal delegation’s leadership and strong support for this landmark public-private partnership.”

“This new funding is a testament to the federal government’s confidence in HVN’s future, and specifically in the building of a new, modern passenger terminal,” said Robert Reed, Chairman of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority.

“HVN is excited to continue its forward progress and find new ways to meet the needs of our travelers. We look forward to continuing our work to deliver a world-class airport that Southern Connecticut can be proud of.”

This $4 million grant is part of a larger effort to bring long-needed upgrades to Tweed-New Haven Airport and positions the airport to play a key role in the future growth of Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure.

 “The New HVN” project will reduce congestion at neighboring airports and provide more travel options for the people of New Haven and surrounding communities. Additional information can be found at www.thenewhvn.com.

Here’s how stormwater drainage is impacting a major Hartford development plan

Michael Puffer

Hartford officials believe the installation of a roughly mile-long pipe through an area south of Bushnell Park will accelerate the transformation of 20 acres of underused buildings and parking lots into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood.

For more than a year, staff at the Capital Region Development Authority and Metropolitan District (MDC) have been negotiating an agreement that would require the CRDA to help pay for the installation of a large stormwater drainage pipe, which would accept water flowing from parking lots and off buildings planned for the “Bushnell South” development area.

That water would then be funneled into the Park River — which runs through an underground, box-shaped tunnel that passes through Bushnell Park — before flowing into the Connecticut River.

Concerned about the increasing frequency of severe storms, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he’s pushing for greater flood-control measures throughout the city.

In the Bushnell South area, for example, he wants one major pipe installed to alleviate existing flooding and relieve developers from having to install stormwater retention basins that eat up otherwise developable land.

“We are trying to figure out if we could get one major connection instead of building a bunch of retaining pools for each building,” Arulampalam said. “This is part of what is slowing down development in the short term.”

Hartford, like many older cities in the Northeast, has a sewer system with pipes that carry both sanitary sewage — from toilets, kitchen sinks and shower drains — and stormwater. All this gets sent downstream to sewage treatment plants.

That’s usually not a problem. But large rainstorms, which have increased in frequency in recent years, create sudden spikes in flow that can overwhelm sewage treatment plants, spilling millions of gallons of stormwater mixed with raw sewage into the Connecticut River.

Under state and city regulations, builders in Hartford need to create on their properties drainage basins capable of holding, then slowly feeding out, stormwater runoff equivalent to the impact of a 100-year storm, said MDC Executive Director Scott W. Jellison. For larger apartment buildings, that costs hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to install, he said.

Jellison said he envisions a mile-long pipe of about 24 to 36 inches in diameter that could cost around $4 million.

“Stormwater is really driving development,” Jellison said during a recent visit to the Bushnell South area. “Properties like this can flood quickly.”

What’s on tap

The Bushnell South area, long eyed for redevelopment, has attracted several developers that want to build large mixed-use apartment projects. CRDA is providing low-interest loans to spur the activity.

Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners is nearing completion of a $66 million project transforming two former state office buildings at 55 Elm St. into 164 apartments. The company is working to assemble nearly $70 million for two additional apartment buildings — totaling 239 units — on properties wrapping around 55 Elm St.

Early this year, Spinnaker also paid $3.25 million for a 2.2-acre parking lot in the Bushnell South area for future development.

Philadelphia-based Pennrose LLC and The Cloud Co., of Hartford, are partnered in a $45.35 million plan to convert two former state office buildings at 18-20 and 30 Trinity St., into apartment buildings that will host 104 units. CRDA, last year, approved a $6.5 million loan for the effort.

The developers are expected to close on financing and buy those properties from the state by the end of this year, according to CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth. Construction is expected to begin immediately thereafter.

One block over, the New Jersey-based Michaels Organization was selected by CRDA as the preferred developer of a 2.8-acre parking lot at 165 Capitol Ave. However, the firm is currently working on a revised development plan, since its original proposal for a $129.6 million, mixed-use multifamily project with 360 apartments didn’t pencil out.

Obtainable goal

If the sewer pipe project moves forward, the CRDA would be expected to carry some of the cost for the MDC-led effort. Freimuth said his agency is basing its contribution on the savings developers will realize by not having to build individual stormwater retention systems on their properties. Altogether, that would save developers “millions,” while also preserving additional land for development, Freimuth said.

“Essentially, the infrastructure improvement is a subsidy to all projects in the area, not unlike roads or utilities for subdivisions or redevelopment areas,” Freimuth said.

Freimuth said he anticipates a stormwater pipe investment would produce an equivalent reduction in loan size for CRDA-backed projects in the Bushnell South development area. Loans will be smaller and may come with adjusted terms, like higher interest rates, he said.

City and state regulations don’t allow the regional sewer and public water company to pay for stormwater systems just to aid specific developments. But developers and other partners can contribute to a system that benefits a broader area.

Jellison said the Bushnell South pipe could also be used to collect stormwater from the area around Hartford Hospital.

It’s an arrangement the MDC has used repeatedly, Jellison noted, including in a recent agreement for new stormwater drainage around the planned 322-unit apartment development at the former UConn campus in West Hartford.

“The goal is the developer pays for their share of the improvement to the MDC (stormwater) sewer system,” Jellison said. “The MDC will get a new pipe. We make it bigger to serve the other areas surrounding the development. So, there’s a benefit to us. There’s a benefit to the developer. There’s no cost to our customers, and it’s a win, win for everybody.”

Empty parcel near Stamford CT rail station being shopped as site for high-rise apartment building

Alexander Soule

Could another high rise be going vertical along Interstate 95 next to Stamford's central commuter rail station? That is one vision for the owners of a parcel bounded by Atlantic, Dock, Manhattan and Pacific streets, who are now dangling the lot for any developers to move ahead with a project.

Under a design attributed to the Stamford architectural firm Marsh + Woods Architects, one potential iteration of the building would include a residential tower rising nearly 40 stories with 484 units, with a wide base or a run of ground-level storefronts fronting Dock Street and a larger parking garage on the lower levels.

That would top the Park Tower Stamford condominium building as the tallest in Stamford — but any new developer would bring their own vision to the property at 560 Atlantic St., according to Don Carbo, a commercial real estate broker with New England Properties Real Estate who is representing the property owners.

Carbo said he could not divulge details on the listing, and did not say if the owners are looking to retain any equity portion in a future development.

"There's a lot of interest on it already," Carbo said on Thursday. "Calls are coming in."

Stamford is in the midst of an ongoing apartment boom that has seen the addition of thousands of units in the past several years, with as many as 4,500 units or more in the pipeline according to the most recent count by the city of Stamford's economic development office. That number does not including the hundreds more that could be built at 560 Atlantic St.

On the south side of I-95 and the Metro-North commuter rail line, contiguous properties along Atlantic, Dock, Manhattan and Pacific streets have been cobbled together over a dozen years, including two purchased last year under limited liability companies listed in the name of Frank Steinegger, a Darien resident who runs a construction company in Stamford.

The combined lot is now being packaged for sale to the highest bidder, without making public any initial asking price in a commercial listing posted by New England Properties Real Estate.

The parcel could also become home to a possible corporate headquarters if any have interest in the site. More than two years ago, broadband giant Charter Communications moved into a new headquarters complex on the opposite side of the Stamford Transportation Center, after moving its headquarters to Stamford in 2012 from St. Louis, Missouri.

But with plenty of office vacancies already in downtown Stamford, including the Stamford Plaza complex on Tresser Boulevard owned by RFR Realty, a residential development appears the more likely outcome. Across I-95, the first phase of the Atlantic Station high rise opened in 2018, with commercial tenants now moving into Atlantic Station including Golf Lounge 18.

Over 12 months through June 2022, apartment occupancies in Stamford jumped about three percentage points to 96.9 percent, the city reported that year. As of Thursday, Apartments.com listed 1,750 available units in Stamford, ranging from a Bedford Street studio for $1,540 a month to $7,500 for a unit in the newly built Smyth residential building at 100 Tresser Blvd. a few blocks north of I-95 and the Stamford Transportation Center.

Marcus & Millichap analysts calculated last June that Stamford will have four of every 10 new apartments that come online this year in Fairfield County, in a review of the region's apartment market.

"As recent as 2019, it cost less to make a mortgage payment on a median-priced home than to rent a local top-tier apartment," Marcus & Millichap analysts wrote. "However, that dynamic inverted with the ramp-up in mortgage rates in recent years, which has been compounded by record home prices amid limited for-sale inventory. This is increasing the prevalence of renters at top-tier properties."

West Hartford's Park Road rehabilitation project would add raised crosswalks and bike lanes

Michael Walsh

WEST HARTFORD — The town is moving forward with its plans to reconstruct the busy commercial and residential Park Road corridor that will reduce car travel lanes, add bike lanes, and increase pedestrian safety.

Construction is expected to begin next summer on the $2.25 million plan to upgrade the roadway from Quaker Lane South to Prospect Avenue, which will include roadway resurfacing, sidewalk repairs, improved street lighting, and other added amenities such as benches, landscaping, and better wayfinding signage.

"We’re at the very early stages of the project," said Greg Sommer, the town engineer, at a public meeting Wednesday. "We want to really get feedback and input from the community ... to make sure we’re on the right track. We have time to adjust the design and make any improvements you might have to suggest."

But the bulk of Park Road's rehabilitation is the way the town's engineers said they plan to make the roadway — which sees around 8,300 vehicles travel on it each day — safer for cyclists and pedestrians, which was the subject of the road safety audit the town held last October.

To do that, the town is proposing to raise all crosswalks on the roadway that aren't controlled by signals, like the one directly in front of Playhouse and Park. Added bump outs will also help shorten the distance that pedestrians will have to cross in certain places along the roadway as well. Sidewalk ramps will also be replaced and made accessible, with improvements to crossing signals also being recommended.

Bike lanes — which won't be separated or protected, but only delineated on the roadway by paint — will also be added in both directions going along the driver-side of the road's parallel parking. The town is making space for those five-foot bike lanes by reducing the vehicle travel lanes from 15 feet to 10 feet. The town is currently finalizing its new bike facility plan, which it intends to use to expand its bike network. Sommer said these bike lanes were recommended by the town's consultant.

While parking will mostly remain parallel, angled parking will be added in the area of J.René Coffee Roasters and other businesses, an area of the roadway that currently has a unique parking setup where cars essentially drive onto the sidewalk to access parking spaces. Instead, the parking will be pushed out into the street, with sidewalk space and the bike lane being moved closer to the businesses, meaning cyclists and pedestrians won't have to maneuver behind angled-parked cars.

Part of the project will be funded by $1.5 million in state grant funding that the town received two years ago. Sommer said they hope to finish the design by the spring, with a goal of construction starting next summer and finishing in the winter.

The Park Road rehabilitation project is just one of a few major roadway changes the town will be making over the next few years, with a $6 million plan to overhaul New Park Avenue in the works, as well as the town's comprehensive plans to rework both LaSalle Avenue and Farmington Avenue in West Hartford Center. The state is also planning a rework of the intersection of North Main Street and Albany Avenue in Bishops Corner. The town also recently put the finishing touches on its Trout Brook Trail.