Port Eastside completes acquisition plan for East Hartford as 1,000-apartments plan advances

Steven Goode

EAST HARTFORD—The Port Eastside development group seeking to build about 1,000 apartment units near the Connecticut River announced Thursday that it has acquired a key and final piece needed to move forward.

“We have just cleared the most significant milestone in this project’s early life span to date,” said Bruce Simons, principal at Simons Real Estate Group, on behalf of the Port Eastside development team. “With the acquisition of the parcel at 321 Pitkin St., we can now say that the four key building blocks that will make up the Port Eastside project are now under our control and ownership.” 

In addition to 321 Pitkin St., which is a 5.7-acre lot of landscaped parking, the group has acquired: 111 Founders Plaza, the site of a 270,106-square-foot,19-story office tower, slated to be converted into 240 residential units, with a small retail presence;  99 Founders Plaza, the 182,890-square-foot building that is the former Bank of America; and 300 East River Drive, a 70,350-square-foot office building.

“Now we can turn our attention to implementing the phases of what will be a multi-year permitting and development process, beginning with the demolition of the Bank of America building at 99 Founders Plaza and the parking garage at 111 Founders Plaza,"  said Harris Simons, a principal at Simons Real Estate Group. “Those are still months away, but they will be the first tangible signs of the area’s rejuvenation.”

"This is definitely music to our ears to know that progress is moving forward," he said.

East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin said Thursday's announcement that the project was moving forward was music to the town's ears.

"With Port Eastside acquiring more property, it shows their commitment to the project, which supports our vision to develop our river front," Martin said. "Additionally, they have been an excellent partner so far and we look forward to continuing to work with them."

Port Eastside officials said the second and third phases will involve the development of the first 250 to 500 residential units, including 240 at 111 Founders Plaza, and the beginning of the green way construction and site work, including modifications along the riverbank and on East River Drive and Hartland Street. 

At full build-out, Port Eastside officials said the multi-million dollar, multi-year project will include:  more than 1,000 residential units, made up mostly of apartments and a small number of condominiums;  400,000 square feet of entertainment, restaurant and retail space; a transportation center; and a 6.1-acre green way that will stretch along 2,000 linear feet of the Connecticut River, offering pedestrian walkways, bike trails, outdoor retail space and access to the Connecticut River.

“We are in the very early stages of bringing this thriving residential, entertainment and business zone to life, we are excited about giving East Hartford a revitalization project that echoes—and complements—the Hartford side of the Connecticut River and we are exploring ways to connect with our Capital City’s waterfront,” Harris Simons said.

The Port Eastside development team includes Harris and Bruce Simons, who are principals of Simons Real Estate Group in West Hartford; Manafort Brothers Inc. President Jim Manafort; Peter S. Roisman, head of Houston-based PropTech company, REV Leasing; Nicholas Michnevitz, III, president of West Hartford-based MBH Architecture; Hoffman Auto Group Co-Chairman Jeffrey S. Hoffman; Chris Reilly, President of Hartford-based Lexington Partners and Alan Lazowski, the Chairman and founder of LAZ Parking.

Sherman to vote on $43M plan to renovate the town's only school after first plan fails

Sandra Diamond Fox

SHERMAN — The future of the Sherman School rests in voters' hands as the town will vote this Saturday in a second public referendum. The first referendum overwhelmingly failed last October.

At the referendum, which will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 5 in the Sherman Emergency Services Facility, 1 Route 39 North, residents will vote if the town should pay about $43 million to renovate the school building as new over two years.

The town would finance the work on the project through bonds of about $32 million or less, said a statement from the Sherman Board of Selectmen.

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“I’m hopeful that it will pass,” Schools Superintendent Pat Cosentino said. “We did a lot more research on this referendum, getting information about the cost of sending our middle school students out to other schools and realizing that it really is not less expensive to do that.”

The project would take from 18 months to two years to complete, said Board of Education member Tim Laughlin. Construction would begin in the summer of 2025 and is anticipated to be complete in late fall or early winter of 2026. 

“They’ll do different parts of the building in sections. We’ll have portables for some of the classes. We’ll make it work,” Cosentino said. 

The 87-year-old building is in such poor shape that local officials weighed whether to close the town’s only school as enrollment declines. School officials previously said the problems involve mechanical, plumbing, electrical and structure-based systems. Failing parts from many previous renovations need to be removed, reengineered, and replaced, officials had said.

The proposed project would reduce the gross square feet of the Sherman School from 86,110 to 60,089, which is anticipated to accommodate current and future enrollment, a statement from the Board of Selectmen said. Two classrooms per grade are required, and students would be grouped for elementary school from pre-K-4 and for middle school from grades 5-8, said a statement from Sherman’s Board of Selectmen. 

The original $47 million plan, which was rejected last Oct. 7 by a vote of 914-509, would have renovated the building.

For this “renovate as new” project, special state legislation passed last year has guaranteed a minimum reimbursement rate of 30 percent. Taxpayers would cover $30.53 million.

Sherman First Selectman Don Lowe said he’s confident the referendum will pass this time around.

“It helped this year that the town side of government… was more involved and I think we have a stronger, more organized, comprehensible and tighter financing plan than we had for the previous referendum,” Lowe said.

School officials were previously considering whether it was financially viable to send students in grade 6-8 to other districts.

“It was not,” said Laughlin, the Board of Education member. “We found it’d be more expensive from an operating perspective and we would still have to pay to fix the current building for students in preschool to (grade 5).” 

He added, however, as a result of that conversation, school officials proposed a restructuring so that fifth grade students are considered middle schoolers. 

“By making that change, we’re able to be more efficient from a space perspective, (and the size of the project) reduces costs. There’s a lot of curricular benefits also to doing that — grade groupings of 5-6 and 7-8.

He said the plan takes advantage of recent changes in new state law allowing teachers certified to teach grades 6-12 to also teach grades 4 and 5.

"That’s a big change and it allows us to move students around in a middle school environment in a different way than we would have been able to in the past," he said. 

Developer seeks blasting permit for proposed self-storage facility in Farmington

Andrew Larson

Weatogue-based Bulwark LLC has applied for a rock-blasting permit to prepare two parcels it owns on the Colt Highway in Farmington for construction of a 463-unit self-storage facility.

Plans for the development have already been approved by the town. A public hearing on the blasting permit application is set for the Planning and Zoning Commission’s next meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.

The site of the proposed self-storage facility is 8120 and 8122 Colt Highway, also known as Route 6, next to the Hampton Inn & Suites. The two lots, which total about 5 acres, are currently vacant woodlands.

The building footprint would be 19,800 square feet, with four stories spanning a total of 79,200 square feet.

Bulwark is managed by business partners David Pulley of Weatogue and Matthew Morris of Simsbury.

When completed, the address of the facility will be 245 Colt Highway.

The general contractor for the project is The PAC Group in Torrington and the blasting subcontractor is D’Ambruoso Blasting Co. in Watertown.

According to the application, blasting may occur Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pre- and post-blasting surveys of neighboring properties will be conducted and a horn will be sounded to notify people in the vicinity before a blast occurs.

Bulwark acquired the two properties from Los Angeles-based Wilshire Insurance Enterprises Inc. in August for $325,000.

Norwalk couple plans to turn abandoned power plant site into a public park

Eddy Martinez

Norwalk resident Allison McChord is gripping onto a pole while riding inside an ATV behind her husband, Austin McChord, as they take in the sights of a former power plant on Manresa Island.

“I do have motion sickness, but this is so open and there’s such a nice breeze that it’s perfect,” Allison McChord said.

McChord and her husband are being driven around by Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, an hour after wrapping up a news conference announcing they would turn the island into a public park and community hub.

The New York Times first reported that the couple recently purchased the property for $40 million. That information was then confirmed independently by CT Public.

SCAPE, the architecture firm handling the project, announced the 125-acre site will be turned into an accessible park and will host an ecological habitat, as well as a variety of community amenities — from a public beach to thermal pools — and a pier.

Allison McChord said while the space will benefit the public, she is sensitive to any disruptions to the community.

“We don’t want to increase traffic, noise, but some of those things come with doing a project like this,” she said. “But the website feedback started to come in, and it just was overwhelmingly positive, and makes you feel so good about what we’re doing.”

Jessica Vonashek is the executive director of Manresa Island Corp., the nonprofit working on the development project, along with architecture firms SCAPE and Bjarke Ingels Group.Vonashek said the project will need environmental remediation and while she says there isn’t a rough timeline yet, she expects much of the space to be ready by the end of the decade.

“We’re still exploring it, and we’re also exploring the development of the site as well,” Vonashek said. “So we anticipate that parts of the park will be open as soon as possible for the public to be able to enjoy, but we imagine a lot of the programming to be complete by 2030.”

The park will keep a former power plant that used to be operated by NRG Energy until 2013 when it was closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. That will be turned into what the release called a community hub.As for how the McChords were able to buy it, the couple’s fortune largely resulted from Austin McChord’s founding of the company Datto, a data backup company, which he left in 2018.

Allison McChord said she and her husband made the decision to buy the island in much the same manner that many married couples do.

“We were literally making dinner one night, and he said, ‘You know, I think we could probably buy this and turn it into a park,’” she said. “And I said, ‘Sure, that sounds great.’”

Aquarion planning water main projects in Beacon Falls

BEACON FALLS — More upgrades are planned for the northern portion of downtown near Church Street.

Aquarion Water Co. will start replacing a water main on Beacon Street in mid October and is expected to complete the project by the end of the year. Workers will replace about 380 feet of water main to improve the company’s water distribution system.

“We greatly appreciate residents’ patience during this project,” said Justin Xenelis, Aquarion’s manager of utility programs. “We will work closely with our customers, contractors and town officials to coordinate the work and minimize any disruptions.”

Customers should expect minor traffic delays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the project. Seymour-based Griffin Bros. is the contractor.

Also, Aquarion workers were expected to begin work Wednesday to install a new water main on Church Street from North Main Street to North Circle. Starting Monday, Church Street will be closed to through traffic and only local traffic will be allowed. Drivers can use Burton Road as an alternative.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration last year awarded $31 million in Small Town Economic Assistance Program grants to 77 municipalities, including $500,000 to Beacon Falls for road upgrades on Church Street. The town will contribute a $580,000 match.

“As we pave roads, we let (Aquarion) know. It’s cost efficient to do water mains as we do upgrades,” First Selectman Gerard Smith said. “It’s a collaborative effort.”

To keep customers informed about projects, Aquarion uses an Everbridge notification system to call affected customers. Aquarion encourages customers to sign up for this free service at aquarionwater.com/alerts.

Customers with project-related questions may contact Aquarion project manager Leanne D’Acounto at 203-362-3024 or LDAcounto@aquarionwater.com.