CT Construction Digest Monday April 25, 2022
Windsor’s Great Pond Village mixed-use development experienced more than a decade of delays and many plan changes before its first phase debuted in 2019, with the opening of the 230-unit Preserve at Great Pond luxury apartments complex.
Now, additional development on the 653-acre site is accelerating, with construction set to begin this June on a 750,000-square-foot distribution center; fill-up/retail plaza; and $15 million in road and infrastructure work.
Several other projects are lining up, including a data center, age-restricted residential community, 185 units of additional housing and a research and development facility for an international biotech company, according to Adam Winstanley, a principal for Massachusetts-based Winstanley Enterprises, which is Great Pond’s master developer.
“Things are accelerating right now, and it will super-accelerate once all the road infrastructure is in, because it is a lot of land and people don’t really understand what’s really happening here,” Winstanley said.
About 60% of developable land at Great Pond is already either purchased, under contract or deep into negotiation for sale, Adam Winstanley said.
Selling points
Winstanley was chosen in 2008 by ABB Combustion Engineering as a partner in development of the company’s site along Day Hill Road and now is co-owner of the property. ABB spent about $150 million cleaning the site, which had once served as a testing facility for nuclear propulsion as well as a center of nuclear fuel production for submarines.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection last November signed off on cleanup of what had been the most heavily-polluted sections of the property, Adam Winstanley said. That allows build-out of Great Pond’s northern portions, including a 93-acre site where Massachusetts-based NorthPoint Development will build the planned distribution center.
Just south of the NorthPoint building site is a 40-acre parcel open to light manufacturing or a data center under Great Pond’s master plan. Winstanley said his company is in talks with a Fortune 500 company interested in building a data center there, but that no agreements have been signed.
That would be the second potential data center for Great Pond Village.
Last November, Verizon paid $3.4 million for a nearly 30-acre property within Great Pond, where it plans to build a data center, according to Windsor development staff and Winstanley representatives.
Verizon declined to discuss its plans for the property.
Linda Costanzo, senior vice president and asset manager for Winstanley, said completion of the Preserve at Great Pond apartments spurred further interest in the overall site, as has a growing scarcity of alternative development sites in the region and state. (The Preserve at Great Pond apartments, which had recently been more than 90% occupied, sold last summer for $63 million to a New Jersey-based real estate investment firm.)
“Like everything in life it’s timing and I think the timing is right — where the market is, the Preserve being completed, a limited supply in and around the market,” Costanzo said.
A 40-acre parcel along Day Hill Road is under purchase contract for a new biotech research and manufacturing center, according to Adam Winstanley.
The new fueling station — on an 8.6-acre site — will include a convenience store, electric vehicle charging stations, ice-cream shop, car wash and, potentially, a brewery, Costanzo said.
Another 34-acre site is under contract to a developer with plans for a 55-and-older residential community, Winstanley said.
Separately, Winstanley plans to use 30 acres building a mix of 185 “starter” houses, duplexes and townhomes featuring a “thick” package of amenities. More than half of that $100 million development will be single-family houses, he said.
One of Great Pond’s big selling points is its inclusion of numerous natural amenities, including miles of trails winding through woods, past Great Pond and the Farmington River. There are plans for a pondside park and perhaps even a bird-watching tower.
Winstanley worked with the town to create a special zoning district for Great Pond Village that leaves about half the site as open space. The plan details what types of development are allowed in different areas, right down to design elements such as types of siding that can be used.
The district allows town planning staff rather than government boards to sign off on project proposals, meaning a significantly shorter permitting process.
In addition, up to half of property taxes generated by new development within Great Pond Village will be used to pay for new roads, utilities, sidewalks and other infrastructure within the site.
“The town of Windsor is extremely forward-thinking to create basically a site with its own taxing district,” Winstanley said. “I’m not aware of anything else in Connecticut that has been quite like this.”
Evolving plans
Plans for development within Great Pond Village have changed considerably over the long run-up to construction. Winstanley said market shifts prompted a big reduction in residential density and the addition of industrial space.
In 2008, the master plan called for 4,010 residential units, 85,000 square feet of retail space and 768,000 square feet of office space in addition to research and development and community spaces and a hotel.
Now, the plan’s main components include 865 housing units, 970,000 square feet of flex industrial space and 750,000 square feet of warehouse space. There will also be much smaller footprints for food and beverage, commercial, retail, car wash, convenience store and clubhouse spaces.
Adam Winstanley said his company has spent $7.5 million fostering Great Pond through planning and permitting over 14 years.
“This kind of development is not for the faint of heart,” Winstanley said. “This is a long journey. It’s extremely capital intensive and time intensive.”
Why the Connecticut construction boom is costly for homebuyers, tenants and developers
Since Newport Realty prepared to build a 55-and-over community of detached condos in northern Plainville, the materials budget has skyrocketed.
“Just since last October, garage doors are up 100 percent, front doors 100 percent, sheetrock up 30 percent, exterior trim 70 percent,” Newport partner Mark Lovley said.
In South Windsor, T&M Building Co. Inc. is just completing 155 townhouses, duplexes and detached homes; during the course of construction, lumber prices added an average of $18,000 to each one, said President Greg Ugalde.
And even though Bristol’s Carrier Construction Co. has been a major homebuilder in the region for decades, this year it’s struggling to get some types of vinyl siding and plywood that usually are abundant. In a sharp reversal of the usual pattern in construction, Carrier now starts jobs by buying long ahead of when products will be needed.
“Before we even start digging for the foundation, we have sign-offs from our customers on all the exterior selections and all materials are ordered months in advance,” Construction Manager Ryan Carrier said.
Contractors and developers across Connecticut agree their industry is going through a time like none other in memory. Demand for new housing is intense at all ends of the market, while labor costs are soaring and construction materials are often scarce and sometimes staggeringly expensive.
The same pressures are hitting commercial contractors building highway bridges, shopping plazas, banks and schools, part of a nationwide pattern that appeared during the pandemic.
Supply chain disruptions abruptly make some once-common building materials almost impossible to find. In many fields, production backlogs drive up the prices further, sometimes driven by COVID-related plant shutdowns overseas.
The end result is that new homebuyers and new businesses shouldn’t be too optimistic about their delivery schedule or final purchase price, and almost certainly need to be flexible about selection of anything from floor tiles to windows to appliances.
“The pivotal word now is ‘pivot’,” said Avner Krohn, a prominent developer with major apartment projects under way in Bloomfield, New Britain and elsewhere.
“Every day is a new challenge. And if you think you can be locked into one kind of kitchen finish, well those days are gone,” Krohn said. “It’s about availability of product, and across the board. When delays are incurred because of that, there’s additional expense.”
Carrier summed it up this way: ”Decisions need to be made a little sooner, and the customer may have to wait a little longer.”
Jonathan Vosburgh, whose Roswell Development LLC recently completed 32 houses in Granby, is braced for plenty of fast, deadline decisions if he pursues his new plan for 34 three-bedroom houses in Canton.
“Price and availability are so volatile right now you never know what’s going to happen the next day. The only way to manage is to be flexible and make sure your clients are flexible, too,” Vosburgh said.
More than a dozen developers who talked with The Courant in recent weeks agreed that their designers, cost estimators and subcontractors are all scrambling to deal with three distinct, sharp pressures: Material prices are wildly volatile, shortages appear — and vanish — with no predictability, and labor costs are spiraling.
Those factors hit just as a massive building wave hit the state: Virtually every community in central Connecticut has one or more mid-size to large apartment building in the planning phases or under construction.
Once-sleepy Berlin is suddenly a competitive market for developers. Structural steel is going up in predictable places, such as affluent West Hartford, but also in middle-of-the-road suburbs like Southington, Bloomfield and Newington, as well as cities like Bristol and New Britain.
“We finally broke out of the slump that we’d been in for so many years. But we’re really not ready on the supply side — in Connecticut, we’ve fallen behind the housing demand,” said Ugalde, a past chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.
So even as materials — from exotic chemicals and coatings to ordinary drywall — became scarce at various points during the past two years, more builders have been chasing them.
“There are people hoarding materials. When they can get something (scarce), a sub or contractor will buy as much as they can,” Krohn said.
This spring, many are wishing they’d stocked up on some specialty electrical products.
“I just heard from a lender about someone with 150 completed units, but they can’t get what they needed for electrical. They’re sitting with a fully completed project, paying interest on debt,” Krohn said.
Like Krohn, Lovley and his partner, Tony Valenti, are seasoned builders with established credentials but are facing fresh challenges this year.
The first phase of their Steele Center mixed-use development alongside Berlin’s Amtrak station is awaiting an electrical panel that’s deeply back-ordered.
“We ordered in early February, they just told us we won’t see it until June 30. We have this building almost 100 percent done but without power,” Lovley said. “We don’t have electric meters — our purchase order was Dec. 28, we still don’t have them yet.”
Krohn, who is finishing 111 apartments in Bloomfield and starting the foundation for 107 in downtown New Britain, has seen similar surprises in project after project
“For each of our teams, it’s a full-time job sourcing subcontractors and material — materials have been the number one biggest issue,” he said. “On heating, ventilating and air conditioning, were seeing an increase in cost for the same unit size of 40 percent between labor and materials. And with availability, we’re constantly scrambling.”
For homebuyers and future tenants, that means new expense.
“Year over year, our materials increases are around 20 percent. That’s incredible, right?” Ugalde said. “So on the cost of a $300,000 build, you’re adding $60,000. That’s tough for buyers and for contractors.”
Commercial construction faces many of the same pressures.
“You don’t know when you’ll get materials or what it will cost. There’s a chemical for cement that went from $2,000 per container to $20,000. Imagine what that does to your prices,” said Donald Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association.
“All these things are coming at once. Contractors are risk averse, we’re all about certainty in pricing. We like certainty,” Shubert said.
But contractors bidding on large commercial or infrastructure jobs now face a very unfamiliar market. Road-repaving bids, for instance, took into account volatility in liquid asphalt prices, but banked on stability in other costs.
“Now it’s everything. If you have a two-year contract and you bid at a 3 percent labor increase, now the numbers are much higher. Look at the pressure that puts on your company,” Shubert said.
Pay rates for skilled equipment operators, engineers, tradesmen and iron workers have shot up in the past year, and companies that were sidelining crews in the spring of 2020 are now hustling to fully staff their projects.
Connecticut construction employment dipped at the start of the pandemic, but reached 62,700 last month, a 5.4% increase since February of 2020. About two-thirds of the country has had a rise in construction jobs, and Kenneth Simonson chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, doesn’t anticipate any imminent change.
“We’re seeing nationwide strong demand for multifamily housing — and the expectation for very strong (industrial) growth once the federal infrastructure money filters through state and local agencies,” Simonson said. “On the whole I’m pretty optimistic about the demand for construction going forward.”
Shelton developer bringing 55+ housing to city
SHELTON — Ben Perry has stumbled onto what he believes will be a profitable addition to his development portfolio.
The local developer, owner of S&G of Shelton, is in the process of constructing phase one of The Crossroads, a 55 and older active adult community, the first such development built in the city since the 1970s, according to the nearly lifelong Shelton resident.
“I thought there was a need for this in this area, and it has been quite a success already,” Perry said as he walked through one of the 12 units located at 96 Long Hill Cross Road. “Many people are looking to downsize. Many are looking for a second or a third home.
“I have people moving here from other states. They have homes in other places but have family close, so they are coming here,” Perry added.
But Perry, who has spent most of his life in the building business and has owned Shelton-based Connecticut Waste Transfer, was not planning on this type of development in the initial planning process. He simply wanted to develop condos on the property.
It was during the Planning and Zoning application process that he began to see the benefit of this type of project — and in the end he sees this has the niche he was looking for.
“This is working out very well,” said Perry, who already has eight of the 12 units in phase one sold and deposits in place for a handful of the 18 units to be built in phase two, which will not begin until next year.
“P&Z talked to me about this, and I’m fine with it,” Perry said. “The people are buying, and they are pleasure to deal with.”
S&G of Shelton originally filed a proposal in 2018 to develop this 5.57-acre site — which sits between Bridgeport Avenue and Route 8, essentially behind the Crown Point Center retail area and near a large recycling facility — that was denied by the commission. Perry then appealed the ruling in court.
The appeal was ultimately settled before the pandemic, with Perry agreeing to make 10 percent of the units (three total) affordable under the state statute 8-30g — which governs qualifying affordable units under state law. All units are deed restricted to individuals 55 and older.
“This was one of the tools we used to get the project moving forward,” Perry said about the inclusion of the affordable units. “There really is not a big difference in price point between affordable and regular sales. I needed this to get this project moving, and I was happy to include it.”
The Crossroads offers five-room townhouses that are about 1,600 square feet with one-level living, Perry said. The units have open floor plans, with a large kitchen, full bath, master bedroom and washer-dryer on the first floor for convenience, Perry said, adding the second floor is loft style with a second bathroom.
There are one or two garage units available. The final approved proposal calls for 88 spaces on site after the entire project is complete.
“Shelton is a hot spot right now,” Perry said, adding that the low taxes and location near access to major cities like Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford are a key drawing point. “Availability of services, quality of living, central location. Shelton has become its own hub. You have everything here.”
This is the latest development for Perry, who began his career as a youth working alongside his father on contracting jobs in lower Fairfield County.
“I have been in the construction industry my whole life,” said Perry, who grew up in Shelton, graduating from Shelton High before volunteering his time and even running for political office in the city. “I owned (Connecticut Waste Transfer) for 13 years, then moved on, and now I’m developing and building again.”
Perry’s company has completed housing developments in Seymour as well as Perry Hill Estates, some 20 units, in Shelton as well as a handful of single home builds in the area.
But these adult communities may be his development of choice in the future.
“There is a definite need, and I feel S&G of Shelton can answer that need,” Perry added. “This is going to be a big part of our work going forward, I think.”
Aquarion warns of traffic delays in Greenwich as work begins to replace water mains on three roads
Annelise Hanshaw
GREENWICH - Motorists should expect traffic delays and possible detours from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Monday on three local roads while workers replace water mains.
Aquarion Water Co. expects construction to be complete by the end of July on all three projects.
Crews will replace 930 feet of water main on Woodland Drive and 2,700 feet of water main on Keofferam Road and Nawthorne Road. Aquarion said the work will improve water quality, reduce leaks and cut down on water-main-break-induced service interruptions.
“We greatly appreciate residents’ patience during this project,” Aquarion’s manager of utility programs Justin Xenelis said in a statment. “We will work closely with our customers, contractors, and town officials to coordinate the work and minimize any disruptions.”
Final paving will then be scheduled in coordination with the Town of Greenwich.
An Everbridge notification system will inform customers about work times. To sign up for this free service, go to aquarionwater.com/alerts.
Justin Farrell is available to answer project-related questions at 203-362-3048. Aquarion Customer Service services water or service issues at 1-800-732-9678.
GREENWICH — The town took a major step toward building a new Central Middle School, but the clock is already ticking on the high-priority project.
The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved creating a building committee to lead the constriction project. Now the race is on to appoint, interview and approve the committee’s members before the Representative Town Meeting goes into its summer recess.
“We want to stay on a very aggressive timeline,” Superintendent of Schools Toni Jones told the selectmen at their meeting Friday. “We don’t want to lose the summer without getting the building committee together.”
The committee members are nominated by the Board of Selectmen and approved by the RTM. Potential members are usually suggested by the Selectmen’s Nominations Advisory Committee and then interviewed by the selectmen.
Establishing a building committee is standard procedure for major town capital projects, especially new schools. The committee, made up of volunteers, oversees the construction process and coordinates among the town, the architects and the construction firm. For the Central project, the committee will also oversee creation of the plans for the new school.
Selectwoman Lauren Rabin, the board’s liaison to the nominations advisory committee, agreed that the town must move quickly.
“We would need to source and interview to get on June (RTM) call,” Rabin said of the nominations. “Our deadline would be May 20. We have to operate rather quickly.”
First Selectman Fred Camillo said the board has already received “some good resumes” and said one “really good one” was on the way. He said the board would start considering possible members next week.
Anyone who wants to serve should step forward and “do so quickly,” Selectwoman Janet Stone-McGuigan said.
To apply, Rabin said candidates should visit www.greenwichct.gov/719/Selectmens-Nominations-Advisory-Committe and fill out the forms.
Camillo said he also wanted to add liaisons to the committee who would not have voting power but could speak for key groups, with representatives from the neighborhood around Central Middle School, Greenwich’s community of people with disabilities and the town Energy Management Advisory Committee.
“I want them to be at the table when we’re doing these things,” Camillo said. “They wouldn’t be voting members, but they’d be at the table to try and help. … I think this could be a template going forward for all building committees.”
Jones agreed, saying, “It’s going to be an enormous project that’s so important for the community.”
The Board of Estimate and Taxation last Tuesday approved $2.5 million in architecture and engineering funds in the proposed 2022-23 municipal budget. That money would be used to begin drawing up plans for the new school.
The RTM will hold the final vote on the budget on May 9, and it is expected to support the project.
Building a new school became a top priority after the town was forced to close Central for several weeks in February due to structural concerns. The school reopened to students and staff after emergency repairs were made. Additional work will be done over the summer to shore up the building until the replacement is finished.
Under the Board of Education’s timeline, plans for the new school would be drawn up this coming fiscal year, leading to a budget request for construction money the next fiscal year and a completed new school by January 2026.
Preliminary estimates put the price tag for a new Central Middle School at $67.5 million.
To keep to the district’s aggressive schedule, the selectmen said they will have to act quickly.
“We have our work cut out for us starting next week,” Camillo said.
SOUTHINGTON – Gov. Ned Lamont promised that the next five years would see “the most important investments in infrastructure since Ike” at the annual meeting of the Connecticut Association of Street and Highway Officers (CASHO) Friday.
At the meeting, which was held at the Aqua Turf Club, Andrew Tierney, president of CASHO’s Board of Directors and Hebron town manager, introduced Lamont as a “longtime supporter of CASHO.”
“I want to thank you for how we got through covid,” he said. “We were the top state in America for how it was handled.”
Lamont then discussed his plans for state infrastructure improvements.
Over the next five years, Lamont said, he plans to utilize federal funding to invest $1 billion a year in infrastructure improvements in Connecticut. He promised to work to get Connecticut to the front of the line for funding.
“We don’t have to look far in Connecticut to find 100-year-old roads and bridges,” he said.
Lamont also said he hopes to see Amtrak run 30 to 40 minutes faster with “dramatic improvements” to rail service.
The governor said there are more people than ever using Connecticut roads, more even than pre-covid numbers.
“We got through covid better than most states,” he said. “New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were hit hard during the first few months but we kept our construction open. We were the first state in New England to get our schools open, which I think made it easier for people to get back to work. I hope that it also made a difference for the kids. We also kept our parks, beaches and golf courses open. Being able to use these outdoor spaces was cheaper than a therapist and it made an enormous difference for a lot of people.”
As a result of these decisions, Lamont said, the state’s population is now increasing by 40,000 people a year.
“For years you heard about people fleeing the state but now things are moving in the other direction,” he said.
Lamont also said, for the first time in his life, there are more jobs available than people to fill them. He said that between this, and the availability of federal funds, it would be a shame if he did not make use of these circumstances to get infrastructure improvements done.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to rehabilitate our roads and bridges,” he said. “I am asking people to talk to their nieces and nephews and tell them to get into construction and engineering.”
Lamont joked that he wished he could put forth an executive order that “no one younger than me could retire in the next five years” since there is such a need in the workforce.
As the state works its way through the legislative session, Lamont said, the state is looking at a surplus, some of which he said will be set aside “for a rainy day.”
“We have to budget for not just this year but next year and years to come,” he said. “We have to get out of this cycle of feast and famine, boom and bust, and steady things out. I come from the business world so I know how important that stability is for the taxpayers in our state.”
The state budget, he said, has been balanced for the last three years. The state is also eliminating the property tax and the 401K/pension tax as well as providing a $5,000 tax credit each year to businesses that forgive the student debt of their workers.
Lamont concluded his speech by saying that rebuilding the state’s infrastructure would not be possible without the support of organizations like CASHO.
“Just let me know what I can do to help,” he said.