Bridgeport’s Steelpointe developers moving ahead with 'high-end' housing

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — The developers of the Steelpointe Harbor site are finally moving ahead with the long-promised housing phase of the project — an initial 400 “high-end market-rate” apartments costing $100 million to build.

“I’m looking to create a market here in Bridgeport that does not exist today,” said Robert Christoph Jr. who, with his father and their Bridgeport Landing Development organization, has spent a slow but steady several years transforming the East Side land situated between the waterfront and Interstate 95.

At month’s end the City Council will consider authorizing a tax break the Christophs are seeking to help finance the apartments, which will be located off of East Main Street, south of Stratford Avenue. A public hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 20, followed by a joint Dec. 29 meeting of the council’s economic and contracts committees.

Although the Steelpointe redevelopment was proposed a few decades ago, visitors and passersby will still find plenty of vacant land.

The first tenants — Bass Pro Shops, Chipotle restaurant and a Starbucks coffee shop — opened in late 2015, followed by a marina and then, in 2019, Boca Oyster Bar. Meanwhile a luxury movie theater announced in 2015 as another draw was never built.

The Christophs have made no secret of their desire to bring a certain lower Fairfield County “Gold Coast” cachet to their slice of the less-wealthy Bridgeport. For the last few years, for example, they have hosted a luxury boat show at Steelpointe.

And two years ago they stated they wanted to break ground on the market-rate housing in 2020. But those plans were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So right now, we’re going to watch what’s going on in the marketplace,” Christoph Jr. said in June 2020. “At the moment we’re not changing anything. We’re watching the market and going to react to what the market demand is.”

This week Christoph said, “I think the time is now (for the housing). Bridgeport has a real opportunity and it’s moment to really shine.”

He declined to say when the formal groundbreaking may occur. There will also be a retail component, and potentially another 1,600 housing units built in the future.

The proposed tax agreement before the council calls for a two-year construction period and an additional year to occupy the units. Under that deal, Bridgeport would receive $23,900 in taxes for those three years the apartments are being built/leased, then $1.26 million in year four, and then, in years five through 10, the payments would increase by 2 percent, reaching $1.47 million.

“He’s got the right to ask. Doesn’t mean everybody on the council will vote for it,” said Scott Burns, who co-chairs the economic development committee and the council’s budget committee.

But, Burns added, “I was glad to see they’re ready to roll. I think everybody wants Steelpointe to be developed.”

The Christophs’ initial contract with Bridgeport for Steelpointe required they also either build or help finance affordable and so-called workforce housing representing 10 percent of their total market-rate units. And most of it can be around town rather than all at Steelpointe.

So, for example, these initial 400 proposed market-rate units must be matched with 40 lower-price ones. If 2,000 market-rate apartments are eventually built, the Christophs are responsible for adding 200 affordable units to the city’s stock.

The developers have been working to get ahead on that requirement mainly in partnership with Building Neighborhoods Together, formerly Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust.

“They’ve invested over seven figures in our projects in a number of different neighborhoods in Bridgeport and generally been a great partner,” Noah Gotbaum, BNT’s head from 2019 until his departure last month, said this week.

Gotbaum this summer had sought to raise the alarm about an affordable housing “crisis” in Bridgeport. But this week he said he also recognizes why the Christophs and city officials want to attract wealthier residents as well

“Personally I think we need more market-rate housing and we need more affordable housing,” Gotbaum said. “And Bridgeport Landing is doing both.”

Two sites key to Bridgeport’s revival may soon be redeveloped

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — What do a former rubber factory and a shuttered off-track betting facility have in common?

The contiguous East Side properties — the AGI Rubber Co. and Winners Shoreline Star — are prominently situated on the edge of downtown off of Stratford Avenue and Kossuth Street, along the Pequonnock River and over Interstate 95 from the Steelpointe Harbor redevelopment.

And in the not too distant future each could play a key role in the next phase of that neighborhood’s and the city’s economic revitalization.

AGI Rubber at 141 Stratford Ave. would, under a deal being negotiated between Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration and local developer Anthony Stewart, be transformed into a mixed-used business and residential project. The plan includes retail, anchored by an IHOP restaurant, and a 10-story building with 200 units of market-rate and affordably priced housing.

“It’s a beautiful project,” Stewart told Hearst Connecticut Media, confirming he and a partner are trying to work out the final details with City Hall.

Over the last decade the closed factory, which Bridgeport obtained through a tax foreclosure, has mainly made headlines for catching fire on multiple occasions. In 2013 there were plans for an office complex there but those fell through in part because of questions about the complexities and expenses involved in an environmental cleanup.

Stewart said those challenges remain.

“That’s part of the discussion,” he said. “It is not clean.”

In 2013 then-Bridgeport Economic Development Director David Kooris said, “It’s going to cost a lot of money to remediate.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency two years later awarded Bridgeport $200,000 to help prepare AGI for redevelopment. It is not clear if that has been spent and Ganim’s economic development office did not answer requests this week for comment.

Stewart said he late last year responded to a request for proposals for AGI issued by the Ganim administration around the same time Shoreline Star went on the market.

“It took several months before they awarded it to us,” he said. “It took a few months after that before we got the letter of intent. And now we’re working on the LDA (land disposition agreement).” That deal would ultimately need City Council approval.

Stewart, owner of Ashlar Construction, was raised in the East End but made his contracting career out-of-town. In recent years he has returned to do business in Bridgeport. If his AGI proposal moves forward, it would be his third local project behind the recently-completed East End public library and the delayed-but-still-under-construction Honey Locust Square, both located further up Stratford Avenue.

“I just want to try to help develop this whole (Stratford Avenue) area,” Stewart said. He said the proposed AGI apartment complex will have balconies overlooking downtown and out at the harbor, plus there will be an outdoor patio area for “small-venue type events” along the river, and a canoe launch.

Next to the AGI land, at 255 Kossuth St., is the larger — nearly 20 acres — former Winners Shoreline Star. It has been the location of a jai alai fronton, a greyhound track and, more recently, an off-track betting facility operated by Sportech Venues. It had also been considered over the years for various casino operations that never moved forward.

And while, thanks to Stewart, the city is currently making more progress turning around AGI, there has been some activity at Shoreline Star, too.

Shoreline Star closed Sept. 12 after Sportech’s lease was not renewed by property owner Susan Zeff, widow of original owner Robert Zeff, who died last June.

“The landlord has other plans for the property which they are attempting to bring to fruition,” Sportech President Ted Taylor said in an email.

The property was put on the market in fall 2020 and listed by Cushman & Wakefield. According to the Bridgeport tax assessor’s website, it was appraised at $4,768,420. The 2020 property tax bill was $159,535.

Susan Zeff could not be reached for comment and, according to Cushman & Wakefield, that company’s contract to market the site has expired.

Stewart said given his intentions for the AGI property next door he is very interested in who his future neighbors will be, but had no information to offer other than the asking price — $10 million.

“But it’s worth every bit of it,” Stewart said. “It’s an ideal location for some kind of a major developer. It’s too rich for my blood. I wish someone would take a serious look at that.”

Cushman & Wakefield had escribed the land as “steps from Bridgeport’s Central Business District (downtown), the Bridgeport Intermodal Transportation Center — Metro-North, Amtrack and Greater Bridgeport Transit — and the 52-acre Steelepoint Harbor Development.”

Under a just-approved overhaul of Bridgeport’s zoning map and regulations that takes effect Jan. 1, Shoreline Star is designated for “mainly offices, residences, and other commercial uses.”

City Council President Aidee Nieves, who represents the East Side neighborhood, said companies operating shipping warehouses have previously expressed interest, but she would oppose that type of development for something of higher quality.

Shoreline Star is also in state Rep. Antonio Felipe’s legislative district. He too had heard the warehouse rumors.

“We want to make sure when we develop that area it has something that will stand the test of time,” Felipe said, suggesting as a possibility an athletic center with a professional soccer component.

Another state representative from Bridgeport, Christopher Rosario, who also represents portions of the East Side, agreed professional soccer would be a good use of the land.

“We probably have the market to support it in Fairfield County, soccer being a big sport in Latin America,” Rosario said. “We have a very diverse community here in Bridgeport with Brazilians, Portuguese, Colombians who love soccer. And a lot of youth soccer activity, especially in Bridgeport. That’s a viable option.”

Another neighbor is the Christoph family, who have spent years slowly building out their Steelpointe development on the opposite, harbor-side of Interstate 95 from AGI and Shoreline Star. Its main attractions so far are a Bass Pro Shops, a new marina and Boca Oyster Bar, with 400 units of market-rate housing on the horizon.

Robert Christoph Jr. said he had previously spoken with the Zeffs about Shoreline Star but “at the moment I’m not in conversations with Mrs. Zeff at all.”

He said the ideal project for that site “would be something that helps create and bring jobs and opportunity to the city at a high level. Housing. Retail. It’s a really unique site.”

As for Sportech’s departure from Shoreline Star, Taylor said that, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, business had been “doing OK” and was “on a par with previous ‘normal’ years pre-Covid.”

Taylor also indicated his company may find another home in the city, particularly since Connecticut expanded legalized sports gambling in September.

“Always a shame to close a business, but we definitely hope to be back in Bridgeport in the future,” Taylor said.

School updates, new police building top Milford’s five-year capital plan

Saul Flores

MILFORD - The city’s schools, sewers and police top the list of potential expenditures in the city’s five-year capital improvement plan.

The five-year capital improvement plan totals just over $190 million with education ($88.7 million), sewers ($33.5 million) and police ($30 million) topping the list.

Chief of Staff Justin Rosen said the plan was a blueprint for future capital expenditures, but was only a list of possible projects.

“It does have a hefty price tag, but this does not obligate the city to any level of funding or commit to any project,” said Rosen. “This is merely a planning document we use to outline areas we would like to improve in our schools, infrastructure, wastewater system, buildings, vehicle fleet.”

The cost for the capital improvement plan in 2021-22 year is $40.6 million; 2022-23 is $54.8 million; 2023-24 is $28.1 million; 2024-25 is $43.9 million and 2025-26 is $22.3 million.

“With all of the new revenue coming in through recovery act funds, infrastructure bills, build back better plans, it’s all the more reason to have a comprehensive capital improvement plan that outlines any projects we may want to utilize that funding for,” said Rosen. “This merely helps move the process along as we apply for any level of grant funding for these projects.”

Rosen added that the city compiles such a list every year. This year’s plan, which covers 2021-26, could be on the Board of Aldermen’s January agenda.

School projects were the big-ticket item in the education part of the capital improvement plan. The Board of Education hopes to see upgrades or additions to Harborside, Live Oaks and Calf Pen Meadow schools. Harborside, at $15.7 million in anticipated updates, tops that list.

For the police, the only item in the capital improvement plan is the construction cost of a new headquarters building.

As explained in the capital improvement plan, the existing police building was constructed in 1979, and the size of the building was scaled back from its original design to conserve costs at the time. Consequently, the building lacks space to expand personnel, equipment, missions or storage.

A new headquarters will increase the space in the identification bureau of the detective division to allow for on-site evaluations and analysis of evidence, according to the plan. In addition, the new building would offer increased office space, larger locker rooms, increased storage space for all divisions, and more.

When it comes to the sewers, the plan covers various projects from the planned Milford Point and Gulf Pond pump upgrades to repairing the roofs at both Beaverbrook and Housatonic waste water treatment facilities.

Other categories in the capital improvement plan were fire, $1.2 million; roads/drains, $15.8 million; bridges, $655,000; and $12.2 million for recreation.

Lauretti: Bids in for Constitution Boulevard extension work in Shelton

Brian Gioiele

SHELTON — Three firms have expressed interest in the plan to extend Constitution Boulevard West — with bids coming in between $4.5 million and nearly $10 million, according to Mayor Mark Lauretti.

Extending the roadway and use of the Mas property has been on the table for years, but Lauretti began the most recent push in April when he presented preliminary plans for creating the road leading into the city-owned land, which would be developed into a manufacturing corporate park.

Lauretti would not identify the three firms interested in the Mas property, saying only that two are Connecticut based. In the end, Lauretti said these companies could bring some 400 to 500 jobs to the city.

“Representatives from two of the three interested (companies) walked the land Tuesday,” said Lauretti, adding that once a contract finalized, the city and companies would submit a joint application to the Planning and Zoning Commission for development of the site.

Lauretti said he expects the cost to be some $5 million for the road work, which would allow for access into the 70-acre, city-owned Mas property. Lauretti said three “good sized” manufacturers are interested and deals with two could be struck soon.

According to the mayor, state leadership has agreed to cover $5 million.

“We’re ready to go,” Lauretti said. “I will be going to the state and ask that this be moved forward as quickly as possible.”

“We’ve been talking about this for 30 years … this is coming as no surprise to anybody,” Lauretti added. “This just continues the economic boom for the city under our leadership. Shelton is an employment hub in Connecticut, and the governor’s office and state leaders recognize that, that’s why we are able to get money for the road work.”

The Inland Wetlands Commission, at its meeting last month, approved the city’s permit application for extension of the roadway, with street construction occurring within regulated wetlands areas.

Lauretti has stated that one major manufacturer — whose name he would not give because negotiations are ongoing — is seeking a 270,000-square-foot building on the property. Negotiations have been going on for about a year, and he said he hoped a deal could be struck within the coming days.

He said the plans remain in the initial stages, with proposals still needed to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission and the State Traffic Commission.

“We are working with the state on a grant for the road construction,” Lauretti said. “I have spoken to (Gov. Ned Lamont), and he said he’s onboard.”

The application approved by Inland Wetlands Thursday is for phase one roadway construction only, with a portion of Bridgeport Avenue to be widened along with intersection improvements. Portions of Cots Street and Blacks Hill Road will also be reconstructed as part of this project.

This work also calls for the city to purchase 55 and 56 Blacks Hill Road, according to the application submitted to Inland Wetlands.

Plans on the city website show an extended roadway with seven separate lots, one of which is 10.6 acres of designated open space. In all, there is a 276,250-square-foot building, two 105,000-square-foot buildings, and two 34,250-square-foot buildings, along with related parking for each structure.

The 70-acre parcel — known as the Mas property — sits near Bridgeport Avenue, and the roadway plans include extending Constitution Boulevard to reach Shelton Avenue/Route 108. Lauretti stated that a zone change would be needed, requiring plans to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission at some point.

The Mas property is now vacant. It is mostly wooded with considerable stone ledges and several ponds, including one some 600 feet long and 250 to 300 feet wide, and lies between Bridgeport Avenue, Cots Street, Tisi Drive, Sunwood Condos on Nells Rock Road, Regent Drive, Walnut Avenue, and Kings Highway. Part of the land abuts the back of the Perry Hill School property.

Allyn Street apartment developer looks to refinance $21M project’s debt

Michael Puffer

A$21 million effort to remodel a onetime Hartford carriage shop on Allyn Street into 66 apartments faced construction overruns and delays, pushing up costs and delaying the start of rental incomes.

As a result, owner Paul Khakshouri is seeking to refinance his loans, including a roughly $6.6 million loan with the Capital Region Development Authority. The CRDA board is scheduled to vote on the proposal next week.

CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said federal historic preservation demands for the 103-109 Allyn St. project were steeper than anticipated.

COVID-19 forced construction delays and cost overruns. Then, in the summer of 2020, the basement flooded badly.

“They ran into three relatively significant issues, any one which could be dealt with, but three were a problem,” Freimuth said.

Attempts to reach developer Paul Khakshouri were unsuccessful.

Freimuth said the Carriage House apartments are currently 93.5% occupied.

Rents are lower than hoped but still within projections, he said. One ground-floor retail tenant has moved in and another is in negotiations.

Freimuth said Khakshouri originally borrowed $5.8 million from CRDA, but another $750,000 was added due to cost overruns. The project also received funding through historic tax credits and a mortgage from United Bank, which has since been acquired by People’s United Bank, according to Freimuth.

People’s United Bank did defer some interest on its loan during the height of the pandemic, Freimuth said.

Khakshouri needs approval from CRDA to refinance his first mortgage.

“In this case, there were so many issues we had to restructure our note as well,” Freimuth said.

The proposed changes to the CRDA loan terms would have Khaksouri pay the note down by $1.4 million, and the repayment term stretched from five to 10 years.

UConn eyes new residence hall on Storrs campus; $6.5M approved for design phase

Robert Storace

The University of Connecticut board of trustees Wednesday voted to spend $6.5 million on the design phase of a new residence hall on its Storrs campus.

The project will not officially move forward until the board approves a construction budget.

The new residence hall, which has been part of the university’s master plan since 2015, would be located on the South Campus and house about 650 students with occupancy planned for the fall of 2024.

The university said about 12,000 students live in the school's residence halls at Storrs in an average year.

The $6.5 million will be paid via state bond funding. Similar bond funding was used for the university’s Werth Tower, which opened in 2016.