Developer wants to transform former Stamford Savings Bank into 11-story, 4-star boutique hotel

Jared Weber

STAMFORD — About four years after receiving its proposal, the Stamford Zoning Board could be only a month away from greenlighting a downtown hotel project.

The Old Towne Hotel project would convert the Stamford Savings Bank building at 160 Atlantic St. beside Veterans Memorial Park into an 82-room boutique hotel with a ground-floor restaurant and rooftop patio. The project was initially referred to the Zoning Board by the Planning Board in early 2019.

The building, formerly the headquarters of now-First County Bank, was built in 1940 for about $238,000, according to a May 1951 article in The Advocate. A 2022 valuation appraised the building at about $3.27 million, city building records show.

Architects designed the two-story building with a “conservative New England” style in mind, according to a February 1939 article announcing its proposal. The red-brick building is built on a base of solid granite, with 27-feet-high limestone columns lining its facade.

The renovation would add nine additional stories atop the existing structure. Previous plans had the high-rise tucked behind the bank building.

According to city building records, the bank was acquired in June 2019 by Old Town Square LLC, a company run by business partners Nagi Osta and Shalinder Nichani. Osta is the owner and founder of Nagi Jewelers, a High Ridge Road family jewelry business that’s been open since 1980.

Osta said Nichani, who owns eight hotels, approached him with the idea. He said it would provide needed activity for a corner that is “a bit neglected,” and provide a high-end hotel option for downtown.

“We want to make it high end — hopefully four or five stars,” Osta said. “People like that. It’s going to be … something different for downtown, especially for those luxury apartments (nearby).”

The hotel's theme will also honor veterans, in keeping with the city park outside its facade, he said.

"We've gotten a letter of support from the Stamford Veterans Park Partnership," attorney John Leydon, representing Old Town Square, said at a Zoning Board public hearing Dec. 5. "We're going as far as naming rooms, if that will be allowed ... they have programs at the park where they're going to use our hotel, we assume, for guests coming into speak at events."

At the public hearing, the Board requested several changes to the project, including a complete redesign of the building's rear, which previously would have included a loading dock, dumpsters, electrical transformers and a guest entrance. On Monday night, Leydon requested four more weeks to present the revisions.

The group has not decided on what restaurant would go downstairs, but Osta said it would be a fine dining experience.

The city announced last month that downtown business leaders, through the Stamford Downtown Special Services District, had received a $5.6 million state bond to remake the nearby Atlantic Street ramp to make the area more walkable and friendlier for non-motorists.

Osta said the hotel project and re-imagined street would help to remake the area.

“It’s going to be much more pedestrians (and) safer. Much more urban living. This is going to be good for Downtown Stamford and this is going to be the finishing touch,” Osta said.

Should federal grants favor highway repair over expansion?

JEFF McMURRAY

Arizona officials refer to a notoriously congested stretch of desert highway through tribal land as the Wild Horse Pass Corridor, a label that's less about horses than the bustling casino by the same name located just north of where the interstate constricts to four lanes.

With the Gila River Indian Community's backing, the state allocated or raised about $600 million of a nearly $1 billion plan that would widen the most bottleneck-inducing, 26-mile section of I-10 on the route between Phoenix and Tucson.

But its bid for federal grant money under the new infrastructure law to finish the job fell short, leaving some advocates for road construction accusing the Biden administration of devaluing those projects to focus on repairs and mass transit.

“Upset would be the right terminology,” Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland said of his reaction when he learned the project won't receive one of the law's first Mega Grants the U.S. Department of Transportation will announce this week. “We thought we had done a good job putting the proposal together. We thought we had checked all the boxes.”

The historic federal investment in infrastructure has reenergized dormant transportation projects, but the debate over how to prioritize them has only intensified in the 14 months since President Joe Biden signed the measure.

The law follows decades of neglect in maintaining the nation’s roads, bridges, water systems and airports. Research by Yale University economist Ray Fair estimates a sharp decline in U.S. infrastructure investment has caused a $5.2 trillion shortfall. The entire law totals $1 trillion, and it seeks to not only remedy that dangerous backlog of projects but also build out broadband internet nationwide and protect against damage caused by climate change.

Some of the money, however, has gone to new highway construction — much of it from the nearly 30% increases Arizona and most other states are receiving over the next five years in the formula funding they can use to prioritize their own transportation needs.

For specific projects, many of the biggest awards available under the law are through various highly competitive grants. The Department of Transportation received around $30 billion worth of applications for just the first $1 billion in Mega Grants being awarded, spokesperson Dani Simons said.

Another $1 billion will be available each of the next four years before the funding runs out. Still, the first batch has been closely watched for signals about the administration's preferences.

Jeff Davis, senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation, said it’s already clear that the Biden administration plans to direct a greater share of its discretionary transportation funding to “non-highway projects” than the Trump administration did. However, with so much more total infrastructure money to work with, Davis said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

For example, one of the projects that the administration told Congress it had chosen for a Mega Grant will widen Interstate 10 — but in Mississippi, not Arizona. Davis said the department likely preferred the Mississippi project due to its significantly lower price tag. This year’s Mega Grants combine three different award types into a single application, one of which caters specifically to rural and impoverished communities.

Some of the winning grants are for bridges, while others are for mass transit — including improvements to Chicago’s commuter train system and concrete casing for a rail tunnel in Midtown Manhattan.

Along with the nine projects selected, transportation department staff listed seven others as “highly recommended” — a distinction Davis said makes them clear front-runners to secure money next year. Arizona’s I-10 widening effort was part of a third group of 13 projects labeled as “recommended,” which Davis said could put them in contention for future funding unless they’re surpassed by even stronger applicants.

But such decisions remain largely subjective.

Advocates for regions such as the Southwest, where the population is growing but more spread out, argue that their need for new or wider highways is just as big of a national priority as a major city’s need for more subway stations or bicycle lanes.

Arizona state Rep. Teresa Martinez, a Republican who represents Casa Grande at the southern end of the corridor, said she was livid when she heard from a congressional office that the administration might have turned down the I-10 project because it didn't have enough “multimodal” components.

“What does that even mean?” she said. “.... They were looking to fund projects that have bike paths and trailways instead of a major interstate?"

Testifying in March before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg assured Arizona Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly that he understood the state's unique highway needs and that his department wouldn't “stand in the way of a capacity expansion where it's appropriate.”

Some Republicans, however, remain skeptical, in part due to a memo the Federal Highway Administration distributed in December 2021, a month after Biden signed the bill. The document suggested states should usually “prioritize the repair, rehabilitation, reconstruction, replacement, and maintenance of existing transportation infrastructure” over new road construction.

Although administration officials dismissed the memo as an internal communication, not a policy decision, critics alleged they were trying to circumvent Congress and influence highway construction decisions traditionally left to states under their formula funding.

Last month the Government Accountability Office concluded the memo carried the same weight as a formal rule, which Congress could challenge by passing a resolution of disapproval. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, pledged to write one.

According to figures the Federal Highway Administration provided to The Associated Press, 12 capacity-expansion projects have received funding through previous competitive grants since the memo was issued. States also have used their formula funding toward 763 such projects totaling $7.1 billion.

As for the Arizona project, some state officials have expressed plans to move ahead on their own if they can't secure federal money — although they're not giving up on that, either. Considering that one crash can back up traffic for miles between the state's two largest cities, they say it remains a top priority.

McFarland, the Casa Grande mayor, said perhaps the next application will stress some of the other components of the $360 million request besides the highway widening — including bike lanes that tribal leaders have long sought for some of the overpasses.

“If you read the tea leaves, you can see where they're at,” McFarland said. “... It's a competitive process. You don't always get it the first time you ask for it. So, ask again.”

McMurray reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this story.

Quinnipiac University's new $45 million recreation center part of plan to 'nurture the community'

Chatwan Mongkol

HAMDEN — From a fitness center and dance studio to a smoothie station, rock garden and rock climbing wall, a new $45 million building at Quinnipiac University has it all.

“If I look familiar, I was the guy on the treadmill grasping for oxygen while all of you young people are exercising with your headphones on having a great time,” said Robert Potter, a trustees and a university alumnus.

Potter said when he first went to the gym, he immediately texted university President Judy Olian and Chief Experience Officer Tom Ellett that “I’m re-enrolling.”

University officials, along with students, faculty and local community members, officially opened the new Recreation and Wellness Center in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, with the goal of providing students with “social, emotional and physical well-being support.”

“You’ve got to take yoga or spin classes or mindfulness or aerobics or zumba while looking at the Sleeping Giant,” Olian said. “If that doesn’t make you happier and healthier, I don’t know what will.”

Olian said the new building is an embodiment of a pillar in the university's strategic plan to nurture the community while reinforcing the vision of Quinnipiac being “the university of the future.” The building also was designed for LEED gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to the university.

Ellett said the building is “run by students for students,” with a goal of hosting weekly programs for three to four nights a week on top of other activities that will take place daily

“I’m excited that students will gain confidence in themselves, their purpose for being at QU and abilities to go out into the world as active contributors and Bobcat alum,” Ellett said

Student Government Association President Owenea Roberts said she hoped her peers will take advantage of the new facilities — “myself included, because I currently do not exercise,” she said.

The rock-climbing wall inside the Recreation and Wellness Center at Quinnipiac University.

Chatwan Mongkol/Hearst Connecticut Media

The $45-million building also is home to the university’s partnership with Hartford HealthCare. The university’s student health services merged with the health system last year in a $5 million deal. The agreement was to grow the Connecticut health care workforce by creating a career pipeline for students and expanding nursing and medical programs at Quinnipiac.

“Fantastic, fabulous, strategic and collaborative” were some adjectives the university president used to describe the partnership Friday. Jeff Flaks, president of Hartford HealthCare, said his team was “enriched by the culture” at Quinnipiac since the project started.

“What I really want to bring attention to today is the leadership of this university from the board to the president and to the entire team,” Flaks said. “It wasn’t just the innovation, the big thinking, but it was the personal advocacy of the health and well-being of the entire community.”

Through the partnership, the university already increased the size of nursing placement by 22 percent, according to Flaks, and is increasing placement for the medical school over time, too.

Leaders of the two institutions both said the partnership is “great for Connecticut” for “building the workforce of the future.”

Quinnipiac began construction of the Recreation and Wellness Center in 2021, and partially opened the building to students last fall. 

The construction prompted Quinnipiac to try to move its tennis courts to a new location with both Hamden and North Haven campuses under its consideration. The relocation hasn’t been accomplished after two years, and the zoning applications were withdrawn after facing challenges with Hamden zoning ordinances and opposition from neighbors. 

Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan said, “we’re continuing to explore the best location for our tennis courts and plan to proceed with an application for them once that analysis has been completed.”

In 2022, Quinnipiac received zoning approval to begin another construction for its $293 million South Quad project for three new buildings under a planned development district, something that wasn’t well received by neighbors.

The ongoing project is expected to be complete in the 2024-25 academic year, according to the university.

CT developer continues $15M construction to transform historic Middletown buildings into housing, dining, more

Cassandra Day

MIDDLETOWN — The city's central business corridor is undergoing extensive rehabilitation work to revitalize four historic buildings downtown into a development featuring restaurant spaces, some two-dozen housing units, an extensive wine bar, a rooftop patio with river views and much more.

In all, Durham developer Dominick DeMartino, who owns properties around the state, will be investing $15 million in these ambitious projects. He chose Middletown because he’s “very connected” to the city and active in numerous area organizations.

“This is not a developer coming in and trying to make it quick, and run,” he said.

Construction is underway for 10 housing units in the top two stories of 418-22 Main St., where, on the ground floor, the original Amato’s Toy & Hobby was located in the 1970s, as well as Vinnie’s Jump & Jive dance hall, which closed in late July. 

Signage has been removed from both storefronts, which are now covered in wood. These spaces haven't been fully used for decades, DeMartino explained.

At the rear, near the Melilli Plaza parking lot entrance to Sicily Coal Fired Pizza at 412 Main St., Fresh Cutz, a barbershop specializing in urban hairstyles with other locations in Hamden and Wallingford, will be moving in. Owner Javier Colon will have 15 chairs for stylists to rent, said DeMartino, who owns the Sicily building.

Colon also will offer barber license training for young men and women who want to get into the trade, he noted.

There will also be three retail spaces, including one selling gourmet cookies and ice cream, as well as the wine bar in association with Sicily restaurant in the building DeMartino also owns.

The wine bar will offer all of the Italian eatery’s menu items, as well as a selection of 72 different wines by the glass. There will also be 3,000 bottles on display. “It will be extremely unique,” the developer said.

The raw bar will include clams, oysters, shrimp, as well as cheese, vegetable and dried meat charcuterie boards.

At the former Schlein’s Furniture building at 584 Main St., between 5,500 and 6,000 square feet of retail space will be constructed, with a tapas / Latin eatery on the ground floor, although DeMartino hasn’t yet identified tenants.

He has an application in to the city to build 12 market-rate apartments — six on each floor — geared toward young professionals, college students, medical workers and those “who live and play on Main Street,” the developer said.

In the old Woolworth’s building at 428 Main St., most recently occupied by Irreplaceable Artifacts, there will be a restaurant located below a rooftop patio bar overlooking the Connecticut River.

DeMartino said several restaurateurs have contacted him about possibly securing a space in the buildings. “They’re very interested in downtown Middletown as they’ve seen the success Sicily is having,” he said.

The roof area will be ADA-compliant with the addition of an elevator, so everyone has access to the upstairs, and can dine in full view of the water on summer days, DeMartino added.

The Woolworth’s building is being used temporarily for a series of storefront displays as part of the Downtown Business District’s plan to liven up the streetscape and fill vacant spaces. 

Dominick, who doesn’t charge for use of the ground floor by the organization, has been working with coordinator Sandra Russo-Driska on the project, he said.

As part of the initiative, in November 2021, Haiti native and local artist Pierre Sylvain created three vibrant paintings of Caribbean musicians and diners, which cover the bottom facade of the building.

Prior to that, Middletown resident and Hartford research scientist Kat Owens incorporated a full-size fabric replica of a sperm whale using plastic making its way into oceans and endangering marine animals.

Through next month, Haddam artist Ted Esselstyn, who runs City Bench, upended the furniture he has crafted from reclaimed city trees across the state. They stand among upright slabs of wood to create the effect of a “forest” of trees in the storefront.

“Dominick DeMartino’s investments in downtown Middletown are really invigorating — not only the level of businesses he plans to bring here, but the [care] he takes in renovating the buildings,” said Russo-Driska, who called him a “phenomenal partner” with the DBD.

“We’re truly excited to have him here, and we hope other investors do more in our downtown,” the coordinator added.

DeMartino said he’s received much support from area business owners as well as city officials. “Middletown is moving forward,” he said.

No town funds needed for Groton Long Point Road Bridge replacement

Kimberly Drelich

Groton ― The Town of Groton won’t have to pay for the planned replacement of the Groton Long Point Road Bridge over Palmer’s Cove, saving about $1.7 million in town funds, according to town and state officials.

The town originally had anticipated it would participate in a program in which it would have to pay 20% of the estimated $8.4 million cost to replace the bridge. But the town recently was accepted into a newer program in which the town would not have to pay anything toward the project cost, according to town officials.

The program places the state in charge of the bridge replacement process. The project will be paid for through at least 80% federal funds, with the state providing up to a 20% match, according to a letter from the state Department of Transportation to the town.

“Being part of the 100% program will save the town from spending approximately $1.7 million of their own funds on the project,” said Town Manager John Burt. “The state is also well suited to do this work, and it frees up our public works staff time.”

Burt said design and permitting is scheduled for 2023-2024, while construction is slated for 2025-2026.

The town wants to replace the 1935 bridge, which connects Groton Long Point and Mumford Cove to the rest of Groton, and improve its condition, make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, and make it more resilient to storm surge, according to a presentation over the summer.

The Town Council Committee of the Whole on Tuesday recommended moving forward with the funding program, with the full council slated to take a final vote to approve it at its Feb. 7 regular council meeting.

Public Works Director Greg Hanover told councilors that under this new federal local bridge program, called the Design Managed by State Program, the state would take the project through design, permitting and rights of way acquisitions, and manage the contractor during construction. He said the town will still be involved in providing input throughout the design and construction phases and there will still be a public input component to the project.

Last summer, town councilors looked at a preliminary design from engineering firm AECOM for an elevated bridge that included two bike lanes and a sidewalk. The Groton Long Point Association Board of Directors asked the town to remove from the project a sidewalk from the bridge to East Shore Avenue.

Burt said the Town Council did not endorse a design. The town will send to the DOT all the materials related to the bridge, including the preliminary design, and the state will be gathering more public input.

At Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Town Councilor David McBride asked about the association’s involvement. He said the association had information it was prepared to discuss in July, but his understanding is that the association has not been able to do that. He said the Groton Long Point Association firmly believes it owns the road. He said he is fully in favor of the project, but thinks it is going to be delayed if Groton Long Point isn’t involved.

“I’d like to see if we can bring them to the table and see if we can move this long,” McBride said.

Burt responded that the state will make its own decisions on the project, and the town will see what the state believes as far as ownership and if sidewalks make it into the design.

Josh Morgan, spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, told The Day that the Groton Long Point Road Bridge project is in the early stages of development and will be designed to meet state and federal standards.

The bridge is owned and maintained by the municipality, but since it is more than 20 feet long, the state DOT inspects it, Morgan said.

As part of the DOT’s Local Bridge Program, a pilot program was started in 2016 for municipally owned, state inspected bridges, in which the state DOT would partner on the design for future improvements. This speeds up the design process for projects and unlocks additional federal funding opportunities, Morgan explained. “Due to the 2021 federal infrastructure law, these projects in the Local Bridge Program no longer include municipal tax dollars and are entirely funded with state and/or federal dollars,” he said.

State says it won’t pay New London for school demolition work

Andrew Brown

New London may be forced to pay several million dollars in demolition and remediation work for a new high school project because local officials allegedly heeded the directions of Konstantinos Diamantis, the former leader of Connecticut’s school construction program.

Officials with the Department of Administrative Services, which houses the state’s school construction office, recently informed the city that it will not pay for any of the roughly $4 million in demolition or abatement work at the New London High School because that contract was never put out to bid, as state law requires.

“Work that was not competitively bid or work that was done using a state contract without obtaining multiple quotes is not eligible for reimbursement at any rate,” said John McKay, a spokesman for DAS.

Elected leaders and school construction supervisors in New London said that news came as a surprise to them, considering Diamantis allegedly instructed the city to hire a demolition contractor from a short list of state-approved vendors.

It’s unclear if any other school districts in the state could face similar problems obtaining state reimbursement for work that was performed on local school projects in recent years.

McKay said the state would need to do more research to determine if other municipalities neglected to open bids for some of the contracts for local school projects in the past.

But the allegations that Diamantis pushed municipalities to hire certain contractors are not new, and they are not unique to New London.

The Kosta Diamantis timeline

After a federal investigation into the school construction program burst into public view last year, local leaders in several towns and cities came forward to accuse Diamantis of pressuring them to hire specific contractors for local school projects, including demolition and abatement companies.

Diamantis, who resigned from his post in late 2021, a few weeks after the state was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, denies ever instructing New London, or any other school district, to choose a specific contractor for demolition and abatement work.

“I want to be clear. I never directed anyone to hire a particular vendor, and I did not instruct members of my team to advocate for any,” Diamantis told the CT Mirror this week. He laid the responsibility for any errors on a former subordinate who died in December 2021.

But officials in New London argue that the city is being unfairly punished for following the past directives of Diamantis and his team.

Dianna McNeill, who has served as a senior manager for the New London High School project, said the city hired AAIS, a company based in West Haven, without a formal bidding process due to directions they received from Diamantis and his staff at the Office of School Construction Grants and Review.

McNeill told the Mirror that she considered those directions, at the time, as a “bit of a head-scratcher” because she had never seen a demolition or hazardous waste remediation contract awarded in that fashion for a school before.

But, she said, New London officials complied with the order because it came from Diamantis, who had significant authority over school construction and the state grants for those projects.

“Again, it came from the guy at the top,” McNeill said. “New London was following his direction.”

After the contract was approved, McNeill said, Mike Sanders — another former staffer in the state’s school construction office — stepped in to personally direct AAIS at the high school project. And she said Sanders pre-approved the more than $4 million in work that the company performed at the site.

Based on those circumstances, McNeill and local elected leaders in New London do not believe the municipality should be on the hook for those construction costs.

Three state Democratic lawmakers representing New London — Rep. Christine Conley, Rep. Anthony Nolan, and Sen. Martha Marx — sponsored legislation this session that would require the state to reimburse the city for the work performed by AAIS.

Conley argued this week that New London should not be punished for following the advice of Diamantis, who served as the director of the school construction program for roughly six years.

“The schools were told to use a certain company, and that they did not need to bid it out,” Conley said. “And the schools followed what they were told by the person who had the job.”

Diamantis said anyone claiming he instructed New London to hire AAIS for the high school project was seeking to make him a scapegoat.

Local school officials were allowed to use the list of state-approved contractors for work on school projects as long as they obtained quotes from multiple companies on that list, Diamantis said. But he never suggested or ordered local officials to use the state-approved list of vendors in order to simply pick one from the list or otherwise circumvent the normal bidding process, he said.

Other districts have made similar claims

Officials in New London, however, aren’t the first to allege that Diamantis personally ordered them to ignore the state’s bidding requirements and to hand a contract to a demolition and abatement company that was pre-selected by the state.

An executive and an attorney with Stamford Wrecking, another demolition company, sent numerous letters to Attorney General William Tong and other state officials in 2020 and 2021 alleging Diamantis was encouraging municipalities to side-step state law.

One of those letters, sent to Josh Geballe and Melissa McCaw, the former leaders of DAS and the state Office of Policy and Management, mentioned the New London High School project. And it alleged that the contract AAIS received for the project was arranged because of “overtures” by state officials.

Diamantis responded to those letters at the time by dismissing many of the concerns from Stamford Wrecking. In internal emails, he referred to the company’s attorney as a “well known shabby complainer.”

Local leaders in Groton and Bristol echoed many of the allegations that were presented in those letters last year. In the case of Bristol, local officials provided documents to the CT Mirror that detailed what was communicated by Diamantis and his team at the time.

One of those documents described how Sanders issued a “directive” to Bristol officials — reportedly on behalf of Diamantis — instructing the city to throw out the bids they received for a school demolition project and to hire Bestech, a company selected by the state.

Both Bristol and Groton eventually chose to ignore those directions, and unlike New London, the two municipalities hired their own contractors for the demolition and abatement work using a local bidding process.

Diamantis: ‘Issues were corrected’

Diamantis told the CT Mirror he had nothing to do with those contract disputes in Bristol or Groton. And he said that if anything like that transpired in New London, it would have been the fault of Sanders, who died in December 2021 from a suspected drug overdose.

“If that happened early on, it was Mike’s error. He was new to the program. It was certainly not intentional,” Diamantis said. “And I am speaking for Mike, God rest his soul.”

The disputes that arose in Bristol and Groton, Diamantis said, were isolated to a few schools, and he said he quickly moved to fix those mistakes.

“Those issues were corrected,” Diamantis said, “and Mike Sanders was made clear that he was not to go to school districts and tell them to do anything with respect to how they run their project.”

According to Diamantis, the only reason New London officials are pointing the finger at him now is because they don’t want to get stuck covering the cost of the demolition and abatement contract for their new high school.

“Continuing to slander me with inaccurate statements or false statements for the failures of professionals hired to know the process and to follow a simple process will no longer be tolerated,” Diamantis said in a follow-up email. “I do not know what happened in New London.”

“Hopefully we are clear on the facts,” he added. “I ran a solid program with a great team. We took pride in our work and our program in the best interest of the kids, and no community was forced to hire anyone.”

Conley said she and her colleagues in the legislature are simply trying to correct an issue that was created by the state.

Officials at DAS said they are required to follow state law when it comes to reimbursements for school construction projects.

That means the agency’s can’t reimburse New London for those costs unless the legislature approves special exemption for the New London project.

Conley said she expects the General Assembly to pass that legislation this year.