State Pier construction nears completion

Greg Smith

The banging and ringing sound of metal piles being driven into the floor of the Thames River around State Pier, echoing through the streets of Groton and New London, has ceased.

The silence marks a significant milestone in the nearly $310 million reconstruction of New London’s deepwater port, signaling near-completion for what has become a staging and assembly hotspot for the country’s burgeoning offshore wind industry.

The last pile was driven on March 13, and dredging around the pier wrapped up in February, later than initially anticipated but still in time to accommodate the arrival next month of offshore wind turbine components for Ørsted and Eversource’s next project, Revolution Wind.

“To the residents of New London and to the residents of Groton, I thank you for enduring all of the pile driving during the day and night ... for the benefit of the rest of the state and the country,” Ulysses Hammond, interim executive director of the Connecticut Port Authority, said at a port authority meeting earlier this week.

Hundreds of the piles, which are metal pipes ranging in diameter from 30 to 42 inches, were used to shore up the newly constructed pier. Marlin Peterson, construction manager for AECOM, said there are more than 1,000 of the piles, including the piles to create walls containing the 390,000 cubic yards of fill material used to fill in the 7 acres of water that used to separate two piers.

Hammond said contractors are in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of offshore wind turbines associated with Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine offshore wind project to be construction off the coast of Rhode Island by partners Ørsted and Eversource -- the first project to deliver power to Connecticut. State Pier already was used to marshal components for South Fork Wind, a 12-turbine project that became the first utility-scale offshore wind project in the country and is now supplying renewable power to the Long Island grid.

Hammond said the construction project will be substantially completed by April, with some lingering punch list items being performed on site. Over the next several weeks, work crews will be installing fenders, bollards and ladders along the pier installation berth. There is also drainage piping and salvaged granite blocks to be reset, final grading and compaction, Peterson said.

Increased costs

The construction work, especially the pile driving, has proved to be more challenging and costly than expected. Works crews have repeatedly reported hitting obstacles, such as boulders and buried structures, while driving the piles, leading to longer work hours and more time on site for the massive pieces of equipment being used. Peterson said crews were often working six days a week and two 10-hour shifts.

At a special meeting on Tuesday, the port authority’s board of directors authorized spending $1.5 million on the work, $870,000 more than anticipated ― more than half of that added cost is associated with pile driving. The port authority had approved the extra work but had not yet had details of the final cost. Peterson said other expenses include the installation of a larger water connection, safety buoys and dealing with the discovery of sewer manholes on site.

The money is coming from the $6 million in the budget earmarked for contingencies. The rest of the money is also likely to be spent when the final costs of installation of toe walls, which Peterson said construction manager Kiewit Corp. thinks will exceed the remainder of the funds. Peterson said AECOM contends the contingency will cover the cost but remains in negotiations with Kiewit.

“We’ll see how we come to a resolution to that discrepancy,” Peterson said.

The construction project, when conceived in 2018, was estimated to cost less than $100 million but has steadily risen in cost. Last summer, the Connecticut Port Authority obtained $30 million more from the state and $23.7 million from Ørsted and Eversource to cope with the cost increases.

Ørsted and Eversource, with three planned projects associated with staging and assembly at State Pier, are paying the port authority $2 million a year as part of a 10-year lease of the property. Separately, the city of New London is receiving a minimum of $750,000 per year as part of a host community agreement with Ørsted and Eversource.

David Kooris, chairman of the board, said if the contingency funds are not enough to cover the final costs, there is funding available from other revenue streams, including the lease payments from the New England Central Railroad property next to the pier.

“We’ve got all the money we need. We’re not going back (to the state) for more money,” Kooris said.

State Pier Rebuild – By the Numbers

335 – 30-inch diameter Pipe Piles

367 – 42-inch diameter Pipe Piles

323 – Sheet piles

2,525 – lineal feet length of Toe Wall (combination of pipes & sheets) used to retain rip-rap below the water line along east wall

390,000 – cubic yards sandy fill between State Pier & CVRR Pier

180,000 cubic yards dredged volume (disposed offsite)

8,643 – lineal feet of stormwater pipes

4 – new Stormwater Outfalls

10 – 120-foot High-Mast Light Poles

14,500 cubic yards of concrete

4,812,866 lbs. of steel reinforcement (rebar) which equates to 2,406 tons

(Source/ Connecticut Port Authority)

Aging dams sprinkled across Connecticut are hidden flood hazards waiting in plain sight

Vincent Gabrielle, Eric Bedner

Charise Hewitt has lived near Konold's pond in the West Hills neighborhood of Woodbridge for about 20 years, and every spring and summer her yard floods twice a month. It takes weeks for it to dry out enough to walk on the ground, she said, and it's gotten worse over time. 

In a nearby grove of trees, a small ancient dam more than 100-years-old is choked with brush as it holds back the swollen West River that drains the pond. It's spring, and more water is coming as the snow melts up north. 

“The water stays; there’s more of a chance that the water is gonna rise” in the pond, said Hewitt. “It’s going to stay on our side of the flow, rather than spilling out into the river where it belongs, where it’s supposed to go.”

Down the road, on a little cul-du-sac abutting the pond, resident Steve Sappo said the neighborhood floods constantly. “The last few times it’s rained … it’s been, well you know ... we have two pumps running downstairs.” Sappo, who works in construction, said it would “be smart” if someone removed the dam, or dredged the pond.

Unlike the dramatic breach of the Fitchville Pond Dam in Bozrah in January, the Konold Pond dam is like most: small, privately-owned, and gone unchecked by engineers for years. And it's not alone.

Connecticut is one of the most heavily dammed states in the country, with about 4,800 spread throughout cities and towns, 84 percent of which are privately owned and many more than a century old. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state is home to 54 dams per every 100 miles of free-flowing rivers — more than any other state per river mile. The national average is six. 

Over half of the dams were originally built to supply local water power to mills or to make small ponds. They easily blend into the landscape, largely going unnoticed until catastrophe strikes. 

Making matters worse, there are no federal or state laws that require owners of high risk or significant hazard dams to disclose who might be in the flood zone should a dam fail, or get clogged and backup.

Keeping count

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection classifies all dams by the level of risk to life, property and infrastructure it poses to the region should it fail, ranging from the lowest being Class AA, a "negligible hazard," and the most hazardous and likely to cause severe damage or loss of life classified as C. Class B dams pose significant risk to the local area, while Class BB dams are considered a moderate risk, should they fail.

There are a total of 288 dams in the state with a C classification, 27 of which are privately owned, according to DEEP officials. Konold Pond dam is rated Class A, according to DEEP records.

The dams are also classified by inspectors and rated for their condition, including unsatisfactory, poor, fair, or good. Dam owners must hire the inspector, who submits the rating to DEEP. 

The Fitchville Pond Dam was among those that had a long history of missing inspections before it breached. Other privately-owned Class C dams can be found throughout the state, including Pemberwick Dam in Greenwich, Williams Pond Dam in Glastonbury, Warren Pond Dam in Stafford, and the Hockanum Reservoir Dam in Vernon.

According to DEEP, there are roughly 960 dams in Connecticut that have no hazard ratings at all — the dam has not been inspected and in some cases, the state isn't sure if it still exists. 

Laura Wildman, vice president of the nonprofit Save the Sound, said frequently people living and working downstream of high hazard dams have “no idea” they are in a potential flood zone. “This is a national problem, not just a Connecticut problem,” said Wildman. “There are no laws, no federal or state laws, that require people who live in dam breach inundation zones to be told that they live in a dam breach inundation zone. That’s even the case when buying a property.”

In October 2007, owners of high and significant hazard dams in Connecticut were required to file a notice with municipal land records and register "all dams in the state of Connecticut” with DEEP, but neither the state nor the municipality is required to warn residents or businesses downstream of a high-hazard dam.

The state has oversight of all dams in Connecticut, regardless of who owns it, except for those regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DEEP spokesman Paul Copelman said. If a dam is given a Class AA negligible hazard rating, its management and regulation is transferred to the local municipality, as it’s of little consequence, he said.

Under state law, every dam should have undergone a regulatory inspection by at least 2016 that included a determination by a professional engineer recommending a hazard classification in order for DEEP to accept it, Copleman said. However, close to 1,000 dams throughout the state have no hazard class rating because they were not inspected before the 2016 deadline.

In 2014, Connecticut transferred the obligation to inspect dams to the dam's owner, with higher risk dams requiring more frequent inspections and the most hazardous requiring an emergency action plan submitted to the state, showing the land most at risk from a dam failure and recommended responses to breaches. The statutory change requires dam owners to hire a licensed professional engineer to conduct the inspections and report the results to DEEP. 

However, since 2015, DEEP's Dam Safety Program has issued 69 notices of non-compliance and 52 notices of violations for Class C dams lacking emergency action plans. Some of these were issued multiple times to the same dam owner. 

About 14 percent of high and significant hazard dams are past their inspection due dates, per DEEP, while 17 percent of high and significant hazard dams have submitted emergency action plans that DEEP has not accepted because they need revisions or updates. 

Wildman said that even with good dam safety requirements, funding for enforcement is lacking from the state.

“You can send dam safety orders to a dam owner over and over again,” said Wildman. “We have almost no funding for enforcement, and because of that these things are almost never enforced.”

According to DEEP, there are no high or significant hazard dams in unsatisfactory condition in Connecticut, however there are 30 rated as poor.

One such dam is the Freshwater Pond Dam in Enfield, which is owned by the town. The dam's most recent inspection report filed with DEEP was conducted in April of 2020, listing the dam's overall condition as "poor." At the time, parts of the dam, which was built in 1900, showed "significant deterioration" since its previous 2014 inspection.

It has since been repaired following the 2020 inspection, town officials say. Enfield spent roughly $441,000 to address concerns raised by DEEP, Public Works Director Donald Nunes said. Work included removing all vegetation from a masonry retaining wall, constructing a new retaining wall adjacent to the downstream spillway retaining wall, and repairing storm drains, among other improvements, he said.

“We have done exactly what was required of us and it’s all been repaired,” Nunes said. “We’ve made extraordinary efforts to make sure this dam is safe.”

State and federal response

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said that while the legislature has made strides in providing accountability for dam owners, such as making sure prospective property buyers are aware there's a dam on a parcel they’re purchasing and the responsibilities that come with it, more should be done. A large issue, she said, is that people who own private dams most likely don't have the money to make costly repairs or even pay for inspections.

"Inspections are not cheap," Osten said. "To fix a dam is not cheap. There isn't a dam that is going to cost less than $1 million and that's just construction." Other costs include engineering and permits, she said. "All of that is expensive, takes time, and there is no real enforcement on making sure that private land owners of dams do all of those things."

In hindsight, Osten questions if moving some regulatory authority from DEEP to the dam owners was the best approach, even though it minimizes the cost to taxpayers. And while the state Bond Commission has approved millions of dollars for dam repairs throughout the state in recent months, funds don’t go to private dams.

U.S. Sens. Richard Blumethal and Chris Murphy agree more needs to be done and are looking for solutions at the federal level. While there is no new legislation proposed by Congress to address Connecticut’s private, aging dams there are a variety of existing sources that could be of use, including through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

“Each year, Connecticut gets hit with increasingly frequent and dangerous storms that come at a huge cost to homeowners, local businesses, and municipalities," Murphy said. "Repairs after a devastating flood are vital, but we need to get serious about mitigating damage before disaster strikes.”

There are limited federal funding avenues for privately-owned dams, however, said Blumenthal, who added that he's explored possibilities through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and general flood resiliency funding. Any money from the Corps Water Infrastructure Financing Program is a loan, not a grant, and is limited to dam safety projects that are not federally owned, operated, and maintained. Privately-owned dams like the one in Bozrah or West Haven could potentially be eligible for those funds, he said.

The funds would be a welcome relief to those like Heidi Duff, who estimates she'll spend $25,000 or more on repairs to her Norwich hair salon that flooded when the Fitchville Pond Dam in Bozrah cracked and spilled water down her street before the state stepped in to make emergency repairs. The final damage could've been much worse at the Details Hair Salon and other neighboring businesses, Duff said. “If that dam were to collapse, my basement would be filled with water,” said Duff, noting that in 2010, the former tenant had four feet of water in their basement space. With that in mind, Duff bought a flood door that she and her husband reinforced with sealant.

“I’m hoping we’ll be OK for the next one,” Duff said. “Spring is coming; we’ve never had a flood like this in the winter, but you can’t stop Mother Nature with her rain and the volume of snow that we had prior to that. … We’ll hope and pray, and if the water comes again, we’ll clean it out.”

Duff says she was one of the more fortunate business owners in the area, as others were “totally annihilated.” She places most of the blame on the town for not properly maintaining the Yantic River. “I think the bigger story, in all honesty, is the history of the area and what was or wasn’t put in place for future generations to be protected,” she said, adding that the river is routinely littered with debris that creates its own dam, causing water to flow over the river’s banks. “My concern is more the obstructions that are down river that aren’t being addressed,” Duff said. “Without the maintenance of the river, it could be a catastrophe.”

Why so many dams?

With so many ancient dams in the state, the question remains if they're all necessary. People initially built dams to power water wheels, make ponds for fishing or livestock, while others were created for flood control or canals. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, dam building reached a fever pitch as early mills relied on fast-flowing rivers, plugging them up with dams to power the mills.

Ari Perez, a Quinnipiac University civil engineering professor said that over time, as economics and technology shifted, many of those dams deteriorated. Water can burrow through earthen dams, eroding holes to make them larger. Reinforced concrete chips and cracks with age, exposing rebar to rust. And maintenance wasn't always a priority once they were no longer needed.

“But the other thing that’s more difficult to account for is that sometimes things just run their course,” said Perez. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspects a dam, part of their process is asking the question “does this dam still need to be here?” 

Andrew Fisk, northeast regional director for the nonprofit environmental group American Rivers, said that there were many thousands of privately owned dams across America that no longer serve a purpose. “They are suffering from needed maintenance in order to prevent them from partially breaching and fully breaching,” he said, pointing to an earthen dam in Michigan that was not maintained and burst in 2020, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. 

Back in Woodbridge, Jon Vander Werff, a fish biologist, strolled the banks of Konold's Pond and wondered if the same thing might happen there. The water on that sunny, March 13 day was just out of flood stage, but still really high. The small concrete-and-stone wier creating the shallow and widening pond runs the width of the river. Beyond it, shaded in a stand of maples and oaks and choked with brush is an earthen dam that's over a century old.

Recent rains have pushed the pond beyond its normal bounds, as the West River roars down through the trees. Vander Werff, who works with Save the Sound, said it's unclear when the ancient dam was built or who built it, but it was probably installed to make a fishing pond. There’s no evidence of a mill here, unlike other sites downstream, he said.

“In my eyes it’s creating all kinds of issues,” said Vander Werff. “It’s not super big, but it’s making the water level higher.”

Some of the neighborhood residents contacted Save the Sound during a dam removal and river restoration project at the former site of the Lilly Pond Dam, he said, asking if anything could be done about the Konold Pond dam that was flooding the neighborhood. Discussions are at the early stages. The problem with this dam, and this pond, is that over its long life span Konold Pond has gotten shallower and shallower as silt has built up, Vander Werff said.

Resident Carol Perrotti said the pond used to be beautiful, but it's now choked with lily pads. “It’s just deteriorated, that’s all I can say, since I was a kid, the last few years especially,” she said, adding that she was lucky to have a basement high enough to avoid the water. Other houses in the neighborhood experienced flooding in their backyards and basements in recent months. “The people on both sides of me have water in their basements. It cracked the floor, the water; it cracked the floor from the ground up.”

According to the Woodbridge Assessor's Office the dam and the pond are privately owned and controlled by an LLC, so dredging the silt or removing the dam isn't easily done, and prospects are few. No one from the LLC or the family trust attached to the company could be reached for comment. 

The pond does provide a much-needed spawning habitat for migratory river herring, herons, wood ducks and occasionally bald eagles, Vander Werff said. Locals come to kayak and canoe on the pond.

“What takes so much time is that there are so many different stakeholders,” said Vander Werff. Downstream, the river channels, which makes pond remediation tricky. If work is done on the dam to lower the pond, it needs to be engineered so that it doesn’t make the West River more prone to flooding, or destroy the homes and businesses that abut the channel, he said.

“We want to lower this pond down to reduce the water (flooding) back here, but not reduce it enough where it gets a faster velocity” downstream, he said. “If it gets a faster velocity in the straightaway it’s going to erode, and all the walls are gonna come down.” It's a great example of how complicated a small, privately owned dam can be, and the problems it can cause after blocking a river for a century or more, both upstream, and down.

As Waterbury’s population grows, blighted downtown sites are are giving way to new housing, business

Liese Klein

Corned beef and cabbage star on the menu instead of schnitzel, and you can get draft Guinness at the bar instead of a German lager. 

But the new Tullamore Public House that opened on Waterbury’s Leavenworth Street just in time for St. Patrick’s Day this month taps directly into the legend of Drescher’s Restaurant, a century-old tradition in downtown. 

“It’s been here for a very long time,” said Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski. “It’s got a classic old-style bar, and just that feel with the woodwork and everything. Now it’s coming back as more of an Irish bar.”

Established in the late 1800s, Drescher’s occupied the building at 21 Leavenworth in various forms until 2021, when the pandemic shuttered many of downtown Waterbury’s restaurants. Now the area is slowly stirring back to life, and the co-owner of Tullamore Public House hopes to help bring business to the entire downtown district.

“I’ve been here for 58 years and this is where my roots are,” said Mike Pronovost, who owns Tullamore’s with Christina Napoli. “It was an unbelievable feeling how many people came out to support me on St. Patrick’s Day, to come by and say hello.”

New shine in Brass City

The Tullamore’s opening downtown is just one hopeful sign in the long-beleaguered Brass City, which saw factories that once employed more than 50,000 people at their peak shut down decades ago. The city of about 114,000 was left with dozens of hulking abandoned factories, acres of poisoned land and the third-poorest population in the state. 

Despite ongoing issues with poverty and crime, the city added nearly 5,000 new residents in the decade between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. Home prices and rents are way up, and a new wave of investors from New York are buying land and planning new housing.

Gov. Ned Lamont took notice at an event in Waterbury on March 1 announcing planned changes in state pollution rules to speed reuse of old industrial sites. Connecticut’s long distressed major cities are spearheading an economic revival in the state, he said. 

“A lot of our development and growth has happened in great cities like Waterbury, where people want to be — one of our fastest growing cities in the state,” Lamont said. “People love this city, love the history here, and we’re just bringing that history back to life.”

The debris-strewn property that provided a backdrop to the governor’s event, the former Waterbury Button Factory, will be cleared in a matter of months and could eventually be repurposed for housing, said Thomas Hyde, executive director of the Waterbury Development Corporation.

“There’s still in-ground contaminants that we’ll have to deal with… at that point, there may be an interested developer or we’d be looking at additional state funding to try to clean it up,” Hyde said. A new baseball field was also built last year on a former factory site up the street. 

Even Holy Land, the famously long-decaying theme park with a giant cross that looms over the city from Pine Hill, is slated for improvements, thanks to a Waterbury-born priest who was a contractor before taking his vows. 

Lifetime Waterbury resident Pernerewski, in his first months as mayor, sees a new energy in the city.

“It’s not going to be what it was back in the ’50s and ’60s, but we can bring back the vibrancy and the centrality of the city to what it was back in those days,” Pernerewski said. 

New housing coming to downtown

Aiding in downtown Waterbury’s revival will be the 120 new housing units, mostly market-rate apartments, slated to open in the coming year, with dozens more in the earlier planning stages.

“For a long time it was a big push out to the suburbs and everybody was leaving the central cities. Now you’ve got a lot of younger people, they don’t want to drive, they want to be connected,” Pernerewski said. “ You get all those things downtown.”

Fueling the demand for housing downtown in part is the growth of UConn Waterbury, the university’s regional campus centered on East Main Street.  Waterbury was the only regional UConn campus to show growth in the number of first-time students in 2023, with numbers rising slightly to 243 in fall 2023 from 237 in fall 2019. 

The total number of UConn undergraduates in Waterbury still lags its pre-pandemic peak, with 760 students in fall 2023 compared to 806 in fall 2019. Even so, UConn Waterbury showed the smallest post-pandemic enrollment decline of the four regional campuses, down 1 percent, compared to UConn Hartford (down 2.7 percent), UConn Stamford (down 2.5 percent) and UConn Avery Point in Groton (down 3.9 percent). 

New UConn offices are planned for a historic building at 36 North Main St., on the Waterbury Green.

Post University has also pledged to increase its downtown presence, although remote working trends have curtailed plans to relocate 400 staff members to the Howland-Hughes building on Bank Street. 

“There’s been some talk about bringing their Baldrige School of Business here,” Pernerewski said. “I’m hoping to have some conversations with them shortly to see if we can do that.”

Metro-North brings new residents

Also powering housing demand is growing ridership on the Waterbury Branch Line of Metro-North, which runs to New York via Bridgeport. Increased service on the line has increased the number of NYC commuters: Passengers can get on the train in Waterbury at 4:45 a.m. and arrive at Grand Central by 7:28 a.m. 

The Waterbury Branch Line has the fastest growing ridership in the state, Pernerewski said, “especially post-COVID when people have moved up here to get out of the city. Many of them

The growth of the Metro-North route also bodes well for the future of a 20-acre former brass manufacturing complex near the train station, on Freight Street, which has been cleared of dilapidated buildings in recent years and is now awaiting testing prior to redevelopment.   

“What we want to do is get a developer on board,” said Hyde, adding that the growth of Metro-North ridership is expected to spark new development throughout Greater Waterbury and into the lower Naugatuck Valley.

The Waterbury line is slated to get stylish new French rail cars in coming years and lawmakers are pushing for more trains and new stations in the Naugatuck Valley.

The Freight Street site would be ideal for “transit-oriented development,” the catchphrase and grant programs used to encourage higher density in the state’s towns and cities and new construction near major transit routes. Access to transit has shaped Waterbury’s priorities, Hyde said. 

“It’s all part of the redevelopment of downtown, where people can walk from Freight Street, where they can walk to the train station, have a job in Fairfield County or in New York, come back to Waterbury and live,” Hyde said.

Factory sites move toward reuse

In addition to Freight Street, many of Waterbury’s more than 33 former factory sites are also moving toward reuse in coming years, thanks to a flood of money channeled into the city from President Biden’s Infrastructure Act.

Top priority is the former Anamet hose-making facility, a 17-acre site at 698 South Main St. with a surviving high-bay warehouse building suitable for a distribution center. The city spent $4.4 million to clean up the site and restore the warehouse, but has yet to make a deal to redevelop the site. 

“We’re going to go out to bid again this year,” Hyde said. “Depending on what the end use is, ideally this year or next we’ll start to see something.”

Waterbury is actually running short on industrial space for smaller users, with demand outstripping supply, said Brian Godin of Middlebury’s Godin Property Brokers.

“In general, there’s not a lot of inventory available…which I guess is a good thing,” Godin said.  

Office space is also in high demand in the city’s downtown, with law offices and other users seeking to expand and New York investors buying buildings. Godin said he has worked in the Waterbury commercial real estate market for 18 years and has seen a definite uptick in interest in recent years. 

“I just feel like a lot of people are coming in and I feel like they’re spending some money downtown, which is opening the door for more opportunities,” Godin said. 

Mall and Amazon project hit headwinds

Although hopes are high for many sites in Waterbury, some question marks remain.

Like many malls across the state, Brass Mill Center has lost anchor tenants like Macy’s and Sears as shopping habits shift. Although the mall will get its movie theater back soon, Bath & Body Works announced earlier this month it would move to Waterbury Plaza across town.

A “for lease” notice is currently the largest signage at the mall’s entrance and the adjacent Brass Mill Commons was recently pulled off the market by its current owners.

Waterbury’s two hospitals are also struggling in a climate that has left most of the state’s health care systems reeling from higher costs and reimbursement issues. 

Owned by ailing Prospect Medical Holdings, Waterbury Hospital got a new leader in February ahead of a planned sale to Yale New Haven Health. That deal has been delayed for two years as the state analyzes its impact and two sides squabble over terms.  

Saint Mary’s, acquired by Trinity Health in 2015, reported declines in employee numbers, patient discharges and staffed beds in fiscal 2022 compared to prior years, according to the state Office of Health Strategy.

Uncertainty also looms over a proposed Amazon distribution center that would employ 1,000 at a site that straddles the Waterbury-Naugatuck border. The developer asked that the closing deadline be extended until December amid concerns about feasibility in the current market.

But Waterbury leaders are optimistic the deal will go through and a 660,000-square-foot Amazon facility will soon add to the city’s employment base and tax rolls. 

“Every indication in conversations we’ve had with them is they’re still very interested in the site,” Pernerewski said. 

Developer of Brainerd Place mixed-use complex in Portland seeks tax break, 110 more apartments

Cassandra Day

PORTLAND — The developer of Brainerd Place, a seven-building mixed-use complex under construction at the old Elmcrest Hospital site, is asking town leaders for another tax abatement and zoning approval of a modified site plan. 

Real estate developer Daniel Bertram, a principal with BRT Companies of Danbury, came before the Board of Selectmen earlier this month to explain proposed updates to the project.

Construction is proceeding at the 14.7-acre property at the corner of Main (Route 17) and Marlborough streets (Route 66), near the Arrigoni Bridge.

Among the many features of the years-long project are two eateries and a Starbucks.

Brainerd Place is approved for 240 housing units. The new plan calls for an additional 110 apartments to be built on the plot originally intended for a CVS. That would bring the total units to 350, which requires a special zoning exception.

When Bertram joined the project in 2015, he told selectmen that a CVS was built into the design. However, it has been difficult to secure a pre-lease with the company, Bertram said.

"It didn't progress to anything. I don't think it's a loss,” he explained. “This is a very nice alternative, and right sizing to the existing demand, but a premium offering."

Additional units, Bertram said, would be “a big step up from a CVS” considering a Walgreens is already close by.

Renovations to three 19th-century buildings on the campus that had fallen into disrepair are underway at the circa 1852 Erastus Brainerd Jr. House, circa 1804 John H. Sage House, and the Hart-Jarvis House, which was built in 1829.

Sage House will include a restaurant, and Brainerd House will become a clubhouse for people who work or live there. The Hart-Jarvis House will be used as office space.

New traffic lights at the intersection have been installed by the state Department of Transportation, and are ready for use.

The Board of Selectmen tabled the request for a tax abatement for a future meeting.

Bertram told the board on March 6 that four EV charging stations will be installed in the underground parking garage at one of the buildings, with a capacity of 125 vehicles. 

There are no playgrounds or in-house day care as part of the plan since the dwelling units are not designed for children, Bertram said.

“We would have more large units if it was a family offering; it's more the recent college grad and the senior crowd,” he said, pointing to a similar complex in Brookfield that also has a 70-30 percent mix of studio, one-bedrooms, and two-bedroom flats.

Ten school-age children live in the Brookfield units, he said. 

The Brainerd Place is projected to house 24 school-age children.

Another feature will be a two-level, 9,000 square-foot rooftop restaurant on the southwest portion of one building, with a view of the Connecticut River. A portion of the restaurant will be for indoor dining.

There would be another 9,000 square feet of retail space, Bertram said.

"The views from this location will be phenomenal," the developer said of the restaurant. "This is an expensive amenity, but something we think is special and noteworthy about the project.”

The hope is to bring in another restaurant next to the Starbucks, Bertram said.The next Planning & Zoning Commission meeting is set for April 4 at 7 p.m. To review the agenda, go to portlandct.org.

For information, visit ElmcrestPropertyInfo on Facebook and brainerdplace.com.

BLT yanks North 7 plans over Norwalk P&Z requirement to bury power lines; 'Economically not viable'

Katherine Lutge

NORWALK — The fate of the North 7 development plan is unknown after Stamford developer Building and Land Technology yanked its application for a 266-unit mixed-use apartment building over a city requirement that developers bury the utility lines.

“Mr. Chairman, point of order, the applications are hereby withdrawn,” said BLT’s attorney David Waters after two hours of discussion on the application in the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Wednesday. “There is no need to take any further action.”

Earlier in the meeting, Waters explained that if the P&Z Commission required BLT to place the utilities underground, then “it would make this project economically not viable.”

“At this point, to underground the overhead utilities that currently exist would literally cost several million dollars, and by our consulting engineers' estimate, it would take about a year to do it,” Waters said.

Despite BLT’s claims, several P&Z Commission members said they believed this requirement is fair.

“I think we need to do what is best for the project, best for the neighborhood and best for the city,” said Louis Schulman, chair of the P&Z Commission. “I think having the utilities underground responds to all three of those.”

“I think it also adds to the resilience, too. If the utilities are buried underground, they are more likely not to be damaged in a storm or have to get replaced in the storm, ensuring power for the area,” said Steve Kleppin, director of planning and zoning.

Before the P&Z Commission officially voted to keep the condition to require the underground utilities, Waters pulled the application because it appeared the commission would require it.

Commissioners were shocked by the withdrawal of the application.

“It’s a shame given where we are with it and all the work that’s gone into it,” P&Z commissioner  Nicholas Kantor said.

“I would hate to see this project go away,” P&Z commissioner Galen Wells said.

“I don’t appreciate the attempts to manipulate us in this way,” Schulman added.

The North 7 master plan from BLT, which also developed Stamford’s Harbor Point, included 1,300 apartment units across several buildings. The fate of the entire project is now at a stalemate over who is responsible for burying the the power lines.

This application was just phase 1 of BLT’s North 7 Master Plan, which included a 12-story, 266-unit building with retail and a town square amenity located across the street from the newly completed Merritt 7 train station.

Earlier this month, Gov. Ned Lamont and other leaders visited the station to admire the new pedestrian bridge that connects Glover Avenue and train commuters to the Merritt 7 office park and Main Avenue. During the tour, Lamont said this new station is the blueprint for transit-oriented development.

Waters said BLT has always supported the mission to get power lines underground but said it should have been done by Connecticut’s Department of Transportation during the train station project.

“This is a bit of a sore point for us because we have been arguing about this and arguing for this for over five years,” he said. “We completely agree that they should have been placed underground. They should have been placed underground years ago.”

While the power lines were not put underground, they were moved to the other side of the street by DOT, which Waters said BLT was not pleased about.

“To add insult to injury, when DOT and Eversource did the station improvements, they moved the overhead lines from the east side, from the train station side of the street, over to our side of the street,” Waters said. “So now they have impacted us even more.”

While BLT is not willing to pay for the work to put the power lines underground, Waters said they would provide the easements, “but we are just unable or willing to undertake that ourselves.”

Renovation of XL Center in Hartford will be scaled back after bids come in some $33M over budget

Liese Klein

HARTFORD — When the 49 bids for renovating Hartford’s XL Center came in earlier this year, the arena’s managers knew they had a problem — they were going to need to scale back the project or find a lot more money.

Many of the bids came back in the $140 million range on a project budgeted at $107 million, Capital Region Development Authority officials told the agency’s board on Thursday.  

Higher costs for labor and materials likely pushed the bids up above the original budget, according to Michael Freimuth, executive director of the CRDA. 

“A lot of jobs are coming in high,” Freimuth said.

The first batch of bids will be shelved due to the high costs. The XL Center construction manager, design team, and CRDA construction experts will work together to reconfigure the renovation plan to cut costs, Freimuth said. 

The redesigned project plan is scheduled to be completed by mid-April and go out for a new round of bids in May. 

Some planned changes to modernize the XL Center will likely be scaled back, Freimuth said. 

“What we leave on the table, I'm not yet certain,” Freimuth said. "There are some priorities we'll have to leave behind us.”

By redesigning the project and getting more state and private funds, the total budget could be bumped up to $125 million, Freimuth said. 

The arena's operator, Oak View Group, has agreed to contribute more toward the project, which includes rearranging the arena’s floor, revamping the loading dock, and rebuilding the lower bowl.

With increased private support, state lawmakers are open to bolstering their commitment of public funds, said CRDA board member Andy Bessette.

“I think there is real support in the legislature,” Bessette said. “Everybody understands how important it is to downtown, to Hartford.”

A total revamp has been presented as vital to the survival of the 49-year-old Hartford arena in an increasingly competitive marketplace for hosting concerts, games, and other events. 

Not to mention future hopes like luring a National Hockey League team to Hartford like the Arizona Coyotes, which may be ready to relocate this year if a land auction scheduled for June fails.

Freimuth warned the CRDA board that letting the XL Center deteriorate would deal a devastating blow to plans to gradually transform downtown Hartford into a residential and entertainment center. 

“There is the danger, the very real danger of slow, steady reduction in events and revenues,” Freimuth said. “So I think we should push the envelope one more time and see what we can do. My suggestion to the team is to put it back on the street.” 

Aquarion is for sale, but who will buy it? Here's a look at what's next

Luther Turmelle

As Eversource Energy continues to explore the sale of its Aquarion Water subsidiary, it's unclear exactly how many companies may be interested in buying it. The purchase, however, will have a ripple effect across Connecticut with more than 236,000 customers in 72 municipalities across three states.

Financial analysts have said the California-based corporate parent of Connecticut Water Co. is one of the likely suitors for the Bridgeport-based utility.

SJW Group acquired the Clinton-based water utility in 2019 and analysts in interviews said SJW's existing presence in the state make it a logical acquirer of Aquarion.

"SJW was the first name that came to mind when we heard this," said Charlie Suse, a senior analyst with Boston-based Bluefield Research.

Richie Rathsack, a spokesman for Connecticut Water, said neither company officials nor anyone with the company's corporate parent would have any comment on whether they had any interest in making a bid for Aquarion. Connecticut Water has more than 107,000 customers in 60 Connecticut towns.

Since announcing the intention to explore the sale of Aquarion in mid-February, Eversource officials have repeatedly declined further comment on a timetable for determining a buyer for the Bridgeport-based water company. Eversource acquired Aquarion for $1.675 billion in 2017.

The bulk of Aquarion's customers are here in Connecticut. where it provides water in 59 communities, although it also serves some customers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Eversource announced its plans to find a buyer for Aquarion almost 11 months after the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority rejected 
the water company's rate hike request and instead approved a decrease of its current revenue requirements by approximately 0.99 percent. Aquarion subsequently appealed the decision and the case is still tied up in the courts.

When Eversource announced plans to seek a buyer for Aquarion, company officials said "the water business is likely of substantial value to another owner as part of a larger strategic water business or infrastructure platform."

In a research report provided to customers in late February, Bluefield described Aquarion being put up for sale as "a unique buying 
opportunity from which to grow."

"Since 2015, Bluefield has identified only four transactions serving more than 100,000 customers," the report said in part. "Considering the 
amount that Eversource paid in 2017, the sale would be one of the largest water deals in the last decade. While Aquarion’s list of suitors is likely to be long, history indicates that some well-heeled PE (private equity) firms and pension funds are already poised to pounce."

As an example, the Bluefield report notes that in 2018, Dutch pension fund service provider PGGM acquired a 20 percent stake in 15 regulated utilities in New England.

Suse said if SJW doesn't make a bid for Aquarion, another potential acquirer might be Liberty Utilities, a subsidiary of the Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. in Canada. Liberty acquired American Water Company's New York American Water Co. at the start of 2022 and Suse said Liberty officials "have said they are doubling down" on acquisitions going forward.

Officials with Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. did not respond to requests for comment from CT Insider.

Travis Miller, an energy and utilities strategist for Morningstar Securities Research, said other potential acquirers of Aquarion are New Jersey-based American Water Works or Essential Utilities, the Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based corporate parent of Aqua America and Peoples Natural Gas.

But neither American Water Works nor Essential Utilities has a presence in New England.

Officials with American Water Works were not available for comment on whether the company has any interest in acquiring Aquarion. A spokesman with Essential Utilities said Thursday the company does not comment on potential merger and acquisition targets.

John Griffith, American Water Works chief financial officer, told investors in December that the company's "outlook for future acquisitions remains very strong."

"The work to build and refill the acquisition pipeline is continuous," Griffith said.

Another possibility is that Aquarion could be acquired by a private equity firm or a company that does infrastructure investment, according to Miller. 

"We've seen several deals done by infrastructure investors that are seeking long-term reliable returns on their investments," he said.

One other scenario of Aquarion Water being acquired could involve the state of Connecticut.

There is precedent in the state's history for the creation of a quasi-public utility. That's what happened in 1977 when the Connecticut legislature created the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, which three years later acquired the assets of the for-profit New Haven Water Co., which had fallen into financial difficulties.

The Regional Water Authority, which is based in New Haven,  now serves 15 communities and has 117,000 customers.

Could history repeat itself?  Suse said while it is not unheard of for government entities to acquire investor owned water utilities, it usually involves companies that are underperforming, which is not the case with Aquarion.

State Senator Norman Needleman, D-Essex, who is co-chairman of the General Assembly's Energy and Technology Committee, said he is not aware of any interest in creating a quasi-public authority to acquire Aquarion. 

"While I'm anxious to see the details of any deal for Aquarion, I think the price (for a quasi-public authority to acquire it) would be a real problem," Needleman said.