What does 'capping' I-84 even mean? Greater Hartford residents get answers on DOT's plans 

Emily DiSalvo

HARTFORD — In a futuristic vision of the capital city, cars travel on Interstate 84 inside a tunnel at ground level alongside the Hartford Line rail. Above, there are multi-modal boulevards with bike lanes, buses, and sidewalks.

In the vision, the cars and overpasses and exit ramps that currently consume Hartford's urban fabric are concealed, and the massive interchange linking I-84 and I-91 is relocated away from downtown. 

Understandably, Hartford residents, used to the highway's presence in the city, have a lot of questions for the Department of Transportation engineers who drafted the Greater Hartford Mobility Study, a plan that outlines a future just like that. At an information session hosted by DOT at Hartford's Chrysalis Center Thursday, residents had a chance to meet with engineers and consultants involved with the study and have their questions answered.

"I hope that they can stay engaged," said Kevin Burnham, a DOT engineer who worked on the plan. "I know it's hard when it feels like things are happening that are going to take another generation."

In addition to the public information sessions like the one Thursday, residents have been involved in the process of drafting the study since the beginning, according to DOT officials. Janice Flemming, CEO of Voices of Women of Color, a social justice firm in Hartford, said her organization has been involved in the design process thanks to "house party" meetings centered around transportation.

"When it comes to infrastructure, water, utilities — we're not like at the table, adding our input (normally)," Flemming said. "One of the things I thought the DOT did well is partner with the Voices of Women of Color for the year to begin to survey people on an intimate level."

The Greater Hartford Mobility Study, which has been in the works since 2020, follows decades of planning about what to do with I-84. Leaders have proposed tunnels, closing exit ramps and other fixes as part of the Hartford 400 plan. The mobility study proposes four major projects, Burnham explained. 

CityLink West includes the proposal to lower I-84 and cap the road to allow for development on top. "Capping" I-84 would mean certain sections that run through the city are covered so drivers will be traveling through a tunnel. While the cap is sturdy and can be developed on top of, not every type of development would be feasible, Burnham explined. 

"It might be some open space, it might be some smaller scale," Burnham said. "It's going to depend what the market would bear, what other things other policymakers feel is the right thing to do."

As for the Hartford Line Rail, it currently bends in order to access Union Station. Under the new plans, it would be realigned with the highway and accessible at a new station.

CityLink East centers around plans to relocate the interstate juncture to the North Meadows neighborhood. The area currently occupied by the interchange can then become a "boulevard."

The River Gateway portion of the plan would reconnect Hartford's "central business district" with the Connecticut River. It would also involve the construction of a new bridge to East Hartford.

"The River Gateway is about lowering 91, putting in an urban boulevard capping, and then having a river crossing between Hartford and East Hartford," Burnham said.

Finally, Founder's Gateway proposes the consolidation of the I-84 and Route 2 interchange ramps in East Hartford. These projects would occur alongside some shorter-term projects like improvements on Pulaski Circle in the South Bushnell area.

Some residents like Matthew Mocarsky said they are excited about the plan. Mocarsky said the most important part is the relocation of the interchange because he believes it will allow for residents to access the river.

"This plan goes from being more than just a mobility study and crosses over into an economic development plan," Mocarsky said. "You know, having access to the riverfront is huge for the Greater Hartford area on both sides of the river, East Hartford as well. Chicago's got it, right? Washington, D.C., has it. San Antonio has it. Why can't we have it?"

Other residents are concerned that moving the highway interchange will mean "making the same mistakes in a different place."

"There's very few like precedents around the country for highway relocation, for actually solving the issues that it sets out to do," said Phil Shattuck, a Hartford resident. "Those sorts of things, like the more answers they can give, I think the more comfortable I would be."

Flemming said in meetings with Voices of Women of Color, residents expressed concerns about losing parking to new bike lane projects. Additionally, Ivelisse Correa-Ojeda, vice president of advocacy group BLM 860, said she is concerned that highway construction and relocation could cause certain developments to be demolished.

"I'm curious to see the reconnections that will be made between the North End and the South End of Hartford," Correa-Ojeda said. "I just have concerns with the expansion next to Clay Arsenal and the residential neighborhoods that will be disturbed."

The projects are big and expensive, so Burnham said the timelines are hazy. Design phases for the highway portions alone could take until the 2030s.

"Obviously, this is a big project that will take a number of years to first go to environmental, design, and then construction," Burnham said. "So we're talking about 2030s to get a lot of these things going. A lot of this is hard to say because it all depends on funding."

But some residents say that they have no plans of leaving Hartford and will be here on the other side of it.

"We're gonna get it done," Mocarsky said. "I'll be here every step of the way. I'll help cut the ribbon."

Developer of Testo's site in Bridgeport sues to get permits back

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — The battle over constructing a 177-unit, four-story apartment building at the former Testo's restaurant has officially moved to the courts.

As he promised in late October, Stephen Bellis, the attorney for the developer, has filed a lawsuit seeking to ultimately uphold the initial approval for the project and reverse decisions by Zoning Director Paul Boucher and the zoning appeals board to rescind that previously issued approval for the proposed housing complex at Madison and Westfield avenues.

The original zoning permit was sought nearly two years ago by Bridgeport-based contractor John Guedes, and prior restaurant owners Mario Testa, also the city's veteran Democratic Party chairman, and Testa's nephew, Ralph Giacobbe, with representation by the local Russo & Rizio law firm. That zoning compliance application was submitted in December 2021 before new, more restrictive citywide land-use regulations took effect the following January that would limit the proposed four-story building's height to three and also require ground floor commercial tenants.

The permit was formally approved by Boucher last October. The sale to Bellis' client, Amit Lakhotia, and subsequent closure of Testo's were then announced last November although that $3.5 million deal did not close until this past April. It also included a handful of neighboring vacant residential properties owned by Testa and Giacobbe.

There was some public outcry in May after residents learned the zoning authorization for the 177-unit complex had been approved by Boucher without a public hearing before the zoning commission. A few days later Mayor Joseph Ganim in an unusual move got involved and ordered the municipal legal department to review the approval process. Toward that end, the city engaged the private law firm of Berchem Moses. 

On July 26 that effort resulted in the issuance of a legal opinion that recommended Boucher rescind the permit due to alleged flaws in the approval process attributed to himself and the applicants. Boucher immediately did so.

But by that point, not only had the zoning authorization been in place for several months, the building department had also issued one for a foundation in mid-May and demolition permits July 17. The loss of the zoning approval resulted in the foundation permit also being revoked. The demolition of Testo's and the vacant homes went ahead.

Then in mid-August Bellis filed an application with the ZBA asking that body, appointed by the mayor and City Council, to overrule Boucher. That resulted in two nights of hearings in late October during which Bellis, Guedes, Lakhotia and Stephen Studer, a senior partner with Berchem Moses, made their respective cases on restorating the zoning approval and several North End residents, activists and elected officials opposed it.

Ultimately three of the five appeals board members sided with Bellis and Lakhotia, but they needed four votes, so Boucher's decision was upheld. Bellis immediately pledged to take the next step and head to court.

In his lawsuit Bellis reiterates the points he made before the ZBA last month  —  that the original zoning application was not incomplete and did not misrepresent facts as alleged by the city. He added revisions to the apartments plan, which the Ganim administration also used as a basis for Boucher's revocation, "are not true or sufficient" to support such an action.

Bellis further argues that Lakhotia received two zoning approval letters from Boucher prior to purchasing the Testo's property "and lacked any knowledge of the application being 'incomplete' or 'misrepresentations of facts.'" As a result, Bellis said his client "paid $3,550,642 for the property or approximately $21,000 per unit in reliance upon an approval of 177 units (and) obtained a $14 million loan for construction based upon 177 units being approved."

Lakhotia had told the ZBA, "If the project doesn't happen the bank will come after me, my personal assets."

Bellis in the court filing further argues that Lakhotia has "vested rights" in the previously issued zoning and building permits, meaning Boucher cannot revoke them by making a different interpretation after issuance or "for political reasons." 

"(Boucher) never claimed material fraud or violation of ordinance or statute," Bellis adds.

And while critics of the apartment complex complained it required and never received a public hearing before the zoning commission, another of Bellis' arguments is that Boucher's decision to take back the approval should have similarly been heard by that same body.

In a brief statement for his report, Russell Liskov, a municipal attorney who advises the ZBA, said he believed the board's actions were appropriate.

"Now it will be up to a court to determine whether it was appropriate or not," he said.

A $1 billion bridge. The $300 million pier. Why are project construction costs in CT so high?

John Moritz

At nearly $1 billion apiece, the cost of replacing a pair of century-old rail bridges in Connecticut makes them among the most expensive transportation projects in the federal government’s pipeline. 

Both projects — Norwalk’s Walk Bridge Replacement and the construction of a new bridge to carry trains across the Connecticut River — were included in a massive, $16.4 billion funding package announced by President Joe Biden this week with the goal of improving rail service along the nation’s aging Northeast Rail Corridor. 

Connecticut is slated to receive roughly $2 billion from the announcement, including hundreds of millions of dollars for other projects such as laying double-tracks along the Hartford Line and replacing power equipment along the New Haven Line. Additional funding for those projects is being contributed by the state and other federal agencies.

While celebrated by Connecticut’s state and national leaders, these projects have raised some eyebrows along with the question: why do they cost much?

The issue of rising costs has not been limited to rail projects, or even to Connecticut nor the northeast in particular. Study after study have shown that the rising costs of building infrastructure in America has outpaced inflation, and is more expensive than comparable projects in Europe and Asia.

One researcher who has studied the topic, Yale Law School’s Zachary Liscow, said there are a variety of short-term and long-term factors that have contributed to the growth in infrastructure spending, including the cost of materials and labor, as well as public demand for pricey highways. 

The biggest shift in costs, however, coincided with a rise in what Liscow and a co-author dubbed the “citizen voice,” in a 2019 paper. Essentially, their theory goes, as citizen advocates became more successful at holding up projects over environmental or neighborhood concerns, the cost of completing those projects exploded. 

“There have been many good impacts of this, in the 1960s the U.S. bulldozed neighborhoods, they were often low-income neighborhoods, in ways that were very destructive,” Liscow told CT Insider. “Now we have a different regime with its own costs.”

That effect was more pronounced in high-income areas following the passage of 1970’s National Environmental Policy Act, which required the completion of environmental impact statements on federally-funded projects. Connecticut saw the largest cost-per-mile growth in highway spending in the two decades following the passage of that law, according to Liscow’s research. 

Another — and potentially related — factor that experts blame for the rising cost of infrastructure is the length of time it takes to complete projects. 

In the 1950s, for example, the cost of constructing all 111 miles of the Connecticut Turnpike (which today carries Interstate-95) was $464 million, and took about three years to finish. By the early 2000s, when the state sought to overhaul a single, 7.2-mile stretch of that highway around New Haven’s harbor, the cost grew to more than $2 billion, while work lasted 18 years. 

“The No. 1 thing that increases the cost of projects really is time,” said U.S. Dept. of Transportation Assistant Secretary Carlos Monje. 

In some cases, the eye-popping costs of projects can also be attributed to the technical complexity it takes to pull them off.

In Norwalk, for example, engineers had to figure out a way to replace the 127-year-old Walk Bridge without causing major disruption to the 175 Metro-North and Amtrak trains that travel over the bridge every day. Doing that will require taking apart the bridge in pieces before putting it back together with a new, vertical lift design. 

Officials similarly blamed technical difficulties for the ballooning cost to overhaul of the State Pier in New London, which is projected to surpass $300 million. 

The project, which involves the construction of a heavy-lift platform capable of transporting components for offshore wind turbines, has been beset with problems surrounding the massive pilings being driven into the banks of the Thames River. (Others have pointed to allegations of self-dealing by the project’s construction manager, Kiewit Corporation, as an explanation for the cost overruns). 

One project along the border between Stratford and Milford, meanwhile, has the potential to become the most expensive in state history.

The replacement of the quarter-mile-long Devon Railroad Bridge — which, like its counterpart in Norwalk serves as a vital link along the Northeast Corridor — is expected to surpass $2.2 billion once all funding has been approved, according to a letter of intent from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Other commonly-hypothesized reasons for inflated infrastructure costs include the use of unionized workers or differences in geography between projects, though Liscow said there is less evidence to support these claims. 

Major project proposed for former movie theater site in Pawcatuck

Joe Wojtas

Stonington ― READCO of Old Lyme is proposing to turn the former Hoyt’s/Regal Cinema on Route 2 into a recreational center for pickleball as well as constructing four buildings with 124 apartments and 10,000 feet of commercial space on the remainder of the site.

The Old Lyme-based firm is slated to present its design plan to the Architectural Design Review Board on Monday at 6 p.m. at Pawcatuck Middle School. The board will only review the design and appearance of the buildings and make a recommendation to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Formal approval of the estimated $25 million project is up to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which will schedule a public hearing in the coming months on READCO’s application for a zone change to Neighborhood Design District as well as approval of a master plan and site plan.

During those hearings, the PZC will consider issues such as traffic, parking, lighting, landscaping and other issues. The land between Route 2 and Voluntown Road is currently zoned as Highway Interchange. The NDD is floating zone that provides the commission with a great deal of discretion about various aspects of the project.

READCO, which has owned the property since 1995, not only built the theater there but a Stop & Shop supermarket, McDonald’s, bank and Stonington Medical Center offices. The movie theater closed in September 2022 when Regal went bankrupt. READCO President Michael Lech said his firm sold its other movie theater locations but held on to the Pawcatuck locations.

Lech, who lives in Stonington, said Friday that the project will be the first multi-family project along the town’s Route 2 corridor, a type of development he said his firm is passionate about. He pointed out that the site is not adjacent to any existing residential development.

Lech said his firm is partnering with the Ocean Community YMCA to transform the former theater into a pickleball court facility to address the demand for the fast-growing sport as well as recreational space.

The 10,000 feet of commercial space would be a combination of retail and office use on the first floor of one of the apartment buildings. He said they would be built along Route 2 to create a traditional streetscape feel.

Lech said that while there is no demand for theaters or big box stores in the region, there is tremendous pent-up demand for multi-family housing.

“We’re trying to help out and do our part to address the biggest crisis in southeastern Connecticut,” he said about the demand for housing, especially with the explosion of hiring at Electric Boat.

“We have a track record in southeastern Connecticut and we want to part of the solution,” he added.

Lech said his firm spent a great deal of time looking at the architecture in the borough to make sure the apartment buildings have a traditional New England seaport feel. The apartments would be a mix of one- and two-bedroom units priced at market rates.

As for traffic entering and leaving the site, Lech said vehicles would be spread out through the day and not produce the surge that is seen when movies are beginning and ending. There is a traffic light at the entrance to the site on Route 2 as well as access to Voluntown Road which also has traffic light at Route 2.

Lech said his firm wants to work with the town and community on the project.

“We want to make sure it’s done perfectly,” he said.

Lech said with the $25 million investment there would also be a tremendous tax benefit for the town.

Lech said the project ties in to READCO’s strategy to invest $154 million in southeastern Connecticut projects over the next two years.

On Monday, the Architectural Design Review Board will also review another proposed housing project on Route 2, this one a 113-unit affordable housing project with three-bedroom townhouses, planned for the former Rosalini’s nightclub property.

486 Apartments Approved for Springside Complex as Middletown Greenlights Additional 72

Brendan Crowley,

MIDDLETOWN — The Planning and Zoning Commission approved another 72 apartments for the massive Springside Middletown complex on Wednesday, bringing the Newfield Street development up to 486 units.

Residents in the area urged the commission to consider the traffic impact on the busy street, while supporters praised the developer for going beyond town requirements to hire minority contractors for the project, saying the work was a boon to Middletown businesses.

Attorney Meghan Hope, representing Newfield Development Partners, said the developer bought the 7.5-acre parcel along the Coginchaug River after the commission approved the other 16 buildings that made up phases one and two of the complex in February.

Phase three, approved by the commission by a 6-1 vote on Wednesday, will add another two, three-story buildings, each with 36 apartments, on the land now used as a tree nursery.

Commissioner Seb Giuliano said the commission knew the addition was coming, and there was no effort to hide it. He said he believes the commission would still have approved the development if it was all presented at once, and it fits one of the city’s top goals of increasing affordable housing.

“Nothing increases affordable housing like increasing the inventory of housing units,” Giuliano said. “That is the most effective, surefire way of stabilizing housing costs.”

Two nearby residents spoke at the public hearing about their concerns the development would make traffic on Newfield Street worse. 

A major road connecting Washington Street to Berlin Road in Cromwell, Newfield Street is packed with businesses ranging from small restaurants to expansive car dealerships. And at two lanes for most of its length, traffic gets heavy.

Traffic spills onto neighboring roads like Mile Lane, resident David Winkel said, with people speeding dangerously on the residential street. Adding nearly 500 apartments will only add to the problems, he said, though the developer’s traffic engineer Mark Fortucci said it would increase traffic on Newfield Street by just 1 percent.

Commissioner Marcus Fazzino urged the developer to ask the state for a traffic light at the entrance to alleviate potential problems. Giuliano acknowledged that Newfield Street is busy but, as it’s a state road, the most they can do is ask for a traffic light — the state can’t be forced to install one.

“There are a lot of things out on Newfield Street. I don’t think we can hold this one project responsible for what’s going on there,” Giuliano said.

Middletown resident Anita Ford Saunders said she understands concerns with traffic on Newfield Street, but overall believed the Springside development will have a positive impact on Middletown.

She was one of several speakers at the hearing who praised the developer for their efforts to include minority contractors in the work, exceeding the goals set out as a condition of a 10-year tax fixing agreement the Common Council approved for the development.

Saunders said phase one of the project will bring $2.8 million to minority contractors, and phase two is expected to bring at least that much to them. Phase three means even more work, and it sets a precedent for how developers can work with Middletown, she said.

“Middletown is known for our riverfront, and now Middletown is known for welcoming a private developer and its groundbreaking set-aside policy [for minority contractors] that builds structures and our economy, small business by small business,” Saunders said.

Commissioner Shanay Fulton said she loved that the project gives opportunities to minority contractors and develops the workforce in Middletown, as well as supports the city’s housing needs.

Commissioner Catherine Johnson, the lone vote against the addition, said she was in favor of the apartments but that the open space set aside in phase three was just a detention basin and shouldn’t be considered usable open space required in the town’s regulations.

“It’s very important to give people a place to be, not the skinny leftover [property] colored in to meet a requirement,” Johnson said. “I support the effort — I know 72 units can fit on this site —  but this site plan does not meet our requirements.”

Construction Underway for Madison Affordable Housing Project

Tim Leininger

MADISON — Construction crews have broken ground on the next phase of a new affordable housing development in town, called Wellington at Madison. 

The buildings at 135-137 Cottage Road will consist of 27 units, 24 of which are designated for people who qualify for affordable housing. The 2.6-acre site already has four market-rate units on the property, bringing the total number of apartments to 31. 

The four units, located at the east end of the property, were built while the project was being supervised by a different developer, said Marianne McDermott, director of fundraising and communications for The Caleb Group, a nonprofit that has created affordable housing communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The project, she said, is in collaboration with HOPE Partnership, Inc., an Essex-based nonprofit that develops affordable housing.

“As an entity, they folded,” McDermott said of the previous developer. “That’s when The Caleb Group was called in to do this. We had to kind of start all over again.”

The Caleb Group took over the project in January 2020. 

HOPE Partnership Executive Director Karla Lindquist told CT Examiner that there will be seven one-bedroom units available for households making up to 25 percent of the area median income, six one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom units for households making up to 50 percent, and four two-bedrooms for households making up to 60 percent.

The remaining units are designated as market-rate homes.

Part of the Wellington at Madison project involves remodeling the Henry Josiah Miegs House at 131 Cottage Road, erected in 1808. The exterior of the building was preserved, as well as the fireplaces and some of the original interior wood details.

Four units will be constructed within the house, McDermott said, with at least three of them expected to be affordable housing units.

“We’re excited to preserve the Miegs house and integrate it into this community,” she said.  “… Every community in the United States needs affordable housing,” she said.

McDermott described Madison as a “high opportunity community” for affordable housing projects.

“The community was supportive of this and was supportive and welcoming and wanted to do this project,” she said. “Towns like that, it costs a lot to live in those communities. There are a lot of different scenarios. People do need affordable housing. It allows for people like older people or young families or working class families. Everyone would benefit from living in a community like Madison.”

The community will hopefully be finished in about a year’s time, she added.

For people looking to apply for the housing units, registration dates have not yet been determined. 

“We try not to start a list a year in advance,” she said. “Sometimes it offers false promises. When we have a strong sense of when the property will be completed, we’ll start on applications. The property manager will be beginning a list. People express interest before the project is even completed.”

Depending on the amount of applicants, McDermott said, there may be a lottery. Once applications open, they will be available on the HOPE Partnership website and managed by Demarco Management Corporation. 

“With the amount of interest I have been receiving over the past year and a quarter, we’re definitely not concerned we’ll need to advertise it,”  Lindquist said.

First Selectman Peggy Lyons said Thursday that she was excited to see more affordable housing being built, adding that the town is working toward the 10 percent affordable housing goal set by the state.

“Most communities have struggled with that. In some ways it’s an unrealistic goal. It’s a challenge,” she said. 

One challenge, she explained, is that it’s more cost effective to build dense housing. But there’s a lack of infrastructure in town to accommodate larger communities with affordable housing, she said, plus residents don’t want larger units. 

“What’s nice about this is it’s sort of a sweet spot,” she said. “It’s able to operate with a septic system and it’s creating housing options for people.”

Though the project offers more options for Madison residents, Lyons noted there can’t be preferential treatment for locals in the application process.

“I think it’s going to be a great addition to our town,” she said. “We’re excited to see it launched.”

Hartford’s Bushnell theater worries parking lost to redevelopment could spell trouble

Michael Puffer

Concerns over the loss of parking to redevelopment south of Hartford’s Bushnell Park could trigger a rare conflict between the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and Capital Region Development Authority.

The two natural allies have slightly divergent interests in the three properties that make up a 2.2-acre parking lot bounded by Capitol Avenue and Buckingham, Hudson and West streets.

CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth, on Thursday, told the agency’s Regional & Economic Development Committee that Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners is seeking a CRDA loan to buy the lot from The Simon Konover Co.

Spinnaker’s 2020 purchase of a former state office building at 55 Elm St. from Konover came with an option to buy the parking lot one block to the south, Freimuth said. That option has been triggered, Freimuth said, and Spinnaker is facing a January deadline to make the purchase or let it expire.

Spinnaker is currently engaged in remodeling a former state office complex at 55 Elm St., into 164 apartments, a project backed by low-interest gap financing from CRDA. According to Freimuth, the Norwalk real estate firm is likely to pursue a mix of commercial and residential development on the parking lots to the south, probably with CRDA backing once more.

CRDA board member Robert E. Patricelli is also a member of the Bushnell’s Board of Trustees. On Thursday, he told the CRDA subcommittee that the Bushnell board voted to make an offer on the 2.2-acre site. The theater’s leadership, worried about lost parking for patrons, wants to ensure parking is part of any future development on the site, Patricelli said.

“We feel a solution to the Bushnell’s longer-term parking needs has to be part of the CRDA’s objectives and consideration,” Patricelli said. “Without that, frankly, the principal economic driver of the neighborhood, the Bushnell itself, would not survive.”

Freimuth responded the property isn’t the CRDA’s to sell nor the Bushnell’s to buy. At least for now. Spinnaker has an option to buy it from Konover. 

The Bushnell could approach either entity or both to seek accommodations, Freimuth said. By loaning Spinnaker money for the purchase, the CRDA would have some leverage over the site’s future.

“The one thing we can all agree on is we don’t want a long-term parking lot there, and there has to be something bigger than surface parking,” Freimuth said. “And that’s got to be part of any agreement and any deal and any structure going forward.”

The property in question is part of a larger 20-acre “Bushnell South” area targeted for redevelopment. The city, CRDA, Bushnell theater and Spinnaker all contributed to a 2021 redevelopment plan produced by Boston-based architecture and planning firm Goody Clancy. 

The plan calls for transformation of a wide swath of parking lots just south of Bushnell Park into a neighborhood of 1,200 households, mixed with parks, commercial space and parking structures.

Reached after Thursday’s meeting, Freimuth said Spinnaker would be seeking a $2 million to $3 million CRDA loan to buy the lot. The CRDA could negotiate conditions requiring development consistent with the Goody Clancy plan, and could include a deadline to begin development work, Freimuth said. 

Importantly, a CRDA loan to Spinnaker could rule out use of the site for a federal courthouse, a prospect Freimuth has voiced opposition to in the past.

The 2.2 acre lot is one of three candidates the federal General Services Administration is considering for a replacement for the aging Abraham A. Ribicoff United States Building and Courthouse at 450 Main St. 

The other contenders are a parking lot at 154 Allyn St., and a 10-acre property in the city’s Asylum Hill neighborhood currently hosting a state office building.

Any loan to Spinnaker would come with a condition ruling the 2.2-acre site in the Bushnell South area out of consideration, Freimuth said. 

Naugatuck officials looks to get brownfield grant for former Lewis Engineering site

ANDREAS YILMA

NAUGATUCK — The borough is working to obtain brownfield grant funds in order to assess some properties including the former Lewis Engineering site.

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses unanimously agreed at its regular meeting Wednesday to adopt a resolution in support of fiscal year 2024 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield Community Wide Assessment Grant and apply for the grant with an amount no greater than $500,000.

Borough officials hope to obtain grant funds for three locations: Parcels Y & Z, which are between the Naugatuck Event Center and the former Uniroyal property near Elm Street, the former Lewis Engineering site at 238 Water St. and the former Hershey Property at 889 New Haven Road.

The USEPA is anticipating the award of 60 community-wide assessment grants in fiscal year 2024 with an estimated $30 million available in funding, according to the resolution.

The request for applications offers a unique chance for the borough to seek the assessment, investigation and site reuse planning relative to several parcels. The grant doesn’t require any matching funds, the resolution states.

Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said the borough is looking to get the grant funding to assess the properties in order to determine from an environmental standpoint what needs to be done to clear the way for development.

“We’ve already started, we’ve completed phase one studies and there is some work that we’re going to have to do there (Parcels Y and Z),” Hess said. “It’s not extensive but we’re looking for some funding to help us with that. We also are now including the former Lewis Engineering site because something is going to have to happen there.”

The former Lewis Engineering Co. building was demolished in late September a few days after a fire ravaged the industrial building, which caused a partial building collapse and prompted borough officials to bring in an excavator. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials were at the scene to collect samples for air monitoring. Workers didn’t find any asbestos or lead.

The two-story, 47,714 square-foot industrial building sits on 1.42 acres and was appraised at roughly $1 million. The building had been vacant for a while.

Hess said the borough has already hired a contractor to make the property safe.

“Under state law, we can go in and get the property safe and lien the property for our costs. So we’ve done that. We’ve hired someone,” Hess said. “We knocked down the walls that are dangerous and the property is now safe and we put a lien on the property for our costs that are in the hundred thousand (dollar) range.”

If someone wanted to buy the property, the person would have to pay off a $250,000 mortgage, pay the borough’s lien and then finally clean up the site before any development could commence.

“The estimated cost to clean site is about $700,000, which means that that property, for someone to buy it, is pretty much a million dollar bill to buy it,” Hess said. “So is it worth that? Is the developer going to buy it? Is something else going to happen? I’ll just say publicly that we are exploring all of our options.”

The site is an interesting property, in an excellent location and is critical to the borough’s downtown development, Hess said..

“We did meet with owner of the property and he is trying to find a developer to come in and develop a project,” he said. “I would be thrilled if that could happen.”