NE Edge transfers Waterford data center rights to new company

Danielle Drainville

Waterford — The Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 Wednesday to give proposed data center developer NE Edge LLC permission to assign the host fee agreement it signed with the town in 2023 to a subsidiary company.

Belmont, Mass.-based NE Edge has sought to build a data center consisting of two two-story buildings and a switchyard on 55 acres of the Millstone Power Station property. But so far it's had trouble getting approval to do so.

In order for the project to proceed through town boards and commissions for approval, Dominion Energy Nuclear Connecticut has to petition the Connecticut Siting Council, which oversees power-generating facilities in the state, to host the data center on its property. Dominion's first petition was denied without prejudice by the council last year, meaning it can resubmit the project.

Dominion has not announced any plans to resubmit a plan and no petition is listed on the Siting Council's website.

Attorney William McCoy, who represents NE Edge and will now also represent the subsidiary, NE Edge Waterford LLC, provided an update at the meeting Wednesday saying NE Edge has devoted thousands of hours to moving the project forward and has already completed "a fair amount" of engineering work.

"In all honesty, one of the reasons why it hasn't been presented to the town in a formal application is we have to await the siting council issues in Hartford. We don't have control over that, because that is solely controlled by Dominion, which is the owner of the real estate," McCoy said.

He added that although he did not want to speak for Dominion, "there is a plan in place" to address the siting council issue very quickly.

Susan Adams, a spokesperson for Millstone, said Wednesday there has been continued interest from developers for a data center on the Millstone property, but she had no update on the project.

After McCoy's comment about Dominion, Town Attorney Nick Kepple reminded the board that getting a project update was not the issue at hand.

Rather, what was before the board Wednesday was the assignment of the host fee agreement to a new LLC. Selectman Greg Attanasio voted against the transfer because he wanted assurances that NE Edge would have to limit sound created by the data center. Kepple said the agreement already contains such an assurance.

The host fee agreement opened the door for the town to host NE Edge data center at Millstone and called for NE Edge to pay the town $231 million over 30 years.

The selectmen, Kepple and residents were all curious as to why NE Edge needed approval for the reassignment to the new entity so quickly.

"Why now?" First Selectman Rob Brule asked. "I think that's a fair question for all of us, including me."

McCoy said it's because parties interested in the project have set deadlines for certain things to happen in order for them to sign agreements to move the project forward.

He explained that because NE Edge LLC has other assets and projects, a specific entity was created that holds the host fee agreement with the town. He said NE Edge LLC and NE Edge Waterford LLC have the same ownership.

According to records filed with the Secretary of the State’s Office, NE Edge Waterford, based in East Greenwich, R.I., was created Tuesday, with NE Edge CEO Thomas Quinn as the manager.

Kepple pointed out that the agreement allows NE Edge to assign it to an entity it designates with the permission of the town. McCoy said under the agreement, NE Edge has until March 2026 to obtain building permits or the project.

"So we're operating on an extremely tight timeframe to get all that accomplished in our accordance with our responsibilities under the host fee agreement," he said.

McCoy said he could not describe the particulars of the negotiations over the past several weeks with the unidentified Fortune 500 companies interested in the data center, nor was he at liberty to answer why Dominion has not renewed its petition with the siting council.

He did say there are "ongoing activities" both with Dominion and major contractors who would build the project.

"In a project of this magnitude, there are negotiations and contracts that are entered into to move these projects along that require some sophistication. And unfortunately, they also require nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements," he said.

The project has received continued criticism from a group of residents of this town and East Lyme with concerns such as noise, quality of life and the environment. 

University of New Haven eyes its expansion on Campbell Avenue as 'gateway' to campus

Brian Zahn

WEST HAVEN — As the University of New Haven's enrollment continues to grow, so too have its ambitions and capacity needs.

The school had 7,513 enrolled students in the fall 2021 semester, growing to 9,229 students only three years later.

Within a decade, enrollment at the University of New Haven's Pompea College of Business has roughly tripled from about 700 students to 2,000, according to Dean Brian Kench. Although Kench said the business school's facility in Orange is "gorgeous," it's also a limitation for the program to be located a 15-minute drive from the main campus between Campbell Avenue and the Boston Post Road in West Haven.

“From a sense-of-belonging perspective, it has negative implications for retention,” Kench said.

This month, university officials announced a $10 million gift from alumnus Dennis Martin, chairman of the board of Federal Signal Corporation, to support the estimated $45 million cost to build a new 80,000 square-foot building for the Pompea College of Business on the university's main campus in West Haven.

"I am very passionate about the mission of the University of New Haven and the springboard it provided my career,” Martin said in a statement.

The exact location of the building has yet to be decided, but Kench said it would be near the intersection of Campbell Avenue and Ruden Street.

Although the university has plans for the new building on campus, it's roughly a third of its three-year $150 million fundraising goal for campus construction, renovations and improvements. UNH President Jens Frederiksen said the university is also seeking capital to refurbish its acquisition at the current Railroad Salvage site across the street at 1131 Campbell Ave., into a research and development center for the campus.

The university also announced in a joint press conference with city officials that it would purchase the abandoned and blighted North End Field adjacent to the Railroad Salvage shopping center for $500,000, giving the city a one-time infusion of cash for an economically unproductive city-owned parcel.

Last year, the university quietly bought a former CVS where Campbell Avenue and the Boston Post Road meet, between mixed-use buildings used for student housing and the academic buildings on the main campus. Frederiksen said the university has designs of renovating the building for its Tow Youth Justice Institute, accessible to both the university and broader community.

"Everything has to be student-driven, and the experience students are looking for is a campus where they can have all these experiences and experiential learning and practical hands-on learning in a concentrated fashion,” Frederiksen said.

These projects represent growth of the university's footprint along the Campbell Avenue corridor, which Frederiksen said is intended to reflect the university's openness to the community, countering its reputation as being cloistered. The CVS building, he said, will be used as "the gateway to signal we are very much an outward-facing university and not just hidden behind walls and ivory towers.”

The research center across Campbell Avenue "will characterize the next chapter of this core campus," Frederiksen said, as the university shifts its focus to an approach that is more interdisciplinary. Kench said the on-campus business school would "create this ecosystem on that corner of campus that becomes really powerful."

As the university continues to recruit students interested in programs that have four years of undergraduate and one year of graduate studies, Frederiksen said more university residential construction could be on the horizon.

"It is somewhat contingent upon large philanthropy,” he said.

Tweed New Haven officials review latest plans for new terminal at airport, though public must wait

Mark Zaretsky

NEW HAVEN — Tweed New Haven Regional Airport's governing body got a good look Tuesday at the latest version of plans for the proposed new 81,568-square-foot terminal the airport wants to build on the East Haven side of Tweed, but it took place in a closed-door meeting.

The public will have to wait a little bit longer to check the plans out, an authority officer said.

"I'm told it will be a week or two" before the plans a ready to share, said Tweed Authority Vice Chairman John Picard, who presided over what a staff member said was a 60 percent design review. It took place entirely in an executive session.

"They look really nice," Picard said of the plans.

The meeting, in the conference room in the airport administration/Avports offices in the airport's old terminal, open to the public only at its beginning and end. Presentation of the plans and all discussion took place in the executive session, which lasted about an hour. The authority took no action in open session.

An Avports spokesman, Andrew King, said later that the details have not changed substantially since they were last presented and the plans still call for a four-gate terminal that might be expandable at some point in the future.

The project, the cost for which has been estimated at between $70 million and $100 million, is on about 40 acres that formerly was used for Tweed's now decommissioned cross-wind runway.

Past versions of the plans have called for a minimum of 4,000 parking spaces. Tweed currently has 355 spaces in its three on-site parking lots. It also runs a shuttle from downtown parking facilities during peak travel times. Its on-site lots sometimes fill up during peak travel times.

The federal government approved a $4 million grant toward design costs for the new terminal in November.

Tweed officials said in September — when the City Plan Commission granted a 36-month extension on a 2021 variance to the city's flood prevention ordinance to allow Tweed to continue using temporary trailers — that construction is expected to be completed by the summer of 2027.

The Town of East Haven and the Save the Sound environmental organization both have appealed a Dec. 21, 2024 Federal Aviation Administration finding that proposed airport expansion will have no significant impact on the surrounding area, known as a FONSI.

Both have called for a full environmental impact statement, which would go beyond the environmental assessment that was done as part of the FONSI process.

A group of neighbors in both New Haven's Morris Cove section, East Haven, and Branford's Short Beach section continue to oppose Tweed expansion for both environmental and quality-of-life reasons.

In Greenwich, North Street bridge replacement delayed until 2026, officials say

Andy Blye

GREENWICH — The replacement of a tiny, but critical, bridge on North Street has been delayed until next year, the Department of Public Works announced Friday.

DPW was expecting to demolish the bridge — and trigger traffic jams  — over the summer, but the state hasn't yet given Greenwich the green light to move ahead with the project. 

"In a recent coordination meeting with representatives from the grant program, DPW gained greater clarity on the anticipated construction timeline and next steps,"  the announcement read. "Based on the latest schedule, construction is projected to begin in Spring 2026."

The small bridge, barely long enough for two cars, spans West Brothers Brook in central Greenwich, between Cotswood Road and Macpherson Drive, about a mile south of North Street School.

The bridge was first built in 1909, rebuilt in 1950, and it was found to be in "critical condition" in 2022, which lead to emergency repairs.

Greenwich has secured more than $3 million in grant funding from the state Department of Transportation, but the town has not been cleared to start bidding on the project yet.

"(DPW) recently received confirmation that the Final Design Submission has been approved by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) — a critical milestone in the process," the announcement read. "DPW is now awaiting formal authorization from the state to initiate the bidding phase."

The North Street bridge replacement was originally scheduled to take more than a year, with the bridge remaining open to alternating, one-way traffic. Residents mobilized to challenge the plan, leading officials to shift to a shorter schedule with a full bridge closure.

The town has authorized $3.7 million to replace the North Street bridge, most of which will be reimbursed by the state.

The delay means the bridge replacement work may overlap with another major road project in the vicinity.

The state plans to replace a bridge near Greenwich High School on Route 1 (Putnam Avenue) and officials across town have worried that closing roads and detouring travelers for both projects at the same time would be problematic.

The Route 1 bridge replacement has not been scheduled yet, according to the project website, but the work is expected to take about two years. This bridge spans Greenwich Creek, also known as East Brothers Brook, and inspectors found concrete deterioration and extensive rust in January 2024.

"Recognizing the importance of minimizing community impacts, DPW has emphasized to CTDOT the need to avoid overlapping detours with the upcoming Route 1 at Hillside Bridge project," DPW wrote. "Both agencies are committed to working together to ensure safe, efficient travel and to proactively manage traffic flow throughout the area."