Port authority extends time for salt distributor at State Pier; signs painted pink

Greg Smith New London — The Connecticut Port Authority formalized an agreement with local road salt distributor DRVN Enterprises this week that will keep the company, and its massive pile of salt, at State Pier through the end of the year. The port authority met virtually on Tuesday to approve the agreement that will allow DRVN to remain through Dec. 31 so long as the pile of 90,000 tons of salt is moved closer to the Central Vermont Railroad Pier, or CV Pier, in order to accommodate ongoing site work.  The work is being conducted in anticipation of the start of a $157 million project to upgrade and modernize the pier as it is transformed into an offshore wind hub for joint venture partners Ørsted and Eversource. DRVN, which had been paying a $12,000 per month rent to port operator Gateway, will be staying on site rent-free, which essentially offsets the cost to DRVN for relocating the salt and associated equipment, said David Kooris, interim chairman of the board of the Connecticut Port Authority. “The agreement runs to Dec. 31, at which time it’s imperative the facility be cleared to allow the construction project to advance,” Kooris said. No new salt will be brought in but Kooris said the extra time may allow DRVN to sell some of the salt. The company has been supplying road salt to local municipalities since 2014 and company owner Steve Farrelly has said the discounted prices were achieved through access to the pier. He had not found a new location as of last month. If the salt is not gone by Dec. 31, it will be forfeited and become the property of the Connecticut Port Authority. Farrelly could not be reached for comment for this report. The port authority has enlisted engineering firm AECOM to find potential sites for the relocation of two commercial fishing outfits still working off of CV Pier. Kooris said there is not yet a formal agreement with Montville-based Donna May Fisheries or Waterford-based Out Of Our Shell Enterprises, but the fishermen will be allowed to stay on a month-to-month basis for the time being. Areas for relocation are being explored along the New London shoreline, including Fort Trumbull. Construction at State Pier is expected to last until 2022 and involve activities that include filling in between the two existing piers to create one larger pier. Ørsted/Eversource will lease the new facility for 10 years with options to extend the lease. Pink paint a sign of protest  U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which has received a permit application from the port authority for proposed work at State Pier, is currently soliciting comments from the public and local, state and federal agencies. While the port authority has argued that the pier will be able to accommodate cargo during breaks in the wind activity and after the end of the lease agreement with Ørsted/ Eversource, critics have argued that exclusive use of the port by the wind industry will negatively impact the region since it excludes cargo ships.The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments’ executive committee, for example, recently voted to have its director draft a letter to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to draw attention to what are expected to be negative impacts on freight transport in the region. Port authority critic Kevin Blacker of Noank, who has lobbied for a halt to the entire redevelopment plan, spoke at Tuesday’s port authority meeting and argued that the group has broken the law by not holding public hearings and by taking actions without an executive director. He said the “eviction” of State Pier tenants violates the Coastal Management Act, since it is not accommodating existing water-dependent users at the pier. “Somebody needs to hold the port authority accountable,” Blacker said. “When I break the law and interrupt your meeting, I am arrested. I expect to be arrested for painting your signs pink, as I should be. The same level of accountability should be applied to the port authority for breaking the law.” In February, Blacker was led away in handcuffs during a Port Authority vote on the $157 million plan of redevelopment. Several directional signs on State Pier Road, leading to State Pier, were painted pink over the weekend. Blacker, on Wednesday, said he painted three signs. As for his choice of color, he said he wanted to ensure the public noticed the similarities between what is happening at State Pier and what happened at Fort Trumbull “and to draw attention to something that is not right.” Former New London resident Susette Kelo, who owned a pink cottage on the Fort Trumbull peninsula, was one of a handful of holdouts who fought the city’s attempt to take private land by eminent domain. It led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. City of New London, in which the city ultimately prevailed but was later vilified by the public. Kooris on Tuesday said the port authority would be contacting local authorities to report the vandalism.

Mayor says plan to add luxury apartments at the CT Post Mall is 'a terrible idea'

Luther Turmelle MILFORD — For decades, the Connecticut Post Mall has been a destination for residents in the New Haven area and lower Naugatuck Valley to shop, be entertained and dine. Now, the mall’s owner, Dallas-based Centennial, is willing to spend $60 million to 70 million to add another reason to that destinaton list: A place to live. But even before the proposed mixed-use project gets its first hearing before city planners, Mayor Ben Blake said he is opposed to the plan and that it “would be a terrible idea” if approved. Centennial, which operates and develops retail and mixed-use centers across the country, has notified city officials that it wants to build up to 300 luxury rental units on the southeast corner of the property, near Old Gate Lane. Jon Meshel, senior vice president of development of Centennial Real Estate, said if the company were to get all the necessary approvals it needs from city officials, the luxury rental complex would be build on a six- to eight-acre site where the mall’s Sears Auto Center used to be located.The proposal calls for 135 one-bedroom units, 135 two-bedroom units and 30 three-bedroom units. Company officials would not comment on what amount of rent they plan to charge. Meshel said the apartment complex will include an on-site exercise facility and an outdoor swimming pool among its many amenities. Steve Levin, who founded Centennial and is the company’s chief executive officer, said the entire project would be done with private capital and they wouldn’t be seeking any incentives from the city or state.  “We certainly hope this is something the city and the community will support,” Levin said. “We’re trying to create a dynamic, exciting destination here and we need Milford to support us.” He said the project would create hundreds of new jobs and, once completed, would generate an additional $1.25 million in real and personal property tax revenues annually.But Blake said approval of Centennial’s apartment complex plan “would open Pandora’s box in terms of shifting the balance between our residential and commercial development.” “One of the reasons Milford has been so wildly successful as a community is that it has been able to strike that delicate balance,” he said. Blake said city economic development officials have approached Centennial officials with alternative uses that still would allow the company to reinvent the mall.“One of the things we’re seeing with COVID-19 is that a lot of major companies are looking to create satellite offices,” Blake said. “Another possibility we’ve presented to them is office space for the high-tech and biotechnology companies that are growing out of our area colleges and universities. We’ve even presented them with some leads in that regard.” Getting the necessary approvals is a two-step process that will begin in September, Meshel said. If city officials approve the project, he said construction of the residential complex is unlikely to start until sometime in 2022 and take 18 months to complete.The residential complex is just the first phase of what would be a long-term remake of mall over many years. The next phase would include how one of the mall’s now-vacant anchors, Sears, could be redeveloped, Meshel said. “We’re still trying to determine what we want to do there,” he said. But whatever Centennial officials determine is the best use for the space, Meshel said the company “will easily spend north of $10 million” redeveloping it. The three-story mall is among the state’s largest, with 1.33 million square feet of retail floor area. It originally was built as a $30 million open-air shopping center in 1960 by New York-based developer Sol Atlas. As the mall’s makeover continues, it may make some sort of return to its open-air roots. Levin said Centennial is about to break ground on three similar projects that ultimately will convert enclosed malls into open-air retail centers with a mixed-use component. One of those projects is at the company’s MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana, Calif. The other two are in the suburbs north and south of Chicago, at the Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills, Ill., and the other at the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora. Centennial’s plan for Milford comes at a time many people see traditional brick-and-mortar retail as being on life support. For the past two decades, online retailing has been gaining increasing momentum, seemingly at the expense of brick-and-mortar stores. Centennial officials said the Connecticut Post Mall has experienced a 20 percent drop in visitors since they bought it from what then was known as Westfield Properties. The mall’s taxable assessed value has dropped, as well, from $176 million in 2010 to $149 million last year, officials said. COVID-19 has made retailing that much more difficult: analysts are forecasting that more than 100,000 shopping locations could close by 2025.  “It’s a critical time for the entire retail industry,” Meshel said. Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said Centennial’s project has some things going for it, but still is inherently risky given current economic turbulence. “The economy is remaking itself right before our very eyes and Connecticut is a state that is over-retailed,” Klepper-Smith said. “There is a demand for flexible housing arrangements and this would create a built-in foot traffic generator for the mall that doesn’t exist now. Hopefully they have done plenty of studies about whether there is a need for this, because there are profound demographic shifts going on right now.” Burt Flickinger, managing director of New York City-based Strategic Resource Group, an industry consulting firm, said that in projects similar to the one Centennial is proposing, renters living in mixed-use complexes only account for 12 to 15 percent of the retail sales at the adjacent stores. The remaining revenue comes from people living outside of the mixed-use complex, Flickinger said. “But it creates a lot of reaffirming activity that attracts a lot of attractive new retailers to sign on with the mall and keeps existing (retail) tenants from leaving,” he said. Mall operators are taking two different approaches in terms of trying to reinvent their properties, said David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac University’s School of Business. “With some, it’s doubling down on offering an experience at a mall that you can’t get anywhere else,” Cadden said. “But others are looking for alternative uses for their properties and this would create a captive audience for the mall’s retailers. There’s a potential synergistic benefit in that mall tenants could offer free delivery to the people living in the apartments.”

Mark Ojakian is retiring as CSCU president

Mark Pazniokas Mark E. Ojakian, the influential behind-the-scenes operative at the State Capitol who became the high-profile president of the troubled Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system in 2015, persisting in a job that defeated two academics, is retiring at year’s end. He brought a significant measure of stability to a system in constant tumult since its birth in 2011, the product of a merger of 12 community colleges and four regional state universities forced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy over the objections of faculty and lawmakers. Only the University of Connecticut remained outside the system. Ojakian, who turns 66 in October, is leaving with significant work remaining on a second round of consolidations that he initiated in 2017: Keeping all 12 community college campuses, but merging them into one accredited institution. But he said in an interview that momentum is clearly on the side of the consolidation, with support from Malloy’s successor, Gov. Ned Lamont, and the system’s governing panel, the Board of Regents for Higher Education. “The merger will continue to move forward,” Ojakian said. “Will there be people who say, ‘Now is our time to get it stopped, because Ojakian isn’t there?’ I’m sure there will be. We have full support of the governor.” His announced his retirement plans Wednesday. Lamont, who had taught part-time at Central Connecticut State University before his election in 2018, immediately issued a statement praising Ojakian — and the direction he set for the system. “Over the past five years, Mark brought stability to a system that was in turmoil,” Lamont said. “He recognized that public higher education represents not just opportunity for individuals to expand their knowledge and improve their lives, but a critical component of the state’s long-term workforce development strategy. He refocused the CSCU system to put the needs of students at the forefront, and our public colleges and universities are in a much better position because of his leadership.” The long path to accreditation reached a milestone in June when the New England Commission of Higher Education reviewed updates from CSCU about the merger and voted to take no further action on concerns raised through a public comment period.“We satisfied all the concerns, so there was no more action to be taken on those,” Ojakian said. With an interim president in place overseeing the merged community colleges, the system is beginning to function as a single college, though the full consolidation and accreditation is not expected before 2023. Faculty unions have remained opposed, both to consolidation and the choice of Ojakian, a non-academic, to lead a system facing fiscal and demographic challenges. Ojakian said they never saw him as a peer. But the opposition went far deeper: He once was hanged in effigy, a new experience for a man known at the Capitol for his ability to keep lines of communication open.“There have been factions in the system who have been opposed to me since day one. Let’s just be candid about that,” Ojakian said, adding the system seldom has rallied behind any of its leaders. “From the day I came in, I think people viewed me as a political person, with no academic experience.” Ojakian said the Board of Regents plans a national search for his successor, leaving open the question of whether it will seek an academic or someone from the world of government and politics. Matt Fleury, the board chair, said regents will consider the search parameters in September. Public systems of higher education have a track record of favoring executives with political skills. The University of Massachusetts is led by Martin Meehan, a former congressman, and the University of Maine system is led by Ojakian’s former boss, Dan Malloy. Purdue, a land-grant university in Indiana, is led by the state’s former governor, Mitch Daniels. The president of Florida State is John E. Thrasher, the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. The ranks of other non-traditional college presidents include former cabinet officers, a retired admiral and business executives.

Canaan PZC OKs construction of new medical facility

RUTH EPSTEIN  CANAAN — Community Health and Wellness Center received a favorable diagnosis from the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday when it approved an application to construct a medical facility at 628 East Main St. The meeting, which was scheduled to be held in the Town Hall parking lot, was moved under the portico of North Canaan Elementary School because of rain. Engineer and land surveyor Ken Hrica, architect Craig Chasse, and Community and Wellness Center CEO Joanne Borduas made presentations during the session. Hrica began by describing the proposed building, which will cover 7,200 square feet on two floors. The structure will replace two currently on the 1.5-acre lot that has town sewer and water service. The building will take up a half acre. A total of 36 parking spots will be provided. They will be divided between those on a paved surface in the front and a gravel area in the rear for the overflow. Gravel was chosen, Hrica said, because that part of the property is in the 100-year flood zone. A barn on the premises also will be removed, and there are detailed plans for a vegetative rain garden, tree plantings and noninvasive lighting. Hrica said the proposal already has approval from the Inland Wetlands Commission, Sewer Commission and Torrington Area Health District. Chasse showed drawings of the 60-foot-by-60-foot rectangular building that will house group and consulting rooms on the first floor, and examining rooms on the second. An elevator will be installed. The exterior will be designed partially with brick masonry to coincide with the nearby firehouse, as well as vinyl and clapboard siding. “I think this will be a good addition to your neighborhood,” Chasse told commissioners Borduas said the facility will be a federally qualified health center offering medical, dental and behavioral health care. There are 17 of them across the state, including those in Winsted and Torrington. The centers have a total of 400,000 patients and employ 6,500. “They are established where there is a lack of services,” Borduas said. “We take everyone to ensure access to medical care. We provide a one-stop service and want to make it convenient.”Medicaid patients are welcome. Mental health care will consist of individual counseling and specialized group therapy. Borduas said Canaan was chosen because of so few doctors practicing in town. The centers in Winsted and Torrington are serving Canaan area residents, she said. “We’re hoping by bringing it local we can help avoid some travel and provide a much-needed service,” she said. As an FQHC, the centers are independent of hospital systems. When asked if the center would have a laboratory, Borduas said it’s been difficult to get one, but they will continue to work on it. She told commission members the center will not be a methadone clinic. “We’re not licensed for that nor do we want to be,” she said.Commission Chairman Steve Allyn said a decision had to be made that evening because the deadline was running out. The application was submitted in June. The vote of approval was unanimous. Borduas said the next steps would involve completing necessary fundraising, finalizing the property sale and bidding out the project. The aim is to use as many local businesses as possible in the development of the center, she said.