Yale marks construction milestone at $838M neuroscience center in New Haven

Liese Klein

In the not to distant future, those arriving at Yale New Haven Hospital’s emergency room with stroke symptoms will be treated with clot-busting technology mere minutes after being whisked through the halls at Adams Neurosciences Center.

Stroke experts are designing the center — now under construction at the hospital’s Saint Raphael’s campus in New Haven — to allow for a speedy response to strokes, which cause more damage the longer treatment is delayed.  

“We try to educate everybody, saying ‘time is brain,’” said Dr. Murat Gunel, chief of neurosurgery at Yale New Haven Health. “The time that you come after the onset of stroke symptoms to treatment not only determines how well you're going to recover … but also the risk of complications.”

Gunel spoke Wednesday at the “topping off” ceremony for the $838 million Adams Neurosciences Center, marking a construction milestone on a building said to be the largest single health care project of its kind in Connecticut’s history.

A huge steel girder decorated with signatures and topped with a U.S. flag and a Christmas tree was hoisted by crane to the eighth floor of the new center’s steel skeleton as part of a ceremony featuring New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, hospital officials and other guests.

When it opens its doors in 2027, the 184-bed neuroscience hospital will feature an expanded emergency room and two new patient towers housing neurological intensive care units, treatment areas and rehabilitation services. A new parking garage is also planned for across the street.

Cardiac and vascular care will also be bolstered at facilities surrounding the new center, part of the nearly $1 billion Yale New Haven Health has invested in the Saint Raphael’s campus since it purchased the formerly Catholic hospital in 2012.

“It is just remarkable, the transformation that has taken place,” Yale New Haven Health CEO Chris O’Connor said. 

As the largest dedicated neuroscience center in the region, Yale’s new facility will allow for holistic care of patients with strokes and diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, Gunel said. The center is named for Stephen Adams, an entrepreneur with Parkinson’s who died earlier this year.

Hospital rooms are being designed with the needs of caregivers and family members in mind, and the center will also offer new opportunities to bring the innovations of Yale Medical School researchers into patient care. Patients will benefit from breakthroughs in gene therapy, ultrasound and deep brain stimulation, Gunel said.

“Yale is a major center for gene therapies for Parkinson's to other neurodevelopmental disorders, and we are looking to translate all of these to our patients here,” Gunel said. “We will give individualized care for these incredibly challenging problems.”

Solar farm with more than 3K panels proposed for landfill near New London park

John Penney

New London ― The city and a renewable energy developer are proposing to construct a 991-kilowatt solar panel array on a 4.25-acre section of capped landfill surrounded by the sprawling Bates Woods property.

The plan, which will be discussed at a Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing on Thursday, calls for building a series of ground-mounted racking systems holding 3,032 solar panels. The panels would be positioned on a portion of former ash and bulky waste landfill land used for about 30 years before it closed in 1991.

The city will work with North Haven-based Greenskies Clean Energy LLC, a developer and operator of renewable energy projects, to build the system with a gravel access road constructed by city public works crews.

The proposed building site at 0 Chester Street is located within an open-space district, though a site development plan application notes state zoning regulations permit “public utility installations” as an accessory use in such districts.

“The proposed array will directly connect to the public electric grid, providing for a productive re-use of this underutilized city property and a new source of clean and renewable energy,” the project application states.

The arrays will feed into a public grid connection point at the corner of Colman Street and Ashcraft Road.

A memo from the Michelle Johnson Scovish, the city’s planning and zoning official, notes the proposed project, described as a “small scale solar field,” would be constructed in a section of Bates Woods Park that is not “accessible to the general public.”

The Inland Wetlands and Conservation Commission on Oct. 10 approved the installation of several utility poles at the proposed building site to support the work.

“It’s a bad place for a good idea”

On Wednesday morning, several residents, including members of the Bates Friends Forever (BFF) community group, which conducted a summer clean-up of the woods, hiked from the park to the proposed solar array site.

The group gingerly walked up a rocky incline before arriving at a plateau where sprays of browning wildflowers rose from the knee-high yellow grass. There were no signs or warnings that the ground, clearly stomped into a trail, hid landfill materials.

BFF member and New London resident Frida Berrigan, who either walks or runs the trails of Bates Woods several times each week, said the group’s mission is to increase access to Bates Woods and protect the property.

Berrigan said her group has collected more than 250 signatures on a petition opposing the solar plan. She said she supports the kinds of green energy projects overseen by Greenskies – just not one inside the borders of Bates Woods.

“It’s a bad place for a good idea,” she said. “Greenskies have built these kinds of systems on parking lots and school roofs. I know it’s probably more expensive to do it in those places, but the alternative is to lose several acres of land that can’t be replaced.”

The petition acknowledges the site is a home to a capped landfill, but is also “crisscrossed with walking trails... and fully integrated into the natural landscape of New London’s largest woodland public park.”

Jeff Butler, who lives near the park and its winding trails, brought along his 12-year-old border collie, Pumpkin, for the day’s hike. Butler said he and Pumpkin traipse through the woods nearly every day.

“I’m worried if a solar array is allowed in the woods, it’ll set a precedent for other types of utility projects,” he said. “Does that mean they can put another Millstone (nuclear power plant) here?”

“This was a dump”

Mayor Michael Passero on Wednesday said the capped landfill site has never been designated recreation space and is not part of Bates Woods Park.

“This was a dump, a landfill that was capped – we are not carving out any part of Bates Woods for this project,” he said. “This is a project that is in line with (state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) policies and will contribute to the state’s effort to de-carbonize our economy.”

Public Works Director Brian Sear said Greenskies would be responsible for installing and maintaining the panels. He said the city expects to see a roughly $110,000 annual drop in its electric bills through a power purchase agreement involving the electricity generated by the proposed solar system.

Passero said the proposed solar site was once home to a “mountain of trash” that should not be used by hikers, even in its capped state.

“That’s why we’re planning on a fence to be built around the solar panels,” he said. “There’s environmental land-use restriction in place for that property and it was never supposed to be used for recreation.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission will meet at 7 p.m., Thursday at City Hall.

$20M in state funding to advance redevelopment of ‘zombie properties’ across 18 CT cities and towns

Michael Puffer

Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday announced $20 million in grants to support cleanup and redevelopment of blighted properties throughout the state.
 
The funds will support remediation and redevelopment of 21 properties, consisting of 150 acres of contaminated land in 18 municipalities, according to Lamont’s office. 

The grants are being released through the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s brownfields program. The funds are expected to leverage approximately $530 million in private investments, creating 1,392 new housing units and prompting business growth, according to Lamont’s office.
 
“All of these blighted properties have been vacant for years when we should be using them to grow new businesses and support the development of badly needed housing,” Lamont said. “This series of state grants enables us to partner with developers who will take these zombie properties and bring them back from the dead, cleaning up contaminated land and bringing life back to these neighborhoods.”

This grant round includes:

$4 million – to Enfield for cleanup of the 3.2-acre site at 33 North River St., which housed the power plant for Bigelow Carpet Manufacturing. The cleanup will set the stage for development of a 160-unit multifamily residential complex tied to mass transit. 

$4 million – to Stonington for abatement and remediation at the four-story mill property located at 21 Pawcatuck Ave.  The cleanup of the 5.24-acre site will enable conversion into a 51-unit apartment building with some commercial space.

$3 million – to Cromwell for abatement, demolition and remediation of the shuttered Red Lion Hotel property at 100 Berlin Road. Early plans called for a 254-unit, mixed-use development on the 12.74-acre site, but developer Lexington Partners has said it needs to scale back the project to make it feasible.

$1.85 million – to the Norwich Community Development Corp. to remediate and stabilize the historic Mason House located at 68 Thermos Ave. The Integrated Day Charter School plans to use the remediated space to expand, allowing them to provide community mental health services and host community events.

$1.37 million – to Naugatuck for cleanup of a 7.7-acre, city-owned parking lot on Maple Street. This will allow for construction of a 60-unit, mixed-income development that will include 4,700 square feet of commercial space. 

$987,000 – to the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank Inc. to abate hazardous building materials in shuttered state office buildings at 20 and 30 Trinity St., in Hartford, and remove an underground storage tank. Philadelphia-based Pennrose LLC and The Cloud Co., of Hartford, are partnered in a $45.35 million plan to convert the two former state office buildings into apartments that will host 104 units. The Capital Region Development Authority, last year, approved a $6.5 million loan for the effort.

$950,000 – to the Western Council of Governments to complete excavation and remediation of contaminated soil on a 3.8-acre site at 39 Woodland Ave., in Stamford. Plans call for development of 714 new housing units, parks and pedestrian connections to the nearby harbor and Stamford Transportation Center.

$610,000 – to Newtown for hazardous materials abatement of a roughly quarter-acre duplex building site at the former Fairfield Hills campus. The buildings, which have been vacant since 1995, will house the Newtown Parks and Recreation Department and be leased for commercial use.

$660,096 – to West Hartford for the remediation and partial demolition of a building on a 1.83-acre site owned by an affiliate of the West Hartford Housing Authority. The site will be redeveloped into a 49 mixed-income rental apartment complex.

$550,000 – to the Waterbury Development Corp. to complete remediation of the 0.29-acre site at 9 and 15 Branch St. The cleanup will enable the development of the Waterbury Police Activity League’s splash pad and playground. 

$200,000 – to Ansonia for environmental and structural testing to help create plans for redevelopment of the former Ansonia Opera House at 100 Main St.

$200,000 – to Canton to advance testing and planning of a restoration and reuse of the historic mill complex on the 19.3-acre former Collinsville Axe Factory site at 10 Depot St.

$200,000 – to the Northwest Hills Council of Governments for environmental assessment of a 12.38-acre parcel, formerly known as 282 Kent Road, to study its feasibility for affordable housing development.

$200,000 – to East Haven and New Haven for the assessment of the privately-owned, 21.47-acre Coppola Metals Property straddling the city line. The highly contaminated former scrapyard has been vacant for more than 20 years.

$200,000 – to Torrington to explore development options for 21.5 acres at 535 Migeon Ave., along the Naugatuck River. 

$200,000 – to the Torrington Development Corp. for environmental testing of the closed Yankee Pedlar Inn, on a 1.62-acre site located at 93 Main St.  The tests will be used to plan redevelopment of the property. 

$200,000 –to the Northwest Hills Council of Governments to conduct environmental assessment on a 9.49-acre property along Meadow Street. The site is being considered for an adaptive reuse tied to small manufacturing. 

$200,000 – to Windham for environmental assessment of the 2.46-acre site of the former Kramer Building located at 322 Prospect St., in the city’s downtown. The results will be used for redevelopment planning. 

$186,000 – to New Haven to complete environmental investigations, hazardous building material surveys, structural assessments, and remedial design plans for 4.89 acres at 71 and 89 Shelton Ave. The results will help the city consider redevelopment options and attract prospective developers. 

$162,125 – to Hartford for the assessment of eight properties across the city totaling 2.36 acres. These vacant lots and abandoned buildings are being considered for residential development, a public library branch, social services and a “digital inclusion center.” 

$150,320 – to the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank Inc. for the assessment of the shuttered William V. Begg Building site at 1106 Bank St., in Waterbury. The seven-story former public housing building was shuttered by the Waterbury Housing Authority more than a decade ago amid crime and nuisance behavior that pushed many residents to leave. Current plans aim to put the building back into use as affordable housing.

State awards multimillion-dollar grants to Stonington, Norwich to help rehab mills

Joe Wojtas

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday that he had approved a $4 million state grant to the town of Stonington to clean up contamination in the vacant half of the William Clark Company Threadmill at 21 Pawcatuck Ave.

The cleanup of the 5.2-acre site is part of a plan to reuse the building as a 51-unit apartment building with limited commercial space.

The property and building are known to be contaminated with hazardous materials such as asbestos; lead paint; polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs; and various solvents among others due to the property’s various industrial uses since its 1899 construction. In July, the town received a $200,000 state grant to determine the extent of remediation necessary to redevelop the site.

The other half of the mill was converted into the Threadmill Apartments in 2016.

In addition, a $1,857,370 grant was awarded to the Norwich Community Development Corp. to remediate and stabilize the historic Mason House located at 68 Thermos Ave. The Integrated Day Charter School plans to use the space to expand and provide community mental health services and host events.

The funds were among $20 million in grants awarded to support the remediation and redevelopment of 21 blighted and contaminated properties across the state. The money is aimed at cleaning up the sites so they can be redeveloped and “put back into productive use to support economic growth and housing needs.”

The grants through the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program are are expected to leverage approximately $530 million in private investments and help create 1,392 units of new housing and grow new businesses, the announcement said.

Norwich Public Utilities to spend $13.6 million on water projects: How it will be funded

Matt Grahn

Norwich Public Utilities received approval for three water projects at the Norwich City Council Meeting Monday.

The projects will cost a total of $13.6 million, and will be paid for by water revenues, and grants and loans from the state’s Clean Water Fund program. The completed projects are expected to have a 30-year life span, the agenda stated.

"We have to strike while the iron is hot, and funding is available," City Council President Pro-Tempore Joe DeLucia said.

An 8.5% increase to water bills is expected over a three-year period, but this project won’t impact it, NPU General Manager Chris LaRose said.

West Town Street

The West Town Street Water Main rehabilitation includes the installation of cured-in-place pipe lining from the intersection of Yantic Road and West Town Street to the property located at 58 Yantic Flats Road, insertion pit excavation, installation of water main, and valves and fittings to modify existing connections.

The 24-inch main is cast iron and was installed in 1926, and is 20 feet deep under Otrobando Avenue. It had a “significant failure” in April 2020, and could not be repaired by traditional methods. The project is needed to rehabilitate the pipe and restore redundancy, according to an NPU Board of Commissioners presentation from Sept. 24.

Norwichtown Well

The PFAS system for the Norwichtown Well could either be an addition to the existing building, or a separate facility nearby.

Water from the Norwichtown Well was found to have higher levels of PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals, in levels exceeding the maximum allowable amount for two chemicals. Without the treatment, the city is without an emergency source of water in the event of a plant shutdown or water main break.

Route 2

The Route 2 project includes the replacement of all galvanized or copper pipes along Route 2, the agenda states.

The 600-foot section of pipe is located on the Preston side of Route 2. The pipe was installed in 1952. This project will replace the pipe, improve redundancy, and eliminate a dead-end section at the end of NPU’s service area, and will provide redundancy and increased pressure to the 48 properties, including 71 apartment units.

Middlebury warehouse project moving along

STEVE BIGHAM 

MIDDLEBURY – An applicant’s plan to build a 171,600-square-foot industrial warehouse on a parcel at 1535 Straits Turnpike has taken a step forward after being given the green light to connect the property to the town’s existing sewer line.

Middlebury Land Development, a subsidiary of parcel owner Timex, received the approval Nov. 19 from the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority. The decision surprised some residents because the property sits within Middlebury’s designated “sewer avoidance” area. However, board members said their “yes” vote was based on a provision in WPCA’s regulations, amended in 2007, which states the “sewer avoidance” rule does not necessarily apply to commercial or industrial development.

The regulation states sewer extensions for new residential development will not be approved, but “sewer extensions for commercial developments will be considered on the basis of 460 gallons per buildable acre and the capacity requirements for the specific commercial activities.”

Middlebury land use officials noted the town’s sewer capacity, through the Naugatuck line, can accommodate 338,000 gallons per day, more than enough to accommodate the plan.

MLD’s application now heads to the Planning and Zoning Commission tonight.

Residents who oppose the plan say the application should be rejected based on the town’s land use regulations, which they believe only permit warehouses or distribution centers for products manufactured on-site. However, town officials note the regulations are meant to prevent warehouses that store things “not produced in conjunction with a manufacturing facility,” such as garbage or recycling materials,

Middlebury attorneys have said the regulation was not intended to restrict storage of new products, even if they are not actually produced on the premises. That appeared to be the basis of the PZC’s approval in January of construction of a 750,000-square-foot distribution center at the former Timex world headquarters property off Christian Road. That project remains on hold, tied up in court on appeal by residents who have fought a two-year battle to keep that facility from being built. The final oral arguments are scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m. at Waterbury Superior Court.

MLD’s warehouse would sit on 20 acres off Straits Turnpike, adjacent to Memorial Middle School on Kelly Road. The land is within a much larger 77-acre parcel, which, like the land off Christian Street, is owned by Timex.

Timex, under its real estate name, Middlebury Land Development, is looking to make the property more attractive to buyers.

The application seeks approval to use a portion of the property to construct 14 single-family homes, which would be accessed from Kelly Road.

MLD has offered to donate about 16 acres, mostly wetlands, to Middlebury Land Trust. That portion of the property includes a colonial-era road, ideal for walking trails that eventually could connect to the Larkin Bridle Trail. The gesture is not likely to alleviate opposition from residents who fear the project would create “bookend” distribution centers on either side of town.

Resident Edwin Durgy said it appears Middlebury has become attractive for companies looking to construct massive distribution centers, but he predicted the objections to “distribution center 2.0” will be just as loud, if not louder.

“We are at an existential inflection point,” he said, “and the decisions that are made in the coming months will determine fundamentally what Middlebury looks like for decades to come.”