Dean Wright

BRISTOL – Visitors and dignitaries marked a momentous milestone in the construction of new Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School Wednesday afternoon by sharing a beam signing ceremony.

Bristol Public Schools Board of Education, city officials, community members and construction developers all came out for the event.

“Today’s topping out is a construction tradition,” said Building Committee Chair and Bristol Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Dr. Michael Dietter, who welcomed everyone. “There are many such rites associated with building construction, including the laying of foundation stones, the signing of beams and ribbon-cuttings. The ‘topping out’ is a sign that a construction project has reached its most auspicious point. Traditionally, a tree or flag is set in place along with this final beam.”

According to Dietter, this will be one of the final beams installed at the school.

“This beam signing also serves as a major milestone in this project. The building, moving forward, is going to serve as a beacon where innovative educational practices are going to be explored. Best practices are going to transform the lives of our students, our community and society at large,” said Dietter.

Dietter encouraged visitors to sign the beam at the conclusion of the ceremony’s opening comments before inviting Bristol Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu to share a few words.

“This has been a long day coming for what we all know is going to be a signature building for downtown,” said the mayor. “The history though far exceeds the hundred years we know is coming up for the Boulevard roadway and the actual school building.”

The mayor said the community started discussing the school renovation project in 2007. The building was then discussed between the city’s building committee and public works department for years with other entities, she said.

“This building is a passion for so many people in our community,” said Zoppo-Sassu. “You can tell, not from the negativity that’s taken us this long to get here, but from the fact that nobody ever gave up on what this building could be and the role it’s going to play for transforming downtown education, being this gateway for the boulevard and all that this community is really invested in.”

Bristol Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Catherine Carbone is pleased that the structure was given back to the city.

“One of our core values is innovation and I cannot think of a better place for creativity to blossom and grow than in this exact spot. This school will provide academic pathways and opportunities for others to bolster our innovative and technological advancement, both inside and outside the classroom,” said Carbone.

Project Executive Frank Tomcak said that drywall has begun to be installed in the school. Downes Construction Co. and D’Amato Construction Co. are working together on the project.

“We actually broke ground here at the end of May, last year. The first six months we spent peeling away the old layers of construction to make way for new,” said Tomcak.

Tony D’Amato of D’Amato Construction Co. said that they’re excited that something is finally happening with the building.

“Frank and I, being from Bristol, were happy to see something happening here and we’re happy to be part of it,” said D’Amato.

According to discussion with project members, the school, when finished, will have around 118,000 square feet of space and cost around $63 million to have completed.

Students will be offered programs in creative construction; visual arts; musical arts; television, video and theatrical production; entertainment, sports and event management; and marketing and communications; as well as museum studies and preservation. The Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School will open in 2022.

Mary E. Oleary

NEW HAVEN — A tanking commercial office market is not theoretical for these developers.

They bet big that converting a large portion of an iconic early 20th century building on the Green to apartments is the right investment.

Jacob and Josef Feldman of MOD Equities, which bought the 8-story building at 129 Church St. six years ago for $6.9 million, are proposing an adaptive reuse of the 1912 structure.

The brothers would keep a retail presence on the ground level and about nine commercial spaces on the first two floors, with 92 apartments on the third through ninth floors in a transit-oriented development.

Jacob Feldman said it has been a struggle to bring in more office users over the years, but they “took a big hit” during the pandemic when most of the month-to-month small law and professional tenants worked remotely.

Keeping it all commercial is not sustainable.

“We had to come up with a solution quick. This is an historic building — it can’t sit empty or bad things start to happen,” Jacob Feldman said.

MOD Equities planned to make its presentation to the City Plan Commission Wednesday night but pitched its plans to a receptive Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team.

Jacob Feldman said they will upgrade the mechanical systems as part of the renovation to set it up for the next 50 to 100 years.

The conversion will increase the residential presence along Church Street, which already has apartments at the Eli, the Union, 900 Chapel Residence Court and CenterPointe.

The plans are to keep the historic elements with almost no changes to the exterior of the building, which is located next to the federal courthouse on Church Street between Chapel and Elm streets. They will use historic tax credits to cover part of the investment.

The new tenants would be able to walk to downtown amenities, as well as the New Haven State Street Station and the Wooster Square neighborhood, the owners said.

The plans call for 12 residential units on the third floor; 13 on each of the fourth through seventh floors; and 14 on the eighth and ninth floors. The apartments will be a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.

According to the proposal submitted to the city, there is a rooftop on the third floor, not visible from the street, where the owners plan to create some 3,334 square feet of open space. The amenities would include a fitness center, game room, community room and lounge.

Jacob Feldman said they would incorporate the original doors, terrazzo floors and brass elements in the renovated building. There will be a residential entrance and a separate commercial entrance.

Forty-six parking spaces are required in connection with the development, but with the provision for at least 12 indoor bicycle spaces, the required number drops to 42. The company is in negotiations with the New Haven Parking Authority to lease those spaces.

Jacob Feldman did not think the current Brazilian restaurant on the first floor is likely to reopen; it is the third restaurant the space housed since they bought the building.

He told the management team that their business model, which is to invest in older buildings, is always to be competitive with the hundreds of new apartments currently under construction only blocks away in Wooster Square.

“We always try to be a much better value,” he said. Feldman said lumber prices are going down, “so that is a good thing.”

Smart reuse?

While converting to residential uses was not part of their original thinking when they bought 129 Church St., Feldman said they had to adjust “and figure out the next best thing to do.”

Lana Melonakos-Harrison said it looked like a “really good project,” but she would like to see a certain percentage set aside as affordable.

Jacob Feldman said moving forward when they purchase new buildings, they are excited about the proposal for inclusionary zoning that New Haven is considering that has incentives to make those affordable units attractive.

Presently, Jacob Feldman said “we are not in this really powerful place right now. ... We are in sort of savior mode now; trying to move as fast as we can as every month” is difficult.

Josef Feldman said he knows affordability is important to New Haven and “we really did try to exhaust all our options and the more we went back to it, it really didn’t pencil out.” He noted the value of inclusionary zoning in the near future.

Dunn said generally the city wants to encourage the smaller developers to build and hold onto their properties in the city, as they look to upgrade zoning rules.

“We don’t want to cater to the big, nameless real estate investment trusts that are just designed to make money for shareholders. But we do want to want to cater to people who are looking to build out our city and build out infrastructure in our city that will exist for a long time,” Dunn said.

Jacob Feldman said he was contacted by the city’s consultant on the zoning changes and “I was encouraged and excited. ... It has to be a public-private sort of partnership.”

He said “ultimately, a guy like me, my hands are tied ... If the bank doesn’t give me any money, we can’t do any projects.”

The proposed incentives tied to inclusionary zoning hopefully bridge the gap to allow for affordable units, he said.

Josef Feldman said they are not “fly-by-night developers only interested in flipping a property.”

He said they started 10 years ago buying a single-family house. “We really started our business organically from the trunk of our car. ... It has been a long fun ride. ... We are here for the long run,” he said.

Anstress Farwell, who heads the New Haven Urban Design League and has been a longtime tenant in the building, said the new plans “are very sound and that comes from someone who will be displaced from her beloved fourth-floor office with the view of the courthouse and the lions that spit water out in thunderstorms. It is a very special space.”

Farwell suggested some units could be designed for handicapped tenants — one per floor. “It is an important value to keep in mind,” Farwell said.

Jacob Feldman said they hope to break ground in six to eight months.

He said they are continuing to work on finishing renovations to 575 Whitney Ave., which involves converting the former Church of the Redeemer to apartments.

Also, scaffolding soon will be going up at 105 Court St. at the intersection of State Street. That plan calls for renovating office space at the English Building to 39 apartments — a project that had been delayed during the pandemic, but which the brothers hope to complete by 2022.

Brian Hallenbeck

Preston — A developer is proposing to build an RV park on land the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe owns near Avery Pond in the town’s southeastern corner.

Blue Water Development Corp., based in Ocean City, Md., has invited residents of the neighborhood to an informational session next week to meet company officials “and learn more about the vision and thoughtful design of the future Foxwoods RV Park.”

The meeting is set for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Poquetanuck Fire Department, 87 Route 2A.

“I can confirm that we are working with Blue Water Development on a new, environmentally conscious RV park,” Jason Guyot, president and chief executive officer of the tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino, said Wednesday when asked about the proposal. “We are in the preliminary planning phase and are currently working closely with the local community to make sure we deliver a thoughtful plan.”

Guyot said Foxwoods has been “an invested community partner for almost 30 years” and considers meeting with community members to be an important part of the planning process. He said the tribe, which would lease the development site to Blue Water Development, wants to make sure the proposed project is “the right fit.”

Details about the proposal will be made public later this month, Guyot said.

Representatives of Blue Water Development have briefly met with the town’s planning department but the company has yet to file any applications, according to Bekah Little, planning and land use administrative assistant, who was unaware of Blue Water’s planned meeting with residents.

Town Planner Kathy Warzecha was out of the office Wednesday.

The development site, on former farmland the Mashantuckets purchased from the Dawley family in 1994, is near the intersection of Routes 2 and 164, just north of the casino. Prior to the tribe’s purchase of the land, town residents voted in a referendum not to buy it.

In 2016, a portion of the property was eyed as a site for a rock music festival. Neighbors opposed such use of the property, a factor in the event ultimately being held at a nearby location on the Mashantucket reservation in Ledyard.

Michael Hotchkiss, a Griswold resident who grew up on Lynn Drive, which runs near Avery Pond, said he first heard of Blue Water Development's plan in 2019 and questions whether an RV park is an appropriate use of the property, given the environmental impact such a development could have.

His parents still live on Lynn Drive.

“The fear is that they’ll clear-cut the area or at least remove a lot of trees,” Hotchkiss said of Blue Water Development.

“You can’t boat on that lake, or swim in it, but it’s good for fishing,” he said, referring to Avery Pond, a natural lake. “It’s really scenic, not recreational.”

Blue Water Development, whose website, bwdc.com,  identifies “Foxwoods RV Park” as an upcoming attraction, describes itself as a real estate developer specializing in commercial and hospitality properties along the East Coast from Maine to Florida. In a news release Wednesday, it announced it recently sold two Bethany Beach, Del., hotels it had owned.

“In addition to its existing portfolio of nearly two dozen waterfront or water-adjacent properties, Blue Water is currently developing seven RV resorts and four hotels,” the release said.

Zachary Vasile

A Massachusetts-based developer is moving forward with plans to build a distribution warehouse in Windsor.

According to documents submitted to town officials, Condyne Capital Partners, of Braintree, is looking to build a 166,375-square-foot facility at 105 Baker Hollow Road. The local planning and zoning commission signed off on Condyne’s site plan last week, subject to final approval.

Windsor Town Planner Eric Barz said Monday the warehouse is expected to be divided among four tenants. The facility is being built “on spec,” Barz said, meaning that the company has not yet lined up leases for the space.

Condyne will likely find no shortage of takers. Connecticut has become a major landing spot for warehousing and distribution operations over the last several years, mainly due to the rise of e-commerce and the state’s proximity to both New York City and Boston. The trend has only accelerated over the past 15 months, as the COVID-19 pandemic kept many consumers from visiting brick-and-mortar stores in person.

E-retailers, including Amazon, have been particularly keen to move into the suburbs directly north of Hartford, including in Windsor and Windsor Locks, where former tobacco fields afford plenty of space to build.

Zachary Vasile

The South Windsor Planning and Zoning Commission has approved a preliminary site plan for a new Whole Foods supermarket at the Evergreen Walk shopping center.

According to Town Manager Michael Maniscalco, the roughly 50,000-square-foot grocery store would be built on the site of what was once a Highland Park Market, along with two operating businesses, an Old Navy and Sakura Gardens, a Japanese restaurant. Old Navy and Sakura Gardens would be relocated to other available buildings within the Evergreen Walk development, Maniscalco said.

The planning and zoning commission approved the preliminary site plan last week and will next undertake an architectural review. The committee must sign off on a finished site plan before any work can begin.

Maniscalco said he is optimistic about the project and hopes the planned supermarket could help revitalize the shopping center after more than a year of pandemic-related business and occupancy restrictions and the broader erosion of brick-and-mortar retail in the face of e-commerce.

“This is kind of a big deal in terms of overcoming some of the retail challenges that Evergreen Walk has been facing for years,” he said. “Our hope is to breathe some life back into Evergreen Walk and make sure it continues to be a regional draw.”

Evergreen Walk, which is situated just off of Buckland Road near Interstate 84, has around 60 stores and restaurants, including L.L. Bean, Sephora, Talbots and Williams-Sonoma.

It is managed by Charter Realty of Greenwich, which just recently acquired Blue Back Square in West Hartford.