Opinion: Natural gas is not part of state’s future

Martha Klein The fossil fuel industry keeps pushing to pipe more gas into Connecticut, but fossil gas is part of our past. The train has left the station but the power companies don’t get it. If we let them have their way, we will be stuck with pipelines and plants that aren’t needed, and we will keep paying for them for years. In the past, gas was seen as an inexpensive and safer alternative to coal and oil to fire our electrical plants. And in the days of Buicks and Oldsmobiles, that would have been true. But today is a very different story. A new report from the Acadia Center concludes that under any scenario, New England’s traditional reliance on natural gas to fuel electrical plants will diminish from 45 percent to approximately 10 percent by 2030, making any investment in new gas pipelines or plants unnecessary and costly to ratepayers. The enormous shift from natural gas to renewables will result from environmental policies in every New England state to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make significant reductions in the cost of renewable solar and wind energy. Connecticut has committed to a reduction of greenhouse gases by 45 percent by 2030 (and to a carbon-free grid by 2040), and Massachusetts has committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The cost of generating wind power has dropped 70 percent over the past years, and utility-scale use of solar has dropped even further — by 90 percent.  That means gas is no longer the less expensive alternative, and the trend will continue for years. The traditional cost-savings from gas has been flipped around, with renewables becoming both more cost-effective and clearly the path forward. Existing gas-fired plants will be underused, and new plants, such as the one proposed in Killingly, along with new pipelines, will simply not be needed. Two scenarios through 2030 were studied — continued expansion of natural gas supply and generation capacity versus no new investment in gas infrastructure. Under either scenario, dependence on gas would drop from 45 percent to 10 percent. That means new gas plants and pipelines may face enormous financial pressure, and could face bankruptcy, leaving ratepayers with the bill. “If fossil gas is only needed to meet a tenth of New England’s energy needs, then planned fossil-fuel plants, and possibly existing ones, could have problems meeting their financial obligations,” the report warns. From now until 2030, the expansion of renewables without new investment in natural gas would result in a cumulative cost savings of about $620 million, clearly challenging the former assumption that fossil gas offers cost savings. Furthermore, more reliance on fossil gas means more dollars flowing out of Connecticut. For example, in 2017 spending on fossil gas imported from outside the region amounted to $1.4 billion. No new gas would keep those dollars within the region and result in a net job gain through construction and maintenance of solar and wind powered generators. And the cost of gas fluctuates everyday, based on factors we have no control over. Solar and wind’s supply cost is steady — zero. The report suggests a number of recommended actions and implications, including: Additional fossil gas generating capacity is unnecessary. New fossil gas plants may be unable to sell their electricity, leaving stranded costs for ratepayers to cover. Construction of new fossil gas plants should be opposed under all circumstances. Fossil gas delivered through new pipelines will not offer any cost savings. Renewable electricity will provide a huge role in enabling states to meet their carbon-reduction mandates. The long-term impacts of climate change on health and the economy create additional costs that must be considered in any expansion of fossil gas. Families living near fracked gas development sites have an increased risk of cancer and other diseases, and are overwhelmingly from communities of color with low incomes. The future of fossil gas power in New England will be a challenging one. Many decisions influencing what the grid will look like in the next 10 years have already been made, which makes the remaining decisions even more important. Taking any missteps could potentially cost consumers money while locking in additional dangerous greenhouse gas emissions well beyond 2030. Martha Klein served as past chair of the Connecticut Sierra Club Chapter and is a current Executive committee member chapter. She lives in Norfolk.

Hartford’s $250M DoNo development nears groundbreaking

Joe Cooper The Stamford developer that rebooted Hartford’s Goodwin Hotel is weeks away from starting construction on a $250-million mixed-use development in the downtown area surrounding Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Hundreds of construction workers are expected to descend on the first phase of the so-called Downtown North (DoNo) development on “Parcel C” along Main Street in the next month or so, RMS Cos. founder and CEO Randy Salvatore said in a recent interview. Earlier this year, Salvatore suggested the development could kickstart in April, but the COVID-19 pandemic and other red tape associated with a land-use agreement, lending, equity and appraisals delayed the project’s commencement, said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the quasi-public Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA). The first phase, projected to cost $56 million, includes a 270-unit apartment building with 11,000 square feet of retail and “flex” space and a rear 330-space parking garage. Salvatore said 10% of the rentals will be priced for affordable housing. The apartment-garage complex, backed by an $11.8-million low-cost loan from CRDA, is being built on a surface parking lot in the shadows of the Red Lion Hotel. An estimated 18 months of construction means the apartments would come online in spring 2022, Salvatore said. A newly released rendering of the four-story apartment building shows a mostly gray facade with units featuring tall windows and balconies overlooking the ground-level retail corridor. Salvatore, who the city selected as its preferred developer for the DoNo properties, moved forward with the project a year ago after a Superior Court judge discharged liens on the parcels around Dunkin’ Donuts Park. In March, RMS inked a development agreement with the city to build the housing and retail project on city-owned land. While the pandemic could pose logistical challenges for construction, Salvatore said the crisis may spur an urban exodus to smaller cities like Hartford. “In the long term, I think Hartford can be a real viable option, even more so today than perhaps pre-COVID, for companies and individuals moving out of Boston, New York, or other major cities,” he said. “We are still really bullish about Hartford today.” Upon completion, the DoNo development is slated to house up to 1,000 apartments and additional retail and parking space on four different properties. The hope is that the new brick-and-mortar stores would be spurred, in part, by the Hartford Yard Goats’ $71-million ballpark, which typically draws about 400,000 fans a year. The team’s 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic. Salvatore envisions the mixed-use quadrant attracting a variety of “community retailers” including restaurants, coffee shops and other like-minded gathering spaces. “Those are the types of retail that work in urban areas right now because those don’t compete against the Amazons and other online retailers,” he said. “I think there is always demand for people to eat, gather and for the community to come together.”But the addition of a supermarket, which advocates have long argued would fill a major need on the North End cusp of downtown, is still far from being included in the final plans for development on Parcel B, or on city-owned land around the historic Keney Memorial Clock Tower, officials say. The Hartford Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit community development financial institution, has been a longtime supporter of the project and continues to push its $18-million plan for a supermarket and nearby nutrition counseling office in the DoNo area. The potential store has also been approved for an $8.5 million CRDA loan. Salvatore and Freimuth both agree there are a number of challenges in designing and operating a grocery store downtown. Questions surrounding signage, accessibility, parking and where to put shopping carts and loading docks, among other obstacles, must all be fleshed out before RMS secures a grocery operator, they said. “What we hear in the market is that there is definitely demand for a grocery store in this area,” said Salvatore, whose group has not projected a cost for the potential supermarket. “So I’m still very optimistic that we will be able to do that, and excited because that will be the anchor to the development, and that will be what really acts as a connecting force to bring people from other towns.” RMS, which also counts New Haven’s Blake Hotel as one of its recent redevelopment successes, is currently developing conceptual plans for the second phase of development on Parcel B at the corner of Main and Trumbull streets, he said. Freimuth said CRDA-backed loans ranging from $10 million to $12 million could be available for each of DoNo’s second, third and fourth phases of construction depending on State Bond Commission approvals in the coming years. Those dollars, in addition to the project’s entire estimated price tag, could change depending on how much it might cost to tear down a former Windsor Street data center on Parcel D, and salvage underground parking there. An ongoing study is examining whether it’s worth maintaining the parking garage, but there haven’t been any “significant discussions” on what to do with the decades-old data center, Salvatore said. “There’s a lot of uncertainties in the world right now, so it’s very difficult to predict six years with the changes that are happening on a daily basis,” he said of planning other phases. “With COVID, everything needs to be done a little bit differently in terms of interacting with people, and in terms of construction.”

Manchester OKs $140M Parkade development with housing, retail, office space

Skyler Frazer With an 8-0 vote Manchester's board of directors approved both a development and tax assessment agreement for a $140 million project to turn the vacant Parkade lot into a commercial and residential hub. The board unanimously voted to approve the plan for the developer, Manchester Parkade 1 LLC, to revitalize the site and get it back on the town’s tax roll. Members of the development team spoke with the board Tuesday to give them a detailed rundown of what the three-phase project will look like. According to the plans, the new 14-building Parkade development will have 480 apartments, a 120-room hotel, and thousands of square feet of office space and retail space spread across 23 acres. The $50 million phase I of the project, which could start building construction in the spring, would be finished over two years. The first phase would include a microgrid, infrastructure, 198 residential units, and 38,000 square feet of office, retail, and other live/work units. Michael Licamele, one of the principals at Manchester Parkade 1 LLC, also talked about his firm’s focus on sustainability and renewable energy at the site, such as the microgrid that uses fuel cells, solar panels, and other energy-efficient measures. Harry Freeman, another partner with Manchester Parkade 1 LLC, said the development will help encourage a walkable community with several public spaces throughout. A stretch of a walkway along the river will help connect the Parkade side to the town’s existing greenway path. He said there will be a beer garden in one of the two community greens with outdoor seating. Freeman said his team was trying to recreate some of the innovative ways European countries use their outdoor spaces in the Parkade site. “We’re hoping that those greens really become some place where people can go out, grab lunch, spend some time getting to know people,” Freeman said. Gary Anderson, the town’s director of planning and economic development, went into some details about the actual agreement. He said the project would create hundreds of both temporary and permanent jobs over the course of its development and increase the town’s grand list when it was fully on the tax roll. The tax agreement would give the developers a 100 percent tax break for the first year of each phase of the project, with the percentage decreasing each subsequent year until it is at the full level. The phase I agreement gradually increases the tax payment over seven years, the phase II agreement is over six years, and the phase III agreement scales up over five years. “The project would not be viable without such a tax abatement,” Anderson said Tuesday of the developer agreement. Town staff and other officials expressed their pleasure in finally having an approved plan for the long-vacant Parkade shopping center on Tuesday. The town bought the property in 2011, but the site was empty and declining in quality for years before that. After other developers came and went, Manchester Parkade 1 LLC struck a tentative agreement with town officials to work on the site in 2019 and the two parties have been working together since. Ahead of the vote, Mayor Jay Moran said praised the work of the developer and town staff in getting a development agreement worked out. “This is a huge milestone,” Moran said.