CT Construction Digest Tuesday January 25, 2021
Torrington voters to decide on school project funding Tuesday
TORRINGTON — The Torrington School Building Committee is hoping voters on Tuesday will approve borrowing an additional $20 million for the middle-high school building project, which was approved for $159 million in 2021.
The referendum question reads: “Shall the City of Torrington appropriate an additional $20,000,000 (thereby increasing the appropriation and bond authorization approved by the voters on Nov. 3, 2020 from $159,575,000 to $179,575,000) for the construction of a new high school, a new middle school, a new central administrative office, and for the demolition of the existing Torrington High School.”
The referendum will be held at City Hall only, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Residents can read the referendum description at www.torringtonct.org/.../explanatory_text_jan_25...
Voters in November 2020 approved building a new middle-high school and administrative offices for $159 million. Earlier this year, the state legislature announced that instead of 65 percent reimbursement for all eligible costs for the project, that amount would be increased to 85 percent.
Residents voted in favor of spending $159.6 million, with the expectation that, with about $85 million in state reimbursement, the city’s share would be lowered to $74.6 million. With the higher reimbursement, the city’s share has been reduced to $28 million.
The increased costs, according to committee Co-Chairmen Mario Longobucco and Ed Arum, are driven by increased enrollment, and rising construction costs and materials. The co-chairmen told City Council in December that the district’s enrollment has increased significantly, which will add to the overall footprint of the new facility. That, coupled with escalating construction and materials costs, have resulted in the project running over budget.
“The bottom line is, the project was approved pre-pandemic,” Longobucco said at the time. “We had 71 percent of the voters approve it. We’ve done preliminary designs, based on state requirements, and we find ourselves in a position where the money that was approved, pre-pandemic, is no longer sufficient to deliver the type of school we want.
“This year alone, there are 137 new students in grades 7-12, that were not here pre-pandemic,” he said. “Construction costs $525 per square foot. And as we all know, everything’s going up. Materials costs have gone up. ... So we had to go back to the drawing board.”
Arum said the district’s total enrollment increased to 267 students in grades K-12, as of Oct. 1, 2021. The state requires a certain amount of square footage per student in a school building; if expected or projected enrollment is up, the building must be made larger, Longobucco said.
Arum said in December that the increased enrollment is something that could stall the whole plan, unless the city acted quickly to get voter approval for the additional $20 million.
Eversource looks to replace gas lines in Bristol neighborhoods
BRISTOL – City officials said that Eversource Gas is anticipated to be replacing gas lines in neighborhoods soon.
Those neighborhoods include Woodard Drive, Norris Drive, Driscoll Drive, Oakland Street, Cedar Street, Leominster Road, Westminster Road, Wooding Street, First Street, Second Street and Third Street.
Through May 2022 work will continue and is weather dependent. Construction hours are slated between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday with an occasional Saturday. Minor traffic delays are to be expected with a single lane open to allow emergency vehicles, buses, mail delivery and local traffic.
For more information around the projects, contact Eversource Energy repreesntative Ron Disher at 860-608-5323 or construction superintendent Carlos Deras at 413-244-1191
Few forecasters anticipated a wave of large-scale apartment and condo projects when the pandemic started, but across central Connecticut developers are building thousands of new housing units.
Along with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 era are supply-chain breakdowns and a rough labor market, but none of that has been enough to stop a building bonanza in the region.
“In a lot of towns, there’s been no new inventory for so long. In Berlin, we’re going from such a small inventory to potentially 400 apartments in the next 24 months,” said Chris Edge, economic development director of Berlin.
“A lot of pieces are coming together: Young people are getting married later and having kids later. They have school debt, so they’re not looking to buy a house,” Edge said. “And then you have people looking to downsize but stay in town. Right now there’s demand from millennials, from empty-nesters, both ends of the spectrum.”
Developer Tony Valenti of Newport Realty, who is building apartments in Berlin and age-restricted condos in Plainville this year, said demand for new residential projects is intense.
“At the start of the pandemic, a lot of things were on pause. As soon as that pause let up, a lot of pent-up demand came out,” Valenti said. “And the cost of money was still cheap.”
Developer Avner Krohn, who has more than 700 new apartments across the region in planning or under construction, suggested that people who are spending more time at home now want more comfortable and stylish accommodations.
Many builders in the region credit municipalities’ greater willingness to offer tax breaks on new construction, and those near the CTRail or CTfastrak lines report that access to mass transit is helping to drive demand there.
The overwhelming majority of communities around Greater Hartford have large-scale projects in the works, and some have several apiece. Among them are these eight:
Avon
Boston-based Beacon Communities plans 176 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the Avon Park South office park. It will remodel the former headquarters of Security Connecticut Life Insurance into 76, and construct a four-story building next door for the other 100. The company anticipates that 140 will be affordably priced, with the rest at market rate.
Berlin
Newport Realty has just installed windows on the first stage of the five-building, mixed-use Steele Center, which will add 76 apartments in town. The $18 million project is alongside the Amtrak and Hartford Line station, and developers Tony Valenti and Mark Lovley along with state officials describe it as a prime example of transit-oriented development. The one- and two-bedroom apartments will be leased at market rates.
East Hartford
Development partners Brian Zelman and Avner Krohn of Jasko Development plan 360 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments on the site of the long-closed Showcase Cinemas along Silver Lane near I-84. Rents haven’t been established yet. Contractors this fall began the $80 million project by demolishing the old multiplex theater.
Farmington
The former Hartford Marriott Farmington is being turned into 224 studios and one- and two-bedroom market rate apartments. A development cooperative led by 15 Farm Springs LP paid $21.5 million for the property in October. Part of the location’s appeal is that it’s near an I-84 exit as well as Route 6.
New Britain
Developer Avner Krohn of Jasko Development broke ground last year on The Brit, planned as a stylish six-story, 107-unit apartment building in the heart of downtown. Earlier this month, he announced he’ll tear down the aging Amato’s Toy and Hobby building next door to become the site for a twin project. In total, that will add nearly 220 market-rate one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Newington
Texas-based Anthony Properties plans 238 apartments near the CTfastrak Cedar Street station. The four-story building will have studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Rents have not been announced. The company’s proposal includes a 310-car garage, a swimming pool for tenants and a sidewalk directly to the CTfastrak station.
Plainville
Before construction, Newport Realty reports it has already sold the first three phases of its four-phase condo development on the Plainville-Farmington line. Willow Brook Estates will be a 55-and-over complex of detached, single-story homes ranging from 1,444 to 1,610 square feet. Prices start at $370,000.
West Hartford
Lexington Partners LLC has started work on the 292-unit One Park apartment complex at Park Road and Prospect Avenue. Developers plan studios as well as one, two- and three-bedroom units at the former Sisters of St. Joseph convent. About 10 percent will be designated as affordable, with 90 percent at market rates. Amenities will include a fitness center, an outdoor pool and electric car charging stations.
$220M+ In Harbor-Boosting Fed Funds Celebrated
Look for more room for bigger ships carrying steel, cement, and oil to New Haven’s industrial waterfront — and less room for climate-change-exacerbated storm surges to inundate the streets and highway on Long Wharf.
Federally funded economic-development and climate-resiliency projects aimed at those goals were touted at a press conference at the Sound School Monday by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Mayor Justin Elicker, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, Connecticut Port Authority Executive Director John Henshaw, and Hill/City Point Alder Carmen Rodriguez.
The reason for celebration was two new large allocations of federal money towards boosting business at New Haven’s ports, and towards protecting the city’s waterfront Long Wharf neighborhood from sea level rise, flooding, and storm surges, all of which are likely to take place more frequently and intensely in the coming decades thanks to manmade climate change.
Those two projects are :
• The $63 million New Haven Harbor Navigation Improvement Project, to be funded with money from the recently passed bipartisan federal infrastructure bill, and
• The $160.3 million New Haven County Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, to be funded with money from Hurricane Ida federal relief funds.
“It’s a new day.” DeLauro said Monday in a second-floor Sound School library that looked out onto the shimmering blue waters of the Long Island Sound. “It’s a new dawn, with regard to federal resources really being pumped into states and cities, localities, in order to rebuild roads, bridges, ports. It is infrastructure.”
That includes investing in climate resiliency and protecting vulnerable waterfront areas, she said.
There is “very little we can do to prevent natural disasters from occurring.” Thus the importance of being “proactive about preparing for them, minimizing the damage, protecting the areas from damage.”
According to DeLauro and Henshaw, the $63 million port project will “deepen the federal navigation channel” within the New Haven Harbor from 35 feet to 40 feet.
That deepening of the channel will allow “larger vessels to access our port and the terminals,” DeLauro said.
She and Henshaw said that large ships looking to unload cargo at New Haven’s industrial ports in the Annex have real trouble making it all the way to the terminal because of the current depth of the navigation channel. They either have to wait in the harbor for more favorable tides, or lighten their loads while still outside of the breakwaters.
“The project will enable New Haven to more safely and efficiently accommodate ships coming to port by reducing tidal delays and loitering,” Henshaw said, “accommodating anticipated growth in bulk and liquid cargo, by accommodating larger vessels, and improving maneuverability for deep-draft vessels.”
He said that New Haven’s port saw a nearly 35 percent increase in vessel traffic from 2020 to 2021.
And what kinds of products are currently shipped into New Haven’s port on a regular basis?
Henshaw said those include construction materials, oil, cement, steel, “aggregate,” and “other types of imports.” He said New Haven’s port has also begun exporting scrap metal from the city.
There are a total of eight different terminals in New Haven, he added. Most of them are on or near Waterfront Street in the Annex.
Henshaw estimated that the channel-deepening project will take “a couple of years” to complete.
As for the $160.3 million coastal-resiliency project, Zinn said that those federal Hurricane Ida relief funds will be used on three main projects:
• A new flood wall along the water side of I‑95 on Long Wharf, from roughly the side near the Long Wharf Nature Preserve to the area across the street from the old Lenny and Joe’s restaurant. “The height of the wall will vary” from a couple of feet to eight or nine feet, he said, because of the uneven topography of that area. Overall, he said, the top of the wall will stand at elevation 15.
• Five new “moveable gates that will seal off the three underpasses of the highway” along Long Wharf.
• A new “large pump station.” “When there’s high water in the harbor and you have a rainfall event at the same time, the water can’t drain out of the city,” Zinn said. “So it accumulates in the low spot,” which is the Long Wharf district. This pump station will allow the city to more easily get those pulls of water back out into the harbor.
Some of the other coastal-resiliency projects to be paid for with these federal funds include a “living shoreline” off of Long Wharf to help with erosion protection.
Zinn said these federal investments in protecting waterfront areas like Long Wharf are “visionary” because, “in Connecticut, we’re expected to see up to 20 inches of sea-level rise by 2050. We need to start investing now. We’re not going to be able to build all that infrastructure very quickly in 2050 when the sky is falling. We need to start now.”
Zinn estimated that these various projects will take roughly five years to complete.