Study: Trumbull Mall could double in size, add hotel and walking paths

Shaniece Holmes-Brown

TRUMBULL — Future visitors to the Trumbull Mall could find a larger but more walkable property featuring hiking trails and a hotel, according to a series of ideas put forth by the consulting firm Stantec during a packed Town Hall meeting Tuesday on the mall's future.

The firm has worked for nearly a year on drafting a plan to improve the area surrounding Trumbull Mall.

"The mall does serve a large population and it’s actually retaining its viability at a time when a lot of other places are failing," said Maggie Connor, principal and senior urban designer at Stantec. "Development plans that we’ve worked on are usually about a place that is closed completely. But here in Trumbull, we have a place that is not just viable, but successful and continuing to add more leases."

Connor said the firm has reached the end of the first phase of its market feasibility and land use study after the company gathered information on the mall's current issues and the changes residents want to see.

Data the firm gathered from 2022 showed the mall attracts nearly 500,000 visitors annually, in addition to generating about $4.5 billion in retail sales.

Connor said the study helped identify key issues to renew the area.

"The weakness here is that there are unmet opportunities for growth and there’s a bit of a tiredness, I would say, about the mall itself," Connor said. "There is an opportunity to understand how we can fix that moving into the future."

The study focused on the area between Main Street and Madison Avenue, from the Merritt Parkway and the Bridgeport-Trumbull line.

Connor said there is limited, if any, walkable areas for neighbors to get to the mall and this contributes to the lack of foot traffic.

“When we look at Madison Avenue and Main Street, they’re missing sidewalks and there are portions that don’t have any sidewalks. We don’t have crosswalks or pedestrian access to the mall. It’s really just vehicular,” Connor said. "Also, when we look at the transit experience, where the bus drops off is pretty isolated and far from the mall. I think it gives great access for people to reach the mall, but it’s difficult to get from one place to the next."

As a solution, she said the mall's current entrance from Main Street could be downsized to add crosswalks. She also showed graphics of how the area could look with more green space.

"Right now, there are six lanes of traffic for the entry, which is in excess of what is actually needed to adequately serve this site," she said. "One possibility would be to look at narrowing the entrance coming in so that it’s more like a town street, where you still can come in two ways and have turning movements but plenty of capacity to service the mall. Then, land ... could be used for public open spaces, stormwater management, pathways and more."

Another idea shared during the meeting was constructing a network of walking trails along the area's perimeter, spanning about three miles of connected paths.

Connor added that this could be accompanied with a section of greenery spread alongside the Merritt Parkway.

Connor listed a variety of potential commercial businesses who could come to the mall such as: a hotel, a medical office, senior housing, office spaces and even a pickleball court.

She added that if businesses like these are added, the mall's square footage and parking spaces could double. 

According to data gathered by the firm, the mall takes up over 1.1 million square feet and has around 2,300 parking spaces. If more commercial entities come to the area, it could expand to over 2.3 million square feet and over 5,000 parking spaces.

About a dozen residents spoke at the meeting, raising concerns about safety, vacancies and the effect of future development on nearby neighborhoods.

"There is a stigma that there's a safety issue," said resident John DelVecchio. "The perception is that in order to get the mall back to where it needs to be, women have to feel safe there..."

Director of Economic and Community Development Rina Bakalar in response refuted online talk about crime at the mall. 

"We don’t have a lot of violent crime there at all," she said. "I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be ever diligent or cautious, but we do not have regular muggings and purse-snatching going on there."

The majority of crime at the mall is shoplifting, she said.

Resident Jeanne Gibbs said it could be beneficial to bring in more kiosks to fill the vacant corridors. She added she was glad to know Namdar Realty, which bought the mall in 2022, and town officials were looking to improve the mall area.

She said Stantec's presentation was a good start.

"We can all agree that businesses are the lifeblood of every community, but the people are its oxygen," she said. "I hope the overall design ultimately does attract more people."

East Hartford approves conditions of $6.5M state grant for Founders Plaza redevelopment

Michael Puffer

East Hartford’s Town Council on Monday night agreed to conditions for the use of a $6.5 million state grant to demolish a building within the Founders Plaza office park, which will make way for a massive, mixed-use redevelopment.

Under the agreement, the money will be used to demolish the 182,890-square-foot former Bank of America office building at 20 Hartland St., which is also known as 99 Founders Plaza. Any leftover funding could be used to further other elements of the “Port Eastside” development along the eastern bank of the Connecticut River.

Port Eastside LLC – an entity backed by a group of prominent area businessmen – paid $4 million for the building last summer. At the time, they pitched a multi-building and multiphase development of up to 1,000 apartments, 300,000 square feet of commercial space and a package of park improvements capitalizing on the riverside location. The commercial and public amenity portions of that vision have been scaled back.

The agreement approved Monday night would require Port Eastside within four years to have a building permit for an apartment structure with at least 150 units. If the development team doesn’t meet that deadline, the state grant would transform into a loan accruing interest at the rate of a 15-year treasury bond, plus 4%.

That is a less strict requirement from the draft agreement introduced to the council last week, which required a building of at least 150 units to be ready for occupancy within four years. It did hold out the possibility of time extensions.

Council member Travis Simpson expressed some concern about the reduced requirements Monday. The town had seen other permitted developments fizzle, he noted. He would have preferred to see a requirement of a completed building, even if the timeline were extended to seven years.

Mayor Connor Martin and other officials noted Port Eastside is already heavily invested in the project with last year’s $4 million purchase, and the need to spend significant funds to get through permitting. Add to that the possibility of having to pay back the state’s $6.5 million grant, and you have a strong inducement, Martin and others noted.

“Us making that change signals to the developer we want to continue to be a partner, we want to be realistic about how fast they can move, how fast we can move,” Martin said. “We just found it much more realistic to require a building permit than a TCO (temporary certificate of occupancy).”

Council members ultimately voted unanimously to support the agreement.

Chris Reilly, president of Lexington Partners, the Hartford development group spearheading the Port Eastside project, said the added flexibility is needed due to the difficult financing climate. Regional banks have “retreated” from construction lending, making it that much more difficult to secure financing, Reilly said when reached after the meeting.

Reilly agreed that the money the development group already invested, along with funds that will be spent in design and permitting and the threat of the state grant turning into debt are strong incentives to ensure the project moves forward.

“I understand the concern, but the discipline of debt will ensure it,” Reilly said. “That is a very strong motivator to get something done.”

Reilly gave a rough estimate of mid- to late-2028 for the first building to be completed. It would include about 40,000 square feet of retail space, Reilly said last week. While the agreement commits Port Eastside to a minimum of 150 apartments in the first building, the aim is closer to 300, Reilly said.

Town council members have consistently voiced enthusiasm for the transformation of the roughly 50-year-old Founders Plaza office park. Chairman Richard Kehoe noted an update to the town’s plan of conservation and development a decade ago set a goal of transforming the riverfront into a more vibrant “24-7” area.

“This is the start of what is very much a transformative development along our riverfront, and it is consistent with our vision for our riverfront,” Kehoe said. 

Waterbury park getting a makeover

SLOAN BREWSTER 

WATERBURY – As part of nearly $9 million funding package from the federal government, the city will get $850,000 to help make the road through Hamilton Park more pedestrian friendly.

U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, in a news release Monday, announced the fiscal year 2024 budget, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden and includes funding for 14 community projects in the 5th District.

The Hamilton Park project is part of the master plan to convert the 92-acre park into athletic fields and courts, said Tommy Hyde, executive director for Waterbury Development Corp. The city originally applied for $5.3 million, so officials will have to determine how to best apply the funds.

As part of the redevelopment, Hamilton Park Road was temporarily closed to cars with Jersey barriers placed at the road’s intersection with Silver and East Main streets, Hyde said, indicating that speeding cars and drivers using the road as a cut-thru had been creating problems.

“We don’t want a road bisecting the park,” he said. “The idea is to make it more pedestrian friendly.”

Cheshire-based design firm SLR Consulting recommended converting Hamilton Park Road into a 12-foot pedestrian walkway and multiuse trail with amenity space and lighting. SLR landscape architect Suzanne Schore has cited the plan as one of the most significant parts of the master plan.

The 12-foot walkway would close traffic between a new parking lot where the tennis courts are and Seven Angels Theatre.

The redevelopment project is being phased-in based on funding, Hyde said. So far a significant amount of trees were taken down, and two buildings were demolished.

Crews are actively working on repairs to the pool, pool house and promenade, he said. The next iteration is to permanently close the road and to add the parking lot and sidewalks.

Hyde said he was not sure of the timeline of the project as the bill was just approved.

Work on the master plan began in 2020 with neighborhood community meetings and the hiring of SLR Consulting.

Elsewhere, Plymouth will get $959,752 for upgrades for phosphorus removal at the Water Pollution Control Facility.

Pulling organics, including phosphorus, from rivers and water bodies is mandated by the state, Assistant Plant Manager John Tomasella said.

“We can’t do it biologically here, which means we have to add chemicals,” he said.

The upgrades will make that possible. Tomasella was uncertain when the project would be done.

“We just gotta, you know, start getting the ball rolling,” he said. “For the taxpayers and for us who work at the plant, the sooner the better, because it becomes a violation if we don’t meet the requirements of the state. So obviously the sooner the better.”

The Torrington Housing Authority will get $45,000 for repairs to the fire suppression system at Torrington Towers, a public housing complex.

Housing Authority Executive Director Claudia Sweeney said some equipment needs to be replaced. She said there were no timelines for the project yet.

Sweeney said she applied for the funding after reading about in a newsletter distributed by Hayes.

“I love it,” she said about the newsletter. “It lets me know everything that’s going on, what she’s doing.”

Hayes, in the release, indicated negotiations to get the projects funded took nearly a year.

“This appropriations process was very different from previous cycles,” she said. “I advocated tirelessly for these projects with an unclear path forward.”

Other projects include $50,000 for drinking water system improvements at units of affordable housing in Goshen; $500,000 to upgrade the Litchfield Volunteer Ambulance Facility; $110,000 for the Perry Street Affordable Homeownership project in Salisbury; $100,000 for a food pantry at The Gathering Place Community Church in Waterbury; $300,000 for affordable housing infrastructure for the Morris Housing Authority; and $225,000 for Flanders Nature Center to build an environmental education pavilion in Woodbury.