CT Construction Digest Tuesday March 21, 2023
New Haven seeks $32.1 million grant funding to improve Long Wharf, downtown
NEW HAVEN — The city is seeking $32.1 million in state grant funds to transform Long Wharf and enhance downtown, according to plans recently presented to New Haven alders.
City officials said $25 million would be used to demolish the former Gateway Community College, and expand and enhance Long Wharf Park as part of the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan; and $7.1 million to build a cafe kiosk and public bathroom on the Green, along with a family playground downtown.
Members of the Board of Alders' Community Development Committee gave the plans and associated grant applications to the state's Community Investment Fund a unanimous endorsement recently after a presentation by city staff led by Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli.
It also will require full Board of Alders' approval.
Piscitelli, who presented the plans with City Engineer Giovanni Zinn and Deputy Economic Development Director Courtney Henderson, said there's a good chance the city won't get the entire amount it seeks all at once.
While New Haven got the highest amount of any community in the state in a first round of funding, "nobody's going to get $30 million" in the latest round, Piscitelli told members of the committee, chaired by Dwight Alder Frank Douglass Jr., D-2.
But putting together a plan and grant application, including a cost schedule, for all the improvements the city would like to make, both downtown and at Long Wharf, will help the city in future rounds of funding, Piscitelli said.
The grant fund exists "to support transformative investments" in Connecticut communities, city staff said in an executive summary of the grant application. "The project represents an essential component to the city’s overall economic recovery," it states.
The plans, which the city first began presenting publicly in 2021, call for the city to demolish the former Gateway building on Sargent Drive and replace it the new location of Gateway's automotive trade school, which currently operates in North Haven.
The most recent plans, presented to the community in a public meeting Feb. 8, also call for construction of a new home for the APT Foundation, including its methadone treatment facilities, behind Gateway, replacing both the existing APT facilities at One Long Wharf and its existing clinic on Congress Avenue in the Hill section.
The project would redesign and raise Long Wharf Drive to make it more flood-resilient, build a community marina adjacent to the Canal Dock Boathouse and build a larger Long Wharf park that would be more pedestrian-friendly.
It would include more parking spaces and a dedicated, tent-covered area that would be available for picnics and while enjoying food from the nearby food trucks.
Zinn said that while the park at Long Wharf is "very popular with the food trucks,” it is “really lacking some of the amenities," and the proposed improvements would address that.
Henderson told the committee that as time goes on, downtown is being redeveloped "as more of a family neighborhood." The proposed family playground would be "a signature community asset," she said.
"If you come here in the morning, it's amazing how many school buses there are in the neighborhood," said Piscitelli.
Downtown/Yale Alder Alex Guzhnay, D-1, asked whether there had been any discussions about maintenance of the public bathrooms.
"Certainly, public bathrooms are a challenge to keep clean," said Zinn. "You have to clean them multiple times a day." But the cafe kiosk would "create a small revenue stream" to help take care of those facilities, Zinn said.
Yale’s new chemical storage facility paves way for major $365M Science Hill project
NEW HAVEN — Yale University will build a new, 12,930-square-foot Chemical Safety Building near the existing one on Edwards Street, after getting approval from the City Plan Commission.
The project is a part of the university’s larger plan to develop its Science Hill district and enable a construction of a new Physical Sciences and Engineering Building, which was described as “one of the largest facilities projects in university history.”
The new chemical storage will be directly north of and connected to the Chemistry Research Building on Prospect Street, at the northwest corner of its Science Hill district. The existing Chemical Safety Building at 350 Edwards St., which has been operating for more than 25 years, ultimately will be demolished following the construction of the new one-story building.
The new facility will be used to store chemicals and for waste management for Yale’s science programs, according to its application. Its basement space will be for mechanical equipment.
Yale hopes to start the construction in fall, aiming for a spring 2025 completion, according to its application.
Besides the chemical building, other potential enabling projects to pave the way for the new science building include demolition of Wright Lab West, a Yale-owned building at 340 Edwards St., and Pierson Sage Parking Garage, according to Yale’s presentation in 2020.
The Physical Sciences and Engineering Building plan originally was announced in 2020. Yale signed a $365 million contract for the project with Turner Construction in 2022.
The building will be designed to achieve net-zero emissions. It will feature about 45 faculty and research labs, classrooms, a clean room, a career center, a seminar room and a parking garage. It also will house the Advanced Instrumentation Development Center.
The new facility is intended to be a hub for quantum computing, materials science and engineering. The university anticipated it to accommodate faculties from physics, applied physics, chemical and environmental engineering, computer science, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering and materials science.
The project is still in the preliminary design stage, with the first phase planned to start in about a year with a completion slated for 2029, according to Steve Brown, associate director for facilities planning administration.
According to the university, the science building project will total more than 600,000 gross square feet, only slightly less square footage than the Yale Bowl.
Also in the Science Hill district, renovations of Kline Tower and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History still are ongoing. The former, the tallest building on campus, is set to be completed this summer featuring two new floors on the top that have panoramic views of the city. The building focuses on astronomy, math and statistics and data science.
The museum, which underwent a renovation starting in 2020, will be completed in December. The entire building was renovated, and there will be a new glass-ceilinged central gallery, more room for exhibitions and a new education center.
Yale last month announced another plan for several major construction projects along the lower Hillhouse Avenue area over the next 10-15 years. The infrastructure projects are to support the university’s expansion of its School of Engineering and Applied Science, which included 30 new faculty positions.
Detailed planning for the projects will begin soon, Yale said. But first up, the university plans to convert Kirtland Hall at 2 Hillhouse Ave. into a dedicated classroom building. It’s scheduled to begin this year and finish in 2024.
Saugatuck bridge to be replaced with I-95 repairs in Westport
WESTPORT — Crews are busy constructing a new bridge to replace the one over Saugatuck Avenue, a project that has been in the works for years.
The work is part of a larger Interstate-95 improvement project between exits 16 and 17 along the Norwalk, Westport line to make it safer for drivers.
Work on the corridor began June 14 and is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, 2024, though it has been in the works for about a decade, said Shannon King Burnham, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project.
The total cost for the project is about $104 million, with the Federal Highway Administration covering 90 percent and the state covering the other 10 percent, according to the project website.
"This fall, the bridge over Saugatuck Avenue will be replaced using accelerated bridge construction," Burnham said. "The new bridge will be constructed adjacent to the existing bridge before it is installed."
Recent work in that area includes excavating so the new bridge abutments can be installed, building new retaining walls and foundation work, she said.
Burnham said the existing bridge is at the end of its life.
"Building the replacement bridge adjacent to the existing bridge will minimize the overall impact to travelers and the surrounding community," she said.
The technique they are using eliminates long periods of construction on the highway, which lessens the overall project timing, she said.
"In a single weekend (Friday evening to Monday morning), I-95 traffic will be shifted from one direction and combined with the opposite direction of traffic to allow for the full demolition of the existing bridge," Burnham said. "The new structure will then be installed into place, and I-95 will reopen soon after."
The exact timing for that weekend hasn't been announced yet.
According to the project website, there are multiple ways the project will improve driver safety, including upgrading the road to industry standards. It also aims to address flooding and drainage issues.
The work includes adding or reconstructing shoulders, replacing or rerouting drainage structures, adding better lighting and an incident management system, and installing new guide rails with wet reflective pavement markings to make it easier to see.
The merges will also be extended, where feasible from 100 feet to 1,050 feet, particularly between East Avenue and Stawberry Hill Avenue where there are a lot of crashes, according to the website.
The overall I-95 project will also repair the concrete decks of the bridges over Franklin Street and the Saugatuck River, as well as replace the expansion joints and install new standpipes, Burnham said.
Other improvements include expanding the Hendricks Ave commuter lot, improving stormwater runoff and extending the Exit 16 on-ramp and Yankee Doodle Trail, according to the website.
Sophia Muce
A bill that would offer a workaround to the state’s architectural preservation laws limiting demolitions is pitting housing interests and CCM, an organization representing the state’s 168 member towns, against the state’s preservation community.
The State Historic Preservation Office, known as SHPO, is currently has oversight of the demolition and restoration of historic properties. But earlier this month, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities lobbied for an appeals process on SHPO decisions, citing millions spent on litigation and remediation and arguing the need to balance historic preservation with economic development goals.
“It really is a very narrow piece of legislation,” said Randy Collins, an advocacy manager for CCM. “But when you look at it in context of all the other pieces of legislation that are going on, I think it becomes more relevant.”
If passed, HB 6756 would allow any municipality to appeal decisions made by the State Historic Preservation Officer regarding the renovation or rehabilitation of a historic property and force a hearing with the Department of Economic and Community Development.
“There are numerous examples of municipalities that have seen significant economic projects, projects that would have created needed jobs, developed affordable housing or created community spaces be put on hold or not enacted,” Collins said in written testimony to the Commerce Committee.
But while CCM is supported by the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, a group representing the state’s smaller town governments, over 30 historic preservation advocates, academic and organizations have opposed the bill.
“Historic preservation is economic development,” said Patrick McMahon, board president of Connecticut Preservation Action, in a call with CT Examiner. The umbrella organization advocates in the legislature on behalf of state and local preservation nonprofits.
McMahon said preservation played a major role in marketing the state, as Connecticut’s historic buildings and municipalities drew in tourism.
State and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits also help support economic development, McMahon said. Private developers earned a 25 percent tax credit for the restoration of certified historic structures through the Connecticut Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program, and a 20 percent tax credit through the federal program.
McMahon said the rehabilitation of historic mill buildings was proof of the success of using tax credits to harness preservation for the purposes of development.
“They’re now being converted to residential apartments or some form of mixed-use or business incubators,” McMahon said. “The leveraging of that historic tax credit is just absolutely tremendous.”
McMahon said that members of Connecticut Preservation Action were also concerned that a hearing officer employed by Department of Economic and Community Development would not have the training in historic preservation needed to make fair determinations.
“The State Historic Preservation Officer is the one in the state who is supposed to be making these decisions for the protection and preservation of the historic assets,” McMahon said.
In written testimony to the Commerce Committee, the State Historic Preservation Officer Jonathan Kinney said SHPO does not view historic preservation and economic development as “two opposite ends of a spectrum.”
“Historic preservation activities are an important economic driver in many local communities, for the State of Connecticut, and across the nation,” Kinney said.
Kinney said that in fiscal year 2022, SHPO approved over $27 million in historic rehabilitation efforts, which leveraged almost $93 million in private investment.
Kinney also said that SHPO oversees about 3,000 projects a year, and said less than three percent of the projects require the expense of mitigation.
“We pride ourselves on working collaboratively to protect historic assets and revitalize communities,” Kinney said.”
But at a March 2 Commerce Committee public hearing, Thomas Hyde, chief executive officer of the Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corporation, told lawmakers about SHPO decisions that he said had frustrated local development.
Hyde acknowledged the value of historic preservation, but said cities like Waterbury with numerous brownfields – contaminated industrial sites – were hampered by the need for SHPO approval to demolish old properties.
“A lot of these properties aren’t something that developers are even going to look at, let alone be interested in or invest in,” Hyde said.
Hyde said he supported the bill because, as the interim director of Waterbury Development Corporation, he’d run into costly disagreements with SHPO.
“In working with the SHPO, we’ve had some success, but there have also been some issues that we’ve run into in the past,” Hyde said. “… I think creating something where we can appeal those decisions without having to go through costly litigation would be a huge benefit for municipalities and economic development professionals like myself.”
Hyde pointed to an old industrial building at 835 South Main Street in Waterbury, which was abandoned around 2000. The city took over the property in 2010 with the intent to demolish and clean up the property, he said, and notified SHPO of their plan. According to Hyde, SHPO assured Waterbury both in 2010 and 2011 that the building had no historical significance.
But when the city told SHPO they’d be seeking a grant through the Community Investment Fund to demolish the building last year, Hyde said SHPO told Waterbury that the 2010 and 2011 letters were no longer valid.
“That was obviously a little frustrating,” Hyde said.
Hyde said that Waterbury and SHPO agreed that in order to demolish the 835 South Main Street building, the city would set aside $150,000 for a separate historic restoration project elsewhere. Still, he questioned the state decision.
“It’s essentially collapsing in on itself,” Hyde said. “It’s a huge safety hazard for basically everyone. It’s located in one of the poorest census tracts in the state, and maybe the country.”
At the hearing, a lawmaker representing one the state’s wealthiest towns, State Rep. Stephen Meskers, D-Greenwich, also spoke in “strong support” of the bill, arguing that delays to redevelopment were costly to all involved.
“I think adaptive reuse of historic properties requires more collaboration,” Meskers said. “The streetscapes, the restoration, bringing up to date the technicals, ADA accessibility are all going to require a fair amount of flexibility, so I’m happy to see this bill before us.”
During the call with CT Examiner, CCM’s Collins said that he felt comfortable moving forward with the bill with the support of some of the state’s poorest towns like Waterbury and Naugatuck.
“If we can bring these abandoned, dirty properties back online – that’s a win for the municipality,” Collins said.
Collins said CCM was not trying to upend oversight SHPO, but wanted to find an option that sidesteps litigation – especially because SHPO was represented by the Office of the Attorney General.
“No one wants to go up against the Attorney General’s office,” Collins said. “They’ve got a much bigger piggy bank.”
According to Collins, the bill strikes a balance between historic preservation and economic development, particularly state’s housing goals.
“You could lose out on an opportunity where a developer says, ‘You know what, it’s just easier to build new.’ And then the existing structure just stays dilapidated, dangerous and dragging down property value,” Collins said. “…we wonder why housing is unaffordable.”
Rocky Hill office-to-apartments plan approved
Adeveloper’s plan to convert a Rocky Hill office building into a mixed-use residential complex has been approved.
The Rocky Hill Planning and Zoning Commission at its last meeting approved the site plan application by Hamden-based JMM Properties LLC and principal Joseph Moruzzi to convert his 2-acre parcel with a 50,000-square-foot building at 1344-1360 Silas Deane Highway, Route 99, into some office space and 59 apartments, 10% of which would be affordable.
The developer, Diversified Unlimited LLC, will turn the upper parking deck and first two floors of the five-story building into a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. The top floor will remain office space.
Applicants sought a text amendment last year to allow the mixed-use because of the decrease in demand for large office space, attorney Eric Parker for the applicant said.
Jasko Development moves forward with two New Britain projects
New York developer Avner Krohn said he expects to have tenants in his latest New Britain development in September.
Krohn said construction on the $20 million-plus, 107-unit apartment building known as The Brit is continuing but interest in the development is high.
“We haven’t gone to pre-leasing yet, but people have reached out on our website to get on the waiting list. There are, right now, 165 people on the waiting list that have yet to be vetted,” said Krohn, principal of Jasko Development.
The building – which is the former home of the now-vacant Burritt Bank – doesn’t yet have an address but is located on the corner of Main and Bank streets. Krohn said roofing work and the installation of windows are being done this week. In addition, work on the mechanicals and floors and sheetrocking will be done over the next two months, he saId.
The 107 apartments, Krohn said, will be sold at market rate and range from $1,550 a month to $2,450 a month. The apartments, he said, will be between 500 and 1,050 square feet.
In addition to apartments, the building, Krohn said, will also feature 5,450 square feet of retail space and a to-be-determined restaurant. “There is no one yet locked in for the restaurant, but we want the restaurant to have a vibe to it and appeal to multiple age groups and draw people to downtown.”
Krohn is also working simultaneously on developing The Highrailer, located at 283 Main St., adjacent to The Brit. The Highrailer was formerly home to Amato’s Toy & Hobby, a well-known toy store in the Hardware City.
Krohn said the $25-million Highrailer project will be completed and ready for occupancy at the end of 2024. The Highrailer is currently under construction and will feature 114 housing units and retail space including 3,000 square feet for a to-be-determined restaurant.
The apartments will also be market rate, but the prices will be a little higher than what they will go for at The Brit, Krohn said. The units will run from 450 to 1,100 square feet, he said.
Both projects are being financed via private equity and bank loans.
Ed Stannard
For the first time in at least a decade, Connecticut has shown a preliminary decline in overdose deaths, according to state and federal data.
Preliminary numbers show a 4.7% drop in fatal overdoses in 2022, according to the state Department of Public Health, with 85% of those involving fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin.
So far in 2023, there have been 102 overdose deaths in Connecticut, with 86% involving fentanyl, according to the health department. There also is an increase in deaths from xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, which first showed up in combination with fentanyl in 2019, with 71 deaths. That toll rose to 301 in 2021 and there have been 18 fentanyl/xylazine overdose deaths through February 2023.
However, Connecticut still ranks 13th nationwide in such deaths, according to an analysis by QuoteWizard, part of LendingTree. The report was based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Connecticut is one of the states where we have started to see a decline in overdose-related deaths,” said Nick VinZant, senior research analyst at QuoteWizard.
“And that is not really the case nationwide, where we have seen significant increases in the number of overdoses, especially over the last couple of years where, at one point, overdose deaths were up 40% nationwide. So Connecticut is one of the states that has seen a decrease in the last 12 months” after peaking in 2021, he said.
VinZant said the company has looked at trends since 2015, when overdose deaths were between 60,000 and 70,000 nationwide. “They are now almost at 110,000 in the last 12 months,” he said. “So we have seen a massive increase in the number of overdose-related deaths. And we really started to see the big increase right at the start of the pandemic.”
Nationwide, Maine, Oklahoma and New Hampshire had the highest increases in 2021, while Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska had the biggest declines. “When you look at the states, usually you can see a regional pattern, but not with overdose deaths,” VinZant said. “It’s kind of a little bit all over the place.”
VinZant said his analysis found “a big increase starting right at the height of the pandemic, spring and summer 2020. And one of the big concerns that we found is that health insurance is overwhelmingly tied to employment. And as people lost their jobs, they lost their health insurance, which then meant that they also lost, a lot of times, the ability to afford substance abuse counseling and treatment.”
Health officials attribute the state’s downward slope to Narcan being more readily available, as well as other harm-reduction measures, such as making it easier for those using illicit drugs to get help. The end of the COVID-19 pandemic also is playing a role, they say.
“When we say 4.7 (percent), this is from January to December. However, we do have some pending cases waiting for the toxicology confirmation,” said Shobha Thangada, epidemiologist in the health department’s Injury and Violence Prevention Unit.
The health department’s numbers come from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. There are still cases being investigated, however, which could reduce the size of the decline.
“In 2019 we had 1,200 deaths, which increased in 2020 to 1,374, which is a 14.5% increase between 2019 and 2020,” Thangada said. “And then from 2020 to 2021, again we have an … increase” to 1,524 deaths, a 27% increase in two years.
‘Boots on the ground’
Thangada said the decline in 2022 is hopeful. During the pandemic, with “stay-home orders and the fear of everything basically. … So people are getting back to a normal routine after the pandemic.” There also are better treatment facilities “and then also the methadone clinics are all open,” she said.
Local health departments now “have their boots on the ground and then they are fully functional and then they are able to conduct all the prevention strategies and then also the harm-reduction strategies with the local communities,” Thangada said.
Also, “we are doing tremendous education and campaigning about naloxone (Narcan) and also the distribution of the naloxone is being enhanced to the full potential by the local health departments and other organizations in the communities,” Thangada said.
Fentanyl, originally created as a pain reliever during medical procedures, is now produced illicitly, largely by Mexican cartels. It is easier and cheaper to produce than heroin, and it’s largely overtaken that natural opioid on the streets.
There were 165 deaths solely from heroin in the state in 2021, a 57.4% drop from 2019 to 2021, and 1,312 from fentanyl, a 34% rise, according to the health department. A number of deaths were attributed to heroin and cocaine laced with fentanyl.
Thangada said the state health department monitors every fatal and non-fatal overdose recorded in the state “and then alerting the local health department: Hey, there is a bad batch going on in this particular town or this particular community. Could you please enhance your prevention work?” She said that also could be contributing to the decline.
The demographics of overdoses in Connecticut have been changing, according to the health department. While men have been almost three times more likely to die of overdoses than women, the racial breakdown has shifted.
In 2019, non-Hispanic whites recorded the most overdoses, at 36 per 100,000, with Black residents and Hispanic residents each about 33 per 100,000. By the first half of 2022, the latest data available, Black residents were dying at a rate of 71 per 100,000, Hispanics at 46.8 and whites at 34.6, the only group to decline.
The most affected age group is 35- to 44-year-olds, followed by those 45 to 54 and, close behind, 55 to 64 and 25 to 34.
Peter Canning, emergency medical services coordinator for UConn John Dempsey Hospital, said the 4.7% decrease likely will shrink somewhat once the medical examiner’s office finishes its toxicology reports.
“There’s a whole lot of cases that they’re pending on, so the numbers are going to go up,” he said. “I don’t like the way that they do these charts. I wish they’d tell us how many cases were pending. … My best guess is it’s probably going to be maybe a 2% decline over last year.”
Canning said even a small decline is good news. “But again, I mean, it’s nothing to jump for joy about because the number is still just so achingly high.”
‘Big push with emergency departments’
Canning said a big reason for the drop is “the people involved in harm reduction have been doing a terrific job in getting naloxone out onto the street. So there is some data that I collect from the SWORD program (the state EMS Statewide Opioid Reporting Directive). And one of the things we look at is the percentage of times that when 911 is called, a bystander or a community person has given naloxone before EMS arrived.”
That has happened 24% of the time this year. “That’s pretty incredible,” Canning said. “Years ago, nobody got naloxone until the paramedics got there. And now 24% of the time that person is likely already revived before the ambulance or the fire truck arrives on scene. I think that definitely is contributing some, but we’re not anywhere near ready to declare victory here.”
Another contributing factor, Canning said, is “in a lot of the hospitals now there’s … recovery coaches, so that when somebody overdoses, rather than just being seen by a nurse and the ER doctor, they’re seen by a recovery coach who is somebody with lived experience who has gone through having an issue with drugs in their lives and gotten off of it and they help the person.”
He said there is a bill in the General Assembly to create overdose prevention sites, similar to those in New York state, where people can go to use drugs but be monitored so they won’t overdose.
Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, professor of emergency medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, said “anything that is reducing deaths is a step in the right direction,” adding she can’t “be too happy until we see a sustained reduction. … Hopefully it will continue through the rest of the year.”
Of the initiatives the public health and medical experts have implemented, D’Onofrio said, “One of the most important is low-barrier treatment … both from emergency departments and other clinicians who have outpatient practices or our opiate-treatment programs in the state … meaning that you can walk in most any day and get treated when you want to. That’s the most important thing.”
While distributing Narcan is important, she said, “the real marker” is how many people go into treatment, which she said was 22% nationally last year. “So we’re going in the right direction. We just need to keep people in treatment,” she said.
“We’ve had a big push with emergency departments throughout the state offering buprenorphine to anyone who will engage in treatment and just being available 24 hours a day from the ED and then having other places available to walk in and that’s the best thing,” D’Onofrio said.
There is a dark side, however.
“The worst part is the adolescents,” D’Onofrio said. “We need to work on prevention of adolescent deaths because those have gone up across the country. I don’t know Connecticut specifically, but those deaths are often from individuals using things that they don’t know are fentanyl-laced or that they buy things off the web.”
Teens think they are buying a benzodiazepine or Percocet “and it turns out to be fentanyl,” she said. “And so we have to do a lot of education of our young adolescents not to take anything that’s not prescribed for them.”
Another issue is vulnerable populations. “We also have to be cognizant of individuals’ fragility, and what I mean by that fragility is that there are a lot of individuals who are homeless,” D’Onofrio said.
“There’s a lot of despair for a variety of reasons and we need to make sure that we are working on that … job training, housing, instability, everything that we can and it’s important to make sure that patients who, for sustained recovery, we need to get them out of the situations they’re in,” she said.