Torrington to demolish former Hotchkiss mill property by end of year to make way for redevelopment

Kaitlin Lyle

TORRINGTON – From pulling permits to disconnecting utilities, the former Hotchkiss Mill property on Water and Church streets is being prepared for demolition, officials say.

“They’ve already started clearing the brush and (the) staging,” Mayor Elinor Carbone said of the Hotchkiss Mill property in Torrington. “We fully expect the demolition should be complete by the end of the year.”

The demolition of the buildings will take place over the next 60 days as part of phase one of the Hotchkiss Mill project, Carbone said. Once the demolition is completed, she said, the property owners will conduct brownfield remediation work on the property and then determine a redevelopment plan.

“Once they create this blank space, they can start looking at what size building would be built to replace (the demolished buildings), what would the housing units look like, what would the commercial space look like, what kind of parking needs to happen,” she said. “That would be the third phase (of the project) and it’s going to be at least a year or two years.”

The redevelopment of the Hotchkiss Mill will increase the city’s tax base and job opportunities as well as create “healthier housing stock,” Carbone said. 

Plans to redevelop the former Hotchkiss Mill property began in August 2021. A development group led by Paul Janerico, owner of Water’s Way and Paydirt LLC, presented the City Council with a concept design of the properties at 199 Water St., formerly known as the Hotchkiss Bros. factory, north to 229 Church St., formerly known as the Minetto building.

The former Hotchkiss Mill property is a collection of several buildings that were previously used for manufacturing and “milling trees into usable wood,” according to Carbone. The buildings are now blighted, and the property’s infrastructure has been caving in, she said.

“It’s a building that Mother Nature is claiming one brick at a time,” Carbone told Hearst Connecticut Media. “So we recognized an opportunity to work with the property owners on a safer plan of demolition that would create a blank space for redevelopment.” 

Economic Development Director Rista Malanca recommended “selective demolition” of the buildings that cannot be salvaged and the removal of hazardous materials from the property. The Water and Church street properties will be demolished using a $1.5 million brownfield grant, obtained by Torrington in 2022. 

Phase one the redevelopment project will focus on the adaptive reuse of the former office building, a 10,000-square-foot brick structure located on the southerly portion of the property closest to Stop & Shop, according to Malanca. The building will be redeveloped as a mixed-use building containing “eight market-rate residential units and 2,500 square feet of commercial space at the ground level,” Malanca said in her recommendation. A parking lot will also be constructed, according to Malanca.

In his 2021 presentation to the City Council, Janerico proposed the development of 155 apartments ranging from studios to four-bedroom units, which Carbone said would be rented at market value. Janerico also called for a retail store area, restaurants and amenities for tenants such as dog-washing stations, a gym, a community room, a swimming pool and hot tub, according to the concept drawings.

Milford to Begin Final Phase of $4M Harbor and Athletic Complex Upgrades

Nick Sambides Jr

MILFORD — City leaders aim to begin construction next month on the final phase of a $4 million ARPA-project to enhance the local harbor and improve the athletic complex behind the library.

The last leg of Founders Walk, connecting Milford Public Library off New Haven Avenue and the city marina off Helwig Street, is set to be completed next month along with a redesign of 

Shipyard Lane — weather permitting — according to State Sen. James Maroney. 

The Board of Aldermen twice voted to accept most of the project but postponed a third vote on funding for changes to Shipyard Lane, opting to first address a concern about the road with the senator.

Maroney, who helped secure the state and federal funding for the project, said he will attend the board’s December meeting to discuss its concern about ensuring the road redesign prioritizes pedestrian safety. Currently, Shipyard Lane runs past the library, cutting through its back parking lot and Fowler Field, before running parallel to the harbor, passing a parking lot and boat launch, and ending in a dead end.

Police have stated that having the road pass through the parking lot is unsafe, as its presence isn’t always clear to pedestrians despite the yellow markings. Motorists also have a poor line of sight while turning out of the parking lot toward the boat launch, while pedestrians coming from the footbridge between the marina and the library have no sidewalk.

The redesign would have Shipyard Lane continue past the library and the Fowler athletic complex’s basketball and tennis courts before turning sharply right and continuing to the boat launch parking lot. 

The new road will be bordered by a walkway along the sports fields to keep pedestrians safe, Maroney said.

“The plan includes crosswalks, sidewalks, a lot of what they call traffic calming measures where you narrow the roadway down. It slows down the traffic,” he said. “There are visual cues to slow drivers.”

The plan also includes the purchase of a boat for the Milford Fire Department to use for rescues and other water-borne work and the installation of a fire hydrant near the boat launch, Mayor Anthony Giannattasio said during the aldermen’s meeting.

For Maroney, the road improvements will mark the end of a long journey that began in the late 1990s and continued under former Mayor Ben Blake, interim Mayor Richard Smith and Giannattasio. Over that time, Blake and the aldermen worked to add and upgrade many of the harbor’s amenities and facilities, including new pavilions at the marina and at the Fowler complex; repaved parking lots; an upgraded office building and restrooms at the marina; the walk itself; and a patio and boat/kayak storage area near the boat ramp.

The city is also attempting to draw traffic from Long Island Sound to dock overnight or on weekends at the marina, and worked with the federal government to have the harbor dredged.

The board plans to discuss the project on Dec. 2, while bids for the last phase of construction are due in mid-December, Maroney said.

Lymes’ Senior Center on track for March reopening

Elizabeth Regan

Old Lyme ― The beeping of a backhoe and the rush of asphalt from a dump truck was the soundtrack to Monday morning at the Lymes’ Senior Center.

Building Committee Chairwoman Jeri Baker donned a fluorescent yellow and orange vest and a hard hat to take a walk around the $6.4 million renovation project, which is on track for completion by March after a belated start.

The committee hired Newfield Construction of Hartford to manage the project designed by Old Lyme-based Point One Architects.

“I think in another life I was a construction worker,” Baker said. “I have loved this phase so much. I’m down here a couple days a week usually, just hanging out and watching what’s going on and just being amazed at the work these guys are doing.”

The guys ― including at least one woman driving the asphalt truck ― are preparing the site for the final phase of construction, which will focus on the interior of the expanded 8,737-square-foot building.

New roofing and windows stood out against the green weather-resistant barrier as crews sowed grass seeds that will remain dormant until the spring. Inside, rooms were starting to take shape as wiring, insulation and drywall helped ready the site for intensive interior work over the coming months.

Baker pointed to a windowed cupola and rooms, including a library and artists’ space, designed to let in the light.

“The whole concept, bottom line, was to make it non-institutional, more like home, and really beautiful,” she said.

The project got off to a slow start this spring after officials in Lyme and Old Lyme were left scrambling by the news that the project was $1.3 million over budget. But the project contractors identified about $600,000 in savings to allow the project to break ground in May after taxpayers in both towns agreed to pay an additional $880,000 in total.

Old Lyme is responsible for 75% of the project, with Lyme picking up the remainder.

The senior center closed for renovations last October based on the unrealized reopening target of October 2024. The move left seniors spread out across libraries, churches and municipal buildings while accessing services and participating in activities such as exercise classes, health clinics and communal lunches.

Lyme First Selectman David Lahm was optimistic the project will be finished in the spring.

“I think we got off to a slow start way back when, but now the contractor is on target, on schedule, and I think we’re going to have a very good product for our seniors when we open back up in March,” he said.

Included in the project are additional kitchen improvements not anticipated in the original scope. Officials earmarked $80,000 of the extra $880,000 in funding to ensure an up-to-date and code-compliant facility in keeping with the rest of the renovation.

The building committee has since authorized $102,000 in contingency funding to cover the remainder of the kitchen project that ended up coming in around $174,000, according to Baker.

The owner’s contingency budget line was approved at $302,000 in the original budget. Baker said there’s about $81,000 remaining. A separate construction management contingency line is set aside to address issues including weather delays, price fluctuations, or design errors.

Lahm noted the project is once again on budget. He said it makes sense to use money from the contingency fund to finish the kitchen.

“It would be a shame not to give them the kitchen they need, and then have money left over from the project that went unspent,” he said.

Old Lyme First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said she meets weekly with Lahm, Baker, and representatives from Newfield Construction and Point One Architects to make sure the project stays on track. She described the meetings as effective in opening up the lines of communication.

“I think things are going very smoothly,” she said.

CT Construction Digest Monday November 18, 2024

Public meeting to be held next week on $32.8M rehab of Mohegan-Pequot Bridge

Daniel Drainville

Montville ― The state Department of Transportation will hold a hybrid public information meeting next week where it will present its plans for a $32.8 million rehabilitation of the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge.

The meeting will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Montville Public Safety Building at 911 Norwich-New London Turnpike. Participants can also join on Zoom.

Registration is required to access the meeting on Zoom. Anyone wishing to register can do so at https://portal.ct.gov/DOTMontville0085-0147.

According to a September release from the department, the meeting will feature a presentation on the project, followed by a question-and-answer session where people will be able to comment and ask questions about the project. The meeting will be recorded, and uploaded to the department’s YouTube page for later viewing.

“We encourage the public to attend this meeting to share their feedback with the CTDOT project team to incorporate into the design,” Project Manager James Barrows II said in a statement.

Mohegan-Pequot Bridge rehabilitation project

Mohegan-Pequot Bridge is a two-lane, steel girder bridge that spans the Thames River. It connects Montville and Preston via Route 2A.

According to Barrows, the project, which is expected to begin in spring 2028, will address “existing deterioration” on the bridge, and extend the service life for “another 20 years or more.”

DOT Communications Director Josh Morgan added the project will involve repairing critical steel components of the bridge to make sure they remain in “a state of good repair,” while milling and paving the road to make a smooth travel surface.

Morgan called it a “standard bridge rehabilitation project.”

He said the project does not include any changes to the travel lanes or shoulders on the span.

The $32.8 million cost is being funded 80% by the federal government and 20% by the state, according to DOT.

The construction will be staged, Morgan said, meaning the work will be done in sections with particular lanes closed at different times.

“This would not be a full closure or detour type of project,” he said.

Morgan said the rehabilitation is part of regularly scheduled, ongoing maintenance to the bridge and also part of a five-year capital plan that includes projects from around the state. The DOT inspects bridges every two years, he said.

“We forecast out projects to make repairs to keep structures in a state of good repair,” he said.

Members of the public who do not attend the meeting can submit comments and questions up to two weeks after the meeting, by emailing them to DOTProject0085-0147@ct.gov, or calling (860) 594-2020.

Preston First Selectwoman Sandra Allyn-Gauthier said officials from her town and from Montville attended a meeting with the DOT in August in which the department provided them with information on the plans.

“So what they’re really doing next is getting public input,” she said.

Allyn-Gauthier said the DOT is not adding anything to the bridge, but rather performing “preventative maintenance” to ensure that the bridge can continue to operate safely for a long time.

She said the bridge is in fair condition and once work begins, the DOT will provide updates for the affected towns.

Greenwich's North Street Bridge replacement will be done sooner but cost more, officials say

Andy Blye

GREENWICH — The North Street Bridge is on track to be replaced next summer, but doing the job on a shorter timeline is going to cost up to $700,000 more than originally expected.

The Department of Public Works originally projected it would cost $3 million to replace the century-old bridge over at least 18 months, but officials drastically shortened the timeline to just 10 months after residents bemoaned the prospect of facing a year-long traffic jam, among other concerns.

The new, shorter plan requires completely closing the road to traffic for up to 12 weeks next summer. Nearly all of the $3.7 million cost is expected to be reimbursed to the town through a state grant.

“In order to accomplish this modified design approach, DPW is anticipating additional costs,” officials wrote in a letter to the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the town’s finance authority.

The extra $700,000 cost has three components. First is $200,000 to hire police officers to work side jobs directing traffic, next is an extra $300,000 to cover longer construction working hours and finally is a $200,000 incentive for contractors to finish the job quicker.

DPW asked the BET budget committee for the extra $700,000 on Nov. 13. The request was approved by the budget committee, but it still needs authorization from the full BET and the Representative Town Meeting.

Officials originally planned to leave the bridge open to alternating one-way traffic, but that plan was scrapped after residents expressed a number of concerns, including traffic, timelines, flooding and safety.

Work is now scheduled to begin in March. The first phase, from March to June, will keep the bridge open to traffic with some intermittent disruptions as crews do pre-work, like relocating utilities. The second phase, from June to August, will see the bridge torn down and replaced. Drivers will need to take a detour during this phase as there will be no bridge.

The third and final phase, from September to December, will have the bridge reopened to traffic, with some disruptions as crews complete final restoration of the structure and roadway.

The bridge is small, originally built in 1909, over West Brothers Brook between Cotswood Road and Macpherson Drive in central Greenwich.

The new bridge will be two feet higher and longer — to span West Brother Brook below. The current opening beneath the bridge is about 11.5 feet long, but the new span beneath the bridge will be about 32 feet long. The roadway will also be two feet wider.

The original $3 million projection will be covered by a grant from the state government and DPW officials anticipate that $500,000 of the extra $700,000 will also be reimbursed by the state grant. The $200,000 speed incentive will not be available for reimbursement from the state, town officials said.

The contractor, who has yet to be selected, will be eligible for the full $200,000 incentive if the project is finished 10 days faster than expected.

The incentive payment will shrink by $20,000 each day the project encroaches into that 10-day window. So, for example, if the project finishes 9 days ahead of schedule, the contractor will be awarded $180,000.

“If they get it done on August 21 and reopen the road, then they would get the full $200,000 and that coincides to when school reopens for all the schools in the fall,” deputy commissioner of DPW Jim Michel told the BET budget committee on Nov. 13.

BET members also voted to add a condition to the funding, which will require DPW to come back to the BET with bid information before the extra money is released.

Harry Fisher, chair of the BET, said the board needs to apply extra scrutiny of the condition because of the unique and consequential nature of the project.

"This one's so different with an accelerated program and incentive payment," he said. "It's a good signal to the market that this is just a different animal."

Some nearby residents remain concerned about flooding on West Brothers Brook and want to see DPW address it. Michel said the department has, in its budget request for next year, included "significant budget line item for improvements of drainage." Town officials will set the budget, and decide what projects to include or cut, early next year.

New Fairfield’s old Consolidated School reduced to rubble; future use of site remains unclear

Kendra Baker

NEW FAIRFIELD — Following some setbacks and delays, the old Consolidated School has finally been reduced to rubble.

Demolition of the former elementary school commenced Oct. 30, following the approval of a $600,000 construction project budget transfer to address a shortfall in the Consolidated Early Learning Academy building project budget and allow for abatement and demolition at the old Consolidated site.

New Fairfield’s selectmen and finance boards approved the transfer during an Aug. 12 special joint meeting with the Permanent Building Committee. Delays with the bus lot proposal for the site, as well as increased building and abatement costs, were cited as reasons for the deficiency in the CELA project budget at the meeting.

The old Consolidated School — which served students in preschool through second grade — was replaced with the Consolidated Early Learning Academy, a 43,000-square-foot addition to Meeting House Hill School that opened at the start of the 2022-23 school year.

The $29.2 million Consolidated Early Learning Academy construction project was approved by taxpayers in October 2019 — along with $84.2 million for a new high school — with some costs offset by state funding.

With abatement of the old Consolidated School site complete, about two-thirds of the building had been knocked down as of Wednesday, Joe Vetro from O&G Industries said during the PBC’s Nov. 13 meeting.

“They’ve been using a water tanker for dust control and that type of thing. They’ve been doing a very good job out there,”  Vetro said. The rest of the former school building was expected to come down by the end of the week, he said.

First Selectwoman Melissa Lindsey told Hearst Connecticut Media that no decisions or plans have yet been made for the site’s future use.

Meriden gets $1.4 million state grant for new soccer fields at Columbus Park

Christian Metzger

MERIDEN — The state has awarded the city $1.4 million for two new soccer fields at Columbus Park, making way for MidState Medical Center to develop land currently home to grass soccer fields.

To resolve capacity issues at the 156-bed hospital over the past several years and make room for an expansion, MidState paid $1.7 million to break a 99-year lease with the city that allowed the public to use the two grass soccer fields on the property.

The $4 million Meriden Soccer Athletic Complex project involves tearing out two existing softball fields at Columbus Park, located at 208 Lewis Ave., and replacing them with two all-turf soccer fields. With the combined $3.1 million from the hospital and the state, the town only needed to invest $1 million to complete the project, which is expected to open to the public next year. 

The state money was provided through the Community Investment Fund. While previously denied, the town received the money upon reapplication. 

Mayor Kevin Scarpati said at a press conference Friday at Columbus Park, “Not only is this going to deliver a state-of-the-art facility for our youth by redoing the fields behind us to all-turf fields and revamping this entire park to benefit year-round sports for our kids in our neighborhoods, but it’s also going to give an opportunity right across the street at Hartford HealthCare Midstate Medical Center to offer quite the expansion at their facility.”  

The Columbus Park project is the latest in recent park renovations, including two baseball fields installed at North End Field last year and a new playscape in Columbus Park adjacent to John Barry Elementary. 

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said at the press conference that Meriden's application rose to the top due to the mix of private and city funding involved and the economic benefit Meriden would receive through the hospital expansion.

Officials also touted the project for fulfilling the growing needs of soccer players in Meriden and surrounding communities, as the existing softball fields have fallen into disuse as interest in the sport has decreased.

State Rep. Michael Quinn, D-Meriden, said it was sad to see the fields go, as he played on them years ago. However, he was excited to see the opportunities the new sports complex would bring. 

“The first year we played, we actually won our championship on this field," he said, "but interests change. At one time, Meriden softball was the largest league in the country, and now, unfortunately, it’s just a fraction of what it used to be. But soccer is what the kids want to play, and we’re so glad to add to those soccer opportunities here in Meriden.” 

The project hasn’t been without controversy. When it was first put forward, representatives of the Hawks Fútbol Club, the Mexican Soccer League and the Meriden Amateur Softball Association were upset that their input on the project's development was not sought, especially since they use the current field. 

Councilor Sonya Jelks, Democratic majority leader, opposed the project on the same grounds and questioned why other locations weren’t considered. 

“We have over 25 parks in this city," she said during a Council meeting in May. "I don't know why that particular one is the one that was decided to be the one that was going to handle all of the soccer traffic. My concern is that kids who live in urban districts don't have a lot of green space. They may live in a multifamily home or a high-rise and don't get a chance to put their feet in grass.”

Other councilors who were initially opposed to the project later came around, saying that the benefit of MidState's expansion and the revenue it brings to the town would be a boon overall to Meriden. 

Councilor Joseph Scaramuzzo, who sits on the board of the Meriden Soccer Club, initially was against it, considering the club had invested $100,000 in improvements to the fields, which they believed would be used in the long-term.

“When this first came out, (the club’s) first reaction was ‘go pound sand; we want to keep our fields.’ But then, as they discussed it and discussed it internally, the right thing for the city is to increase the grand list,” he said. 

Bysiewicz added,  “The fact that this project allows Hartford HealthCare to continue to expand their footprint in Meriden is good for people who live in this area who will be able to access its expanded services, but it will also, hopefully, mean more jobs and more economic activity in the city of Meriden and this whole area."