CT Construction Digest Tuesday October 25, 2022
Michael Puffer
The XL Center in downtown Hartford is nearing 50 years old, and is in need of significant upgrades, officials said, to compete for entertainment acts.
The Capital Region Development Authority is angling for a deal with a Los Angeles-based international sports and entertainment company that could invest tens of millions of dollars into the aging XL Center in downtown Hartford.
CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth recently told his board — which oversees the XL Center on behalf of the city of Hartford — that Oak View Group (OVG) is interested in a deal that could see the company putting much of its own funding into the XL Center.
That interest is predicated on a recent study that confirmed the ability to make desired upgrades to staging and loading facilities at the roughly 47-year-old arena, which is home to UConn men’s and women’s basketball and hockey — as well as other entertainment events — and is still seen by many as a key economic development tool for the city.
“We figured out how to resolve the physical issues that were critical to OVG’s business model,” Freimuth said in a recent interview. “We would like them to invest in the building. We’ll do the elevators and escalators and we will give them operational rights to run the building for a longer period of time — try to share with them the upside and minimize our downside.”
CRDA and OVG are exploring a potential agreement that could put the XL Center under OVG’s management for an extended period, and which would govern the split of revenues, expenses, liabilities and future costs.
OVG already manages the XL Center on behalf of the CRDA. OVG took over management following its November 2021 acquisition of Spectra, a venue management and hospitality company.
At the time of the deal, Spectra was nearing the end of a multiyear XL Center contract. That contract with OVG has been extended to 2025 due to the venue’s prolonged shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, Freimuth said.
Freimuth said he believes OVG might provide $20 million to $30 million for upgrades directly impacting customer experience. That would offset part of a $100 million program of repairs and upgrades currently envisioned for the roughly 15,500-seat venue.
A rendering showing a sports betting lounge now under construction.
Pared down rehab
State and local officials have sought a path forward for the deteriorating and outdated XL Center for the better part of a decade.
The CRDA board had, in 2018, signed onto a $250 million overhaul recommended by consultants. But state lawmakers balked at the price tag, sending the economic development agency and its consultant — SCI Architects — back to the drawing board.
That resulted in a pared back plan focused on upgrades to the “lower bowl” portion of the XL, improving staging, adding premium seating close to the stage, and other upgrades.
Planned improvements include a series of retractable walls that could close off some of XL’s seating, shrinking capacity to 11,500. That would allow the arena to meet modern standards for the ratio of bathrooms and concession stands to seats, improving XL Center’s odds of pulling in more acts, Freimuth said.
The walls could be pushed back for larger events requiring more seating.
Extensive improvements to IT infrastructure and the show-equipment loading area are also planned.
“We are leaving a lot of money on the table because we don’t have the right product,” Freimuth said.
“That’s where the $100 million project comes in.”
Those funds need confirmation from the state Bond Commission. Before that happens, CRDA and state officials hope to secure private money to close the gap between taxpayer funding and the $100 million renovation plan.
David Lehman, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said he is following the negotiations.
He acknowledged the partnership with OVG is not yet certain.
“We think if we can achieve this, this is the best outcome for the building,” Lehman said. “You are going to have an operator who is going to have more skin in the game and is going to be focused on more activity, more events in the XL. …
You are just going to have a lot more going on at the center if we have an operator that knows how to bring in concerts, that knows how to bring in shows.”
Revitalization efforts
The state is already spending significant funds on XL Center maintenance before it dives into the $100 million plan.
CRDA has tapped $40 million approved for the XL Center in 2017 to cover the costs of $15 million in ongoing repairs and upgrades —including construction of a highly-anticipated sports bar/sports betting lounge on the edge of the building overlooking Ann Uccello Street.
Providence-based Dimeo Construction is building the lounge under a contract that includes improvements to the building’s western concourse, construction of additional restrooms, commercial kitchen improvements and upgrades to other systems. The sports betting facility was originally targeted to open this fall, but its debut has been pushed back to the spring due to supply chain issues.
The XL Center currently runs at a roughly $2 million annual deficit, requiring a taxpayer subsidy for operations. Boosters say that cost is more than made up for by sales taxes paid by event attendees.
House Speaker Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) said the venue packs restaurants and hotels during sporting events and performances.
With 21% of the city’s labor force now working remotely, that’s a draw Hartford cannot afford to lose, he said.
Ritter said he agrees a public-private partnership is the best route to a grander renovation that will keep the arena operational and relevant for the long term. He sees it as a necessary element in the revitalization of Hartford, a broader effort that has, over the past decade, included the addition of thousands of market-rate apartments downtown.
“There are some people who say knock it down,” Ritter said of the XL Center. “That’s just the Connecticut mentality I think we have to get over: ‘Oh we are just Connecticut and who cares.’ If you had asked people 15 years ago if we could build over 2,000 units (of downtown housing) and they would be 85% to 90% occupied, the naysayers would have said that’s absurd.”
Michael Puffer
As a child growing up in Torrington in the 1960s, Elinor Carbone’s mother would warn her not to play in the Naugatuck River because of the waste pumped into it by area factories.
“And she would know when we were in the river, because our white sneakers would come back orange or purple or whatever shade of contaminant was being dumped,” Carbone recalled.
Now Torrington’s mayor, Carbone is responsible for charting a new course for a city where large factories have long since shuttered, taking with them many jobs, and leaving behind enormous crumbling buildings and polluted soils requiring expensive cleanups.
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Carbone was back near the banks of the Naugatuck River on Oct. 6, this time in the company of Gov. Ned Lamont and other dignitaries, celebrating the opening of a 60-unit apartment building on a riverside site that hosted the Torrington Manufacturing Co. for more than a century.
“It certainly meant a lot for me to now have this (new apartment development), which is almost exactly in the footprint of a former industry that existed here, with this beautiful view of the river,” Carbone said. “There is a bald eagle now flying in this patch of the river. Heron and geese, … I see the restoration and reclamation coming to fruition.”
Once used as open sewers for manufacturing spoils and human waste, Connecticut’s long-abused rivers have recovered much of their past allure following stricter environmental laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s, accompanied by the retreat of large-scale manufacturing from riverbanks.
As rivers have recovered, efforts to capitalize on their natural draw have also picked up steam through new recreational parks, trails and commercial development.
Last year Riverfront Recapture announced plans to transform 60 acres along the Hartford-Windsor line into parkland, with docks and kayak launches, along with 10 acres for complimentary commercial development. Planning efforts are still underway, but the 40-year-old, Hartford-based nonprofit is eyeing multifamily housing and a restaurant, maybe a brew pub.
In April, Goodwin University was awarded a $2 million state grant to help pay for construction of a 32-slip marina on the Connecticut River, part of a broader plan to spark new housing and commercial development around the riverside campus in East Hartford. Goodwin officials hope to see an approximately 150-room hotel developed just above the marina, along with student housing.
The city of Middletown, in July, unveiled an ambitious plan to transform 220 acres of dormant industrial land along the Connecticut River into attractive and educational parks, community spaces, restaurants, retail and multifamily housing. In September, a newly-formed state board tentatively approved a $12 million grant to further that vision.
In early October, Middletown picked Spectra Construction & Development to redevelop three downtown parking lots. Spectra’s plans call for a manicured public plaza over a 584-space parking garage, flanked by 19 townhouses, buildings with 258 apartment units and 38,000 square feet of retail space.
Current plans call for the eventual construction of a pedestrian bridge from the plaza over Route 9, into nearby Harbor Park on the river’s edge.
Decades in the making
Connecticut cities and towns have advanced efforts to rebuild riverside properties for decades.
And during that time rivers have become increasingly more attractive as an amenity to leverage investment, said Donald Poland, managing director and senior vice president of urban planning at East Hartford real estate advisory firm Goman+York.
“Historically, prior to the rule changes in the 1970s, including the Clean Water Act, the asset of the river was a means of waste disposal,” Poland said. “Therefore, the river wasn’t attractive. It’s not a place you wanted to spend time. After the rule changes and the cleaning up of the rivers, they’ve changed as an asset. They are actually these beautiful, tranquil, picturesque environments that have an aesthetic and recreational value that attracts us to them.”
Many advocates of riverside development decry highways that run along riverbanks, cutting the resource off from residents. Route 91 in Hartford and Route 9 in Middletown are often cited as culprits. Poland notes that, at least in Hartford’s case, the city “turned its back” on the river a long time before the interstate was built in the late 1950s.
Hartford’s declining port trade “collapsed” in the 1840s with the arrival of trains, Poland said. The river was cut off from the city by a flood-control system of dikes in the 1940s.
Getting on the river
The nonprofit Riverfront Recapture Inc. launched in 1981 with backing from corporate Hartford and a mission to reunite the city with its river. The hope was to promote it as a resource for both the Capital city and neighboring East Hartford.
Today, the organization maintains three parks on the west bank of the river, one on the east, and 11.6 miles of riverside trail — with more under development.
The nonprofit organizes rowing competitions, walking tours, a music festival and other events to magnify the draw of its parks. Riverfront Recapture said its parks hosted 744,256 visitors in 2021.
Those visitors stop for gas, visit restaurants and other amenities, pumping $2 for every $1 spent on Riverfront Recapture’s activities, said Michael Zaleski, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, citing a 2015 study by the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
“We have this majestic river, this 410-mile river that starts in Canada and ends in Long Island Sound,” Zaleski said on Oct. 9, during a short break on the first night of a three-day music festival. “Here in Hartford, in the Greater Hartford region, we have this wonderful section we are trying to enhance. And, ultimately, we see Riverfront Recapture as an economic development organization.”
The Hartbeat Music Festival was staged at the Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, a signature park with landscaped decking over Interstate 91 and steep stairs leading to the river’s edge.
Zaleski said his organization, its parks and events are “an important piece of the pie” when it comes to the quality of life in the region.
“So, when a corporation is looking at recruiting people, there are people who are looking for riverwalk trails, there are people looking for rowing programs, there are people looking for opportunities to get onto the water,” Zaleski said.
Water attraction
Human attraction to rivers goes back a long way. The earliest civilizations sprang up alongside rivers, which provided water, transportation and seasonal floods that irrigated and fertilized agriculture.
There were also practical reasons Connecticut’s earliest communities have their roots near rivers. Hartford was a major shipping port for agricultural goods from the surrounding region before the advent of railroads.
Middletown also had its roots in shipping. The Naugatuck River and its tributaries provided mechanical power and water for a metal-working industry that would evolve and grow.
In many of Connecticut’s urban centers, past industrial use of riverside properties means that no matter how attractive the waterway has become, redevelopment won’t happen without help from the state and federal government.
The Torrington development celebrated by Mayor Carbone could only happen after a $2.7 million state- and federally-funded cleanup that drew out PCB-contaminated soil as deep as 17 feet.
In Middletown, the city has spent more than $75 million decommissioning its sewage treatment plant, buying properties and repairing a shuttered riverside restaurant building as part of its “Return to the Riverbend” plan.
The state’s new Community Investment Fund board has agreed to allocate $12 million to Middletown’s riverfront redevelopment efforts. It was the largest single grant among 26 recently approved by the lawmaker-led board.
But Middletown had asked for $24 million. Its grant application acknowledges the broader development plan “will take decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.”
Still worth it
Despite the expense, there is no shortage of riverside redevelopment projects being pursued. Boosters often pitch these as a means to reinvigorate economies damaged by industrial decline while clearing away polluted eyesores.
In Middletown, the payoff is seen as an improved quality of life and a stronger attraction for both day-tripping tourists and potential new employers.
“Anytime we have something where people want to come and spend time, they are going to spend time in other places in our community,” said Bobbye Knoll Peterson, Middletown’s acting director of economic and community development. “If people are making use of the (riverfront parks) they are going to make use of other things in the community. They are going to go to our restaurants, they are going to grab that ice cream by the river, they are going to see an adorable shop like Amato’s (Toy and Hobby) and pop in.”
Middletown’s state grant application offered a “conservative” estimate of $300 million in private commercial and residential development accompanying its project.
Spectra, working as a general contractor, is already refinishing a building on Middletown’s Main Street into 16 apartments for another developer. Spectra President Daniel Klaynberg said that is how he learned of the city’s search for a development partner on three lots near Route 9 and Harbor Park.
Under a tentative agreement with the city, Middletown would share the estimated $35 million cost to build the new parking and plaza, Klaynberg said. Housing would be added in a second phase to follow in “a few years,” Klaynberg said, at an estimated $100 million to $120 million development cost.
Klaynberg said Spectra would have targeted Middletown for development with or without the ambitious riverfront plans. The city has a vibrant downtown and strong housing market. But the riverfront plan does add to the appeal, he said.
“I think this makes it a prime location for sure and it’s a super unique location,” Klaynberg said. “We are looking at housing. It seems like there is a market to serve.”
Zone changes limit scope of possible warehouse on Wallingford site
Kate Ramunni
WALLINGFORD — Recently approved modifications to the zoning regulations of the former Bristol-Myers Squibb property at 5 Research Parkway would likely preclude Amazon from moving to the site despite two previous tries.
"It's not an easy site because of how big the site is," Town Planner Kevin Pagini said. "We really wanted to reduce the traffic and the amount of parking-intensive uses. There is a pretty substantial buffer between the property and the nearest neighbors. But it may not be the perfect project that everyone is happy with."
The newest application for the property was on the Planning and Zoning Commission's October agenda, but an hour before the meeting was to start, three commission members notified town officials they would not be able to attend, Pagini said. The applicant, Calare Properties, opted to pull the application and instead present its plans at the November meeting, Pagini said, so they wouldn't have to do it twice.
The two prior applications prompted concerns from residents living in the area, but it may not be the same for this application, Pagini said, because of changes made to the zoning regulations since then.
"I understand their concerns with traffic and everything else," he said. "That's why we looked for uses that did not generate a lot of traffic. Some of their concerns are more the type of traffic rather than the total traffic. It's understandable, but just the size of anything that could go on that site I think would potentially be an issue. Some of the neighbors are understanding because they had the opportunity to speak on the regulation changes, but I think some of the commissioners felt like warehousing was something that would be OK in that zone as long as it was just warehousing and not anything else more intensive than that.
“They specifically prohibited Amazon-type uses and freight terminals and drop yards with trucks coming in and out transferring the goods constantly. They didn't want anything of that nature,” Pagini said.
Bristol-Myers Squibb left the site in 2018, and since then there have been two applications for the property for Amazon warehouse facilities. Both drew considerable opposition, and while the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission approved both applications, the Planning and Zoning Commission denied both. After denying the second application, the zoning commission approved a moratorium on warehouse applications for the site while it worked on revising its regulations, which was completed in April.
"We spoke with town engineers, the water and sewer division, and we consulted with every town department for months and months and months over these regulation changes," Pagini said.
Tenant not identified
In May, Calare filed its third application with the Inland Wetlands Commission, which approved it earlier this month. Inland Wetlands has to approve the application before it can go before the Planning and Zoning Commission, so it wasn't submitted to zoning until this month.
The plans call for the construction of a 450,000 square foot warehouse building located in the same spot where the Bristol-Myers Squibb building was, with 10,000 square feet used as office space. The building would be on about 11 acres of the 180-acre site. The end user hasn't yet been identified, Pagini said.
"The size of the buildings and the parking lots are substantially smaller with this application," Pagini said. The prior application "spurred regulations changes that we currently have now, and the current regulations are what allowed this application to go forward," he said. "There are parking maximums now, and we reduced building coverage by a lot. We took out certain uses, specifically Amazon-type uses, parcel sorting and retail distribution facilities."
While they haven't said who the tenant would be, "they just want to get approvals for a shovel-ready warehouse," Pagini said. The revised regulations do not allow freight terminals or drop yards in the new district, he said. "There are certain uses that were part of the previous application that we did not want to see moving forward,"
No public hearing
As a result of the revisions, the application is for a site plan, which does not require a public hearing, unlike the prior applications. But that doesn't mean residents won't be able to have their say on the plans.
The commission “generally allows comments related to the application for a site plan, though it's not a requirement," Pagini said. "Site plans just have to meet the regulations."
So far there hasn't been much of a response from the public, unlike with the two other applications, Pagini said. That could be because they spoke at length at the hearings on the zoning revisions, he said.
"We haven't really heard from residents. They had eight months to comment on the regulation changes so they voiced their opinion then," he said. I don't know if they knew it would still allow something of this size, but it's not being reviewed like it was just a normal project. We spent hours upon hours upon hours reviewing this. There are extra landscaping requirements, there are extra stormwater management practices. There's a parking maximum now. The last application had like 1,700 parking spaces proposed. This one allows a maximum of about 530, so it's about a third of what was being proposed before."
The application applies only to the property to be used for the building and parking, he said. To do anything else on the property would require a new application.
Ridgefield earns $3M state grant to connect to Redding's portion of Norwalk River Valley Trail.
RIDGEFIELD — The state has approved a $3.06 million grant to fund a portion of the Norwalk River Valley Trail through Ridgefield.
The trail is meant to encourage outdoor activities and would eventually run through four neighboring towns. If approved by the town, construction is expected to begin on this Ridgefield portion in the summer or early fall of 2023.
The state Department of Transportation committed the funding last week for the Ridgefield Ramble, a 1.6-mile section of the 4.3 miles planned for Ridgefield.
"That's one step in the process. This is agreeing this is a good project and we will go ahead and fund it with this grant money," Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. "Eventually, there will be a walking, biking trail. That is the master plan. Right now, we're doing bits and pieces of it."
When built, the 30-mile trail is expected to span from Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, north through Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding and end at Rogers Park in Danbury.
Proposed mixed use zone could lead to Trumbull Center apartments
TRUMBULL — For years, Trumbull has debated the future of the Trumbull Center.
A plan to renovate the shopping plaza, which now has multiple vacant storefronts, including one previously occupied by Starbucks, and another that formerly housed Porricelli’s Food Mart, has received support from many of the businesses that currently occupy Trumbull Center. But a majority of residents at last week's Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing spoke out against a proposed zone change that would allow mixed use property, including about 50 apartments, at the site.
"More apartments are the last thing we need," said Cindy Penkoff, vice chairman of the Trumbull Republican Town Committee. "I am for this, but it needs be a plan that works for everyone."
The hearing, which lasted roughly two hours, was on an amendment to a zoning regulation that would permit mixed-use developments on properties greater than five acres with road frontage and direct traffic access to both White Plains Road and Daniels Farm Road. If approved, the change, which first came before the commission in August, could pave the way for a long-discussed project to mix retail and apartments at Trumbull Center.
Last year, Attorney Ray Rizio, representing Trumbull Center LLC, came before the commission with a pre-application for a plan to remove two buildings — an old professional building, and the building that used to house Starbucks and other businesses — at 900 White Plains Road, which is part of the Trumbull Center corridor. These buildings would be replaced with the mixed use property, that would include about 50 apartments.
Most residents who spoke at Wednesday's hearing echoed Penkoff's fears about adding more apartments to town.
Joe Pifko, another RTC member, implored the commission not to pass the zoning change. He said he was particularly concerned with the size of the potential development, which he said would be inconsistent with the character of downtown.
"I have a a serious problem with a five-story building in downtown Trumbull, where nothing is like that," he said. "It’s going to stand out like a sore thumb."
Throughout the hearing, Rizio and Commission Chair Fred Garrity clarified that what they were discussing wasn't the development itself, but the zoning change that could allow it.
"What we are looking for is a text amendment that allows us to go forward with the conversations people are asking for," Rizio said.
Before the public spoke, commission members were allowed to ask questions about the application for the amendment. Commissioner Tony D’Aquila asked questions for roughly an hour.
One of his requests was for Rizio to show a site conceptual site plan for what the mixed use development might look like. Though Rizio complied, Garrity pointed out that the hearing was about the amendment, not any actual project.
"What we’re talking about here is language to allow a development," Garrity said. At this point, Garrity said, the development itself is "pretend. It's a possibility."
The commission did not vote on the amendment Wednesday, but Garrity said it would likely be on next month's meeting agenda.