Last of former Torrington Co. taken down

SLOAN BREWSTER

TORRINGTON – Demolition of the former Torrington Co. is complete.

Saturday marked the official end to demo, Glenn Carbone, operations manager for the property’s owner IRG Realty Advisors, said Monday.

“All the buildings have come down at this point,” he said.

One wall from what Carbone referred to as Building 1, a six-story unit that stood on Prospect Street, remains intact and likely will not come down. The wall is fixed to the adjoining building at 689 Prospect St., which houses Silgan Dispensing and was not razed. While plans last month were to protect Silgan’s building and remove the wall, Carbone said the scope of the project changed after crews started razing the six-story building.

He said he will be meeting with someone this week to discuss options for the wall.

“We may just leave it and cover it,” he said. “Why disturb something if it’s water tight and air tight?”

Demolition began on Oct. 15 of last year. Carbone said. In total, crews from Manafort Brothers Inc. of Plainville took down 26 buildings, totaling approximately 600,000 square feet.

Nothing unexpected happened during the project, there were no unusual findings and no one was injured, Carbone said, noting the project is about four weeks ahead of schedule.

“I want to knock on wood; it went surprisingly smooth,” he said. “A lot of things can go sideways on these jobs. Manafort worked very solidly.”

A cornerstone on one of the buildings that came down indicated it was built in 1912, Carbone said during a tour of the demo site in March.

In its heyday, the company, which included two divisions – Excelsior Needle and Standard Spoke Nipple – that were combined into the Torrington Co., comprised one of the most important industries in Torrington in terms of employment, gross revenue, taxes paid, factories in Torrington as well as factories nationwide and worldwide, Mark McEachern, executive director of the Torrington Historical Society has said.

The company was known for its manufacture of needle and other bearings.

According to John ‘Lucky’ Luciano and Jeff Rossi, longtime friends who met working at the manufacturer, bearings from the manufacturer were used in submarines, on bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and myriad other things.

Luciano, who worked at the plant from 1968 to 2007, said he made bearings for a Mars Exploration Rover.

On Monday he said he was neither thankful the plant was gone nor sad about it as the buildings sat unused for 18 years and most of the former employees have retired or moved on to new jobs.

“If it had gone down a year or two after I left there I would say wow, that’s my livelihood, it’e gone,” he said.

Carmella Lopardo, a 1949 graduate of Torrington High School, worked at the company for two years when she was in high school. She left the job when she was 18 and entering nursing school at Saint Mary’s in Waterbury. She said her brothers and sisters worked there before her and got her the job.

A family-oriented company, once a family member was hired and well-established as an employee the company would take on relatives, Carmella said.

“I got tears in my eyes thinking they are leaving us,” she said. “All the factories here are gone.”

When she drives by and sees piles of debris where once stood buildings she said she recalls her time there.

“I think of myself growing up and the chance they gave me…I mean they helped pay for my education,” she said. “I think they helped a lot of families to get on their feet.”

Demolition was funded by a $2 million grant from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development, said Torrington’s Community Development Coordinator Richard Lopez.

The site is considered a brownfield because of asbestos, Carbone said.

Cleanup of the remaining materials on the site will take about month, he said, noting that Manafort will be there for about three more weeks clearing out concrete, metal and brick and salvaging wood.

Once the site is cleaned up IRG will begin considering redevelopment, Carbone said, noting that the property will show better once it cleaned.

Possible ideas include getting another grant, leasing or selling the property.

“There’s a million options on the table; we don’t know exactly,” he said. “It’s just so early in the process. We don’t know.”

SENNEBOGEN Names Envimat, Tyler Equipment, TEC Top Dealers

As the SENNEBOGEN Dealer of the Year for two years running, Vinicius Casselli, director of Envimat, the SENNEBOGEN dealer in Brazil, said his plan was to make Envimat the top dealer. And Plan B was to make Plan A work.

Well, it is working as well as he expected. But as he said recently, "Although SENNEBOGEN material handlers are relatively easy to sell because of their engineering and overall product quality, their customers expect their machines to be able to operate 24 hours a day."

To make that happen, he has an army of mobile factory trained mechanics to do just that.

Award Winners

At a recent ISRI Show, today known as the ReMA Show (Recycled Materials Association), Constantino Lannes, president of SENNEBOGEN America, Envimat was once again named Top Dealer in the SENNEBOGEN America family.

"We are very proud of the accomplishments of all our dealers. We have the best dealers in the industry," said Lannes.

Brooke Tyler IV, from Tyler Equipment Company with company offices in Massachusetts and Connecticut, this year's first runner-up (and the 2022 Tree Care Dealer of the Year) stated that since SENNEBOGEN machines are purpose-built, he has technicians and service vehicles that have also been "purpose-built" with factory training and stocked with UPtime Kits and all the special tools they might need to service a SENNEBOGEN material handler.

Chad Stracener, from Tractor & Equipment Company of Alabama, the second runner-up (and the 2023 Tree Care Dealer of the Year) also talked about their service trucks, and factory-trained technicians that are out there every day meeting the needs of their customers while continuing to build customer trust and confidence. As well, he recounted that TEC continues to invest in inventory and an inventory delivery system that ensures continuous uptime and machine availability.

At the meeting, Tyler and Stracener both agreed with the sentiment from Casselli: "Our customers know that they are buying the best product on the market, but in return, they have high expectations for machine uptime."

They all agreed that as distributors, they take this responsibility seriously and each of them have invested heavily in parts inventories and technician training at the SENNEBOGEN Training Center.

They also agreed that a good salesman will sell the first piece of equipment, but it is the impact of the parts and service people that keeps them coming back.

Becoming Partners With Our Customers

Envimat, as the company name says, addresses their two main areas of interest: environment and material handling.

Initially, Envimat was well known in the forestry industry and made its mark there. However, based on that history, Casselli brought in steel, scrap and recycling market specialists.

"We hired these individuals because they know the business of our customers and understand the challenges they face every day," Casselli said.

"Our sales teams are well versed with the SENNEBOGEN product line but our specialists bring something new to each situation. We know what the customers want and we see it as part of our job to be their equipment partner and help the customer be more profitable. They can do that when we have earned their trust and we work with them to choose the right machines with the right attachment for their operations and applications."

Casselli went on to say that some of his best salespeople are his customers. When asking one of his customers if he can bring in someone to see their SENNEBOGEN working in their yard, they always say, "Yes, of course. But you're not allowed to come. Stay home. We'll have a good conversation," and they do. He says they tell them all about the machines but most importantly, they tell them about our service fleet, parts inventory and our factory trained mechanics.

"We're very proud of our relationship with our customers. We are also very excited that we are bringing five customer technicians this fall to the SENNEBOGEN Training Center for free factory training that will be done in Spanish."

What the Customers Like

One of the things that his customers really like is the simplicity of the SENNEBOGEN material handlers. The off-the-shelf componentry as well as the fact that they are hydraulic over hydraulics versus machines that use proprietary parts and are electronic over hydraulics. That combination, in the environment that they work in, makes them much more prone to failure and downtime due to the electronic componentry that controls the machines, the company said.

Casselli added that the success of Envimat is also due to the support it gets from SENNEBOGEN America and its president, Constantino Lannes. He said the SENNEBOGEN team is there every month and works with new customers to maximize their investment.

"Constantino is also here regularly, and we are working with him all the time. He is so knowledgeable. Our customers love to talk with him especially as he speaks their business language but is also fluent in Portuguese and Spanish."

When asked if he felt that a "Threepeat" was possible for next year, he indicated that he had a great deal of respect for the other dealers across North America but he will continue to work Plan B to make sure Plan A is successful!

For more information, visit www.sennebogen-na.com.

CRDA cancels vote on $145M XL Center renovation plan amid GOP concerns

Michael Puffer

The Capital Region Development Authority postponed a key Tuesday vote on a $145 million renovation of Hartford’s downtown XL Center arena, after Republican legislative leaders questioned the involvement of an entertainment group tied up in a separate state lawsuit.

The CRDA has a tentative agreement with Los Angeles-based live entertainment promoter and venue manager OVG360 to contribute $20 million toward the pending renovation.

In return, OVG, which is under contract to manage the XL Center for another year, would get its contract extended another 20 years from the completion of the upgrades to Hartford’s roughly 16,000-seat sports and entertainment arena. 

As part of the agreement, OVG would also keep the first $4 million in annual XL Center profits. Additional profits would be split with CRDA for upkeep of the venue.

On Monday, state House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora and House Republican Leader Stephen Harding sent a letter to Attorney General William Tong questioning the deal. Candelora and Harding’s letter notes the state has joined a Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the latter of which has a close relationship with OVG.

The GOP letter notes concerns raised in a recent New York Times piece that highlights OVG’s relationship with Ticketmaster and Live Nation. They also note Tong’s own lawsuit raising concerns OVG facilitated a lack of competition between Ticketmaster and Live Nation “using Ticketmaster as its own ticketing property and colluding on what business it pursued.”

“By advocating for Ticketmaster and excluding rival ticketers, OVG is alleged to have effectively reduced competition, limiting opportunities for other companies to challenge Ticketmaster’s market position,” the GOP letter states.

CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said Tuesday that the quasi-public agency’s meeting had been postponed in “deference” to the concerns raised by Candelora and Harding. Freimuth said he anticipates some feedback from the AG’s office. 

He said the OVG/Ticketmaster concern had been raised by CRDA board members previously.

“The (CRDA) board has the same questions Candelora is raising: how do we proceed?,” Freimuth said.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 

State Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-East Haven) said Republicans "have no interest" in getting in the way of CRDA's oversight of XL Center renovations but are concerned about how Tong's lawsuit could impact the venue's future contracts.

"We need the Attorney General to reconcile the antitrust lawsuit that he has filed against Ticketmaster, which could implicate this contract with the CRDA is entering into," Candelora said. "I'm just concerned that the Attorney General is going in a direction that could be in conflict with What is in the best interest of the CRDA."

OVG’s contract with Ticketmaster at the XL expires in one year, and a clause in the tentative agreement with OVG requires that service be rebid when the current contract expires, Freimuth noted. It also gives CRDA veto power over any ticket vendor OVG might select, he said.

Freimuth is hoping to hash through the newly highlighted concerns in time for a CRDA vote early next week, in order to keep the XL renovation on track. Construction bids expire in August, and any delay risks throwing off a construction schedule carefully balanced around the arena’s schedule, he said.

In addition to the CRDA board, the $145 million deal requires approvals from Tong, the state Office of Policy and Management and state Bond Commission. CRDA has requested a Bond Commission meeting to approve the funding in early August. 

Efforts to revitalize Hartford’s XL Center received a boost in May after the state legislature’s passage of a $370 million budget stabilization plan.

The bill increased the maximum amount of funding from $80 million to $125 million that the state and CRDA can contribute to an XL Center renovation. 

That potential $45 million increase in funding came just weeks after bids for a $107 million XL Center renovation plan came in nearly $40 million over budget.

Construction of 500 apartments at Fort Trumbull still a go

John Penney

New London ― There’s been little construction on the Fort Trumbull peninsula this year despite projects planned for all the parcels.

But the promised sale of two city-owned properties this fall is expected to set the stage for the construction of 500 new apartments on the long-vacant land.

The City Council on Monday night met in executive session with Renaissance City Development Association and city officials to discuss the “potential sale of certain real properties” within the Fort Trumbull Municipal Development Plan, namely the 1A and 3C plots.

Council members left the closed-door session without acting or commenting on their discussions, and attendees declined to comment on the matter, citing public meeting exemptions regarding potential property deals.

The RCDA, the city’s development arm, brokered a development agreement in 2023 that includes selling two parcels totaling 6.28 acres to RJ Development + Advisors for $500,000.

The agreement contained terms that required the development company, which built the 200-unit Beams apartment complex on Howard Street, to obtain state and local permits for the construction of a pair of apartment buildings, each containing 250 units, on land located on Nameaug and Walbach streets.

RCDA Executive Director Peter Davis on Tuesday said the agreement, typical in such real estate conveyances, also provided time for RJDA to inspect the property to identify any potential environmental issues.

“That (2023) agreement wasn’t a sale document, but I expect the property sales to be finalized in late September or early October,” Davis said. “We fully anticipate this project will happen.”

RJ Development in September secured site plan and special permitting approval for the market-rate apartment buildings from the Planning and Zoning Commission, which also approved similar plans for the construction of a six-story parking garage at 26 East St.

Jason Rudnick, a founding principal of RJ Development, declined to comment on the apartment project on Tuesday.

Felix Reyes, the city’s director of planning and economic development, said the development agreement essentially “kick starts” the inspection process ahead of a sales closing.

“It’s a contractual document and there’s no been no mention of changing the sale price,” Reyes said. “These are 500 apartments, and that means 500 people using our gas stations, registering their cars and eating in restaurants here.”

Tentative plans called for the Nameaug phase of apartment construction to begin this year and work on the Walbach building to start in 2026.

Hotel, residential project stalled

A separate development project in Fort Trumbull approved 2/12 years ago has yet to begin construction.

The Massachusetts-based Optimus Construction Management, which specializes in senior living facilities, bought 4 acres of city-owned land in February 2022 for $750,000.

The company pitched a plan to build a 104-unit apartment complex and an extended-stay hotel on the northeast end of the peninsula near the Fort Trumbull Riverwalk.

Davis said he spoke with Optimus principals about a month ago and was told the company was attempting to negotiate a deal with a “boutique hotel chain,” though he wasn’t aware of how those talks ended.

“There’s not a lot of activity on the residential side of the project,” he said.

The only substantive work on the peninsula now is the ongoing construction of a $40 million city recreation center.

Several parcels on the peninsula have been vacant for almost 20 years, the result of a controversial demolition and development push by the former New London Development Corp. that led to the landmark 2005 U.S. Supreme Court eminent domain decision, Kelo v. New London.

CT town receives $1.5 million in funding for historical bridge project

BERLIN— The town has received funding from the state Department of Transportation to complete a bridge project that has been a long time in the making.

The town was awarded $1,569,480 through the state's  Local Bridge Program to replace the entire bridge on Spruce Brook Road over Spruce Brook. Work will be done on either side of the bridge to conform to current standards regarding items such as guard rails and signage.

The approximate cost of the project is $3.1 million. The cost includes engineering fees, construction engineering, construction costs, utility relocation, and a contingency of 10 percent of the construction cost.

The design documents, specifications and other details have been drawn up. Director of Public Works Michael S. Ahern anticipates the town will go out to bid this winter and construction will begin next year. 

“We're very happy because we got the commitment to fund relatively quickly after we reapplied,” Ahern said. “The DOT has been fantastic as far as processing our application, guiding us along the way and then getting us the funding commitment.”

Durham-Middlefield Push for New Referendum to Approve School Renovations, Closures

Emilia Otte

DURHAM/MIDDLEFIELD — The Board of Education wants to take another swing at a narrowly failed referendum to close two schools and renovate a third, with members saying they think better communication with the community could edge the plans over the finish line. 

A June referendum that would have allowed the district to close Lyman and Brewster Elementary schools and convert Memorial School into a pre-K through grade five school was rejected by a narrow margin. The measure, which would have required a change to the Regional Charter, needed to pass with a majority in both towns. 

Durham voters approved the change 471 to 381, but the vote failed in Middlefield, with 215 voters against and 195 in favor.

At a July 10 meeting, Board of Education Chair Lindsay Dalheimer said she wanted to hold a second referendum toward the end of August, in the hope that additional communication with the community would shift the vote in favor of the project. 

“If we can get this through this year, we can save a year moving forward,” board member Bob Moore said.

According to feedback received by the board over the past month, a major concern from the community was the plan to temporarily relocate fifth-graders to Strong Middle School during Memorial’s two-year renovation. In particular, respondents said they were worried about having fifth-graders share buses with older students. 

At the meeting, board member Tina Hurlbert explained that the fifth-graders would get a 30-minute daily recess and that their classrooms would be located in a separate wing of the building. The board is also looking into providing additional supervision in the hallways during class changes. Separate bus routes are also being considered for Strong and Coginchaug Regional High School, Dalheimer said.

Dalheimer added that class sizes would remain in line with the board’s guidelines. 

Parents also expressed concerns about the lack of community input, and raised questions regarding the project’s cost and the potential negative impact of additional taxes on older residents.

The project is expected to cost just over $76 million, with nearly half funded by the state. The total cost to the two towns would be $39 million. 

According to school budget projections — without the Memorial school renovation project and the closure of the two schools — the district budget would be roughly $3 million higher because of needed building repairs and maintenance. 

Moore noted that the board had reviewed 14 different options to renovate or reconfigure the schools before settling on this one. 

“My sense is that this is a really cost-effective option for us to pursue,” he said. 

Without the proposed project, the schools would need an estimated $25 million in repairs, including replacements of boilers and roofs, Moore added.

Finance Director Kim Neubig informed the board that if the bond to renovate Memorial was approved, the owner of an average home in Durham (valued at about $400,000) would see an annual tax increase of approximately $43 over five years, peaking at $280 in 2026-27. In Middlefield, the owner of an average home (valued at about $350,000) would experience an annual tax increase of about $29 over five years, with the highest increase being $188 in 2026-27.

In contrast, if the towns kept all five schools open along with bonding $25 million for necessary repairs, the owner of an average home in Durham would see their taxes increase an average of $368 annually over five years, with the highest increase of $550 in 2028-29. In Middlefield, the owner of an average home would see an average annual tax increase of $248 over five years, with the highest increase of $370 in 2028-29. 

Dalheimer said the negative tax implications of repairing the buildings would only get worse as time went on. 

“The longer we wait, the more money goes up. … The longer we wait, the less attractive those buildings are to possible lease or buys,” she said. “If we don’t start looking at the numbers and don’t start looking at the state of these buildings and do something, it’s not going to be good for [Regional School District] 13.” 

She also noted that the Building Committee was “incredibly fiscally responsible” and had successfully kept project costs down in the past. 

“They’re not going to run away with money and costs,” she said. 

A flier that the district created to inform parents about the project noted that a single K-5 school would ensure all students were getting the same curriculum and would have access to the same extracurriculars and other resources.

“Teachers can collaborate more easily with their grade-level colleagues, sharing resources, teaching strategies, assessments and best practices,” the sheet read. “Students and families build long-term relationships with the school staff, fostering a strong sense of community and belonging.” 

Dalheimer said the former Brewster Elementary School building could be leased, possibly to a magnet or charter school. 

Community members who spoke during a public comment session last week had mixed responses. Durham resident Mike Czarkowski said he disagreed with holding a second referendum so close to the first, particularly in the summer when parents may not be able to attend public information sessions. 

He also criticized the new grade-level configurations the district approved last fall, which will temporarily place all pre-K and kindergartners at Brewster Elementary School, second- and third-graders at Lyman Elementary, and fourth- and fifth-graders at Memorial Elementary. The district had already voted to eliminate school choice for kindergartners. 

“If anything, reconfiguration should have come after we had approved [the renovation of] Memorial, and we should have gotten parents on board [with the] Memorial [renovation] before we configure this situation that is really, I think, going to be a complete disaster,” he said. 

Czarkowski also shared concerns that the Memorial renovation costs would increase if the builders found something they didn’t expect. 

“I don’t want to be stuck with a very expensive renovation going years and years, millions and millions of dollars over budget, which we can see in Cromwell and in North Branford,” he said. 

But Durham resident Maureen Funk said the situations were completely different. 

“Those other school districts that are having budget problems … were mostly budgets that were developed and contracted before COVID, where we know costs just went insane,” said Funk, who identified herself as working in the construction industry. “The costs projected here are post-COVID. Commercial construction costs have stabilized for at least the last 18 months.” 

Dalheimer also said that finding something unexpected in Memorial was unlikely, since there had been “significant renovations” on the building’s systems two or three years ago. 

Funk said she thought the new plan was the best option, noting it had been discussed for a long time.  

“The proposed plan … it’s better for students. It’s better for taxpayers. It’s better for property value,” she said. “Having a brand new, renovated-as-new school backed up to a state park … is the best thing that could happen to anybody’s property value.” 

On Monday, board members voted to hold a public hearing on July 24, and they also expect to hold an informational forum sometime in August. If the new regional plan is approved next month, Dalheimer said, it might be possible to hold a referendum for the $39 million in bonding in November.