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Bridgeport’s Steelpointe Harbor project wraps up first residential phase
After decades in the making, Bridgeport has completed the first residential phase of the city’s Steelpointe Harbor project. The August, situated on the city’s waterfront, features 420 apartments. Developer Ryan Cronk said eventually the complex will contain around 1,500 units. Cronk says he’s happy about the occupancy rate. “We just started moving residents in and I think we’re getting close to right around 10% occupied and maybe over 20% leased,” he said. “It’s going really well.” Construction began on The August in 2024. The project overcame funding challenges from banks and gradually morphed from a complete luxury development to allotting certain amounts of apartments for middle-income residents. Gov. Ned Lamont said the redevelopment project could be transformational for the city. “If I hear anything from people is if I want to expand my business here, if I want to grow here, if I want to move a company here, whether it will be a place for our workforce to live, it will be right here at Steelpointe in Bridgeport, I can tell you that,” Lamont said. The new apartments replace a former industrial site which was home to a power plant.
https://ctmirror.org/2026/08/07/bridgeport-steelepointe-harbor-residential/
CT retirement communities expand as demand outpaces new development
Several of Connecticut’s 20 life plan senior living communities are in various stages of expansion as aging baby boomers drive demand for new retirement options. One of the state’s largest projects is taking shape in Groton, where Fairview recently secured $304.2 million in financing to build 193 independent living residences and 72 assisted living units, including 28 memory care units. The project, called Vista Point, also will include a 43,000-square-foot amenity center with multiple dining venues, an indoor saltwater pool, a performing arts center and additional recreational offerings. Altogether, the expansion will occupy about 20 acres. Nearby, Stoneridge in Mystic, currently home to 364 residents, recently broke ground on a $72 million expansion that will add 54 independent living apartments and 14 assisted living units to its 34-acre campus. A new development in Stamford, Mozaic Concierge Living, is nearing completion and will include 164 independent living apartments and 42 units for assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing. Projects in Simsbury and Bloomfield are also being pursued. They are all life plan communities, an increasingly popular senior living model that offers a continuum of care — from independent living to skilled nursing — on a single campus, allowing residents to remain in the same community as their care needs change. While contracts vary, residents generally pay a substantial entrance fee based on the size of their unit, along with a monthly fee that covers housing and future healthcare services.
Killingly wetlands commission to hold public hearing on Amazon distribution center Sept. 14
Killingly — The Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission will hold a public hearing on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. on a revised application for a nearly 1.3 million-square-foot Amazon distribution center on Westcott Road. Evan Seeman, a lawyer representing the developer, Ryan Companies, told the commission Monday that Ryan is requesting a public hearing for the distribution center, also known as “Project Husky.” Seeman said the developer is also “considering some design modifications” and plans to present the commission with a full presentation of the new application at the September meeting. The wetlands commission voted Monday to accept Ryan’s resubmitted application with no site walk and a public hearing. This action comes after commission members voted 3-2 to deny the initial permit without prejudice on July 6, meaning the developer could change and resubmit the plan, which it did on July 15 before the town approved a moratorium on new warehouse applications beginning July 20. The commission denied the initial application because the developer failed to “exhaust feasible and prudent alternatives.” These alternatives included reducing the building footprint and creating a tiered parking structure instead of some surface parking to reduce impact to wetlands. Seaman said that the developer’s new application includes responses to the commission’s reason for the initial denial.
Amazon partner sues CT town as residents organize against plan for mega-warehouse
In another case of eastern Connecticut residents pushing back against mega-developments, dozens of taxpayers in Killingly are organizing to fight Amazon’s proposal for a 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse. Warning that it would bring unwanted traffic, destroy scores of acres of woodlands and further commercialize the community, homeowners have filed letters of protest with the town and are promoting several online petition drives. “The representatives who ought to protect our interests are deliberately ignoring our pleas, blinded by promises of economic gain,” Vanessa Lamothe wrote in a change.org petition. “The community of Killingly must stand united against this development. This is our home — a place of natural beauty, tranquility, and history. Are we to stand by as it’s appropriated for corporate gain?”
Plan for new CT water line would run pipe through four towns and under two rivers. Why it’s needed.
A proposed water pipe would run through four towns and under two rivers and would provide a critically needed new conduit for a water transmission main. It would cross under the Connecticut River to supply drinking water to South Windsor, East Hartford, Glastonbury and Portland and would be used in the case of a main failure. The Metropolitan District Commission is seeking to install a new 30-inch diameter water transmission main through Windsor, Hartford, South Windsor and East Hartford and beneath both the Connecticut River and Podunk River. The Transmission Main Project is not yet in the design stage. The MDC is in the preliminary stages and is doing initial investigatory work on the project that would provide the redundant water service for customers and infrastructure on the east side of the Connecticut River. Metropolitan District Commission spokesperson Nick Salemi said the “completion of this project would provide enhanced safety and emergency preparedness and vital infrastructure resiliency for service provision to customers and expanded capacity for emergency water service.”
Amazon builder wages legal battle against Killingly over rejection of advanced-robotics warehouse
PUTNAM—Ryan Companies US Inc., which builds warehouses for Amazon, and more than a dozen Killingly property owners have filed an appeal of the Killingly Inland, Wetlands and Watercourses Commission’s denial of a proposed 1.3 million square-foot robotics warehouse. The appeal, filed in superior court in Putnam, seeks to reverse the commission’s 3-2 vote in July that prevents the $200 million project from moving forward. The appeal also asks the court to direct the commission to approve the application. Simultaneously, Ryan Companies has filed new applications with the inland, wetlands and watercourses commission and the town’s planning and zoning commission. The wetlands application was received by the commission at its Monday meeting and a date for a public hearing was set for Sept. 14. Evan Seeman, an attorney with Robinson & Cole, told the commission that the applicants will be prepared to make a presentation on the project at that hearing. In the complaint, the plaintiffs argue that the commission’s decision to deny the application was made because Ryan Companies did not seek reasonable and prudent alternatives to reduce the square footage of the building and reduce the size of impervious area caused by the parking lot. However, the complaint claims that the company did reduce the building size by 87,000 square feet during the months-long public hearing and also investigated a suggestion that the company consider a parking structure but determined that it would not result in any meaningful benefit in terms of reduced impact to wetlands.
Meriden nearing final stages of $22M bridge reconstruction project in 100-year floodplain
MERIDEN — One of three bridges under reconstruction as part of the Harbor Brook master plan to eliminate serious flooding in the downtown area opened Monday, while another is close to completion. The one that opened is one of the two bridges at the Hanover Towers complex on Butler Street. According to Meriden City Engineer Brian Ennis, the parking lots around the towers flood frequently. Part of the reconstruction of the bridges involves raising the structures above base flood level elevation, according to an environmental assessment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The goal is to dry out Hanover Street by the police station and Banana Brazil restaurant, Ennis said. Prep work on the Grove Street bridge on the property began Monday. Ennis expects it will be blocked off to traffic Friday or early next week. “We couldn’t demolish them both at the same time because people still have got to get in and out. We filtered all the traffic down Grove Street while we did the Butler Street bridge. Now we’re going to move all the traffic over to Butler while we do the Grove Street bridge,” he explained. That phase of the project costs $14.9 million, Ennis said. The city received a FEMA grant for $11.3 million for 75% of the project, and the city is responsible for the remaining 25%, or $3.6 million, he added.
$12M project coming to CT airport. Goal includes making room for travelers on new routes
A $12 million expansion of much-needed parking could carry the state’s largest commercial airport for five years, easing a looming parking crunch at peak travel periods and accommodate future route expansions, including flights such as a long-sought nonstop to London. Bradley International Airport will increase its parking by 20% by this spring, adding more than 1,500 spaces on what was once the hub of airport car rentals. That would push the number of spaces operated by Bradley from its current 7,900 to nearly 9,500, spread across a garage and surface lots. “During your high travel periods or on holidays or high peak summer travel or spring break, we do start getting close to capacity,” said Michael W. Shea, executive director and chief executive of the Connecticut Airport Authority, which oversees operations at Bradley. “So as we built our ground transportation center, which opened in 2022, which houses all our rental car operations, it really freed up the old rental car sites and made them available for parking.” The project, now well into construction, encompasses 14 acres off Schoephoester Road and is the largest expansion in parking at Bradley in more than a decade. The project also is a sign of the airport’s aspirations to raise its profile among mid-size airports in the region with further route expansion.
More Work Zone Speed Cameras Go Live Across State Highways
More highway work zones across Connecticut are now being monitored by speed cameras as the state expands its effort to slow drivers in construction areas where nearly 4,900 accidents have occurred over the past five years. Speed cameras went live Sunday at the Interstate 91, Interstate 691 and Route 15 interchange construction projects, joining a growing network of enforcement cameras operating through the state Department of Transportation’s Know the Zone program. The program was launched after highway workers repeatedly raised concerns about speeding and distracted driving in work zones, where crews often work just feet from passing traffic. According to the CT CRASH database, there have been 4,867 crashes involving work zones statewide from 2021 to 2025, resulting in 18 fatalities. The state uses two types of work zone speed cameras: stationary units mounted on utility trailers for long-term projects like the interchange construction in Meriden; and mobile units, mounted on SUVs, for short-term projects like paving or pothole filling. The Department of Transportation maintains a map showing approximate locations of the cameras, though only 15 cameras can be active at a time, according to state law. During a statewide testing period from March through May, the cameras detected 8.4 million vehicles traveling through work zones. Of those, 1.3 million were traveling above the posted speed limit, according to department spokesperson Eva Zymaris. Roughly 4,000 were traveling at more than 85 mph through work zones, and 150 drivers were traveling more than 100 mph.
https://ctexaminer.com/2026/08/01/more-work-zone-speed-cameras-go-live-across-state-highways/
NB receives $14.7M to redesign intersection
NEW BRITAIN — A busy East Side intersection known for traffic backups and crashes will be redesigned after the city received a $14.7 million federal grant to improve safety, traffic flow and access to nearby neighborhoods. Mayor Bobby Sanchez and Governor Ned Lamont said Friday morning, along with local and state officials, the city was awarded a federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant to rebuild the intersection of Route 174, East Street and Newington Avenue. The project will replace the current offset, signalized Z-curve with a conventional four-leg signalized intersection. Plans also include new sidewalks, ADA-accessible curb ramps, high-visibility crosswalks, decorative pedestrian lighting, streetscape improvements and two pocket parks. The work is expected to improve connections to the East Main Street CTfastrak station, Chamberlain Elementary School, downtown and nearby neighborhoods. “This funding is a major victory for New Britain and for everyone who travels through this corridor every day,” Sanchez said. “For years, residents have identified this intersection as one of the city’s most dangerous and frustrating roadways. This $14.7 million investment allows us to finally address those concerns with a project that will save lives, improve traffic flow and create a safer, more welcoming entrance to our city. This is exactly what happens when local, state and federal partners work together to deliver real results for our community.”
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