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$30 million project would bring 125 apartments, modern retail to CT suburb
The site of a deteriorating, outdated South Windsor shopping plaza could be transformed into 125 apartments with 60,000 square feet of modern retail space under a developer’s proposal. Farmington-based REESG Properties is proposing a full-scale makeover of the empty Sullivan Plaza on Sullivan Avenue, a project estimated at $30 million. Years of decay had the roughly 60-year-old strip center teetering for most of the past decade, with the vacancy rate of small stores rising as traffic dropped off and the building facades and parking lot fell into disrepair. The final loss was the anchor tenant, Geissler’s; the supermarket chain had been the star attraction at the plaza since opening in 1988, but shut down the location last summer. Homeowners and small business owners nearby have been eager to see the nearly 20-acre plaza property revitalized in some way; it’s been fenced off from the street and derelict since Geissler’s departed. “The proposed development will have a significant positive impact on the surrounding neighborhood and the entire town of South Windsor,” the town’s Economic Development Commission predicted on its website. REESG’s proposal is to renovate 60,740 square feet of commercial space.
Preston looks to prohibit data centers and large shipping centers
Preston — Planning and Zoning Commission members agreed unanimously Tuesday night to have Town Planner Kathy Warzecha draft regulations to prohibit or limit the size of data centers and large shipping centers. The regulations would include definitions of what qualifies as a “large shipping center,” and data center, and specify what the town doesn’t want, Warzecha said. Locally and nationwide, elected officials have seen pushback against AI data centers — including an unsuccessful proposal in 2023 by developer NE Edge to build one in Waterford on the Millstone Power Station property. Locally, there has been opposition to shipping centers as well, as Killingly residents are fighting Amazon’s plan to build a 1.3-million square foot warehouse there. Commissioner Victoria Schulz opened the discussion by saying many communities close to Preston have seen proposals for large shipping centers and data centers and specifically mentioned the Killingly project. “I feel like they’ve seen that with Killingly, where they pushed back against a few things, and they’ve gotten sued, because they didn’t have regulations for things,” she said. “I feel like we have a lot of farmland in Preston, and while we don’t necessarily have the infrastructure right now, it’s not that it’s not possible and not coming. So I think it’s best to have some at least basic regulations around them to at least get us started when they do potentially approach us.”
https://theday.com/news/920023/preston-looks-to-prohibit-data-centers-and-large-shipping-centers/
New exit and ramp from Route 15 north to I-91 north to open at Meriden interchange
Another change is coming to the Interstate 91, I-691 and Route 15 interchange in Meriden that may take some time to show up on drivers’ navigation systems. A new ramp, marked Exit 64A, is set to open Wednesday that will connect Route 15 northbound to I-91 northbound. An existing ramp between the two highways — Exit 65A — will stay open. The new ramp is part of a more than $712 million overhaul of the interchange that started in 2023 and is expected to be finished by 2030. A notice posted to the project’s website describes the opening of the ramp as “an important milestone,” while also warning that “it may take a while for the GPS guidance systems to reflect the new alignment,” so drivers should follow posted signs and lane markings. The new exit is on the left, while the existing exit is a little past it on the right. The state Department of Transportation has said that a speed camera will operate on each side of I-91 when nighttime construction work is taking place. The owner of a vehicle detected traveling 10 mph or more over the 55-mph speed limit faces a written warning or $75 fine.
Stamford Hospital Advances $275 Million Plan for New Cancer Center, Behavioral Health Expansion
STAMFORD — Stamford Hospital’s plans for a new cancer center, expanded behavioral health facility, and a new multilevel parking garage have taken a major step forward following the Planning Board’s approval of a zoning change and special permit tied to the hospital’s proposed redevelopment. The $275 million project will substantially reshape the hospital’s Bennett Medical Center campus to include construction of a new 73,000-square-foot cancer center — more than double the size of the hospital’s existing cancer center — and an accompanying 355-space parking structure. Both will be built on the southwest corner of the hospital grounds near West Broad Street and Stillwater Avenue. The hospital’s behavioral health services, in turn, will be relocated to the existing cancer center adjacent to the primary hospital structure once the new cancer center is complete. The additional parking will be offset slightly by the elimination of some other existing spaces that will give way to the new construction. Still, the combined work will result in a net increase of available spaces from the current 1,400 spaces to approximately 1,700 once the project is complete.
‘There was an oversight’: Why a $2.5M CT bridge needs a $3.4M fix a few years after it was built
OLD SAYBROOK — Eight and a half inches may not sound like much. But raising a roadway by that amount and completing other work to jack up a bridge over a creek here is expected to cost the state about $3.4 million. A team of Connecticut Department of Transportation engineers came to Old Saybrook Town Hall on Thursday to explain why the agency plans to raise the bridge that carries Route 154 over Plum Bank Creek. The project, expected to take place in 2028, will force drivers to take a 4-mile detour for multiple weeks. Residents are familiar with the detour route. It’s the same one they used when the bridge was built five years ago at a cost of about $2.5 million. DOT engineers told a group of about 15 people who attended the public meeting in person at Town Hall and others online that the problem is the underside of the new bridge is lower than the old one — a difference that wasn’t flagged until after construction. Now, DOT needs to raise the structure to “restore navigational and recreational access” to the creek, or else it will be running afoul of state statute, according to the team’s presentation. “There was an oversight as far as this being navigable water,” said project manager Jonathan Kempf. “That was just missed… After it was constructed, it was brought up to us that this one was lower than existing. Then we went back, we looked at it and we saw, yes, this is lower than it should be.”
https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/ct-bridge-old-saybrook-oversight-22408304.php
Proposed CT gas line project roils new debate. It’s amid politics over role of natural gas in energy
The town of Brookfield is leading another challenge to a tentative state decision approving a natural gas expansion project that would increase the volume of gas flowing through Connecticut to the New York metropolitan area. The town’s opposition — along with that of its backers in the environmental movement — is directed at an application by pipeline operator Iroquois Gas Transmission System to install two additional compressors at an existing station in Brookfield in order to increase gas flow by something less than 10 percent without having to expand the size of the pipeline. Brookfield’s concern — there has been local opposition of some sort since the compressor station was built two decades ago — is whether the operation of the new, gas-fired compressors will produce emissions with unhealthy levels of airborne pollutants such as greenhouse gases and contributors to higher ozone levels. The local fight is taking place amid a wider and increasingly political debate over what role — if any — natural gas has in the New England scheme of energy generation, where demand is forecast to increase and electric rates continue to rise. Gas advocates argue it is a relatively clean, plentiful and inexpensive fuel and pipeline access to New England should be expanded. Critics have written it off as an unhealthy, climate-damaging fossil fuel.
CT town asks residents whether to spend tax money. It’s to fight a trash plant proposal.
In a key decision affecting their campaign against a proposed trash-to-energy plant, Plainfield residents next week will vote whether to put up $250,000 to wage a court fight against it. Facing a possible legal battle against one of Connecticut’s biggest construction companies represented by a powerful and prominent Bridgeport law firm, Plainfield voters will be asked at a Sept. 3 referendum whether to hire specialized lawyers of their own. Selectmen are proposing the move because they anticipate a complex campaign to persuade state regulators to scrap the Smart Technology Systems’ plan. If that doesn’t work, the town could consider suing. Public sentiment so far has been profoundly lopsided against the trash plant, but it’s not clear yet whether taxpayers will agree to put money behind their opposition. First Selectmen Kevin Cunningham is proposing to take $250,000 from municipal reserves to hire outside lawyers. But many residents anticipate that could be just the first phase of costs if protracted litigation is needed, especially given the resources of the opposition. Smart Technology is a partnership of Advanced Waste Technologies and Torrington-based O&G Industries, a major player in Connecticut’s construction industry that does $850 million a year in business nationally. Smart is represented by Bridgeport-based Pullman & Comley, one of Connecticut’s 10 biggest law firms.
Major CT highway traffic pattern shift taking place this week. It’s scheduled to be in place for two years.
Connecticut motorists can expect a new traffic pattern starting on Friday night August 28 on the northbound Gold Star Memorial Bridge as part of a long-term project project. The new traffic pattern will be implemented beginning Friday from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and the “northbound traffic will be shifted into two travel lanes located in the center of the highway across the Gold Star Memorial Bridge,” according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The traffic pattern is expected to be in effect for the next two years. Construction work areas will be on both the left and right side of the northbound travel lanes and “this traffic [pattern] is expected to remain in place for approximately two years to accommodate the next phase of construction which includes bridge deck removal and replacement,” according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The project was awarded to MSR Gold Star Partners at a cost of $721,348,812 on Oct. 3, 2025. It’s expected to be completed by the fall of 2030. The Connecticut Department of Transportation asks motorists to use caution when driving through the work zone. The construction schedule could be modified or extended due to weather or unforeseen circumstances, according to the agency.
Stamford Health’s $275 million expansion gets preliminary approval
STAMFORD — Stamford Health has received preliminary approval for a major expansion of its downtown campus, including a new cancer-care center, expanded parking and relocated behavioral health and inpatient rehabilitation units. The city’s Planning Board this week approved a zoning change for part of the hospital campus and a special permit with conditions. The proposal remains in its early stages, and a final site plan has not been submitted. The Planning Board’s approval sends the project to the Zoning Board for further review and potential approvals. The existing Bennett Cancer Center would be relocated to a new, 73,000-square-foot building. Stamford Health’s behavioral health unit and inpatient rehabilitation program also would be relocated, with behavioral health moving into the existing cancer center building. The project would increase parking on the campus from 1,400 to 1,696 spaces. It would include a new 355-space parking garage and additional surface lots off West Broad Street. Planning Board members expressed concerns about the hospital’s expansion toward nearby Stillwater Avenue, a residential street. Stamford Health acquired a property on Stillwater Avenue and plans to use it for parking during construction.
CT agency develops 30-year transportation plan for state. It notes major ‘funding gap’ could emerge.
The state Department of Transportation has goals over the next few decades to make the state’s roads safer, travel more efficient, and more resilient to severe weather, according to a newly released 30-year transportation plan. Connecticut 2055, the state’s long-term transportation plan, outlines several distinct goals, including road safety, reducing congestion, and eliminating serious injuries or fatalities, creating more connected communities through a multimodal transportation network, implementing emerging technology into road design, and creating resilient and sustainable infrastructure, according to the DOT report. “Connecticut 2055 is a forward-thinking plan that will drive economic growth, connect our communities, and improve lives through an integrated multimodal transportation system,” Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said, in a statement. “The final plan reflects years of collaboration with residents, stakeholders, and partners across the state, and positions Connecticut to meet the transportation needs of today and opportunities of the future.” While the report does not outline costs for specific projects, it does offer “baseline scenario forecast findings” projected through 2055, and notes, the “anticipated level of state and federal funding would only meet the state’s transportation needs” through 2029. “By 2030, a funding gap would emerge and continue to grow over time, reaching $1.7 billion annually in 2040 and $5.6 billion annually in 2055,” it says.
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