Regional educational service center LEARN is moving forward with its plans to acquire the vacant Southwest School building from the town. LEARN’s Board of Directors voted Friday to authorize Executive Director Kate Ericson to buy the 15.3-acre property and school building at 51 Daniels Ave. for $1. LEARN will use the site to construct a $95 million bilingual early childhood school that will encourage students to retain their home languages. The LEARN Board of Directors submitted a funding grant in June to the state for review. The General Assembly would not approve any potential funding until next spring, Ericson said. LEARN’s goal is to begin designing and then building the school next July with an opening projected for 2027. The current school would be demolished.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230918/learn-votes-to-purchase-vacant-waterford-school-and-build-new-95m-early-childhood-facility/

In an attempt to reduce motor vehicle crashes on one of the most dangerous highway on-ramps in the state, the state Department of Transportation is conducting a $50.4 million project to remove the stop sign-controlled on-ramp from Route 17 to Route 9 north in Middletown. The on-ramp’s current configuration resulted in 319 crashes and 27 injuries between 2019 and 2022, according to the latest UConn crash data information. Middlesex Corp. of Portland is the contractor for the project, which began in late March. Its expected completion date is mid-October 2026. Work includes the construction of a 1,000-foot, full-length acceleration lane in place of the stop sign, and widening of the area on both Route 9 and the Exit 23B southbound on-ramp at deKoven Drive. Once construction is complete, Conroy said, drivers no longer will be able to enter Route 9 north from Harbor Drive, as the street will end just north of the park entrance.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-route-9-highway-crashes-safety-work-18369453.php

Connecticut’s private sector has finally recovered all of the jobs that it lost at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to preliminary data released Monday by the state Department of Labor — but headwinds including a persistent labor shortage continue to hinder job growth. The state’s private sector had an estimated total of about 1.46 million jobs last month, having recovered 100.6 percent of the positions that it lost during COVID-19 pandemic-sparked shutdowns during the spring of 2020. The comeback reflects rebounds in several industries, including construction, whose employment has reached its highest level in about 15 years. Six sectors are estimated to have gained jobs in August: education and health services, +800; professional and business services, +700; construction and mining, +500; trade, transportation and utilities, +500; manufacturing, +400; and information, +200.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/ct-adds-estimated-jobs-august-18373031.php

First Selectman Jason Bowsza says his town has done more than its share to help state go green. Now he says he is fighting on behalf of his residents by urging the Connecticut Siting Council to reject the latest proposed solar farm in town. On Friday, Bowsza said that Solar Two is “gobbling up prime farmland” and is contradictory to the town’s plan of conservation and development, which, he told Siting Council, seeks to preserve the “rural, village and business character” of the town. Verogy Holdings LLC, the applicant for Solar Two at 31 Thrall Road, is a professional renewable energy business that develops, finances, constructs, manages, and operates solar-generating facilities. Verogy officials say that the project will help Connecticut meet its emission reduction targets, as well as meet Gov. Ned Lamont’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040. Pending approval, the project would begin financing, detailed engineering, procurement, and construction efforts by the end of this year, with commercial operation planned for the project in 2024.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/east-windsor-ct-solar-farm-18368391.php

Having finished a $22 million, three-building apartment center on Broad Street this summer, city developer Robert Smith’s Metro Star Properties is starting construction of a $16 million two-building complex slated for nearby River Street this fall, he said Monday. Asbestos abatement continues and demolition will begin of an old downtown shopping center in October at 44-64 River St. Smith, a lifetime resident of Milford and third generation real estate developer and construction company owner, is bullish on downtown Milford and his and other investments made there through the years. The 44-64 River St. apartment project initially consisted of one 61,928-square-foot mixed-use building, approved in 2021, but the Planning and Zoning Board agreed in February to split the 50 apartments between two buildings.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/milford-metro-star-apartments-river-street-18373565.php

With efforts to build blocks of apartments around Hartford’s Dunkin’ Park stymied by ongoing litigation, developer Randy Salvatore hopes to redirect millions in public financing to a 369-unit apartment redevelopment of the former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus on Windsor Street. The 12.7-acre site was put on the market earlier this year. The campus sits just north of the minor-league ballpark, but is not part of a cluster of city-owned lots around the stadium that had been committed to a development – known as North Crossing – of roughly 1,000 apartments by Salvatore’s RMS Cos. Salvatore, on Friday, said he plans to build out the RPI campus in phases, beginning with the construction of a 269-unit, market-rate apartment building and a parking garage, much like the existing “Pennant Building.”

Developer Randy Salvatore eyes major apartment conversion of RPI’s former Hartford campus

The state’s affordable housing statute allows developers to largely bypass local zoning approvals in towns where less than 10 percent of the housing stock qualifies as affordable. According to the 2022 Housing Appeals List, 1.57 percent of Old Lyme’s housing stock meets state rules of affordability. Diebolt, engineer Seamus Moran and investors from Port One Companies presented the outlines of the proposal to the Planning Commission during an informal discussion on Thursday, in part to secure the commission’s approval to subdivide the two existing lots into six lots to fulfill state septic requirements. Bartash said the construction is planned for two phases over a two or three year period, first with 60 units closer to the Hatchetts Hill Road entrance, followed by 129 units in the second phase built toward the back of the parcel.

Local Developer Plans 189-Unit Apartment Complex With Affordable Units in Old Lyme

“Given the demographics, the location ― it’s an incredible location ― near public transportation, I-95, I-395,” Brule said early last week. “If we can have a vision of what we want there, I think the Planning and Zoning Commission would entertain quite a few things.” A deed filed Thursday with the town clerk’s office revealed Namdar Realty Group, a Great Neck, N.Y., real estate investment firm with a penchant for acquiring struggling properties, had landed Crystal Mall at auction last month, submitting a winning bid of more than $9.5 million. “Malls are not obsolete,” he said. “Plenty of traditional malls are successful in places all over the world. But they don’t work everywhere. I don’t think retail is dying by any means. It’s evolving.”

https://www.theday.com/housing-solutions-lab/20230624/crystal-mall-seen-as-suitable-for-mix-of-commercial-residential-development/

City school officials plan to merge Skane School with the nearby John Winthrop School as part of a multi-million dollar effort that will also include renovations to the aging Winthrop building. The construction project, which could begin as soon as 2025, is expected to cost around $80 million, according to city finance officials. The City Council has agreed to spend $17.8 million on the effort while the state will shoulder the rest of the burden. The merger is one of two ongoing efforts to house multiple schools under one roof. In May, the city broke ground on the new Bassick High School, a $129 million facility near Seaside Park that will also be the home to the Bridgeport Military Academy when it opens in the fall of 2025.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/education/article/bridgeport-s-winthrop-school-undergo-80m-18365510.php

The long range plan to bring Interstate 84 into the 21st century with three lanes in both directions from exits 3 through 8 is moving to the next review stage after engineers decided to fix traffic snarls on the west side and the east end with new ramps and new roads. Two of the options the state Department of Transportation is considering to improve the center section of I-84 that serves the downtown would create direct access to Danbury Hospital via Tamarack Avenue or Great Plains Road. The third option, which the DOT is keeping open after conversations with Danbury officials, is to build a road parallel to I-84 that would lead to Main Street and North Street, and to build a ramp from North Street onto I-84 westbound. The open discussion about improvements to I-84 between exits 5 and 6 is continuing as the DOT prepares for the next stage of environmental review, which will take years to complete, according to its timeline. The overall project, which is not funded and is expected to cost billions, would not begin construction until the early 2030s. It would not be complete until the mid-2040s.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/widen-danbury-s-i-84-option-open-downtown-exits-18368753.php