Windsor Locks has been awarded a $4.8 million state grant, helping secure a developer’s commitment to build a $42 million mixed-use apartment project near the town’s new planned train station. The welcome center will be located a stone’s throw away from the town’s new $65 million train station, which broke ground last year and is expected to be completed in 2025. The new station will be served by the CTrail Hartford Line, which connects New Haven to Springfield, and four Amtrak lines. The other $2.4 million in state funding will go toward acquiring the Windsor Locks Commons property at 255 Main St., adjacent to where the new train station is being built. The property is currently home to an underutilized retail complex. The Community Investment Fund is an economic development program created by the Lamont administration to invest up to $875 million in distressed communities over a five-year period. So far, there have been three rounds of CIF grant funding. The latest round, approved in September, allocated $76.4 million to 20 projects.

State grant, new train station spur $42M Windsor Locks mixed-use apartment development

The Biden administration on Monday pledged financial support for a two-way transmission line capable of carrying hydroelectricity from Quebec into New England and eventually offshore wind and solar power from New England to Quebec. The transmission line, being developed by National Grid and Citizens Energy, was one of three transmission projects receiving a total of $1.3 billion under a new federal program funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The goal of the program is to expand the nation’s transmission capacity and also break down barriers between regions, allowing electricity to flow from one state or groups of states surpluses to areas dealing with periodic shortages. The federal funding represents an upfront commitment to purchase power from the projects, but the expectation is that the money may never be needed. The Twin States Clean Energy Link would enter New England at the border town of Canaan in Vermont. From there the line would travel 75 miles underground in Vermont along roadways bordering the Connecticut River. It would then go under the river and into New Hampshire near Dalton, traveling 26 miles underground to Monroe, where it would then come above ground on an existing transmission right-of-way to Londonderry.

Quebec-New England transmission line gets Biden backing

The U.S. offshore wind industry has developed much more slowly than in Europe because it took years for the states and federal government to provide subsidies and draw up rules and regulations, slowing leasing and permitting. However, as government policies started to line up in the industry’s favor in recent years, offshore wind developers unveiled a host of new project proposals, mostly off the U.S. East Coast. The COVID-19 pandemic gummed up supply chains and increased the cost of equipment and labor, making new projects far more expensive than initially projected. Many contracts for offshore wind projects have no mechanism for adjustment in the case of higher interest rates or costs. Some developers have paid to get out of their contracts rather than build them and face years of losses or low returns. Biden’s administration has sought to supercharge clean energy development with passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a sweeping law that provides billions of dollars of incentives to projects that fight climate change. Since the law passed last year, companies have announced billions of dollars in new manufacturing for solar and electric vehicle (EV) batteries across the U.S. But the offshore wind industry is not fully satisfied.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/why-us-offshore-wind-industry-is-doldrums-2023-10-31/

Danish energy developer Orsted said Tuesday night it is scrapping two large offshore wind power projects off the coast of New Jersey, adding uncertainty to a nascent industry the Biden administration and many state governments are counting on to help transition away from the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels. The company said it is canceling its Ocean Wind I and II projects in southern New Jersey, citing supply chain issues and rising interest rates. Orsted stands to lose a $100 million guarantee it posted with New Jersey earlier this month that it would build Ocean Wind I by the end of 2025. That money could be returned to ratepayers. The company said it would move forward with its Revolution Wind project in Connecticut and Rhode Island. A handful of other offshore wind projects have been canceled. They include the Park City Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. Avangrid, a subsidiary of Spanish utility company Iberdrola, and several Connecticut utilities scrapped a long-term power purchase agreement.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/orsted-scraps-2-offshore-wind-power-projects-in-18460795.php

Eversource President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Nolan said Ørsted, the Danish wind company his firm is partnering with on the South Fork Wind project, said a final investment decision was reached earlier in the day to move ahead with another joint venture, the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project, which is expected to deliver power to sections of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The decision notice came on the same day the first load of offshore wind components were set to be shipped from New London’s deep-water port via barge to the coast of Long Island for assembly as part of the South Fork Wind project. The 130-megawatt South Fork project promises to deliver energy to 70,000 homes on Long Island with power expected to begin flowing to the grid before the end of the year.
The Revolution project is expected to generate 400 megawatts of power to Rhode Island and 304 megawatts to Connecticut.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231031/as-first-set-of-wind-turbine-parts-leave-new-london-new-wind-project-gets-key-approval/

Connecticut and Rhode Island have opened bid solicitations for 2 GW and 1.2 GW of offshore wind, respectively, after announcing a multistate memorandum of understanding with Massachusetts earlier in October. The final Connecticut RFP also includes a provision allowing bidders to submit pricing at a rate indexed to the price of “listed macroeconomic factors and commodities and that would be fixed at a date certain in the future,” allowing prices to adjust for factors like inflation. The addition of this provision comes as some offshore wind developers, struggling to advance projects in the face of inflation and other challenges, are asking states to allow them to exit and rebid their power purchase agreements. The indexed pricing option adjusts for changes that might occur after the bid due date but before the project reaches final close, and allows for the final price to be adjusted either up or down by no more than 15%.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/connecticut-rhode-island-massachusetts-offshore-wind-solicitation/698250/

The Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission is reviewing a plan by property owner Sammy Piotrkowski to create two development sites on the Norwich side of a 77-acre property Piotrkowski purchased last December that spans the border of Norwich and Franklin. Forty-six acres are off the dead-end Myrtle Drive in the Norwich business park. Norwich wetlands commission members walked the property last week and plan to discuss the proposed project at a special meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 16 at the planning office, 23 Union St. At the Oct. 5 wetlands commission meeting, David McKay, a project engineer for Boundaries LLC, representing Piotrkowski, told the commission the project would involve clearing 18.6 acres of the Norwich property and grading it to create a 4-acre site behind St. Jude Commons senior residential facility and a 1.4-acre site behind the FedEx property. City Planner Dan Daniska said the commission will discuss the proposed development at the Nov. 16 meeting, but it’s uncertain whether the commission would be ready to vote on the application that night.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231030/developing-last-open-land-in-norwich-business-park-a-challenge/

The real estate investment and development firm has been one of the most active industrial developers north of Hartford since 2015, when it paid $12 million for Hallmark’s 1-million-square-foot distribution center and 324 associated acres in Enfield. In August, Winstanley paid $122.3 million for a 1-million-square-foot Windsor warehouse, at 200 Old Iron Ore Road, that hosts an Amazon fulfillment center under a long-term lease. In October, it paid $4.6 million for a 133.6-acre Enfield site, at 1679 King St., already approved for more than 600,000 square feet of logistics development. Days later, Winstanley announced it had settled a legal challenge brought by Enfield residents, which will allow it to build an 819,000-square-foot warehouse at the former Hallmark campus, on Bacon Road. Winstanley will partner with Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development on a roughly $135 million construction project at the Hallmark site, expected to launch early next year.

Winstanley’s latest buying, building spree shows faith in region’s active, but slowing industrial market

The Hartford City Council Monday swiftly approved paying nearly $10 million to end a 7-year court battle over the development of Dunkin’ Park and the land around it, clearing the way for further apartment construction, possibly beginning later this year. The backing of the city council came just days after Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced that the city had reached a $9.9 million settlement in which all sides in the court dispute agreed there would be no further litigation involving the city. Council members unanimously supported the settlement, with little comment because most of Monday’s meeting was held in executive session behind closed doors. The $9.9 million settlement calls for the city to pay that amount to Arch Insurance Co., the insurance company that financed the completion of the city’s minor league ballpark just north of downtown. Arch stepped in after the former developers — Centerplan and DoNo Hartford LLC — were fired by Bronin from the unfinished ballpark project in 2016, and a year later, the mixed-use development around the ballpark.

Legal battle over CT ballpark site ends with $10M settlement. Now comes the housing.

Following this week’s announced $9.9 million legal settlement related to the initial construction of Dunkin’ Park — a court case that has delayed development around the stadium — RMS Cos. CEO and President Randy Salvatore said he wants to shift more than $13 million in public funding recently diverted to a plan to buy and redevelop the nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus in Hartford, back to development around the ballpark. Salvatore said he continues to negotiate an agreement to buy the 12.7-acre RPI campus on Windsor Street, a deal he hopes to close by the end of this year. CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said shifting $13.6 million back to the next phase of the North Crossing would still leave $3 million to rebuild financing for the RPI project. Salvatore said that if and when he completes the RPI property purchase, he will immediately launch into an estimated six- to eight-month demolition of the campus.

With lawsuit settled, Salvatore wants to shift $13.6M in public assistance back to apartment development near Hartford’s Dunkin’ Park