The exact amount of stolen wages in Connecticut is unknown, but some insight can be gleaned from complaints filed by workers to the departments of labor at both the state and federal levels, which investigate these complaints and can order employers to pay back wages. Based on investigations of those complaints, the U.S. Department of Labor determined that Connecticut employers owed workers more than $10.3 million from January 2012 to April 2023. From 2019 through 2022, the Connecticut Department of Labor ordered employers to pay almost $17 million in stolen wages after investigations. Any wages ordered to be paid back from judgments by courts or by the National Labor Relations Board fall outside the labor departments’ figures and are hard to quantify due to how cases are recorded. And unreported wage theft could surpass all other categories. Complicating matters, the state Department of Labor says it is dealing with a critical backlog of cases. Legislation to boost staffing levels failed to pass this year.

Wage theft in CT: Millions stolen from workers since 2019

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded New London $17 million for planned transit-related infrastructure improvements downtown, the largest portion going toward expansion of the city’s Water Street parking garage, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd, announced on Thursday. The city has for years sought federal funds for the garage expansion and improvements that would alleviate pedestrian safety and congestion concerns in the area, especially in anticipation of the completion of the National Coast Guard Museum on the city’s waterfront. Initial plans for the garage expansion would add 400 spaces ― it currently has 910 ― to the top three floors of the five-floor garage and expand the garage over the existing surface lot adjacent to Water Street. The $150 million museum project, now under construction and expected to be completed in 2025, is expected to draw an estimated 300,000 people a year to the city in an area that is already home to the parking garage, train station, busing hub and waterfront ferry service. A portion of the grant is also earmarked for support of the $20 million state-funded pedestrian bridge that links the museum and the parking garage and will carry visitors over Water Street and the railroad tracks.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230623/new-london-to-get-17-million-for-transit-hub-improvements/

A dying mall near the junction of two interstates and within hailing distance of a transportation hub might be ripe for what planners call “repurposing.” If that mall is in a growing, well-populated area that’s short on housing, particularly affordable housing, that repurposing might involve a “highest and best use” that includes a mix of commercial and residential components. 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. If Waterford has a plan of development for Crystal Mall, the town eventually may have to buy the property itself to pursue the plan, Clapp said, as the City of East Hartford did in acquiring an abandoned Showcase Cinemas on Interstate 84, once pitched as a casino site.

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

After a nearly yearlong moratorium on data center applications, proposed data center regulations will go to a public hearing on Tuesday. The proposed regulations conditionally would allow data centers, which could be no larger than 12,500 square feet, in industrial zones only. Any proposed data center must comply with the state’s noise standards. A data center also cannot use fossil fuels for power generation, except due to an unforeseen power loss, and cannot use water evaporation techniques for cooling purposes. Proposals must include a fire suppression plan and an agreement with water and electrical utilities to show that the data center’s utility demands can be met, among other requirements. The public hearing will be at the Planning and Zoning Commission’s meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Town Hall Annex and via Zoom.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230625/grotons-proposed-data-center-regs-to-go-to-public-hearing/

The City Council voted Tuesday to apply for a $1.4 million state grant to help build a new Meriden Soccer Athletic Complex Project at Columbus Park. The new fields in Columbus Park will ensure residents still have a place to play soccer, since the fields currently located next to MidState Medical Center on Lewis Avenue are slated to close. The city has a 99-year lease agreement with the hospital but MidState has stated it needs the property to build a new medical office building for cancer treatments. The new medical building will be taxable. MidState has committed $1.5 million to the city’s soccer fields relocation. The project has been discussed with the council for several years, but was delayed by the pandemic, Coon said. Officials worked with MidState and field users to search for a replacement site.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Meriden/Meriden-News/Meriden-applies-for-grant-to-move-soccer-fields-to-Columbus-Park.html

State lawmakers recently approved over $100 million in upgrades ($20 million of which would come from private funding), but that will only fix critical issues that are desperately needed, Freimuth said. Then there’s Gov. Ned Lamont’s public interest in bringing an NHL team — potentially the arena-challenged Arizona Coyotes — to Hartford, which would mean even more needed renovations and perhaps a complete revamp of the XL Center, which the Hartford Whalers once called home. The building will undergo a renovation that Freimuth says will take about two years, with most of the work done in the summer when there are fewer events at the arena. Officials had been trying to push through more funding for the XL Center for years but finally got it fully included in the budget that recently passed the state legislature. The deal paved the way for Oak View Group — which runs day-to-day operations of the XL Center — to invest $20 million in exchange for a long-term agreement to keep operating the arena.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/capitalregion/article/xl-center-hartford-ct-renovations-nhl-18154374.php

A stone bridge on Wesskum Wood Road in Binney Park needs to be replaced and work is expected to start July 5, according to Greenwich’s Department of Public Works. The project is expected to take a year to complete and traffic will be detoured on Arch Street, Sound Beach Avenue, West End Avenue, Summit Road, Drinkwater Place and Owenoke Way during construction. In addition to the new bridge, there will also be new curbing, a sidewalk on the bridge’s interior, a path connecting to Binney Park trail, decorative crosswalks and accessible pedestrian ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Crews will also widen the bridge so cyclists have better access and parts of Wesskum Wood Road will be repaved. Replacing the bridge is expected to cost $1.67 million, with half the construction and inspection fee to be funded by a State of Connecticut Local Bridge Program grant.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/greenwich-binney-park-bridge-wesskum-wood-road-18149476.php

Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers plan to start knocking down vacant buildings in the mid-century shopping plaza as soon as September — as they move forward with a years-in-the-making effort to build up the heart of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood. Those plans were presented by the Connecticut Community Outreach and Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) and its construction partners on Wednesday night during a community meeting they hosted at the Stetson Library at 197 Dixwell Ave. ConnCORP Chief Operating Officer Paul McCraven said in the next 60 days neighbors should expect to see activity begin at the site. He said phase one of the project will cost an estimated $146 million. Skanska USA Building Inc. Senior Project Manager Beau Burgess and Project Superintendent Brian Lake shared with neighbors the timeline and logistics of the demolition period.

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/dixwell_plaza_update_3

The development, called the Regency at Woodbridge, will feature three or four complexes with a total of 70 carriage-style town homes covering about 15 acres on Bradley Road and Litchfield Turnpike, the plans show. A sign on site touts luxury-style homes. The cost of the units will start at more than a half-million dollars, according to a listing for the project on the website for Toll Brothers, the project’s developer. Woodbridge Zoning Enforcement Officer Kristine Sullivan said work began on the development earlier this year. Toll Brothers has estimated that it will take about three years to complete, according to Sullivan. The Woodbridge Town Plan and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the housing development application at a meeting in September 2022. Based in Fort Washington, Pa., Toll Brothers has built 10 age-restricted developments in Connecticut, a project official said at the time.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/regency-woodbridge-housing-development-townhomes-18165031.php?src=nhrhpdesecp

A local golf club received the approval needed to go forward with a $4.5 million construction project that will offer new amenities to its members. Bull’s Bridge Golf Club submitted a special permit and site plan application to the New Milford Zoning Commission in March to make kitchen and dining room additions in its clubhouse on Old Stone Road. The club’s application also called for building a new golf house that would be connected to the clubhouse by a breezeway. The Zoning Commission unanimously approved the club’s application at its June 13 meeting.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/newmilford/article/new-milford-approves-4-5-million-expansion-18163101.php