The vacant property fronting the Bedford Street parking garage has become a rare pocket of inactivity in Downtown Stamford as developers fill in the remaining gaps like puzzle pieces. Stamford-based F.D. Rich Company is seeking Zoning Board approval to build a 198-unit luxury apartment complex on the parcel, which includes an adjacent lot across Gay Street. The proposed 13-story building would include 22 studios, 100 one-bedroom units, 67 two-bedroom units and nine three-bedroom units. In accordance with the city’s Below Market Rate program requirement, the developer plans to build 18 affordable apartments on site. If approved, the developer plans to start construction in September 2023 and complete it by spring 2025, Cacace said. The city’s tax revenue from the site would increase from $40,000 annually to $1.3 million, he estimated.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-developer-replace-dress-barn-broad-st-17902254.php?src=sthpdesecp

Concrete has been poured and hard-hatted construction workers are busy on site, but the final downtown stretch of New Haven’s Farmington Canal Heritage Trail won’t be done until the fall — thanks to a mandatory break to accommodate summer camps in an adjacent park. That’s the latest with the ongoing construction of Phase IV of the canal trail, which will see the below-grade section of the rail trail paved, landscaped, and opened to the public from its current terminus on Temple Street down to Grove Street. Farmington Canal advocate Aaron Goode then wrote in via the Zoom chat with a more detailed update about the latest with Phase IV from his understanding. He wrote that Phase IV construction is now scheduled to be complete in the fall. In response to a request for comment for this article, City Plan Director Laura Brown confirmed the expected fall finish date — and laid out more details on the work that has already taken place, and what’s still to come. “Phase IV of the Farmington Canal from Temple Street to the terminus at Canal Dock continues this spring with an anticipated completion date early fall,” Brown wrote.

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

Danbury needs to borrow $115 million to pay for upgrades to its drinking water treatment plants and its distribution system, and to comply with current clean water standards — including one new rule passed by the government in 2021 because of the health emergency in Flint. “Overall this administration is working with (the) water department to stay ahead of these things,” Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito said. “The priority for us is some of the equipment out there has gone 40 years without an upgrade.” An April 25 referendum is planned that will ask a majority of voters to approve $115 million for “the planning, study, design, engineering and construction of improvements, upgrades, and rehabilitation of existing water system assets, facilities and infrastructure.” In addition to modernizing the drinking water supply facilities at Lake Kenosia well field, and the West Lake and Margerie water treatment plants, the $115 million in borrowing covers the cost of complying with a new federal rule passed as a result of the lead contamination disaster in Flint.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/danbury-drinking-water-115-million-referendum-17905847.php

A few months ago, the middle-high school project on Besse Drive was filled with piles of steel beams, trucks and ditches. However, the $179 million building project, which will have a new high school, middle school and central offices for the Torrington School District, is now taking shape. A recent tour with members of the SLAM Collaborative, the architectural firm chosen to design the new Torrington middle-high school, also included members of the American Institute of Architects’ Connecticut chapter and Louis Grasso from Urban Mining, a Beacon Falls-based company. Facing the middle school site is the five-story high school building — now a steel beam structure with a completed concrete foundation. The group walked in on what will be the ground floor. The school project originally was approved by voters in November 2020 for $159 million. In January 2022, voters approved adding $20 million to the project. School building committee Co-Chairmen Mario Longobucco and Ed Arum came to the City Council in December 2021 asking for approval to add the $20 million, citing increased enrollment and rising costs for construction and materials.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/ths-project-architects-lead-tour-construction-17911223.php

Kiewit Infrastructure Co., the construction manager for State Pier, is leasing the 15-acre former Thames River Apartments parcel from the city as a storage site for building materials. Deliveries of wind turbine components are due to start this month. Waste management removal improvements, tug repair, refurbishment of the public boat launch under the Gold Star and work on the bridge itself are all underway with federal, state and/or private funding. Compared to larger ports such as Providence and Bridgeport, the footprint may be compact but the industrial infrastructure is designed for interconnected commerce and intermodal freight up to 21st-century standards. The cumulative effect is an industrial harbor that has shaken the rust off. It is poised to revive its place among Northeastern ports.

https://www.theday.com/columnists/20230423/nl-harbor-shakes-the-rust-off/

An audit of Connecticut’s hazardous materials cleanup program disclosed that more than a year’s worth of documentation was unavailable to auditors. The audit was part of Gov. Ned Lamont’s response to news that a federal grand jury was probing the state’s hazmat contracts, Connecticut’s school construction program and several other state projects that were overseen by Konstantinos Diamantis, a deputy secretary at the state Office of Policy and Management. “The HazMat Program subsequently returned to DAS following Kosta Diamantis’s resignation from state service in October 2021, and continued to be managed by Michael Sanders until his untimely death in December 2021, when the Program was returned to the DAS Construction Services unit,” the auditors added.

Audit of CT’s hazmat program shows missing documentation

With development continuing to boom in New Haven, 166 new market-rate housing units will be coming just a block off the Green, with CA Ventures LLC’s two new mixed-use residential buildings at 808 and 848 Chapel St. The buildings, which the developers have dubbed “The Archive,” are on the long-vacant former site of the Kresge store that once served the city on the south side of Chapel Street between Church and Orange streets. “Our team has worked tirelessly for more than two years” to get the project moving, said Sarah Maxson, an Atlanta-based new development specialist for CA Ventures, which is based in Chicago. The project was designed by Ken Boroson Architects of New Haven.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/two-new-buildings-bring-160-apartments-downtown-17908926.php

The project, known as The Legacy on Main has already been through the land use wringer once, gaining permission last week from the city’s wetlands commission. Blueprints call for the conversion of the existing five-story office building into studio and one-bedroom units, and the construction of a 70-foot apartment building in the parking lot with more studios and one-bedroom apartments. A small percentage of two-bedroom apartments would be distributed between the two buildings. The trouble started when Balskus presented data showing a net reduction in peak traffic counts for the new apartments, compared to the office use today. Beecher concluded his presentation by suggesting projects such as The Legacy were downtown Danbury’s future.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/danbury-legacy-apartments-main-street-traffic-17908220.php

The legislative Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved $2.1 million for the school as part of the state budget proposal that will be reviewed by legislators and the governor. This would be Norwalk’s second charter school. “The city of Norwalk is going to be undergoing a comprehensive school construction process for all of our public schools,” Duff said. “The city is in the midst of building a new South Norwalk school. But there is certainly always room for more educational opportunities for our students in Norwalk.” Norwalk Excellence proposed a prekindergarten through fifth grade school, “with a potential request for expansion to include a middle school model upon renewal,” according to its application.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/education/article/norwalk-charter-school-funding-17906952.php

A Minnesota-based company is working with a Connecticut developer to create a sprawling biotech and life sciences park in Branford on a 120-acre site off the Exit 56 interchange, town and company officials announced Thursday. Plans for the project were jointly announced by town officials and developers Minnesota-based Ryan Companies and Henrich Partners LLC of Stamford. The project is being developed on land that includes the former Bittersweet Farm and is owned by Hamden-based Belfonti Companies LLC and A. Secondino & Son of Branford. Branford is one of the communities that has benefited from the New Haven area’s emergence as a biotech hub over the past three decades because of its proximity to the Elm City and the fact the town has hosted biotech companies for much of that time.

https://www.ctinsider.com/business/article/plans-announced-for-branford-biotech-park-17907693.php