Anthony Properties will start building on the site of the former National Welding plant in Newington later this year, and possibly as early as this spring. State officials have been eager to see construction there for the past decade, and located a CTfastrak station alongside it in 2015 partly as a way to spur transit-oriented development. Just last month, Southington approved Anthony Properties’ plan for a $55 million complex of apartment buildings along Route 229 just a few blocks north of the I-84 ramps. The contractors’ trade magazine Construction Journal reports that the project will cost an estimated $55 million and will include a parking garage, four stories of apartments, a swimming pool, a dog park and other amenities. The company has dubbed the development The Spark.

Texas developer building 232 apartments in Newington, 255 in Southington

Challenges facing the economically diverse, historically blue-collar town of East Hartford were not far from view Tuesday morning as Walsh toured two state representatives and a small clutch of journalists through several sites targeted for ambitious redevelopment projects. The tour began at the Silver Lane Plaza, a 22-acre site where two of three deteriorating retail buildings stand empty amid cracked and pitted parking lots, then wound through several sites where retail, office and residential developments are planned on sites that haven’t seen investment in several decades.
East Hartford is tapping $10 million through the state-funded Capital Region Development Authority for the Silver Lane Plaza project. About $4.5 million went to the prior owner as part of the eminent domain taking completed early this year, Walsh said. The remainder will be used to demolish buildings and resettle about a dozen retail tenants hanging on in one of three buildings on the site.

https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/challenges-and-high-ambitions-on-display-during-tour-of-east-hartford-development-sites

Mark Barnhart, the community and economic development director, said the town has an opportunity to apply for grants from the state to help remediate and redevelop the property at 81 Black Rock Turnpike, noting it is next to Fairfield Metro Station. The fund has $25 million available, with towns allowed to apply for up to $4 million in grants, Barnhart said at a recent meeting, where the Board of Selectmen gave the go ahead to apply for the grant. The estimated cost to remediate contaminants on the site is $3 million, Barnhart said, adding that Post Road Realty is the developer who built The Anchorage on Unquowa Road, a residential apartment building downtown. If the grant funding was approved, he said, the town could help the developer clean up the property before it is turned into something that generates tax revenue.

https://www.ctpost.com/fairfield/article/fairfield-brownfield-development-black-rock-trnpke-17880964.php?src=rdctpdensecp

As one of the nation’s oldest cities — founded in 1638 — New Haven has changed many times and in many ways over the years. Among the areas of the city that have changed significantly over the past few decades are Downtown New Haven, the area around Wooster Square, the Dixwell Avenue commercial district and Long Wharf. New construction also is rising — at long last — on the longtime parking lot that once was the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum before it was demolished in 2007. Dixwell Avenue — the Main Street of the city’s Dixwell and Newhallville sections, with a storied history as a mid-20th Century jazz mecca and center of African American commerce and culture — is another part of New Haven that has seen some of its major past efforts at revitalization, including the Dixwell Plaza shopping center, run their course and become targets for redevelopment.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/new-haven/article/new-haven-ct-development-then-now-17858698.php

When completed next year, the boat is expected to be the first U.S.-built vessel to service offshore wind farms. Over the past six months, inflation and political pushback have become significant challengers for offshore wind, a sector that the Biden administration sees as a crucial source of power in the push to purge fossil fuels from the electric grid. Rising costs delayed two huge farms off the coast of Massachusetts by at least a year. The first large farms are scheduled to start producing power later this year, and President Joe Biden has set a goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Orsted and Eversource declined to share how much the Eco Edison will ultimately cost, but the boat employs some 400 local workers and boasts a supply chain crossing 34 states.

https://www.theday.com/state/20230405/a-football-field-sized-boat-will-service-offshore-wind-farms/

The Elicker administration has submitted a plan to sell Fair Haven’s long-vacant former Strong School property to a developer for $500,000 — with a 20-year tax break — to create 50 affordable apartments. Roughly five months after Pennrose, a national affordable housing developer, competed for and won the opportunity to redevelop the historic Fair Haven ex-school building, the city has submitted a Development and Land Disposition Agreement (DLDA) to the Board of Alders for approval. City Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre wrote in a March 16 cover letter for this proposal that the estimated total cost of the project is $25 million, and the development should be complete by 2025.

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

The decision to build a new combined middle school/high school on the existing high school site meant relatively minor inconvenience during the indoor winter season, with pylons rising out of the ground last fall where the school’s parking lot and tennis courts used to be. Pylons rose in the front of the existing building; old school and gym entrances were sealed off; a new parking lot replaced the old softball field in the back. After the old softball field turned into the school’s only parking lot, the city authorized $20,000 for a temporary softball field nestled between the new parking lot and the track. For now, the short right field fence will be Torrington’s own Green Monster jutting up against the parking lot boundary.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/gametimect/article/torrington-building-new-schools-fields-high-17878459.php

Construction on the new $22 million, 52,000-square-foot Big Y World Class Market in the south end of Middletown \officially kicked off this week with a ceremonial groundbreaking. The 7.31-acre site has been cleared and soon will be graded to fill the large depression on the land at 850 S. Main St., the location of the former Frontier Communications fleet maintenance facility. The national grocery chain is expected to create about 150 new jobs (50 full-time and 100 part-time), according to the application. This will be the largest commercial project the city has seen in a number of years, according to Land Use Director Marek Kozikowski. The grocery store is expected to open by late next summer, Matt D’Amour said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/big-y-breaks-ground-middletown-get-registers-17876432.php

The Stamford Board of Representatives took an unusual action Monday, voting to reject a nearly $1 million state grant for environmental remediation on the South End’s old contaminated Blickensderfer typewriter site. The coalition cited a mix of concerns, including spending, corporate subsidies and animosity toward the city’s largest developer, Building and Land Technology. Though the city was the grant’s official recipient, the $950,000 was to be transferred to the city’s largest developer, Building and Land Technology, which has plans to clean up toxic chemicals on the property and build there.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-s-board-reps-blocks-state-grant-toxic-17878598.php

New London has secured $2 million in federal funding for its future community center, officials announced on a sunny day at the Fort Trumbull site Tuesday. Mayor Michael Passero said the $2 million addresses a funding gap for the project. While the City Council approved $30 million in bonding for the project, which Passero initially said would cover the cost of the work, the price tag has increased to to $40 million. Last month, the project was also awarded $7.2 million from the state’s Community Investment Fund, and the state Department of Economic and Community Development allocated $1.8 million for environmental remediation. Carlin Construction Company is working on the Innovation Center building, which chamber President and CEO Tony Sheridan expects to be open in June or July.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230404/new-london-celebrates-future-community-center-and-2-million-in-federal-funding/