The developer who wants to build a regional tournament center for youth athletic teams in Enfield after unsuccessfully pursuing a similar plan in Windsor Locks has clashed with fellow investors in at least two similar projects in the past. The developer, Andrew Borgia, who has spent the last few years pursuing the All Sports Village proposals in Connecticut, also has filed for personal bankruptcy twice. A 2017 lawsuit against Borgia remains pending in a New York state court. It stems from his efforts to build a sports complex in the southern Long Island community of Islip, New York. Early in the consideration of the Windsor Locks proposal, then-First Selectman Chris Kervick briefly suspended negotiations over the project after news of the lawsuit broke. But, despite the lawsuit, Windsor Locks voters ultimately approved creation of a Tax Increment Financing District for the area of the project by a 969-719 vote in a 2019 referendum.

https://www.journalinquirer.com/towns/enfield/developer-of-enfield-all-sports-village-proposal-has-complex-history/article_0f571444-b9d9-11ed-927b-0f02ce1774d4.html

Plans to restore the playing fields at Western Middle School — six years after they were closed because of high levels of contaminants in the soil — now include scraping off the toxic dirt and replacing it with synthetic turf. Greenwich Public Schools recently submitted an application to the town planning department for approvals on the roughly $19 million remediation plan, which has been eagerly awaited by the school community in the west end of town. The plan, drafted with the Langan Engineering consulting group, will scrape off a two-foot layer of soil at the fields, add a layer of man-made material and cover the restored area with a synthetic turf. Depending on a number of factors, the goal is to have the planned clean-up could starting in June and running 144 days, according to the engineering firm.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/greenwich-western-middle-school-fields-toxic-dirt-17816145.php

The developer of a luxury apartment complex on the site of the former Children’s Museum in West Hartford has paid $10.6 million for the property, with construction expected to begin this spring. The price paid by New York-based Continental Properties for the nearly four-acre property at 950 Trout Brook Drive near Farmington Avenue is about $2.7 million an acre — a price, brokers involved in the sale say, sets a new benchmark for development sites in central Connecticut. In Connecticut, Continental has developed upscale rental complexes in Rocky Hill, Glastonbury, South Windsor, Milford, Shelton and Trumbull. Meanwhile, plans call for the iconic, 60-foot, 20-ton Conny the Whale sculpture to be moved just across the street to the Trout Brook greenway. Conny was constructed in the mid-1970s as a symbol of the “Save the Whales” movement but had evolved into a playscape and mascot for the museum.

Former Children’s Museum property in West Hartford sold for more than $10M. Broker says price sets ‘new benchmark.’

About a year ago the Groton Town Council, facing strong public opposition, ended discussions about building a massive data center there. Now the same developer, NE Edge, LLC, is pursuing a data center project in Waterford. While recognizing the necessity of these data centers and defending the legislature’s decision to offer incentives so that Connecticut could compete with other states in attracting them, our editorial also called for more sensible decision making in choosing where to build them. The Waterford proposal calls for construction of a large data center at an existing industrial site, the Millstone Power Station. Providing cloud and other data storage, such centers are critical to life and economic growth in the digital age, allowing the accessing, sharing and storage of enormous amounts of information. This project would be a major job creator, generating upwards of 2,000 construction jobs and as many as 500 full-time positions when in operation.

https://www.theday.com/editorials/20230302/waterford-data-center-plan-is-a-winner/

The state offered the town the right of first refusal for the property at 538 Center St. next to Vinny’s Deli which the state purchased as part of the bridge project that dragged on for years before it was finally completed in 2021. Construction began on the bridge in 2016 but was almost immediately delayed when a contractor expressed concerns about the stability of the structure after a portion of it was demolished. Ultimately plans were redesigned and work began again in 2019 with an anticipated 2022 completion date. The project was completed early, but the additional work increased the cost of the project from $3.9 million to $5.7 million. Now that the bridge is complete, the state wants to sell the property it used as a staging area for workers.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Wallingford-declined-offer-to-buy-land-next-to-Center-Street-bridge

Choate Rosemary Hall overcame one hurdle this week in its quest to build a 14,000-square-foot admissions building and 70-space parking garage on 6.5 acres at the corner of North Elm and Christian streets. At the commission’s February meeting, it also heard from residents concerned about runoff from the construction. “The project is more than just a stormwater discharge,” he said. “There was clearing of acreage of trees, and where there’s natural runoff, that’s now affecting it, and relative to the detention pond, nothing has changed since they built the houses but the water is much greater now.” Ultimately the commission approved the application with only Kern voting no, citing too many unanswered questions that came up during the discussions. Choate now has to gain Planning and Zoning approval before beginning the project. The application is expected to be on the agenda for its monthly meeting March 13 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at Town Hall.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Inland-Wetlands-Commission-approves-Choate-plans-for-admissions-building

A draft environmental assessment for Tweed New Haven Regional Airport’s proposed expansion project says extending Tweed’s runway and building a new terminal on the East Haven side actually would improve the airport’s impact on the environment. Among the EA’s findings, highlighted by airport officials, is that the project would reduce overall noise by shifting aircraft ground noise farther from nearby homes. The expansion plan also calls for building a new, 80,000-square-foot terminal on the East Haven side of the airport. A new airport entrance would be off Proto Drive in East Haven, with access off Coe Avenue. The proposed new terminal “would be constructed on piers, raising the finished floor elevation above mean sea level,” the EA says. “The space below the finished floor elevation would be left open to allow floodwater to pass.”

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/study-tweed-expansion-bring-environmental-17816253.php

In the latest phase of the Walk Bridge Project, the state Department of Transportation purchased a property about one mile from the bridge to act as a staging area. News of the purchase comes as construction to replace the 127-year-old bridge is expected to begin in full swing this spring, and as the state begins construction work to remove the former IMAX building to accommodate the project. Property records show the parcel was purchased by the state of Connecticut, but the “co-owner” address, located on the Berlin Turnpike, is DOT headquarters. Previously, the land was owned by Antonios and Penelope Koskerides, who purchased the land in the early 1990s, according to land records. In 2018, the property was appraised at $1.42 million. Once construction begins, it is expected to take about six years, according to DOT.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/walk-bridge-norwalk-property-construction-17816667.php

Funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is finally making it to projects, according to the CEOs of several major public construction companies. Additional federal money from the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act is also boosting the civil construction outlook, they said. President Joe Biden signed the IIJA in November 2021, and despite excitement about the five-year, $1.2 trillion law, construction companies said late last year they haven’t yet seen much benefit. That’s starting to change as the money makes its way from state and local budgets down to the project level. “I am very encouraged by the tailwinds we are seeing not only in our construction segment, but also throughout the entire civil construction industry,” Kyle Larkin, CEO of Watsonville, California-based Granite Construction, said during a recent earnings call.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/iija-infrastructure-act-money-start-to-flow-construction-projects/643721/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202023-03-01%20Construction%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:48423%5D&utm_term=Construction%20Dive

The New York developer planning to build 172 apartments on the former site of the Children’s Museum in West Hartford recently paid $10.57 million for the property, as well as a small portion of the neighboring Kingswood Oxford School site. Developer Continental Properties bought the 3.96 acres from the Kingswood Oxford School – which has owned the museum property at 950 Trout Brook Drive since 2001 — in a deal recorded by the town on Feb. 2. Continental Properties is among the largest developers of Class A rental communities in the Tri-State area, according to Colliers. In Connecticut, Continental has developed communities in Rocky Hill, Glastonbury, South Windsor, Milford, Shelton and Trumbull. The bidding process for the site in 2021 was extremely competitive, according to Cafasso and Hunt.

Developer planning 172-unit luxury apartment project in West Hartford buys former Children’s Museum property