State officials have allocated resources for the renovation of the Veterans Terrace housing development to the tune of an anticipated $25 million in financing and tax credits. The state-sponsored 150-unit affordable housing project, located on Columbus Circle in East Hartford, has been under renovation for years by the East Hartford Housing Authority, which operates a handful of public housing projects in town. The DOH announced it would provide $4.5 million in financing to the town’s Housing Authority. CHFA said it will allocate tax credits that will generate $12.83 million in private investment along with $6.43 million in taxable bonds and $1 million from the authority’s Opportunity Fund. East Hartford officials said no municipal funding is included in the project.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/ct-east-hartford-veterans-terrace-renovation-20038442.php

As promised, President Donald Trump dealt a blow to the offshore wind industry on his first day in office Monday by signing an executive order that halts new leases for offshore wind farms in federal waters. The commissioning of Sunrise Wind, a 924-megawatt wind farm off the coast of Montauk, N.Y., and one of three offshore wind projects to be staged and shipped from State Pier, will be delayed until the second half of 2027, Ørsted said. A representative from Ørsted said the company is in the process of reviewing Trump’s executive order “to assess the impact on our portfolio,” but declined further comment. Ørsted has used State Pier to stage offshore wind components for South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind. The latter is under construction off the coast of Rhode Island and will be the first and only wind farm to produce power for Connecticut. Shaffer said he thinks Trump’s executive order and others that could follow might serve to provide headwinds and uncertainty for future wind projects, some of which are in the permitting stages. Part of Trump’s executive order pauses permitting for onshore and offshore wind farms while they are under review.

https://theday.com/news/695703/trump-deals-blow-to-future-of-local-offshore-wind-projects/

The committee leading the project to convert the former Academy School building into a community center concluded that keeping the project as it was originally envisioned would require at least $8 million more than the original budget. First selectwoman Peggy Lyons told the audience last week that the bids received in December were between $5.2 million and $7.6 million over the original budget. Given the escalating costs of the project, blamed on inflation and certain technical contingencies such as the need to replace the septic system, the selectmen expressed their intention to call for a new referendum on May 6 to increase the budget and maintain the project as it was originally proposed to the community. Lyons proposed that at the next board of selectmen’s meeting, a vote be taken to set the date of the new referendum for May 6. She clarified that they would have until April 9 to determine the final amount the town would request for the community center.

New Estimates Push Madison Community Center Cost $8 Million Over Budget

As the state Department of Transportation designs a $32.8 million rehabilitation of the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge, town officials have sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont saying the span needs to be wider. The DOT’s current plan to rehabilitate the bridge, which is in a design phase and not scheduled to begin construction until 2027, does not include bridge widening, only the replacement, rehabilitation or upgrading of certain components, and painting. But officials from Montville and Preston, along with local legislators, in meetings with the DOT, have urged that the bridge be widened, and that a bike or pedestrian lane be added. DOT officials indicated they had considered widening the span as part of the project, but it had been a much costlier option. Superstructure replacement, which would allow the widening, would cost about $206 million, while replacing the bridge would cost about $227 million.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/montville-officials-urge-lamont-widen-013100857.html

The fishing pier and boardwalk at Ferry Landing State Park will be removed starting early this spring and will remain absent for the duration of the multi-year, $1.3 billion bridge construction project to replace the Connecticut River Bridge, according to Amtrak. An improved pier and boardwalk will be installed at the end of the project, which entails building a new railroad bridge between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook and demolishing the existing 1907 bridge, said Amtrak spokesman W. Kyle Anderson. Trains are anticipated to begin running on the new bridge in 2029, but the overall project, including the demolition of the existing bridge and opening of the new pier and boardwalk, is slated to be completed in 2030 or 2031, he said. Anderson said the pier and boardwalk need to be removed for the construction of the new bridge and demolition of the existing bridge. He said Amtrak is using some of the park property for construction access, parking and storage. He said the removal of the pier and boardwalk is expected around late March or early April.

https://theday.com/news/690637/fishing-pier-by-connecticut-river-bridge-in-old-lyme-to-be-removed-this-spring/

A new quasi-public state agency armed with $60 million to spur multifamily housing in Connecticut downtowns and around mass transit hubs will begin to fund its first projects this year. At the helm of the newly formed Connecticut Municipal Redevelopment Authority (MRDA) is David Kooris, a 44-year-old Fairfield native who has led planning and economic development initiatives for Connecticut municipalities and state agencies over the past 17 years. MRDA was established by state lawmakers in 2019, modeled after the Capital Region Development Authority, which has deployed state bond funding over the last 12 years to spur hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private multifamily development in Hartford and surrounding communities.

Kooris to lead Municipal Redevelopment Authority in first multifamily housing investments

A handful of subcontractors on a high-profile, partially publicly subsidized upper-scale apartment project along the city’s harbor have been fined a total of $160,500 and given stop-work orders for breaking state labor laws. The long-awaited development is the first phase of a proposed 1,500 units funded in part with a 12-year municipal tax break. State government also provided a $20 million low interest loan in exchange for 160 of the initial 420-units being designated as lower-cost “workforce housing” as well as nearly $1 million for the complicated environmental cleanup of the property. In late November, Connecticut’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division ordered five of the companies on-site — all but one from New York or New Jersey — to halt construction for misclassifying laborers and failing to provide workers’ compensation insurance.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/steelpointe-bridgeport-labor-20011027.php

A $115 million development project to transform the former Showcase Cinemas property nestled between Silver Lane and Interstate 84 has been delayed by more than a year. Developer Brian Zelman, who has partnered with developer Avner Krohn on the project, said Monday that the last hurdle was the East Hartford Town Council’s approval last month of a long-term agreement that will allow them to close on the property. The other major challenge, Zelman said, was the complicated nature of conditions tied to the use of public funds. The town and state have invested a combined $10 million into the development of the project so far, not counting the $6 million the town spent to acquire the property. Ultimately, the conduit for addressing those burdens was having the Connecticut Regional Development Authority oversee the expenditure of $7 million in state grants. Marissa Baum, spokeswoman for the town, confirmed that a groundbreaking is on track to happen when construction season begins.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/east-hartford-concourse-park-showcase-cinemas-20020698.php

The Land Use Department has received a letter from Lodestar Energy stating its intent to submit an application for a 3-megawatt solar farm on West Hill Road to the Connecticut Siting Council this month. The Planning and Zoning Commission will briefly discuss the matter at its meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. but will likely not get too deeply into the topic as there is no application yet, City Planner Jeremy Leifert said. He expects the solar farm will come up for a more lengthy discussion on Feb. 12. According to the letter, 19.6 acres of trees would be cleared for the solar array. Carbone has stated the three solar farms in varying stages in Torrington are plenty for the city. Save for a minor site plan approval, most of the other matters on the PZC’s agenda are scheduling public hearings for the two meetings next month, Leifert said.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2025/01/13/solar-farm-may-be-headed-to-torrington/

Grants announced Monday include $11.6 million to increase weekday round-trip service to and from Union Station in downtown Hartford, including more stops in a renovated Windsor Locks station and $2.4 million to study street-level train crossings along the Danbury Branch line that links Norwalk to Danbury. Eucalitto said the added trains will make it easier for commuters to plan, particularly on the Hartford line, which had record ridership in 2024. “We are a rail state, probably more than any other state in the country and we continue to rely on passenger rail to make our economy move,” he said. Mark Boughton, the state commissioner of Revenue Services who has been designated by Lamont as a transportation czar, said that when the federal infrastructure law was first enacted, the state estimated about $6 billion in federal support. As Biden leaves next week, Connecticut has received $9.6 billion in support in a variety of areas, including public health, he said. Under Eucalitto, 200 state bridges have been replaced under the program.

https://www-thehour-com.translate.goog/politics/article/ct-railroad-grants-new-trains-safer-crossings-20031347.php?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=TheHourNews&utm_campaign=twsocialflow&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_hist=true