The lot at West Park Place, facing Columbus Park, is a remnant of 1960s urban renewal. The diner won a court battle over government attempts to take its property by eminent domain. Now ringed by tall buildings, it soon may have another one next door. The Stamford Zoning Board is considering a proposal from Tullamore LLC, an affiliate of Wellbuilt, a Greenwich company, to build a 10-story, 99-room extended-stay hotel at 0 West Park Place. A hotel can be built there only because the city recently eased parking requirements for downtown lots smaller than 25,000 square feet, as long as the lot is within 1,200 feet of a parking facility that is open 24 hours a day.

Stamford Considers Hotel for 0 West Park Place

For Mayor Roberto Alves, a multimillion-dollar project to improve downtown’s walkability is just one small piece of the puzzle to creating a revitalized city center. The city’s ongoing streetscape project could be that injection. It will enter its second phase, installing redesigned sidewalks, new landscaping and other features along the intersection of Main, West and Liberty streets, in particular. The project gets a reboot after it was delayed by state permitting. And it comes with an increased price tag. Leaders now expect the second phase previously estimated to cost $13.2 million to cost more than $17 million. The project, whose official title is the Downtown Danbury TOD Streetscape Renaissance Project, “is a key part of revitalizing the city’s urban core,” Albakry said.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/danbury-downtown-streetscape-cost-phase-two-19986613.php

City leaders have approved spending $2.6 million in state infrastructure funds to build a new booster pump station that supplies water to the community college area. The Bartholomew Road Booster Pump Station, built in 1969 and located in an underground vault at the corner of Coe Avenue and Randolph Road, is in “critical” condition, according to Director of Water & Sewer Joseph Fazzino. The $2.6 million is coming from the state Department of Public Health Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program, which, according to the website, provides long-term, below-market rate loans to finance infrastructure improvement projects, such as storage tanks, treatment works and water mains.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-ct-pump-station-water-bartholomew-road-20011506.php

“Nuclear power already provides most of our carbon-free power. That’s why we’re working with the federal government to find ways to expand nuclear capacity here in Connecticut,” he said, then added, “Before you rule out natural gas … that’s where most of our power comes from and will for the foreseeable future, especially without more nuclear power.” That places him between the competing camps of clean and cost: Environmentalists who say carbon-free energy must be priority one, and opponents of procuring power from renewable sources that are more expensive than electricity generated by burning natural gas, including large-scale solar and off-shore wind. Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, the other co-chair, said energy policy must rest on a three-legged stool of cost, reliability and climate.

Natural gas? Nuclear energy? CT Gov. Lamont preserves options on controlling electricity costs

After years of broken promises and delays the Congress Street Bridge linking downtown and the East Side over the Pequonnock River may finally after nearly three decades be rebuilt thanks to a massive infusion of federal dollars. On Thursday U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, all Connecticut Democrats, announced that the beleaguered project is receiving a $24.6 million grant from the federal transportation department. The Ganim administration applied for that federal money a year ago. The bridge replacement went out to bid in the summer of 2022 and four contractors’ responded with prices that were at least double the initial $24 million estimate being split by the city and state. Those new amounts were $42.55 million, $48.04 million, $56.93 million and $57.63 million.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/bridgeport-congress-street-bridge-rebuild-20027198.php

The borough’s $14.8 million downtown infrastructure project is scheduled to be completed by Oct. 15, Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said. The project involves upgrading Church and Maple streets, the Maple Street bridge and the intersection near Water Street. A little more than $9.2 million of the funding will come from the borough’s American Rescue Plan Act money. The board in 2022 hired Kleinfelder Northeast, a national engineering firm with an office in Rocky Hill, for the final design of sewer upgrades and streetscape designs for Church and Maple streets. The firm is collaborating with Richter & Cegan, a landscape architecture and planning firm from Avon, for the streetscape portion. Workers should be laying the first coat of asphalt on Church Street in June before they move their work to the town Green. This will be followed by Maple Street and lastly the Maple Street bridge, Hess said.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2025/01/09/naugatucks-downtown-project-picks-up-speed/

The city was approved for a $2 million federal grant to come up with ways to knit back together neighborhoods cleaved when I-91 was built in the 1960s, officials said Thursday. The “Reconnecting Neighborhoods” grant comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Among other things, the $2 million grant will pay for design and a related community engagement process to find out how residents would like to see the long-bisected areas of the city stitched back together, said Mayor Justin Elicker. Among the areas the project is likely to affect are Fair Haven, Cedar Hill, East Rock, Wooster Square, Long Wharf, and the Hill, along with Downtown, said Alder Carolyn Smith, D-9, whose ward includes parts of the East Rock and Fair Haven sections. Fair Haven and East Rock are two areas that I-91’s completion split apart.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/new-haven-2m-grant-reunite-neighborhoods-i91-20024933.php

General Dynamics Electric Boat recently paid $5.5 million for a nearly 55-acre property in North Stonington, where the Groton-based submarine builder plans to construct a roughly 480,000-square-foot warehouse. The property at 45 Frontage Road, right off Interstate 95, currently hosts a 40-year-old, 5,000-square-foot garage. John Cafasso, a principal of Colliers, brokered the sale on behalf of the tribal nation. An Electric Boat spokesperson confirmed the purchase of the North Stonington property but declined comment on plans for the site. Susan Cullen, North Stonington’s planning development zoning official, noted the new warehouse will be about halfway between Electric Boat’s Quonset Point Facility in North Kingstown, Rhode Island and its Groton facility. The Frontage Road property is also within a district targeted by the town for industrial and commercial development, she said.

General Dynamics Electric Boat to build 480,000-sq.-ft. warehouse following $5.5M North Stonington land purchase

The importance of infrastructure is largely acknowledged as a bipartisan issue, said Mary Scott Nabers, CEO of Austin, Texas-based Strategic Partnerships, a government procurement consultancy. “I think that the construction industry should feel very positive about 2025,” Nabers said. “From all indications, the next three or four years will be very good for the construction industry.” There’s plenty of work to be done: Not only the country’s massive repair backlog, but also burgeoning demands for climate resilience, tougher infrastructure cybersecurity and new energy sources to power the rapidly growing domestic data center and manufacturing industries. Three years into the five-year, $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Biden will pass the baton to Trump with a sizable chunk of money left. The new administration will have to staff up and get up to speed with the IIJA’s many programs.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/trump-impact-infrastructure-construction-2025/736597/

A plan to build a solar farm the size of 12 football fields off Fawn Meadow Lane has been approved by the Connecticut Siting Council with a long list of conditions. Greenskies Clean Energy’s application for a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need was granted Dec. 5, clearing a required hurdle to operate a 4,625-megawatt solar array. The approval requires that Greenskies of North Haven provide a full site plan before construction on the 36-acre, heavily wooded property begins. Woodbury land use coordinator Will Agresta said Greenskies’ business model involves using the panels to generate enough electricity to power as many as 400 homes. That electricity would be harnessed and then sold to power companies. The Siting Council’s approval follows multiple hearings on the proposal last year.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2025/01/08/siting-council-oks-massive-solar-farm-in-woodbury/#google_vignette