Malloy Pledges Funds To Help Clean Former Remington Shaver Property

Governor Dan Malloy on Wednesday announced the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) has awarded $3,821,000 in grants to 21 communities to advance the development of brownfield sites throughout the state including $200,000 for a remediation plan for the former Remington Shaver site in the South End and 60 Main Street, the site of a proposed mixed-use development with affordable housing and public open space.

The sites are proposed to house a mixed-used development including new market-rate waterfront housing, restaurants and retail, a marina, and public open space along Long Island Sound, according to Mayor Bill Finch.

“This is great news for the Park City, especially our South End neighborhood,” the mayor announced in his statement. “These funds will help breathe new life into currently unused property, improving the neighborhood and attracting new residents and visitors. I applaud Gov. Malloy and our delegation for their efforts in helping to address this issue, and helping make Bridgeport a better place to live, work, and raise a family.”

Administered through the state’s Municipal Brownfields Assessment and Inventory Grant Program, the 22 grants announced today will assist cities, towns, and regional development agencies to assess and investigate over 310 acres across 48 sites, allowing the communities to take the vital first or next step toward reuse of sites that in many cases have been underused or abandoned for decades.

“As Connecticut’s economy continues to grow, more and more of our legacy manufacturing and other brownfield sites are becoming ripe for redevelopment and reuse,” said Governor Malloy, who announced the grants at a news conference at a brownfield site in Norwich that was awarded funding as part of a revitalization project of the city’s Shipping Street corridor.

He continued, “With the grants we’re announcing today, 21 communities will be able to prepare key sites that are in many cases vacant and blighted for a return to productive uses that will grow jobs and improve quality of life across the state. These assessment grants will create a pipeline of larger remediation and redevelopment projects in the near future.”

The municipal grant program was created as a complement to DECD’s larger brownfield programs to assist local governments and their development agency partners to begin the process of redeveloping priority brownfield sites. Prior to redevelopment of a brownfield or suspected contaminated site, environmental assessments are often required to provide more information to potential redevelopers about the site’s environmental conditions.

Under the program, applicants are eligible to receive grants of up to $200,000 to fund investigation and other pre-development activities to prepare sites for future development and reuse.

“Cities and towns across Connecticut have sites that are not fully contributing to the economy, and these grants will unlock significant new development opportunities for new housing, open space, commercial office space, and adaptive reuse of legacy brownfield sites,” said DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith. “The projects selected for funding represent the strongest applications in line with Governor Malloy’s priorities, such as affordable housing development transit-oriented development projects, readiness to proceed, and the capacity and experience level of the applicant.”

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Rob Klee said, “These investments in brownfield assessments are the critical first step toward redevelopment of these valuable lands. By putting these properties back into productive use we can take advantage of existing infrastructure, protect public health and the environment, and reduce development pressure on our undeveloped lands.”