The good news, Bass Pro is still in play. Brian Lockhart, CT Post reports:
Keep those $100 Bass Pro Shops gift cards in a safe place for at least another year-and-a-half.
The booty was distributed at July’s celebratory fish fry announcing the outdoor retailer’s move to the city’s Steel Point project in time for Christmas 2013.
But Steel Point developer Robert Christoph last week said the necessary utility and road upgrades are taking longer than anticipated, pushing Bass Pro’s grand opening back an estimated six months.
“We’re looking at Bass Pro opening sometime in mid-2014,” said Christoph, who is based in Miami. “The start for the roads has been further pushed back … probably to January.”
The city has been struggling for 30 years with partners in the private sector to transform the Steel Point peninsula into a waterfront mecca for businesses, residents and tourists.
Over the summer, Christoph, Mayor Bill Finch and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Bass Pro, a retailing giant headquartered in Missouri, had signed up as the first tenant in exchange for to-be-determined subsidies.
The city sought bids for road construction in the spring, with a goal of beginning the work by August and, weather permitting, wrapping up by spring.
Christoph blamed the current delay on ongoing negotiations with The United Illuminating Co. over relocating and burying electrical equipment.
“It’s like the chicken and the egg,” Christoph said. “All the major utilities have to be in place to form the ‘backbone’ … before the roads go over the top.”
UI’s Michael West said the developer and city, for aesthetic reasons, want the utilities installed underground.
“(That is) certainly something a lot of folks do. But the question here is about the costs associated with undergrounding,” West said.
He declined to provide a specific figure, but said the work can cost 90 percent more than above-ground installation, which equals hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“What we cannot do is have the costs associated with that project now be paid for by all UI customers versus the beneficiary,” West said. “There have been multiple conversations–months of conversations, actually–about this project and how to get it done.”
West said the sides are closer to a resolution that may involve the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
“They are the ultimate decision-makers,” West said.
Finch spokesman Elaine Ficarra said the administration hopes the issue can be resolved for the infrastructure work to begin in January.
Christoph said Bass Pro has 400 days to complete construction after the utility and road improvements are complete.
Company spokesman Larry Whiteley was unaware of any changes in the original timeline for a 2013 opening. But he acknowledged it takes time to complete a new Bass Pro location.
“Because the stores are so big and uniquely designed to the area of the country, they do take a while to build, unlike non-descript concrete block buildings,” Whiteley said.
Christoph said he is still pleased with the momentum at the Steel Point site. The city and developer, for example, recently settled a two-year dispute with one of the last original property owners–the Pequonnock Yacht Club–over the condition in which the club left its California Street property when it moved to New Haven.
And Christoph said he and his staff continue traveling the country, meeting other potential tenants.
“Starting Sunday is the International Council of Shopping Centers conference in New York for the Northeast. That’s a big one,” Christoph said. “I know our leasing team has almost 20 to 25 different appointments set up … all of whom now know at least Bass Pro is going to be there.”
At the state level, closed-door talks over the details of the financial incentives offered Bass Pro are on schedule, according to the Department of Economic and Community Development. The agency offered no details.
Typically, state economic deals are announced after the numbers have been crunched and any loans and tax breaks are outlined for the public and lawmakers. That was not the case with Bass Pro.
Ronald Angelo Jr., a DECD deputy commissioner, in September said he had no concerns the deal might fall apart.
“We are engaged with them, talking on a regular basis,” Angelo said. “They’ve come out publicly with this and have a team on the ground spending time and resources on this project. I think they’ve got quite a bit at stake and making sure this project is complete on their end.”
Angelo added at the time, “DECD will continue to do a great deal of due diligence and make sure we have a financial agreement in place that is good for taxpayers of the state and very conscious of return on investment.”
Next!
Get an Apple Store at Steel Point and people will gladly come to BPT from the suburbs and exurbs–beats driving to New Haven or Danbury. It could be a serious core for some serious development. And at risk of repeating myself: for anyone who missed this the first time around–
www .theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/08/why-have-so-many-cities-and-towns-given-away-so-much-money-bass-pro-shops-and-cabelas/2906/
The only reason the city has been struggling for 30 years to develop the peninsula is the greed of the entrenched party machine, period. We already had a mayor go to prison for his self-importance.
I take exception with UI’s Mr. West’s assertion the City and developer want to bury the utility lines for ‘aesthetic purposes.’ Hogwash! Given two 100-year flood superstorms in two years, burying the utility lines is the right business decision. All of Blue Back square in West Hartford has buried utility lines. So does downtown Stamford. The Steelpointe development plans all along were to have the utility lines buried. The City Administration is correct to insist on this outcome. I am for burying the utility lines at every opportunity. The economic loss to prolonged power outages far outweighs the initial outlay to bury the lines.
*** Let’s hope the delay is in fact the plans to bury the utility lines and nothing else comes along to delay things further, Nancy! *** Time will tell. ***
Capital Expenditures is the line on UI’s balance sheet that could be used to justify their payment of underground utilities. After all, it would be in their interest. Here’s the smoking gun: they wouldn’t need the DPUC’s approval to do that. Until things change or I am proven wrong, I have identified UI as a roadblock to Bridgeport’s development.
*** Local Eyes, you silly boy! (roadblock) ***
On any construction lot, it’s still a man’s world. Mojo tries to diminish the validity of my post but I chose that word among all those mentioned in the dictionary!
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Here’s my latest idea: the prospect of Mexican Twinkies makes me nervous.
univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/36089358070/will-mexico-save-the-twinkie
So let’s scrap the BPS idea, re-direct domestic Twinkie production to Steelpointe; upset the Mexicans by utilizing Connecticut’s savvy hedge fund operators; employ hundreds right here in Bridgeport and in the process make something that doesn’t involve bullets and makes people happy while preventing starvation. It could be a great tourist destination, too.
One more thing: that shipyard could be used to ship those Twinkies around the world. Make ’em; bake ’em and ship ’em out all within Bridgeport city limits.
*** L/E’s mojo is rising like Twinkies dough in a junk-food bake off, no? *** GET YOUR TWINKIES TEE-SHIRTS, FREE! ***
By the time you get down to my FREE Twinkie Tee-Shirt offer you’re talking about my serious risk capital. Here’s my secret: I never bet more than I can lose.
CURIOSITY LANDS ON STEELPOINTE
Curiosity sends data on its first soil test From Steelpointe–the results of which were anticipated by NASA and the Finch administration.
The Bridgeport rover Curiosity has completed its first chemical test of soil from Steelpointe, and scientists say there are no surprises so far.
The spacecraft is on a mission to look for ingredients in Steelpointe soil and rocks that could support life. But in the first scoop of soil analyzed, there were no definitive signs of the chemical building blocks of life for Steelpointe now or in the future, and for the Finch team.
Instead, the six-wheel rover detected old bottles of booze and a mix of other drug chemicals.
The findings were reported Monday at a meeting of the Finch for Mayor committee in the North End of Bridgeport in the back room of some pasta house.
A comment by the mission’s chief scientist Mario Testa two weeks ago led to speculation that Curiosity had dug up carbon-based organics, but it turned out to be an old baseball shoe from some orator of the past.
Finch said, “I was hoping Curiosity would find essential ingredients for life on Steelpointe now that Bass Pro Shops shuttle the mission.”
“Boy I hate this job!” said Finch.