From city Communications Director Av Harris:
Mayor Joe Ganim today announced that the City of Bridgeport has sold the remaining two pieces of land at Steelpointe Harbor for $2,086,600 to the Bridgeport Landing Development (BLD). The deal was closed on July 1, 2016 giving BLD approval to begin construction on a Cinépolis luxury movie theatre, a Hampton Inn, retail and residential properties and boardwalk. The 20.8 acre site located on Stratford Avenue on Bridgeport’s East Side is a part of a five-phase development project that has been on-going for years.
“The completion of this sale is a huge energy boost for the development Steelpointe and the Bridgeport waterfront,” said Mayor Ganim. “This not only helps the city treasury, but this provides much needed momentum to attracting further economic development and investment in our city, which will also expand our tax base for years to come. I am looking forward to seeing Bridgeport have more destinations for entertainment, and attractive new places to live. This project is a perfect fit for a powerful revitalization of Bridgeport’s East Side.”
Robert W. Christoph Jr., Principal Developer of Bridgeport Landing Development, said, “The purchase of this property enables us to fulfill our strategy for Steelpointe Harbor which is to make it a destination for retail, dining and upscale residential. To that end we have begun investing in the remaining infrastructure and investigating many a sap shipping software so we the process of shipping for the retail could be expedited. We are very excited with the progress that is being made at SteelPointe Harbor.”
BLD’s construction concept of residential property mixed together with conveniently located retail and commercial establishments reflects a European city style. The last phases of construction consist of open spaces to stroll including a boardwalk with a panoramic view overlooking the Long Island Sound. The community will also gain the Bridgeport harbor back, an amenity that hasn’t been accessible in two centuries. When complete, BLD estimates that Steelpointe Harbor will have approximately 800,000 square feet of retail, 200,000 square feet of commercial/office, 300,000 square feet of hotel/meeting area, a new 200-slip marina with complete shore-side support and will ultimately contain 1,000 to 1,500 residential units.
Construction is currently taking place on phase two of the land that borders Long Island Sound. Utility lines are being installed and the infrastructure of the peninsula, including building foundations is being raised nine feet to 14 feet above sea level to meet new federal flood protection regulations. BLD plans to begin construction of new high-rise buildings in 2017.
Didn’t Finch draw this plan up?
Yes Frank, on the backside of a Dunkin’ Donuts napkin.
I think it’s locked up in the city attorney’s office, that’s if nobody used it!!!
This is a big deal with many phases and steps purposely set up in this manner by wise legal minds. But if I am reading this correctly, 20.8 acres of property is being sold to the developer at this point because another list of conditions has been met successfully for the sum of $2,086,000? It looks like about $100,000 per acre. Is that correct? Is that an old number? A current fair market value number from the recent revaluation? And is the land part of the 70 or so acres that have had infrastructure development for the past couple years, or additional land abutting the original parcel? A visual would be helpful to show us how things are progressing. Time will tell.
What was the per-acre price for the golf course? Was that a better deal than Steelpointe?
The better deal was the golf course $500k per acre.
The big tourist draw to this location will no doubt be the lovely western view of the huge PSE&G and Emera Corporation fossil-fuel power plants and 250-foot-tall smokestack. And, of course, the lovely silhouette of Mount Saint O&G on scenic Seaview Avenue will also help to make Steal Point a tourist destination. Tourists will flock to our waterfront mecca from around the world just to smell the East End sewage treatment plant, swim in the Yellow Mill floating swimming pool, and ice skate on the Rink-on-the-Pequonnock #3.
Yes Bridgeport, better days are coming!
Yes. I guess it would really be silly to think that part of Bridgeport’s HARBOR/WATERFRONT might be utilized for something frivolous such as ship building in the SHIP BUILDING facility or FREIGHT TRANSPORT from the TURBANA LOADING DOCKS that are located there. Certainly, it wouldn’t be worth exploring the use of that INDUSTRIAL/MANUFACTURING area (with so much access to huge sources of electric energy that should be discounted for the HOST COMMUNITY) for the location of MANUFACTURING operations. It isn’t as if manufacturing jobs and tax base would be of any benefit to Bridgeport’s tight job market and bloated tax base.
(Truly, if we can get a Motel 6 and an XXX-rated adult, liquor-serving movie theater on this site, we’ll be pushing the limits. How are the Chipotle and Starbucks doing? How about Bass Pro? Do they require expanded parking facilities yet?)
Well, after today’s news, I’m just feeling so much better about Bridgeport’s prospects! (I think I’ll buy some property along the Seaview Avenue Corridor, at the very least the state and city can buy it back for 5X the price when the time comes for the construction of the Seaview Avenue connector between I-95 and Route 8 that will have direct exits to the Dan Malloy Stamford Commuter Train Station/parking lots (on the old Remington Arms property where 15,000 Bridgeporters used to be employed.) (Oh. I just found out savvy investors have bought up all the property in this area. Apparently a Hartford psychic leaked news of the wonderful opportunity to buy derelict land in the East End of Bridgeport after having a vision about a highway connected to a special train station convenient to the suburbs and cheap Bridgeport labor being planned to serve Stamford’s anticipated labor needs. I wish I could have slipped that psychic a few bucks for a heads-up on this opportunity. Oh well! Maybe I can still slip that psychic a few bucks for a heads-up on the next Bridgeport windfall. Could it be, maybe, a few hundred acres of fuel cell plants and solar panels? Or maybe a new, regional, sewage-sludge-to-energy plant with facilities to receive sludge from dozens of regional communities? Now I’m excited! I have to find a way to get in touch with that Hartford “psychic.” I know I’d better do it before Dan Malloy leaves for his new DC job, because I understand the “psychic” might be tied up working for Dan in DC.)
Using the location for location of MANUFACTURING operations? You must think the new train station is an express to China. How many shipbuilders failed on that site? I am sure the next one will be the one that does great. It is not the electricity costs that kill these businesses. It is the labor costs. I thought you were all about the hospitality industry and the minimum wage jobs it brings. Allowing BPT’s poor to, literally, serve the wealthy suburbanites.
BTW. My wife likes the power plant. She thinks it looks cool and enjoys seeing it.
There is a sewage treatment plant directly behind Captain’s Cove. Never noticed a smell.
BPT already has Wonderland of Ice. Building a competing facility in town would be a bad idea.
Do you have real estate data showing land transfers in that area? As many of those properties are behind in their taxes, buying them would be prohibitively expensive but the city would receive a windfall. Many are also contaminated. Cleaning them up would be required before sale or the buyer assumes the cleanup costs. Why do you think the city has not seized the properties?
Isn’t this the Ganim rehab plan you sold us? Now you are knocking it? Even if it were Finch’s plan you can still credit it to Ganim. You are all over the map.
Now for real commentary. $2 mil for the Steel Point property. $4 mil for the golf course. Ganim squeezed $1 mil out of the unions. $13.4 mil from the tax increase. A little addition: $20.4 mil. Looks like the BOE can get a $400K budget increase or BPT can make a pension payment and the city is okay. That is if you believe the $20 mil deficit claim.
Boring.
Ganim has become a caricature of Bill Finch.
Now that is very sad.
I don’t give some anonymous suburbanite blog contributors enough credit for their wit and wry sense of humor. I don’t think I ever heard a more humorous take on the Steal Point vs. “real development” debate.
“… It is not the electricity costs that kill these businesses [ref. prohibitive costs to run Carpenter Steel arc-furnace] … I thought you were all about the hospitality industry and the minimum wage jobs it brings? Allowing BPT’s poor to, literally, serve the wealthy suburbanites [ref. my posted exception to Gold Coast, Bpt labor exploitation]. BTW. My wife likes the powerplant. She thinks it looks cool and enjoys seeing it. [That could have been taken right from an old “Columbo” episode.] There is a sewage treatment plant directly behind Captains Cove. Never noticed a smell. [!!! I just heard a Thank you! from Kaye Williams] BPT already has Wonderland of Ice. Building a competing facility in town would be a bad idea. [Yes!!!] Do you have real estate data showing land transfers in that area? [Yes. Latest ones referenced above.] As many of those properties are behind in their taxes, buying them would be prohibitively expensive. [Such as the Remington Arms train station property.]”
My God! This stuff is funny! Please, give us more!
Carpenter Steel? Really? That is what we are going to make in BPT, in CT, in the US, is steel? With the Chinese pushing enough steel onto the world market that it threatens to push the EU out of the steel business, BPT CT is going to get into the steel business? THAT is not a good idea.
The train station’s property’s tax problems are irrelevant when the city takes the property. The tax lien would only have relevance when one party sells the property to another. The city does not have to pay the tax lien. The previous owner does. If the lien is more than the value of the property the previous owners (usually a defunct corporation or LLC) still owes the money but it is really no not.
But please, keep giving us your fairy tale proposals and lollipop pipe dream proposals for Steel Point. They are a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy economy.
When I interviewed for A POSTED POSITION IN THE Connecticut POST, back in late August, a day after my operation, we discussed this development at some length with David Kooris and Bill Coleman. There is not one bit of information in this article that is not a year old. On this blog alone, The Hotel and Cineplex have been addressed ad nauseam. I look forward to Ganim’s mark on the city. I believe he can do it when they finally hire staff. Today however, this remains a Bill Finch day to brag to all as he embarks on his $175,000 dollar a year job in New York. Of course, I support Mayor Ganim and am hopeful he has many homeruns during his tenure. So like most I will give credit where credit is due and appreciate the positive PR as always. I think Steve Tylishchak has done a great job overlooking the waterfront activity.
You’ve taken rear-end kissing to levels never before seen. I give you credit for that.
You Phantom, are a cocksucker.
Lennie Grimaldi, I rarely post these days. The Phantom is just one of the reasons. I am disappointed you allow anonymous bloggers to insult others unnecessarily. So I say good luck to all as I am no longer interested in being maligned and having friends ask me why. So Phantom, you are a motherfucker but must be very special to Lennie Grimaldi. I however am not!
Wow. $2 million for water front property, and we call that a victory. The City of Bridgeport has such mediocre expectations.
You should all remember the land sat empty for 20 (?) years. That would be a big, fat 0 for 20 years. Never mind the cost of maintaining it. At the time not giving it away was a victory. No one was tripping over themselves to move in there. The land, as with anything, you can ask what you want but it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
$2.086 million for waterfront property for commercial/residential development?! How much property? What was the appraised value? Any tax abatement involved?
BLD is anticipating making a killing on the land they own at Steal Point when the shipping and trucking companies start positioning themselves as players in Dan Malloy’s feederbarge-port development scheme. Around the time the Seaview Avenue Connector project starts to get underway, the freight transport players will start to knock down BLD’s door to secure that land. BLD knew that from the get-go. In a few years, the East End will be transformed as a noisy truck depot/warehouse zone serving a noisy diesel-barge port. Don’t worry. The labor force will be small due to automation and the ease of loading of freight containers onto trucks; so Bridgeport’s labor force will still be free for exploitation by Stamford.
Malloy is only governor for another year and a half. He’d better hurry up. Too bad the state is broke and cannot afford to start any new projects. Besides, I thought Steel Point was going to be a tourist trap? Now it is going to be a warehouse district.
You always seem to have one of three problems with job creation at Steel Point. BPT people will not get the jobs, not enough jobs will be created or the jobs are not living wage. BPT is not going to go from ‘nowhere’ to ‘perfect.’ You have to accept the process is a journey. We are ‘here’ now. We want to be ‘there.’ Does this step move us closer, farther away or parallel to our destination? You have to walk away from your theoretical dream for BPT, pick a direction and stick with it. Otherwise you only seem to be supporting standing still. I thought you liked Ganim’s plan for BPT? How is Bernie doing these days?
Personally, I think a container port would be better than a destination development. Container ports create more value, good jobs and ancillary industry than hospitality and BPT is not very hospitable. There is a reason we spend billions dredging harbors. Moving freight is big business. Unfortunately, the commercial part of the commercial/residential development seems to be retail. Not the greatest but better than what is there now.
Bridgeport Harbor is hypothetically going to be dredged in 2017. If so, the opportunity to bring in shipping to Bridgeport could be amazing if the dredging happens. How will Boss Ganim mess that up remains to be seen.