UPDATE: Mayor Bill Finch Thursday afternoon announced upwards of $8 million in state funds for two key downtown developments, the reuse of the old Mechanics & Farmers Bank building on Main Street led by real estate investment firm Forstone Capital Development and historic buildings at Main and Golden Hill Street led by Eric Anderson of Urban Green Builders that transformed the old City Trust and Arcade buildings into commercial and housing destinations.
Fletcher-Thompson, a Bridgeport engineering and design firm that moved to Shelton 10 years ago, will be making its comeback to Bridgeport as an anchor tenant in the M&F building scheduled for early 2014. A housing component is also included in this project. Anderson is expected to redevelop the Newfield Building into commercial and residential use.
Funding assistance for the projects Finch announced will come from the State Department of Economic and Community Development through an initiative of Governor Dannel Malloy who today announced funding assistance for affordable housing projects in Bridgeport and several other Connecticut communities. Malloy’s Department of Economic & Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith and Connecticut Housing Finance Authority Executive Director Eric Chatman attended Malloy’s press conference. The Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties (CHAMP) initiative provides gap funding to owners of existing developments or developers proposing new developments that will increase the supply and availability of affordable and/or workforce rental housing.
See list of funding recipients and total project costs here.
News release from Finch:
Joined by developers, community members and downtown stakeholders, Mayor Bill Finch today celebrated the State’s significant commitment to three housing projects in Bridgeport, including two downtown developments–the former Mechanics & Farmers building and the Jayson-Newfield block in Downtown North, along with the South End Community Building Initiative by Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, Inc., (BNT).
Earlier today, Governor Dannel Malloy announced a major commitment to increase the amount of affordable housing by utilizing the Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties (CHAMP) initiative to fund 10 affordable housing projects across the state.
“Bridgeport’s focus on quality affordable housing has helped us increase the City’s population for the first time in 60 years. Today’s announcement helps us move forward with projects in our rapidly growing downtown neighborhood and assistance in stabilizing our South End neighborhood,” said Mayor Finch. “I’d like to commend the Governor for his commitment to affordable housing and his commitment to Bridgeport. Thank you to the developers of these projects for believing in Bridgeport. I look forward to welcoming your new tenants to their homes in our City.”
The former Mechanics & Farmers bank on the corner of State and Main Streets, a 52,000 square foot, early 1900s-era bank building, was owned by the City for many years. It was sold to Forstone Capital in 2009, for a planned adaptive reuse and historic renovation. Fletcher Thompson, which was founded in Bridgeport in 1910 and left the city in 2002 to move to Shelton, announced plans in late 2011 to renovate the M&F building and move back to Bridgeport. The architecture/engineering firm will renovate the first floor creating 22,000 square feet of office space, and a 2,300 square foot retail space. The second and third floors of the building will be renovated to create 30 apartments, 12 of which will be affordable. The company will design and oversee the construction of the building and plan to lease space there in early 2014.
The Jayson and Newfield buildings, located on block 912 in the heart of Downtown North, will anchor the redevelopment of that district. The block is bounded by Main, Golden Hill and Middle Streets, and is directly across Main Street from the recently refurbished Golden Hill Apartments. These two historic buildings are slated to include 87 housing units of which 10 will be affordable. Eric Anderson, principal of Urban Green development has plans to rehabilitate the structures on the block into mixed-use buildings with retail on the ground floor and housing units above. These buildings represent the expanding footprint of downtown’s resurgence.
BNT has initiated a comprehensive strategy beginning with acquisition and financing of several parcels on Columbia Street/Columbia Court in the South End of Bridgeport. This block-by-block plan of action will result in community development investment which will revitalize and restore properties and provide much needed safe, affordable housing.
“Today’s announcement rings loud and clear as a vote of confidence in Bridgeport by our partners at the State, and by our region’s business community with Fletcher Thompson’s return home,” said David Kooris, Director of the City’s Office of Planning and Economic Development.
The CHAMP initiative provides gap funding to owners of existing developments, or developers proposing new developments that will increase the supply and availability of affordable and/or workforce rental housing.
CHAMP funding, administered by DECD, will be offered in grants and loans based on project needs. Loans may be offered at a reduced interest rate with extended terms depending upon the outcome of the underwriting process and the project’s capacity to carry debt. The funding is intended to be gap financing and may not exceed $5 million per development.
Gov. Dan Malloy should get 100% of the vote from Bpt if things keep going the way they are going. Did Rell even know Bpt existed?
If you like to stay ahead of the curve, start thinking of Bridgeport CT as the Center of the World. If that’s too difficult maybe this will help:
www .centermytown.com/ZipCode/06606
(wink)
Off topic–at least from this one:
In the past months we all have been hearing a lot about the crime wave in Bridgeport and the no-snitching mentality. Imagine if you worked for me for ten years at a Pizza joint. For those ten years you have been a trustworthy, loyal and dependable employee. After finishing your shift one night, you give a ride to a patron of the Pizza joint who needed a ride. Eventually, this patron kidnaps, assaults and robs you. You report the incident to the police and the detectives go to the Pizza joint to get the video tape from the camera at the Pizza joint where you work and the incident started. When the detectives speak with your boss/employer of 10 years, he not only refuses to give the tape to the police and help you out, he destroys the video and tells the police it is not his job to help them. This happened to an employees of Tony’s Huntington Inn. If the name sounds familiar, it may be because of the OIB ad on the top right side of your screen. The other day, Lennie Grimaldi posted the CT Post article regarding the CT Post Editorial Board’s criticism of reporters K. Torres and B. Lockhart for their position on Bass Pro’s sale of guns. Lennie wrote reporters tend to be biased at times. Lennie has an ad from Tony’s and did not publish or post this very critical news or event.
The owner of Tony’s is exactly what the problem in Bridgeport is. Imagine if you go there and get robbed or killed in the parking lot after a nice meal. It will be your last one, like the last time I did business with Tony’s Huntington Inn. Stay away from this place!
www .ctpost.com/default/article/Restauranter-accused-of-interfering-with-3747341.php
Speedy, I did not see this article regarding the police confrontation at Tony’s Huntington Inn until you posted it. Glad you could inform the readers. But while we’re on the subject of videos, whatever happened to the video you took of Mitch Robles when you claimed he filled out an absentee ballot for a voter? Video disappear?
Last time I looked, doofus, this was a Blog not a newspaper.
yadoofy, you need to renew your vision prescription. This is a webzine to start with–one dedicated to Bridgeport events, mainly. Its purpose is to inform the readers just like a newspaper. If it “was a Blog,” what is it now?
BRIDGEPORT–One person was killed and another was seriously injured after a shooting Thursday afternoon on the city’s East Side, police said.
Bridgeport Police Det. Keith Bryant, a department spokesman, said police believe both victims were teenagers, though neither were identified by name.
SO MUCH FOR THE CURFEW.
*** Let’s hope the building doesn’t turn out to be another downtown skid row hangout in the future! ***
“In Bridgeport, the South End Community Building Initiative will develop nine units worth $1.2 million, and Urban Green will build 87 units in the Jayson/Newfield development, worth $31.5 million, said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. The state is targeting $5 million to the Urban Green project.”
You’ve got to be kidding me with these numbers. Affordable housing at a price of over $500k per unit for downtown projects.
The difference between a Champ and a Chump is U, Malloy!
Also, Forstone Capital will obtain about $16.2 million for 30 units at the former Mechanics & Farmers Bank building.
You’ve got to be kidding!!! The “Kantrowitz Building” at the corner of Main & Golden Hill Streets is an historic site? That building is a wood-framed pigeon roost that has been empty for at least 30 years. To restore this eyesore would cost 3 times the price of replacing it. Every wooden beam would have to be replaced. Every mechanical in the building would have to be replaced. It’s mind boggling that anyone would spend money to do this.
What downtown Bridgeport needs to do from Congress Street to almost Fairfield Avenue on the East Side is to drop every building and build new. Not one of those buildings on that side of Main Street has enough “historic interest” to warrant paying 3 times to restore over replacing.
In 1980 or thereabouts 100 Fairfield Avenue was renovated. Every wooden beam was replaced with steel. Every obsolete mechanical was replaced with up-to-date equipment. And, at least on the outside, the building was “modernized” … nothing historical was saved. The biggest problem for Main Street is the underground mechanicals (read: sewer, electrical, water and gas) are 100 years old or better. Thus the need for new, not restored. I know this because my family owned a building in the middle of this area … and these buildings were taken by eminent domain by the Ganim people for the upgrade of Bridgeport … and that ability to take property then do nothing was a crime in and of itself.
Congratulations to the Finch administration. We all win!!! Downtown is moving and I look forward to seeing some gentrification to two very visible buildings. Brilliant to have Bridgeport Free Shakespeare downtown at McLevy Green. After years of seeing it at Beardsley Park, always doing an amazing job, I was unable to attend. Coming home from Housatonic Meadows this past Sunday from a camping trip it was great to relax at McLevy Green at a very well attended Romeo and Juliet.
It is unbelievable so many Bridgeporters don’t realize “workforce housing” and “housing hub” are code words used in Hartford and Stamford/The Gold Coast that translate to “Let’s keep our workforce in Bridgeport so they–Bridgeporters–can be held as virtual indentured servants for us, as well as be forced to pay for the infrastructure, municipal services, schools, social services, etc. needed to maintain a large labor pool for us, while we avoid having to accommodate affordable housing and paying for everything required to maintain a huge workforce. Let’s make sure we will always get a free ride off of Bridgeport to support our tax base and lifestyle by making sure they only get housing and no high-value tax base or good jobs.”
When will Bridgeporters wake up and realize the reason why we can’t seem to prosper is all Hartford/The Gold Coast will let us have is “workforce housing” and projects, such as Bass Pro, that provide only a few, low-budget jobs and no real tax base impact.
Come on, folks! Dan Malloy screwed Bridgeport when he was mayor of Stamford and he’s screwing us even harder now, as Governor–with our own mayor’s blessing.
*** Overpriced all the way around from start to finish, if in fact it ever comes to be sometime in the future, no? *** DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE! ***
I agree, infrastructure for revitalizing downtown is critical. I recall the Urban Green oversight on the City Trust Building when they forgot to figure in the cost of a new vault for mechanicals in the street. Good catch!
The Newfield Building is an historical building indeed. It should be saved. It is true the entire inside has to be gutted including all the wood framing. It will be equivalent to building a new building within a building, but hey, it’s been done without fanfare on many other historic buildings throughout the city. Bravo for saving it but “Thumbs Down” on drastically inflating the cost. With this type of infusion of money from the State, it surely could have done about twice as many buildings. As for Jeff Kohut’s reiteration of his concern with providing housing for Fairfield County in Bridgeport, I don’t think it is a concern and I don’t know anyone who thinks it is.
Bridgeporteur,
Met a man at breakfast in Bridgeport this morning who claimed to have a home in Southport and another in Black Rock. Told me the taxes on both properties are the same. Final comment is the home in Southport has a market value TWICE that of the Bridgeport property. This is not a unique story where more than 70% of the taxes are from residences; not commercial, not industrial, etc.
Look at Jeff’s comments in that light. Affordable housing (especially that which includes families with children who need education) may pay taxes but is there a net positive effect or a drag on fiscal situation. If workforce population is assumed to be young professionals downtown without cars or kids, paying big rents to be where it’s at, whatever that means, may be a different story but let’s see the numbers. Time will tell.
JML, I believe most folks who come from lower Fairfield County to live in BPT don’t send their children to Bpt public schools and thus are a net revenue gain. Also, as you’ve said, residents of downtown housing generally consume very little in services as well. More restoration of older buildings is good for the City. New housing construction on vacant lots is also good for the City. The problem is affordable housing has become such an overpriced industry with a lot of outsiders profiting, although there have been a few notable exceptions. Homesteading and sweat equity would be a better solution.