Connecticut urban redevelopment...and Kelo (and how about the snazzy new neighbor for Curley?)  And how about that $$ for the Greenway!


Developers seek to transform former office spaces into housing
Downtown plans: Developers seek to convert old business structures to apartments
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer, Satamford ADVOCATE
Published 10:51 p.m., Sunday, December 11, 2011

Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Developers-seek-to-transform-former-office-spaces-2396079.php#ixzz1gQYVHlme
STAMFORD -- As part as an ongoing redevelopment trend in Stamford, two obsolete office buildings downtown may find new life as housing complexes.

The city's Zoning Board is reviewing two separate applications that, if approved, would create a total of 37 residential units in two former office spaces.

Mario Lodato, a downtown commercial property owner, is seeking to redevelop a five-story, 27,000-square-foot building at 460 Summer St. into 21 residential units.

Similarly, Randy Salvatore, a developer who previously partnered with Seaboard Properties on a $25 million apartment conversion of an office tower at 100 Prospect St., is vying to turn a two-story, 21,000-square-foot office building at 1200 Bedford St. into 16 housing units.

Both projects were presented during a public hearing last week at the Government Center.

"This is very consistent with the master plan which for years has been trying to get more people downtown and get more vibrancy," John Leydon, an attorney representing Lodato, told zoning board members.

Over the years, smaller, aging Class B and C office buildings have struggled to find tenants, making their transformation into residences viewed as smart adaptive reuses.

According to the city's land use bureau, the pace of such projects has picked up over the past six years. Since 2005, there have been at least six office-to-residential conversions in the downtown.

The two buildings currently under consideration are roughly 40 years old. The structure at 460 Summer St. dates back to 1967 and was the former home of the YWCA, while the one at 1200 Bedford St. was constructed during the 1970s. The latter, which is located in a residential zone, was one of a handful of developments in the downtown designed solely to house small professional tenants such as lawyers, accountants and doctors.

Salvatore is set to purchase the building at 1200 Bedford St. next week for an undisclosed sum. He estimated the cost of redevelopment as roughly $4 million. "We're keeping the shell, but it's basically going to be a new building," he said.

In the right setting, conversions can be attractive, cost-efficient investments.

"Typically a lot of the older buildings are located in good areas," Salvatore said. "They were very well built but now are tired and the uses that are there are not suited to the market."

Beginning in 1994, the city began amending zoning rules to loosen density restrictions and reduce affordable housing requirements for conversion projects. Rather than the usual 10 percent, only 6 percent of units must be below-market rate housing.

"It seems to be right on the market," said Norman Cole, the city's principal planner and acting land use bureau chief. "There's a lot of property out there that wants to be converted."


NYTIMES' CAPTION:
In San Francisco, people dead set against change squeezed the housing supply. But the lack of housing has also slowed the growth of wages.

One Path to Better Jobs: More Density in Cities
NYTIMES
By RYAN AVENT (Ryan Avent is an economics correspondent for The Economist and author of the Kindle Single “The Gated City,” from which this essay is adapted.
September 3, 2011

“HELL is other people,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre. He nonetheless spent much of his life in Paris, the better to interact with other French intellectuals. Cities have long been incubators and transmitters of ideas, and, correspondingly, engines of economic growth.

That has never made the crowds less annoying. Maybe that’s why people try to tame the city by chaining it down and limiting who can build what where along its quieter streets. We lobby leaders to fight development, aiming to protect old buildings and precious views, limit crime and traffic, and maintain high-quality schools. But what makes a city a city and a not-city a not-city is the fact that a city is dense and a not-city isn’t. The idea of it may chill a homeowner’s heart, but the wealth supported by urban density is what gives urban homes their great value in the first place.

And when it comes to economic growth and the creation of jobs, the denser the city the better.

How great are the benefits of density? Economists studying cities routinely find that after controlling for other variables, workers in denser places earn higher wages and are more productive. Some studies suggest that doubling density raises productivity by around 6 percent while others peg the impact at up to 28 percent. Some economists have concluded that more than half the variation in output per worker across the United States can be explained by density alone; density explains more of the productivity gap across states than education levels or industry concentrations or tax policies.

Put two workers with similar skill levels in cities of different densities and the one in the denser place will be more productive, according to two decades’ worth of research from economists. The resistance to greater density slows job creation in productive places. Take, for instance, the San Francisco Bay Area, a beautiful place, blessed with outstanding climate, scenery and culture. It’s also an economic juggernaut, hub of the country’s tech industry and home to some of America’s highest wages. In 2009, the average Silicon Valley household earned about $85,000. Despite this, over 500,000 residents of the Bay Area moved elsewhere in the 2000s. Many of them left for places like Phoenix, which attracted over 500,000 residents from other American cities, despite wages 40 percent below Silicon Valley levels.

Factors like taste and taxes account for some of the migration, but the biggest reason for the shift is housing costs. The average Phoenix home is worth about 30 percent of the price of a house in San Jose. The difference in prices is mostly due to differences in building. In every year from 1992 to 2009, Phoenix granted permits for two to three times as many new homes as did the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas combined. Around the San Francisco Bay, neighborhoods dead set against change successfully squeezed the housing supply, just as OPEC limits the supply of oil when it wishes to raise its price.

The “Not in My Backyard” philosophy sometimes, though by no means always, supports a high quality of life.  Yet the effect is to raise housing costs and make rich cities more exclusive. Real trouble occurs when the idea-generators in cities with that NIMBY approach become so protective of their pleasant streets that they turn away other idea-generators, undermining the city’s economic role. And that is happening. Entrepreneurship rates in Silicon Valley were below the national average during the tech boom because firms couldn’t attract enough skilled workers.

Productivity and wages are rising in these growing Sunbelt cities, but not as fast as in the denser cities that workers are leaving. The average wage per job in Phoenix rose $10,700 from 2000 to 2009, while in San Francisco the increase was $14,500. But, while wages are growing in San Francisco, they would be growing faster if the city allowed the construction of more housing. More workers would be able to take advantage of the good job opportunities in the Bay Area, and the metropolitan and national economies would function better.

DENSITY isn’t a magic elixir. One can’t create wealth just by crowding people together; otherwise the super-dense metropolitan areas in emerging Asian countries would be richer than American cities. Density simply facilitates interaction. Interactions translate into wealth when a population is educated and local institutions support private enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The world’s richest places tend to be dense, with well-educated residents and a free-market-orientation (or tax havens or oil-rich) — think of New York and the Bay Area, of Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Without a stock of skilled workers and a relatively open marketplace, density’s impact on growth and productivity will be limited.

What is it exactly that dense cities are doing? Consider a simple example. Suppose that within a population one person in 100 develops a taste for Vietnamese cuisine, and suppose that a Vietnamese restaurant needs a customer base of 1,000 people to operate profitably. In a city of 10,000 residents, there aren’t enough people to support a Vietnamese restaurant. The only restaurants that can operate profitably are those appealing to considerably more than one in 100 people — restaurants offering less daring fare. In a city of 10,000 people, there is little room for specialization, and less for experimentation.

A city of one million people, by contrast, can support multiple Vietnamese restaurants. Not only will this larger city enjoy a specialty cuisine unavailable in less populous places, but its ability to support multiple producers of this cuisine allows for competition, improving the price and quality.

A city with multiple Vietnamese restaurants may attract sellers of the fresh ingredients used in Vietnamese cooking, who then invest in distribution of those products in the larger city. This, in turn, attracts the sort of discerning eaters who favor authentic, high-quality Vietnamese food, reinforcing the concentration of Vietnamese eateries. The larger market facilitates competition, which again boosts quality and reduces prices. This is good for consumers. But competition also means better service from suppliers and growth in the consumer market, which is good for the restaurants. The result is a stronger, more productive and higher-quality microeconomy than in the city of 100,000, where only one Vietnamese restaurant can survive, or the town of 10,000, where there is none at all.

Density doesn’t work without talent. A small market may only support restaurants producing food that caters to a broad range of tastes. These restaurants will have to hire generalists — cooks who can produce a broad range of cuisines. Specialization and fine-tuning of one’s skills aren’t rewarded; too few patrons will have the specific taste for the particular cuisine to appreciate the quality. Time spent nailing down the nuances of one cuisine is time a chef isn’t using to maintain a good-enough command of a broad range of dishes.

In the larger market, supporting multiple niche cuisines, the calculus is different. Because there may be multiple Vietnamese restaurants competing for patrons, mastery of that specific style is necessary to maintain an edge against the competition. This is particularly true as the concentration of Vietnamese restaurants is likely to attract devotees of the cuisine with a well-developed knowledge of and taste for it. Hence, the larger marketplace pushes for, rather than against, specialization.

Meanwhile, a worker hoping to make a living as a Vietnamese chef will have a much easier time of things in the larger city. Labor turnover may be greater — if there’s only one Vietnamese restaurant in a town, then head-chef spots may only rarely open up — and so the odds of finding employment are higher. The larger city also provides insurance against bad fortune. If you’re a Vietnamese chef working at the one Vietnamese restaurant in a town and the one Vietnamese restaurant goes bankrupt, then you’re obviously in a tough economic situation. You must either take another job for which you’re less qualified, which may mean a reduction in compensation, or move. In the larger city, by contrast, competing restaurants can absorb and reemploy the labor and resources of defunct competitors.

This insurance function is important. It reduces the risks associated with specialization and therefore encourages more of it. By allowing workers to focus on tasks at which they’re relatively better than others, specialization helps drive economic growth. It’s also an engine of innovation. As workers focus on a specific task, they may well find better ways to do it. They might better schedule their days or invent something entirely new — software code written to expedite repeated tasks, or a machine that automates portions of a task. Of course, existing companies can be resistant to innovation. Dense cities, by acting as a source of insurance, enable workers with good ideas to take risks and start new businesses. If these workers fail, they have a good chance of finding employment elsewhere in the city. And if they succeed, the task of staffing the company is made easier by the existing pool of talent, and odds are good that customers and suppliers are close to hand, as well. Big cities provide a climate in which innovation can flourish, and in which innovators have the resources they need to exploit new ideas.

WHAT’S true for Vietnamese cooking is true of skill-intensive industries. The American economy’s famous upward mobility rested in part on middle-class access to rich, entrepreneurial cities. This machinery is breaking down, however, mostly because upward mobility strikes too many residents of rich places as too messy a pursuit to accommodate. During the Industrial Revolution, for instance, millions of workers flooded into fast-growing cities. This produced slums, but it also allowed poor workers to take advantage of opportunities in new industries, a process that helped create the middle class.

Rapid urban growth would mean denser neighborhoods, which makes many Americans uncomfortable. Preventing this density, however, denies workers access to the best opportunities, constraining the mechanism that helps support a strong middle class.

We can hope that as the Phoenixes and Houstons grow and attract skilled workers, their wage levels will converge with those of the slow-growing, high-wage coastal cities. Yet that may simply encourage their residents to pull up the ladder after them as coastal residents have. Eventually, Americans will learn that if they can’t harness their cities as tools of growth and mobility, they’ll have to find costlier ways to address the country’s lingering economic ills.



If not shovels, then shrubs
Stamford ADVOCATE
Angela Carell
Updated 08:01 a.m., Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Last summer, Milstein Properties planted about 50 evergreens to hide the broken pipes and concrete, rusted beams and rebar, trash and tree stumps in the hole in the ground. This summer, the weeds growing in the hole nearly hide the evergreens.  A few days ago, a pond in the pit at Tresser Boulevard and Greyrock Place was surrounded by swamp grass that moved in the wind, evoking the Great Plains.

Water in the hole was enough of a problem in 2005 that the Stamford Health Department made Milstein Properties repair the pumps and apply larvicide. There were a lot of mosquitoes.  That may happen again this year because it looks like the 4.3-acre lot in the center of downtown will remain vacant, as it has been for 40 years. A Stamford developer dug the hole 25 years ago for a project that was not to be.

The Milsteins, New York City billionaires Howard and Edward, so far have not seen fit to develop or sell the parcel, created during urban renewal. The Milsteins bought it in 1997 and, according to tax records, called it Eureka III.  That year they also bought land in downtown Niagara Falls, N.Y., calling it Eureka VIII. If you think Stamford has an eyesore, consider Niagara Falls' 85 acres of nothingness -- 20 times the size of the hole in the ground.

In the heart of the city with the famous waterfalls, home to 50,000 people, there are empty lots and buildings, abandoned homes and stores, and a shuttered Nabisco cereal factory.  As happens in Stamford, the Milsteins in Niagara Falls pay their taxes, clean up when asked, and sit on the land.  In both cities, people want to know why.  Milstein spokesman Gary Lewi declined to comment Monday on plans for Stamford's hole in the ground.

"There is nothing I can add at this time in terms of economic development for that particular piece of property," Lewi said in a voicemail message.

Stamford tax records show the hole is two lots. There is the 0.46-acre Parcel 38A, assessed at $1.5 million. The Milsteins pay taxes of $27,221 a year on that. And there is the 3.86-acre Parcel 38B, assessed at $24 million. They pay $433,189 a year on that, for a total annual hole-in-the-ground tax bill of $460,410.  That means the Milsteins, owners of the hole for 14 years, have paid Stamford about $5 million or more in taxes, depending on the rates over time.

Laure Aubuchon, Stamford director of economic development, said she's met with representatives of the Milsteins and "they view it as having a certain value. It sounds like there's a disconnect with what they'd like to receive and what people feel is doable in this market."

The hole faces Stamford Town Center mall on one side and the Marriott Hotel on the other, with corporate and apartment towers all around.  Aubuchon said she remembers visiting an office building that overlooks the hole when the owners were seeking tenants.

"It's difficult to rent when that's your view, and it has not been a temporary view," Aubuchon said.

Whether Howard Milstein, who heads Milstein Properties, "would sell it if someone gave him the money he wants or whether he would pull together a deal to develop it, I don't know," Aubuchon said.

Rachel Goldberg, the attorney for the Stamford Urban Redevelopment Commission, said "the price the Milsteins have wanted to get out of the property has always been on the very high side," and as far as she knows, they have not actively marketed it.

"Historically, the Milsteins ... have held property generationally. I remember reading about a property they sold in lower Manhattan that they had held for 40 years," Goldberg said. "That got us looking much more carefully at whether development would happen if we didn't find some way to change the conversation."

They found a way in the 1968 contract between the URC and the previous owner, a subsidiary of Stamford developer F.D. Rich. The contract provision says the URC has the right to buy the parcel from a mortgage holder who does not develop it by paying the mortgage debt.  The URC is working on calculating a price using a formula in the contract. It would be substantially less than what the Milsteins could get on the open market, Goldberg said.

"We are tired of waiting and are not confident they would build within a timeline that is acceptable to the URC or the city," she said.

The hole in the ground is one of the last undeveloped parcels from an urban renewal that began in the 1960s, when the city razed 130 downtown acres, displacing 1,000 families and 400 businesses.  The URC intended to build housing on the parcel, but plans changed and F.D. Rich bought it from the URC in 1984 to build apartment and office towers. When the economy soured, there was an attempt to build an extension to the mall and then to attract a large corporation. Both failed and F.D. Rich defaulted on the property in 1997.

Enter the Milsteins, who talked about three high-rise apartment buildings, and then a complex of apartments with a Walmart and a Sam's Club. Even as Stamford's South End is being transformed in a $3.5 billion project called Harbor Point, the hole remains a hole.

In Niagara Falls, the Milsteins bought 441 parcels within a couple of miles of the waterfalls, which draw 8 million tourists a year, but have built nothing. A Milstein representative told Businessweek that the company's role is to market the site to hotel chains and other possible investment partners but none wants to do business in Niagara Falls because it is a decaying city with a history of corrupt leadership.

Niagara Falls looks like a ghost town.

In Stamford, shrubs are 10 feet high and growing, and weeds weave through the chain-link fence where it leans into the hole in the ground. Leafy plants with white umbrella-shaped flower heads veil the plastic bottles, sandwich wrappers, coffee cups and other litter at the edges of the hole.

While the Milsteins dither, Mother Nature is busy, quietly developing a wildlife habitat.



Battle between downtown and South End developer continues
Hotel scrutiny: BLT recruits support in zoning dispute with DSSD over ballroom proposal
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer, Stamford ADVOCATE
Published 10:21 p.m., Tuesday, January 31, 2012

STAMFORD -- The two sides began just where they left off, flinging accusations and wisecracking remarks.

The Downtown Special Services District was deemed "imperious" and "anti-competitive," while Building and Land Technology was depicted as a developer that habitually tried to "game the system" and committed a "14-acre zoning violation" by razing a working boatyard without city approval.

In an increasingly bitter fight over plans for a 260,000-square-foot waterfront hotel in the South End, the DSSD and the developer of Harbor Point squared off Monday night before a restless crowd of roughly 400 people at Turn of River Middle School.

The issue before the board is whether the hotel's inclusion of a 4,580-square-foot ballroom violates a 2007 zoning regulation that prohibits convention centers or banquet facilities in hotels in the South End.

"It's like the clash of the two titans," said John Wooten, a South End resident, speaking before a row of Zoning Board members assembled on the auditorium stage.

Wooten was among the largely working and middle class community members who implored the Zoning Board not to halt redevelopment in the South End.

"There are a bunch of people who live there who've been waiting for this for a long time," he said, adding that a hotel would bring much-needed jobs to the area.

"These people gave us what we wanted," he said. "We're not turning a blind eye to what they're doing. We talk to them all the time."

Treva Franks, a director of workforce development at CTE, a community agency in the area, said the arrival of the Fairway supermarket chain at Harbor Point had created an "unprecedented" number of hirings in the neighborhood.

At the opening of the public hearing on Jan. 9, the Harbor Point developer had been vastly outnumbered by DSSD and boatyard supporters. This time around, BLT mobilized South End residents and even its own workers to attend the hearing. They occupied the back rows of the auditorium, many of them wearing blue stickers that read "South End supporter."

But in the end, they were still outnumbered by the parade of motley groups and individuals that have galvanized against the city's largest developer -- ardent boaters angry at the destruction of one of the region's largest working boatyards, union carpenters accusing BLT of failing to hire local workers and provide fair wages and safe working conditions, and even a South End condominium resident who at 11 p.m. stood to read off a litany of noise and air pollution issues resulting from living near a construction site.

In the end, DSSD officials sought to tie together some of the common concerns.

"Either we all play by the same zoning rules or the rules should apply to no one," said Sandy Goldstein, the president of the DSSD.

She invoked the city's master plan, which calls for concentrating dense development in the downtown, as well as the set of zoning regulations that governs the list of permitted commercial and retail uses within Harbor Point.

"No applicant should be above the rules," Goldstein said. "The dozens of issues brought up this evening talk of a process that has been totally compromised and zoning regulations that have been broken."

The crowd roared when DSSD consultant Martin Levine questioned BLT's credibility and said the company has displayed "all the reliability of a heavy breathing high school boy in the backseat of a car on a Saturday night."

One downtown business owner voiced what many have said is an underlying anxiety.

Mary Schaffer, an owner of the upscale Napa & Co. restaurant on Broad Street, spoke of the danger of not reining in the developer.

"This is a second downtown," she said.

The public hearing is to be continued March 5 at Turn of River Middle School.
The developer and the mayor
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer, Stamford ADVOCATE
Updated 09:43 p.m., Saturday, January 21, 2012

STAMFORD -- For decades, the 14-acre peninsula in Stamford Harbor that up until last October housed the working boatyard Brewer's Yacht Haven had been one of the most coveted land parcels in the city.

With sweeping views of the waterfront on all three sides, developers long recognized lucrative redevelopment opportunities in the form of housing, office, and retail. The most recent bid came in 2006 from Antares, the firm that laid out the blueprint for the 80-acre Harbor Point project. Wary of having residential development near a hurricane barrier as well as wanting to maintain a long-established water-dependent use, city officials firmly rebuked proposals to alter the site.

As part of Harbor Point's zoning approval, the city's Zoning Board included a strongly worded condition that prohibited the developer from both closing and reducing the services of the boatyard without the board's authorization. The city also inserted into the 2007 city's zoning regulations for the South End an objective that called for the "protection and encouragement of any existing and new water-dependent uses and their essential supporting uses."

Along with the state's Coastal Area Management Act, the boatyard appeared to be untouchable.

None of these measures succeeded in preventing the demolition of the boatyard last year, which raised questions about how the city and Mayor Michael Pavia, managed the relationship with current Harbor Point developer, Building and Land Technology.

Despite having publicly said he wants the developer to replace the boatyard with one that offers the same services, Pavia indicated to The Advocate last week that he has little behind-the-scenes involvement in trying to reign in BLT.  To date, no enforcement or punitive action has been taken by the city against BLT for breaching its zoning approval.  Asked how enforcement should typically be carried out in such a situation, Pavia replied Wednesday, "I'm not sure I can answer that question."

He gave a similar response when asked if he thought there was something he could have done to prevent the boatyard's demolition.

"I can't answer that," he said. "I don't know."

Pavia, a former developer, said he believes mayors in general should be hands-off when it comes to development.

"Land use is something I try to steer clear of," he said. "It pretty much makes its own determination and that's the way it should be."

On whether, as mayor, he exerted any influence on the developer, Pavia said, "I don't know the answer to that either."

Pavia said the last meeting he had with Carl Kuehner, the CEO of BLT, was about 10 weeks ago. He said the two discussed environmental cleanup plans for the site. BLT has argued that the boatyard needed to be closed and dismantled so it could begin a state-mandated remediation.

Yet the company recently acknowledged that the new marina facility it intended to propose would not be able to perform out-of-water repairs nor service boats longer than 50 feet.

In part, the razing of 14 building structures at the boatyard beginning in December reflected a lack of coordination among the departments that oversee construction projects such as Harbor Point.

Norman Cole, the city's acting land use bureau chief, appeared caught off-guard when he learned of the demolition this month. Last August, he told a committee of the Board of Representatives that any remediation plans for the boatyard should include the approval of the Zoning Board.

Robert DeMarco, the city's building chief official whose department issued the two demolition permits, said he was unaware of any controversy regarding the site. He said all the proper noticing procedures were followed.

"Nobody authorized us to do anything different," DeMarco said.

The response contrasts with how the city handled an incident in the fall of 2008 when BLT breached a federally designated no-construction zone near a hurricane barrier by the West Branch of Stamford Harbor.  The violation prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to write a letter to then-mayor Dannel P. Malloy, calling on him to investigate the matter.  The city moved quickly; led by the previous director of operations, Ben Barnes, city officials asked BLT to stop construction and called for a meeting with the developer to establish better coordination with city agencies.

"Under the previous administration, communication and coordination were recognized as crucial," said Robin Stein, Stamford's former land use bureau chief who retired last January.

Stein, who was appointed last year by Gov. Malloy to head the state's Siting Council, added that he and Malloy communicated on a regular basis. When problems with developers arose, Stein said, Malloy tried to broker a resolution.

"He would have said, `let's get all the parties together,'" Stein said. "That's sort of the way he operated."

Pavia last week said he intends to meet with Cole, who has worked closely with BLT on the design and implementation of Harbor Point.  Cole also serves as an adviser to the city's Zoning Board, which is the authoritative body that can determine and enforce zoning violations.  Last summer, board members informally discussed BLT's closure of the boatyard but ultimately decided against taking immediate action.

Tom Mills, the chair of the Zoning Board, declined to comment on the issue except to say the board plans to make a statement shortly.

The Zoning Board's next meeting is scheduled for Monday.  In the end, the city's reluctance to hold BLT accountable may reflect the tricky balancing act of regulating a developer who has made strides in remaking a long blighted industrial area.  With an expected estimated investment of $3.5 billion over the next decade or so, Harbor Point has become the city's signature project and is set to generate millions of dollars in permitting and tax revenue.

Issuing a zoning violation that would shut down construction across the development sites would trigger a legal process that is likely to be prolonged and messy.  Typically, the measure is one of last resort, according to Stein.

"It could become a long drawn-out process which nobody wants," he said.

At the same time, he wondered, "But how else do you get their attention?"
District challenges Harbor Point hotel
20-story proposed development: Downtown Special Services District opposes ballroom
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer, Stamford ADVOCATE
Updated 07:21 a.m., Monday, January 9, 2012

STAMFORD -- As the Zoning Board prepares for a Monday public hearing to review another project within the rapidly unfolding Harbor Point development, members may want to pull out dictionaries.

A planned 20-story hotel proposed by developer Building and Land Technology has drawn unexpected opposition from the Downtown Special Services District.

The crux of the dispute is inclusion of a 4,580 square-foot ballroom and an argument of semantics.

According to the DSSD, the space labeled "ballroom" amounts to a violation of a 2007 zoning regulation that specifically prohibits a "convention center/banquet facility" in any hotel or inn in the redeveloping South End.

"A ballroom is a banquet facility," said Martin Levine, a consultant for the DSSD.

None of the three terms -- convention center, banquet facility, or ballroom -- are defined in the city zoning regulations.

Plans for the roughly 260,000 square-foot hotel, slated to have 130 to 140 rooms as well as 60 condominium units, go back as far as March 2008. That was when the Zoning Board approved the hotel's architectural designs, which included the ballroom.

"Somehow we missed it," DSSD President Sandy Goldstein acknowledged. "But so did (principal planner) Norman Cole and so did the Zoning Board. And that was because (Harbor Point) was a huge plan," she added, referring to the development's sprawling mix of housing, commercial and retail uses spread across 80 acres.

DSSD officials said they discovered BLT's inclusion of a ballroom late last year as BLT was preparing to present the Zoning Board with a revised hotel design. Through an attorney, the DSSD in December requested the board to hold a public hearing on the plan, arguing that both the ballroom oversight as well as changes in the hotel design -- from one 13-story building to two 20-story towers -- merited an opportunity for public comment.

"I think the Zoning Board has got to determine how they can rectify this," Goldstein said. "It was inappropriate to pass an illegal use."

Though it consented to a public hearing, BLT maintains the time for contesting the ballroom is over.

"It's been shown on the plan for years," said John Freeman, an attorney and spokesman for Harbor Point. "There were two public hearings in 2008. And no one has ever objected to it. Frankly, I'm mystified as to why they are objecting three years after the public hearings and approval."

At stake for the DSSD are not only the downtown hotels, but the surrounding restaurants, entertainment and cultural offerings its organization has sought to grow and strengthen over the past few decades.

Hotels with spaces for large catered events "are really good for downtowns because people come to the meetings and in the evening, they are available to go out," Levine said.

In response to a request from the Zoning Board, the city's legal department has concluded the board must exercise its own judgement in deciding whether a ballroom is a permitted use.

But in his Dec. 21, letter to the board, John Mullin, assistant corporation counsel, noted that while a ballroom is not on the list of permitted uses in the South End, a "dance hall" is. He went on to cite Webster's Third New International Dictionary, which defines a ballroom as a "large room (as in a hotel) set aside or suitable for dances."

Offering up another point that would seem to favor the developer, Mullin also pointed out weddings "may be held in many locations within the City of Stamford, such as restaurants, which do not necessarily qualify as either a convention center or a banquet facility."

Levine, however, disagrees.

"A ballroom may be a very nice place for dancing but weddings don't take place in ballrooms. They take place in banquet facilities," he said.

Freeman said the scale of the proposed ballroom is "a far cry from a convention center."

He summed up the matter by saying, "It's exactly the type of use the city wants to see here in the waterfront. This is a perfect venue for it and everybody has known it for years."
Harbor Point: New apartments proposed
Stamford ADVOCATE
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Updated 11:09 p.m., Sunday, January 1, 2012

STAMFORD -- Pointing to a surging demand for rental housing in Stamford, the developer of Harbor Point has unveiled plans to build another large-scale apartment complex in the South End.  Building and Land Technology recently submitted a zoning application for 226 units at Pacific and Henry streets.  The proposed building is comprised of 15 stories and 382,455 square feet of space, along with 295 parking spaces.

To date, three Harbor Point housing developments have been completed since construction on the $3.5 billion 80-acre project officially began in 2008.  The first complex, The Lofts, opened in summer 2010 as a series of former Yale & Towne factories on Henry Street that were rehabilitated into 225-loft-style apartment units. It was followed in September by a 336-unit, 15-story high-rise on Washington Boulevard named 101 Park Place.

BLT's most recent housing development opened in October, a 329-unit six-story complex on Canal Street named LockWorks.  Among the projects already underway is a 22-story residential building on Pacific Street.

All told, the developer has constructed nearly 900 residences, about a quarter of its target. The plan for Harbor Point calls for a total of 4,000 units.

With BLT setting the pace, development of apartment buildings has also heated up in the city's downtown.  Just last month, Trump Parc developer Thomas Rich filed an application to build a 23-story, 226-unit apartment highrise on lower Summer Street. In his zoning application, Rich noted the project was intended to appeal to a diverse and younger demographic.

Developer Randy Salvatore appeared to confirm the escalating demand for housing when, early last year, he opened and promptly sold a 94-unit rental building at Washington Boulevard. He is at work on another 124-unit complex across the street.

In addition to residences, BLT is also working to fill 1 million square feet of commercial and retail space.  Following the arrival of Fairway as its anchor tenant, the developer has signed a string of retailers. Most recently, it announced the addition of three restaurants, Le Pain Quotidien, Harlan Social and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

All are expected to open next year.
Angela Carella: Who is welcome to the 'new' Stamford?
Stamford ADVOCATE
Published 08:30 p.m., Saturday, December 31, 2011

It's the start of a new year and the city's biggest developer is inviting people to the "new" Stamford.

"Welcome to the new Stamford," executives for Norwalk developer Building & Land Technology say in their press releases, at community meetings, on their website and in news reports.

If there isn't much new in your neighborhood, you may wonder what they are talking about. It's their $3.5 billion, 10-year remake of one-third of the South End, "one of the nation's largest redevelopment projects," according to their website.

They have renamed that section of Stamford "Harbor Point" and, in their effort to lure residential and commercial tenants, bill it as "the perfect place to live, work and play."

The question is, for whom?

It's not known where the tenants come from, but the apartments built so far are nearly all occupied, and by people with money to spend. Rent at one of the 329 units in Harbor Point's newest apartment building, LockWorks, which opened in October, is $1,910 to $3,680 a month. That's what most mortgages cost.

Rents are similar at 101 Park Place, a 15-story luxury apartment building with 336 units that opened last year on Washington Boulevard. Rents at The Lofts at Yale & Towne, with 225 apartments in the old Yale & Towne lock factory on Henry Street, are only slightly less at about $1,600 to $2,700 a month.

Asking rents at Harbor Point's office complexes -- One Harbor Point Square, Two Harbor Point Square, and Gateway Harbor Point, which is under construction -- are reportedly 20 percent higher than rents in office buildings downtown.

BLT is a big player in Stamford's commercial real estate market. It was reported this week the developer will buy an iconic downtown office building, the huge, glass Financial Centre at 695 E. Main St., which has been empty for two years and once was home to General Reinsurance Corp.

General Re now leases space at 120 Long Ridge Road, another BLT property. So is the former Xerox headquarters at 800 Long Ridge Road and the office complexes are 260 Long Ridge Road and 292 Long Ridge Road. BLT's other commercial properties in Stamford are 600 Summer St., Stamford Landing, Stamford Harbor Park, Stamford Harbor Square and One Dock Street, according to its website.

It's good that Carl Kuehner III, president and chief executive officer of BLT, and his backer, Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds of Philadelphia, believe in Stamford. As they make money for themselves, they make money for the city. Officials have said they expect Harbor Point to generate $20 million in property tax revenue, 10 times more than what the city collected from the properties the project has replaced. The city will collect millions more in building permit fees from BLT.

And there's no doubt the South End, historically Stamford's workhorse neighborhood, needed a remake. For centuries it was a hub of industry around Stamford Harbor but became dilapidated in the last few decades as manufacturing disappeared.

For years city officials tried to interest developers in the neighborhood but nothing sailed until BLT took over for Antares, a failed Greenwich firm.

Still, how much influence do Stamford residents want Kuehner or any developer to have in reshaping their city? If the goal is to make Stamford more upscale, who will be left out? If earning a profit heads the developer's list of priorities, where does community good fall?

Stamford has an affordable housing regulation that says developers must set aside at least 10 percent of the units they build for families earning no more than 50 percent of the city's median income, which is about $61,150 for a family of four.

In October 2010, about 90 qualified families, mostly from Stamford, vied for a chance to live in one of 34 affordable units in Harbor Point's 101 Park Place. It's likely the need is much greater than the 90 who applied, since cash-strapped families are packed into illegal apartments and rooming houses in nearly every Stamford neighborhood.

Speaking to the 101 Park Place applicants, BLT spokesman John Freeman said, "We really want to be inclusive and invite you to the new Stamford," even as two-thirds of them were turned away.

The zoning regulation, remember, says developers must set aside at least 10 percent of units for affordable housing. Any developer who wishes may increase the ratio.

City officials were disturbed to hear in April that BLT wanted to include only about half of the 65 required affordable units in a 645-unit apartment complex it is building on Pacific Street. To save money, BLT asked instead to put the affordable units in six old multi-family houses it owns at the edges of the Harbor Point project. Such arrangements fail to create true mixed-income developments, so city officials frown on them. In this case officials questioned the quality of the multi-family units, parking availability, and whether BLT should drop the prices for them.

BLT refused to renew the lease for Brewer Yacht Haven, which operated the largest working boatyard in the region, and Stamford's last. It created a community uproar, with city officials demanding that the boatyard be replaced, but BLT still has not said what it will do with the site on Stamford Harbor.

The owners of family-owned South End businesses have said the BLT project is squeezing them out. Tradesmen complain that BLT hires out-of-state construction crews to avoid paying union wages.

City officials have said a good chunk of the tax revenue Harbor Point will generate will have to be spent on police and fire protection, garbage collection and other services that will be needed by the tenants of all the new housing units, which will number 4,000 when Harbor Point is complete.

BLT has said most of the tenants will be young urban professionals or empty-nesters, few with school-aged children, so educating them will not overburden the city. But demographics can be difficult to predict. For whatever reason, this year a third of city elementary schools were beyond capacity.

The developer may indeed be creating a new Stamford, but not just in the way it envisions.

Harbor Point developer pitches more housing;  Developer also seeks to move affordable housing off site
Elizabeth Kim, Stamford ADVOCATE
Published 10:10 a.m., Monday, February 21, 2011

STAMFORD -- The developer of Harbor Point, Building and Land Technology, recently announced plans to build three more residential buildings that would bring more than 600 units of housing to its ongoing 80-acre mixed-use development in the South End.

The latest plan, which is yet to be approved by the city's Zoning Board, calls for three buildings along Pacific Street measuring in heights of nine, 12 and 22 stories and totaling 645 apartment units. The buildings would face a newly built park by the developer known as Commons Park.

To date, Building and Land Technology has completed two residential projects: a six-story, 225-unit building renovated from a former factory belonging to Yale & Towne at 200 Henry Street, and a 15-story, 336-unit high-rise at 101 Washington Boulevard. Both are made up of rental apartments.

In addition, construction is underway for another six-story building with 329 units at a site facing the Yale & Towne complex. It is set to be finished by next spring.

Taken together, the number of housing units already built, under construction or proposed for Harbor Point currently adds up to 1,535. The general development plan calls for a total of 4,000 residences over the next decade, of which 400 are to be reserved for affordable housing.

Yet in a move that may prove to be controversial, the recent proposal asks to put 31 of the required 65 affordable units at six off-site properties the developer owns in the South End. The city's affordable housing policy stipulates that at least 10 percent of units in multi-family developments must be set aside for families earning less than 50 percent of the area median income.

Whereas developers may be granted a special exception to locate the affordable units off-site or pay a fee-in-lieu, the city as well as the planning and zoning boards have generally frowned upon such requests, in part because of the argument that they fail to bring about mixed-income developments. The Planning Board last month voted against a similar request by a developer of a proposed downtown housing project.

John Freeman, a spokesman for Building and Land Technology, said the request was part of an effort to save the neighborhood's existing housing stock.

"We have always made the commitment to build 400 affordable units in the South End," Freeman said. "We've been working with the community to build the affordable housing in the community and we have been buying houses to preserve that opportunity."

The locations being proposed are six older multi-family residents on Henry Street, Woodland Place, Washington Boulevard and Walter Wheeler Drive.

Freeman said he did not expect the off-site request to be an issue, adding, "This is something we've talked about for years."

Terry Adams, the president of the South End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone and a city representative for the South End, said he had heard about the plan but that it had not formally been introduced before the community.

One of the concerns, he said, was the condition of the properties as well as whether there would be sufficient parking.

"We hate to see someone with one or two kids have to drive around looking for a parking space," he said. "If it's feasible, we'll put it to community and let the community decide."

But he added, "It's definitely not a done deal."

The city's land use bureau has not yet released its report on the project, but Norman Cole, the city's principal planner, who advises the Zoning Board, expressed the same concerns about parking and the age of the homes.

Up until now, all of the affordable housing units at Harbor Point have been included inside its new buildings and are indistinguishable from market-rate apartments. The units are distributed according to an application process and often involves a lottery process overseen by the city.

Stamford finance board recommends Gateway street closure
Stamford ADVOCATE
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Published: 10:36 a.m., Friday, July 30, 2010

STAMFORD -- After expressing reservations earlier this month, the Board of Finance voted 4-2 Thursday to recommend closing part of West Henry Street so a developer can proceed with the mixed-use project known as Gateway.

"You create jobs, improve the area," said Tim Abbazia, a board Democrat. "It's almost going to be an impetus to get us out of the recession."

The decision, on the heels of zoning approvals granted Monday, marks the clearing of a crucial, tough hurdle for developer Building and Land Technology. Final approval of the road closure could be decided as early as next week, when the matter goes before the Board of Representatives.

Since last year, the Norwalk firm has been seeking a series of city approvals for a project that will have 474,000 square feet of commercial space and at least 100 units of housing on a 6-acre site along Washington Boulevard, south of the train station. During that time, it has faced an avalanche of questions and criticisms, mostly relating to how Gateway will affect traffic in a critical section of the South End.

One argument for keeping West Henry Street open was to preserve the possibility of a east-west bridge crossing into Waterside. The matter was made more confusing by conflicting city reports. But the most recent traffic studies have made no mention of such a crossing and said the opposition has exaggerated its claims of congestion. Robin Stein, the city's land use bureau chief, has stated that a West Henry Street bridge is not a realistic option.

The administration has pointed to generation of much-needed revenue in the form of about $2 million in permit fees and about $3.5 million a year in tax payments.

Of the six finance board members, Kathleen Murphy, an Independent, and Joseph Tarzia, the Republican chairman, voted against the proposal.

Murphy, who accused city officials of "lusting" over an unnamed commercial tenant for the project, said she was neither satisfied the process was correctly handled nor convinced about the city's traffic plan for the area.

"There's been no financial analysis," she said.

Her comments came after a lengthy breakdown from economic development director Laure Aubuchon of the various nearby street improvement projects that have been slated by the administration.

Of them, two appeared to be near-term projects. Work on the intersection of Greenwich and Pulaski streets could begin within the next few weeks, Aubuchon said. She estimated this it would cost between $100,000 to $150,000 and added the money is in the budget.

The more expensive and time-consuming project, repairing the crooked intersection at Henry and Atlantic streets, may cost between $1.5 million to $2 million, she said. Developers Building and Land Technology and Malkin Properties have agreed to chip in $500,000 each. The city, in the meantime, has also applied for federal funding and should know the outcome this fall.

In June, Mayor Michael Pavia issued a report in support of the project and recommended the payment of $500,000 in return for the road closure. The developer additionally agreed to provide the city with several easements and public improvements.

But Tarzia said he did not think the city was receiving a fair deal, saying that the developer's contribution was "not commensurate" with what the road was worth.

Pending the outcome of the Board of Representatives' vote on Monday, the developer will be able to seek zoning approval for its final site plan, the last step before proceeding with construction.

The Zoning Board is set to hold its next meeting in September.
Housing debate suggests political shift on Stamford Zoning Board
Stamford ADVOCATE
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Published: 09:42 p.m., Wednesday, July 28, 2010

STAMFORD -- After the unanimous approval of three critical zoning applications, the city's Zoning Board this week put to rest questions that have swirled around Gateway, a high-profile mixed-use development that has faced intense opposition over the past year.

But the more interesting and revealing vote was an unofficial one deciding the amount of housing at Gateway. In a narrow 3-2 defeat for the two Republicans, the board voted to increase the minimum number of housing units from 72 to 100.

The discussion preceding the vote could be seen as a sign of shifting priorities on a board that has undergone a change in leadership and makeup. After years of having one only Republican member, Audrey Cosentini, the board has now another, Barry Michelson, appointed by Mayor Michael Pavia.

Michelson, formerly the director of planning and zoning in Fairfield, opposed the city planner's proposal to require developer Building and Land Technology to increase housing.

Citing the area as lacking in retail and services, he said, "I'm not crazy about it as a location for housing, much less increasing it.

"You don't need it there. It's isolated. It's on an office complex," he said.

Within Stamford's land-use circles, the notion of putting more housing near the train station has long been an accepted planning and zoning goal. In its review of the project, the Planning Board unanimously recommended that Gateway add more housing.

The project, located on 6 acres along Washington Boulevard below the train station, was proposed as being designated under the city's Transportation Center Design District. Stamford's zoning regulations state that the district's goals are to promote mixed-use development in which one of the principal uses is housing. Building and Land Technology had originally been proposing 200 units -- already fewer than the required 280 units -- but design considerations by the city resulted in a reduction that land use officials ultimately thought was too drastic.

During public hearings, rival developer Anthony Malkin and other opponents called out Building and Land Technology for building too little housing. Gateway, Malkin said, did not meet the standard of a true transit-oriented mixed-use development the city envisioned around the train station.

The project's primary use will be 474,000 square feet of commercial space spread across two office buildings.

At Monday's meeting, Cosentini sided with Michelson. But she said she was primarily concerned with having to raise the buildings's height to accommodate the additional units.

In an attempt to bridge the two sides, Democrat David Stein suggested deciding on a number between 72 and 100.

But Maria Nakian, a board Democrat who has been the most vocal proponent of urban high-density housing, stridently disagreed.

"I agree it's an intense development, but that doesn't mean that we then loosen the regulations to allow less residential," she said. "We should lessen commercial to balance the residential. That would be the compromise.

"Getting the extra housing and affordable units is worth a little bit of a higher building. I really feel strongly that the city is losing out on the housing as part of this project by lowering the standards," she said.

In the end, Nakian won out, persuading her two Democratic colleagues to vote with her.

Yet come next year, that may no longer be the case. Nakian's term on the board ends in December. Her replacement is slated to be a Republican, giving the party its first majority on the Zoning Board in more than a decade.
Zoning Board grants preliminary approval for Gateway
Stamford ADVOCATE
Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Published: 09:43 p.m., Tuesday, July 27, 2010

STAMFORD -- After a month of hearings raising questions about traffic, the developer of an office and housing development near the train station has won a series of critical preliminary zoning approvals.

The Zoning Board on Monday unanimously approved a general plan that would allow Building and Land Technology to build two office buildings, containing a total of 474,000 square feet of commercial space and at least 72 housing units on a 6-acre property on Washington Boulevard, south of the train station.

But the vote, which had been closely followed by nearby property owners, does not mark the final stage of approvals for the project known as Gateway.

Building and Land Technology cannot seek final zoning approval until the city agrees to close a portion of West Henry Street that dead-ends on the site. In return, the developer has agreed to pay the city $500,000, as well as provide several easements and public street improvements. That approval is pending before the Board of Finance. If granted, the issue would then go before the Board of Representatives for a final vote.

Tim Abbazzia, a Finance Board member, said the board is tentatively scheduled to meet on the issue Thursday.

Earlier this month, the Finance Board postponed voting on the road closure, with several members saying they had concerns about the project. Opponents, including representatives for rival developer Anthony Malkin and Pitney Bowes, said office density would create a traffic nightmare in the South End. The plan involves construction of a below-ground parking lot that will accommodate 1,799 cars, and 500 spots would be set aside for train commuters.

But Mayor Michael Pavia asked Finance Board members to support Gateway, saying the development would create much-needed city permit and tax revenue and more than 800 jobs with the arrival of a yet-to-be named tenant. The mayor added that he was committed to improving street infrastructure in the South End as part of a long-term effort to combat congestion.

Despite being unable to secure a decisive final site plan approval, Building and Land Technology urged the board last week to approve the three related zoning applications so that it could show that it had made progress to its tenant. If the street closure is secured bugust, the Zoning Board is to take up the final site plan approval in September.

"This is fantastic," said John Freeman, the spokesman for the Building and Land Technology. "We are very encouraged."

Mill River story here...
As Stamford's Trump Parc opens, developers and city hold their breath
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/27/2009 09:30:27 PM EDT
Updated: 09/28/2009 11:44:58 AM EDT

STAMFORD -- Earlier this month, developer Thomas Rich decided on a hands-on approach to market his most ambitious project to date: Trump Parc, the luxury high-rise on Washington Boulevard that has reshaped the city's skyline.

Rich is part of a development team that includes Donald Trump, the celebrity real estate mogul, and Louis Cappelli, a developer who has overseen major projects throughout Westchester County, N.Y.

On an early weekday morning, the dapper Rich joined his staff in distributing brochures and complimentary umbrellas to commuters at the city's train station.

Rich, whose family has 100-year legacy of building in Stamford, later described the scene with a sense of wonder and half-disbelief.

"Hundreds of people, all coming to Stamford," he said.

The unspoken assumption was that somewhere among the hurried throngs lurked deep-pocketed professionals, ones who might see themselves living in a glass box in Stamford, with views stretching as far as Manhattan and the eastern edges of Long Island.

"The phone is ringing off the hook," he said afterward, adding that he has since doubled his sales staff from two to four.

As of last week, of 170 units, two have closed and about 68 are under contract to be sold.  For Martin Nirschel, a Stamford-based real estate agent for Sotheby's International Realty, Rich's numbers translate into the dispiriting reality that he has 100 more to sell.

"It's like a guy running a marathon who says, 'Look, I've finished one mile,' " Nirschel said. "But now I have 25 miles to go."

On the heels of a historic financial collapse and housing bubble, Trump Parc seems to be a victim of bad timing. In Stamford, condo sales have dropped 50 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to a recent market report by Prudential Connecticut Realty.

The test now is whether Trump Parc can pull off what few condominium developments downtown have managed: to make money for its initial owners.

"If you look at the track record over the last 30 years, the initial developers have not been the ones that have made significant profits," said Richard Redniss, a planning consultant who worked on Trump Parc and Highgrove, another luxury condominium property set to open on Forest Street later this year.

"In many instances, the initial developer has not made any profits, and the properties went back to the lenders," Redniss said.

Trump Parc is trying to avoid the storyline of The Classic, a cautionary tale in the history of downtown high-rise development. Completed in 1990, the highly anticipated 18-story condominium building at Forest Street and Greyrock Place was the city's first luxury high-rise, with 144 units and amenities such as a pool, 24-hour doorman, concierge and valet services -- even a private park.

City officials focused on the project as one that would revitalize the downtown and serve as a springboard for further housing developments. But The Classic flopped, in large measure because of a recession.

Before The Classic opened its doors, the development company, Caspi Development Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., switched units to rentals. Not long after, the building was sold to a Kawabe Bussan Co., from Japan.

Ultimately, the lessons to be learned from both situations is not so clear, said Norman Cole, Stamford's city planner.

"The Classic got caught in a recession and was a financial failure," Cole said. "Since then, we are now back 20 years later to a period of time when the developers' perception is that there is a significant demand for a luxury high-rise. Again, we have a mixed result. Did we prove it or disprove it?"

What worries Cole and others is whether Trump Parc will freeze other developments. Not far from Trump Parc, Rich and Cappelli have approval to begin building a Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominium complex at Atlantic Street and Tresser Boulevard. At 400 feet, the two towers would surpass the 350-foot Trump Parc to become the tallest buildings in Stamford.

Also nearby, another development company, Lowe Enterprises, is expected to build an enormous housing and retail complex between Tresser Boulevard and Bell Street. Known as Tresser Square, it would include a mix of condominium and rental units totaling more than 800 and involve the demolition of one of the buildings at St. John's Towers.

In the meantime, all eyes are likely to be on Trump Parc.

Rich has reacted to the marketplace, reducing prices on selected one-, two- and three-bedroom units by more than 15 percent and launching a campaign that targets renters, who are not burdened with having to unload a home.

Under the program, buyers are required to provide a down payment of 10 percent. An additional 20 percent is to be financed by the developers at an interest rate of 2.5 percent. On the building's lowest-priced units, the average monthly after-tax cost over five years would work out to roughly $2,000.

Ads for the program have appeared in newspapers and Metro-North trains. Rich himself recorded a sales pitch for radio ads. His office also recently blitzed thousands of rental dwellers living in Fairfield County, Westchester and Manhattan.

Nirschel said the strategy was smart, adding that, ironically, Rich's name may be more of a selling card than that of Trump, who in recent years has become known more for reality television and multiple bankruptcy filings.

"The Rich name has a certain cachet." Nirschel said. "They build good stuff, and they are here to stay."

Rich and the other developers are "certainly not going to walk away from this thing," said Jack Condlin, president of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce. "They have the ability to carry this thing. They will make it work. I'm 100 percent confident that this building will be successful, and there will be more of these."

Location appears to be on Trump Parc's side. Randy Salvatore, a developer who specializes in middle-end rental and condo buildings, said he sees the stretch along Washington Boulevard beginning at the train station as "the future of Stamford."

Salvatore, who recently received zoning approval to build a four-story 94-unit residential building on the block across from Trump Parc, pointed to the renovation of Mill River Park, the restaurants surrounding Columbus Park and the anchoring effects of UConn-Stamford and RBS.

"(Trump Parc) will succeed," Salvatore said. "It will just take a little bit longer."

From the city's perspective, the key is getting the housing built, according to Redniss.

In the case of The Classic, after being purchased by new owners, the building was renovated into luxury condominiums again in 2006, proving perhaps that among developers, there are no shortage of risk-takers.

Redniss recalled a recent conversation he had with one such individual.

"He said to me, 'You don't know anything until you've gone broke once.' That's the nature of development."

Tax The Rich? Think Twice First
Hartford Courant
Rick Green
May 22, 2007

At the gala groundbreaking for a 34-story Trump Parc luxury condominium in Stamford, it was all grins and little blue martinis.

There was The Donald himself, surrounded by sycophants, exalting in an embarrassing display featuring a string quartet and a buffet luncheon, washed down with Trump's own brand of bottled water.

Could they have come up with a better tableau to bolster Democratic calls in the legislature to sock it to the Gold Coast rich with higher income taxes?

But later that same day I drove 75 miles north to New Britain and began to feel differently about The Donald's hideous display. On a grassy lot local officials and Gov. M. Jodi Rell were proudly breaking ground for a modest building that will add four units of affordable housing to this beleaguered downtown.

Neighborhood Housing Services of New Britain deserves a pat on the back for its efforts to revive Broad Street. So do taxpayers, who are investing $326,000 in this project. If we've got any future in Connecticut, it will depend on resuscitating our urban workforce.

There's more than a long way to go. A new University of Connecticut study shows that in coming decades our cities, with their failing schools, must provide the workers of the future. New Britain high school students don't give much cause for optimism - less than 20 percent of 10th-graders reach state goals in reading, math or science.

I doubt any of these kids can look forward to a future living in a highrise overlooking Long Island Sound.

As much as I find Trump's act revolting, the truly frightening future lies in New Britain. In 20 years, UConn demographers predict, blacks and Hispanics who are now children will be the core of our workforce. Right now, we're barely making sure they can read.

If we're going to have the resources to solve the problems in our cities, we desperately need what The Donald is bringing to Connecticut: wealthy taxpayers and the corporations that employ them. Where do you think the big budget surplus we have is coming from?

Stamford is enticing banks and bond-traders out of Manhattan, just a 45-minute train ride away, and building an impressive variety of smart-growth housing for residents. It is the only city in the state where developers must designate the equivalent of 10 percent of their housing units as affordable housing.

With private financing from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Trump Parc's luxury condos will soon be filled with people with six- and seven-figure incomes. UBS Investment Bank is already here, and a new Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters is under construction. A Ritz-Carlton is on the way, as is a privately financed redevelopment of the waterfront with thousands of luxury - and affordable - residences.

"I don't think anyone has the long-term vision right now," Stamford Mayor Danell P. Malloy said when I asked him whether he was worried about his Democratic friends' tax-the-rich plans. "The politicians right now are stuck on talking about the present."

In the present, we're full of millionaires, at least in Fairfield County. But since 1990, the Census Bureau tells us, we've had a 30 percent decline in our population of 25- to 34-year-olds, the most precipitous decline in the country. We're losing 15,000 people a year, most of them young workers. A net total of 100,000 25- to 44-year-olds will depart by 2030, predictions suggest.

So go ahead, tax the rich. But beware.

No workers means no companies, maybe no Donald and no UBS. Whose taxes will we raise then?
Seven downtown Stamford office buildings to sell for $800M 
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Peter Healy, Staff Writer
Published March 28 2007

STAMFORD - RFR Holding of New York City plans to buy seven office buildings in downtown Stamford from the Blackstone Group for $830 million to $850 million, RFR President Jason Brown said yesterday.  RFR Holding, owner of more than 20 Manhattan office buildings, has a contract to buy the Stamford portfolio, Brown said. The deal is expected to close late this spring, he said.

"This is an opportunistic buy," Brown said. "Stamford is an extension of New York and we like the potential of the Stamford (office) market."

He cited below-market rents, proximity to the Stamford train station and the presence of financial giants such as UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland as reasons for the purchase.  The buildings are Canterbury Green, 177 Broad St., 300 Atlantic St. and the four buildings in the Stamford Plaza office complex on Tresser Boulevard that stretches from the Stamford Marriott Hotel to Elm Street.

Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy yesterday reiterated the city's plans to seek a delay in the property tax revaluation because of the pending sale to RFR Holding.

"It is clear that commercial property values have gone up dramatically and that should be reflected in the revaluation," Malloy said.

Malloy said Monday that he planned to ask the state to waive the penalty for opting out of the 2006 property revaluation. The city stands to lose nearly $1.5 million in state aid if the higher assessments are not used for the July tax bills.  Board of Finance Chairwoman Mary Lou Rinaldi last week asked Malloy to request a delay. The timing of the revaluation hurts homeowners because it caught commercial values in a slump and residential values at their peak, she said.

Rinaldi wants to throw out the 2006 revaluation - actually the 2003 revaluation postponed by three years - and do another as of Oct. 1, when commercial values will be higher.  Blackstone Group of New York City will sell the Stamford buildings that it acquired from Equity Office Properties Trust last month.  Blackstone Group, a privately owned leveraged buyout firm, bought Equity Office Properties of Chicago for $39 billion in the largest buyout in history. Blackstone plans to convert to a publicly traded company.

The Stamford buildings total about 1.7 million square feet. Tenants include envelope maker and commercial printer Cenveo Inc., Cushman & Wakefield Inc. and CB Richard Ellis commercial real estate firms, publisher Boardroom Inc., and Hexcel Corp., a manufacturer of structural materials.  New or existing tenants who renew leases should expect to pay higher rents because RFR Holding wants to justify its investment, real estate executives in lower Fairfield County said. Landlords at comparable properties will want to raise rents, too, they said.

"We are going to raise rents to where the market is," Brown said. "We are a good and fair landlord. We have a good reputation, and tenants love us."

The average asking rent for Class A office space in downtown Stamford is $37.75 per square foot, according to CB Richard Ellis.  Stamford's office rents could rise 15 percent to 25 percent because of the RFR deal, said John Goodkind, managing principal at the Greenwich office of Newmark Knight Frank commercial real estate, based in New York City.

"This will accelerate a market that is already moving up," Goodkind said. "They are a first-rate owner that knows quality real estate."

RFR Holding, headed by contemporary art collector Aby Rosen and his partner, Michael Fuchs, owns buildings on Park, Fifth, Lexington and Madison avenues, Herald Square and other prestigious New York City addresses.

"RFR is a well-known owner of trophy office properties in Manhattan," said Robert Gillon, president of Signature Group commercial real estate in Darien. "They have acquired a great portfolio of office buildings in a very active market in Stamford. As New York City rents escalate above $100 a square foot, Stamford will benefit in price and occupancy."

Greenwich office rents also will rise, said Joseph Beninati, co-founder and managing partner of Antares Investment Partners, a commercial and residential real estate developer with offices in Stamford and Greenwich. That is because Greenwich landlords who used to drop office rents to keep their tenants from moving to Stamford will not have to reduce them as much, Beninati said.

"The price of buildings and office leases in Stamford have been offered at a discount, and we are getting to a point where these prices are getting normalized," said Jim Fagan, senior managing director of the Connecticut and Westchester County, N.Y., operations of Cushman & Wakefield.

Trump crane to stay put, for now
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/12/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

STAMFORD - The crane at the Trump Parc construction site will not be dismantled this week as planned, a city official said Monday.

That means Washington Boulevard and Broad Street will not be closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. this week, said Ben Barnes, director of operations.

The city will decide Tuesday on a new schedule for removing the crane.

City officials met Monday with representatives of the construction company, George A. Fuller, to revise the schedule for dismantling the tower crane on Washington Boulevard, Barnes said.

The company asked whether it could take down the crane during daylight hours, but the city wants to minimize inconvenience to drivers and pedestrians.

The crane might be dismantled during the weekend, Barnes said.

On July 30, the city announced that the tower crane would be dismantled over four days this week. But after an Aug. 2 incident in which a 4-by-4 piece of lumber fell from the building, Louis Cappelli, the developer, said he wanted to have the crane dismantled sooner to ease safety concerns.

A spokesman for Cappelli could not be reached Monday.

In the past three months, construction debris from Trump Parc has fallen to the street four times, prompting the city to tighten supervision at the site. Construction has resumed only on floors closed in by windows. On higher floors where windows have not been installed, crews are permitted to do only safety-related work.
Maybe he should have his best women working here - they may be neater?
Trump Parc developer dismayed by falling debris
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Elizabeth Kim
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/05/2008 02:41:19 AM EDT

STAMFORD - Louis Cappelli, the Trump Parc developer, said Monday he will increase oversight "at any cost" at the downtown construction site, where debris has fallen to the street four times in the past three months.

"I'm upset," Cappelli said. "It's not acceptable."

Though the incidents are "inexcusable," weather may have been a factor, he said.

"You had a perfectly beautiful summer day that turned into a 50-mph wind gust," he said about Saturday's incident when a 4-by-4 piece of lumber fell 27 stories and through the roof of a postal delivery truck. No one was injured.

The contractor, George A. Fuller Co., is owned by Cappelli. Work at the Trump Parc site was again halted over the weekend, and the city Monday added new restrictions. With the exception of safety-related work, construction is no longer allowed on floors not closed in by windows.  Cappelli said he ordered his foremen to remove or secure stacks of plywood and wood beams from the building by Friday.  He also said the tower crane will be dismantled starting Sunday and should be down by the following Wednesday, in about half the time originally scheduled.

On Monday afternoon, Mayor Dannel Malloy issued a statement detailing the new safety restrictions, which include extending the safety netting from floor to ceiling.

"Looking forward, it is clear that we need to be even more involved in safety from earlier in the process," Malloy said.

The mayor said the wood beam may have been propelled off the 27th floor by wind gusts during a thunderstorm. In addition, a piece of a snapped plywood from that same floor also was found lying on the site.
Wood beams and plywood are typically used to shape walls and floors as concrete is poured into them.  The mayor, who visited the Trump Parc site after Saturday's incident, said he saw pieces of plywood on the floor that were left "unguarded and uncontrolled."

"They could have and should have been secured," he said.

Housekeeping has been an ongoing issue at the construction site. After July 23, when a 3-inch cylindrical metal object crashed into a window at University of Connecticut-Stamford across the street, the mayor and other city officials toured the work site.  The mayor later shut down the site, saying conditions on the higher floors were some of the worst he has seen with loose debris and trash. Among the items he said he saw were soda cans and half-empty water bottles strewn across the floor.

In May, a piece of debris ripped through a delivery truck, sending the driver to the hospital with minor injuries. A few weeks later, a piece of wire smashed the roof of a car; the driver was not hurt.

After the UConn incident, the city hired an on-site safety inspector, at the contractor's expense, to monitor safety conditions. The inspector was not at the site Saturday because there was no active construction being done, Malloy said. Four men, however, were working on the elevator hoist that morning.  Cappelli yesterday said he had absolute confidence in the skills of the construction workers at Trump Parc.

"I have my best men working on this job," he said, adding, "The 99 things you do right are meaningless when that one thing goes wrong."
Construction resumes at Trump Parc
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/31/2008 02:40:10 AM EDT

STAMFORD - After ordering a work stoppage last week, the city has allowed construction activity to resume on first 29 floors of the 34-story Trump Parc.

On July 24, Mayor Dannel Malloy ordered the contractor, George A. Fuller Co., to suspend all work on the luxury high-rise at Washington Boulevard and Broad Street. The move came after a 2- to 3- inch piece of metal shattered the a glass window at University of Connecticut-Stamford across the street.

After touring the building last week with other city officials, Malloy determined that clutter, especially on the building's upper floors, made the site a safety hazard.

Since the city's inspection, Fuller has responded quickly, said City Engineer Louis Casolo; construction crews have been cleaning debris and securing openings.

"They did make significant progress," Casolo said yesterday.

Although no one was hurt last week, the incident marked the third such mishap in three months. In May, a piece of debris ripped through a truck, sending the driver to the hospital with minor injuries. Last month, a piece of wire fell from the 29th floor and smashed a car roof.

As mandated by the mayor, an on-site safety inspector, paid for by Fuller, has been monitoring construction daily. Each day, floors were granted work clearance if the inspector deemed sufficient progress was made in safety and cleanliness, Casolo said.

Additional netting and kickboards also have been installed, he said.

On the upper levels, only work considered critical to construction progress has been allowed.

"We will continue our strict adherence to all OSHA and city safety procedures and are cooperating fully with the city to maintain the highest level of safety at the site for the public and our workers," Fuller said in a statement yesterday.
Trump Parc leads transformation of Stamford
Stamford ADVOCATE Staff Reports
Article Launched: 07/27/2008 07:17:28 AM EDT

STAMFORD - Since he was a boy growing up in the cornfields of Wisconsin, Lou Gorfain wanted to live in the big city. At 28, short on cash but flush with ambition, he fled the heartland and hopped onto a Greyhound bus bound for New York.  Almost 40 years later, Gorfain works as a television producer in Stamford.  His company, New Screen Concepts, produces shows like "Houston Medical" and "Extreme Makeover."

Gorfain has spent most of his life living in New York and still keeps an apartment in Manhattan.  But in 2004, after years of commuting from Westchester County, N.Y., the city-struck country boy who thought he could never give up life in the big city decided to make the leap to downtown Stamford.  And if you ask Gorfain, he'll say he hasn't really given up city life.

"I call it the 'Upper Upper East Side,'" he said with a grin.  The moniker just might stick.  Trump Parc, where Gorfain plans to move, will be the first luxury high-rise complex to be built in Stamford. The building is expected to be completed by next summer. Until he is able to move in, Gorfain will continue to rent an apartment downtown.

Luxury housing, in the form of sky-high condominiums, is promising to put a new face on downtown Stamford that is younger, more urban and sophisticated. Trump Parc, with its unprecedented views, design and 350-foot height - it is the first building to break the city's 21-story cap - represents the forefront of that movement. "It's really becoming a mini-Manhattan," said Jessica Rohm, senior managing director of sales and marketing for Trump Parc.

The 34-story tower will contain 170 units consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and six duplex penthouses. One-bedroom units start at $731,000; the most expensive apartment, a penthouse, fetched $4.3 million.  With some of those hefty price tags will come views that reach as far as the Manhattan skyline.

As of today, about half the units have been sold to people who are largely immune to the mortgage crisis: 70 percent are young well-heeled professionals and 30 percent are empty nesters, all of them with deep pockets, Rohm said.  The state's buyer-friendly real estate laws - unlike New York, there is no mortgage recording tax, for example - lure New York buyers, in particular, she said.  They include people like Gorfain, who said he looked at Stamford as a place that provided "a big-town feel in a small-town environment."

While he said he loves the big city, there are small-town charms that he misses in New York.

"I can walk through neighborhoods here and still feel like I'm living in Milwaukee," he said.

"I can see kids on their bikes going to play baseball. You don't get that in Manhattan."

City officials have embraced Trump Parc as having the potential to drive the transformation of not only downtown but Stamford as a whole.  It has given greater urgency to the renovation of Mill River Park, a project given to fits and starts over the years.

"This is going to energize the park," said Sandra Goldstein, executive director of the Downtown Special Services District.  For Goldstein, the high-density building is in keeping with her mantra for downtown.

"Housing, housing, housing," she said. "And I mean housing of all kinds, for all income levels."

The residential population downtown has doubled in the past 10 years, Goldstein said.  Will the growth in Stamford's downtown create a spike in demand for public services?  That's precisely the hope, according to City Planner Norman Cole.

"We hope they will demand services," he said. "We want the residents of Trump Parc to be spilling out into open spaces like Mill River Park. We want to develop users so we can justify funding more services."

The gloomier alternative, he said, would be the downtown of years past, "a monoculture, where there was a rolling up of the sidewalks at night, and everyone went home."

But not everyone looks on Trump Parc as a tall beacon of hope for downtown.  Renee Kahn, director of the Stamford-based Historic Neighborhood Preservation Program Inc., sees it instead as a harbinger of things to come.

"The horse is out of the stable," she said. "Will this become the prototype where whatever local character we have left will be gone?" she said.

The building of one high-rise will lead to the building of many more to come, she said.  Kahn said she is skeptical about whether the city's infrastructure can support a high-density population surge.  Kahn's concerns include water supply, traffic issues and whether the city has enough sewage treatment facilities.  Cole said that water supply is handled privately in Stamford and that the city "hasn't seen any expression of concern from water treatment facilities."

But aside from the planning aspect, Kahn said she worries about the psychological impact that buildings like Trump will have on downtown.  In the years to come, will the city still feel like a hometown?  Kahn said she doesn't know. But a lot will depend on the residents of Trump Parc.

"It certainly will be a different downtown," she said. "Better? I don't know. But definitely different."
City vows to act after debris falls from Trump Parc
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/24/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

STAMFORD - Debris fell from the Trump Parc construction site yesterday for the third time in three months, and city officials said they may close the project down unless more is done to protect residents' safety.

At about 8 a.m., a round metal object, about 3 inches long, crashed into a glass window on the ground floor of the University of Connecticut at Stamford at Washington Boulevard and Broad Street.  No one was hurt in yesterday's incident.

"It looked like a shell casing," said Michael Ego, UConn-Stamford's associate vice provost, who was working inside the building when the object fell. The projectile created a hole about 4 to 5 feet in diameter in the double-paned glass next to one of the building's main entryways. At 8:30 a.m., seventh-graders enrolled in a college immersion program start to arrive. City Engineer Lou Casolo and Building Official Robert DeMarco went to Trump Parc after the incident and found workers were not taking steps to ensure safety, City Director of Operations Ben Barnes said last night.

"We have told the (George A. Fuller Co.) they need to completely remove the debris from the floors, to fix the fencing netting around the edges and take some other necessary steps," Barnes said. "We've given them a deadline of (this) afternoon, and if it's not done, we will close them down."

Barnes said the city would put a stop-work order on the building but would allow workers to continue cleaning. He said the city can put stop-work orders on projects that are a danger to the community. Barnes said Fuller Co. has been responsive in the past, and it already appeared to be responding.

"I went by this afternoon and saw them doing exactly what we told them to do - removing debris and repairing the fence," he said.

After the object fell yesterday morning, Ego said he immediately called the mayor's office. "This is not the first time," Ego said. "I would like to know what steps are being taken."

In May, a piece of debris tore through the cab of a Crystal Rock delivery truck, narrowly missing the driver. He was sent to the hospital with minor injuries. Last month, a piece of wire cable falling from the 29th floor and smashed a car's roof. The driver was unharmed. Yesterday afternoon, men in hard hats were atop several of the higher floors working through swirling winds while a crane lifted a block of concrete. At the campus, UConn student Yusuff Abdu, 21, expressed shock that another object had fallen off the construction site.

After the first incident, he received an e-mail from the administration advising students not to walk near the construction site. Abdu, who commutes from Bridgeport, walks from the train station several blocks south of the campus.

"Now, I walk through Target," he said, referring to the passageway through the store's garage on Broad Street.

Pedestrian David Gailes, 18, said he walks in front of the construction site on Broad Street on the way from work. Told about the recent incidents, he looked alarmed.

"They should put up signs," he said.
Trump Parc construction object falls 25 stories, hits driver.  Man suffers minor injuries
Stamford ADVOCATE
By John Breunig, City Editor
Article Launched: 05/22/2008 10:33:31 AM EDT

STAMFORD - A driver suffered minor injuries after a piece of construction material fell 25 stories from the Trump Parc site through the cab of his truck and struck him in the shoulder Wednesday morning, according to police.

The driver, who was in a Crystal Rock water truck preparing to turn left from Broad Street onto Washington Boulevard, was treated and released from Stamford Hospital with minor injuries at about 10:30 a.m., about three hours after the incident, according to police.

The object, which appeared to be a piece of bracing, broke into pieces, some dropping into netting around the construction site, said Lt. Sean Cooney.

A piece smashed through the roof of the truck's cab and struck the unidentified driver in the right shoulder, Cooney said.

The 34-story tower at Broad Street and Washington Boulevard will house 170 luxury units.

More than one trump card here?
Trump developer will convert apartments into condominiums
 Stamford ADVOCATE
By Monica Potts, Staff Writer
Published December 18 2007

STAMFORD - When the Zoning Board approved the Trump Parc development last year, it was on the condition that developers provide $2.8 million toward affordable housing.

Instead, the F.D. Rich Co. may buy an apartment building at 501 West Main St. and convert it into affordably priced condominiums. It will be the first time a developer has used a city zoning regulation allowing such a substitution.

"I think it's a possibility that is a very good thing," said Phyllis Kapiloff, the Zoning Board chairwoman. The plan was tentatively presented to the board at its regular meeting last week.

"We want to see affordable housing as soon as we can, rather than wait for them to partner with somebody and wait for the money to be used," Kapiloff said.

A zoning law has required all housing developments in Stamford since 2003 to devote 10 percent of a building's units toward solving the city's widely acknowledged shortage of affordable housing, Developers also can pay a fee in lieu of building the units within their own projects, or build them on a different site.  Affordable housing and eligible tenants are defined by criteria outlined in state and federal housing programs.

Large donations can cause some headaches for the city. The Zoning Board has to identify a project that is far enough along to receive the money, and there are not many nonprofit agencies in the city working to build affordable housing.

"If Trump Parc had given us a check for $2.8 million, I don't know that we would know where to put it," said Norman Cole, the city's principal planner. "We had enough experience with trying to get proposals and discovering what some of these projects and proposals were like to realize that there could be at times some difficulty."

The city has been trying to encourage developers to identify a project and donate to these directly. Recently, the developers of Windermere on the Lake, a 24-house luxury development in North Stamford, gave more than $800,000 to a New Neighborhoods Inc. project to satisfy their requirement. They had special permission to wait to pay the fee until the project had progressed enough to accept the money.  The Trump Parc plan is unique, Cole said. The West Main Street building is only a few years old, and is probably in good condition. It has enough units at the right size to meet the developer's required contribution.

The exact terms of the deal are still being worked out, according to Tom Rich of the F.D. Rich Co.

"Based upon the encouragement we received from the Zoning Board on Monday night, we have opened a dialogue with the owner of the property, which continues today," he said.

Meanwhile, Stamford will hold a letter of credit in case the deal falls through. The building also needs to be inspected by the city.  Rich said he believes that actual housing units, as opposed to money, are important to the Zoning Board. "We also favor a plan that results in the actual creation of below-market rate housing," he said.  Cole said he is not sure whether other developers will fine similar opportunities, but the board hopes they do.

"It's the kind of thing we hope to be able to repeat," he said. "We'll do this deal as many times as we can find it."
Click on this link to get early redevelopment story! 
16-story apartment tower gains final OK
 Stamford ADVOCATE   
By Doug Dalena, Staff Writer
Published March 1 2007

STAMFORD - The final design for a 16-story apartment tower off Summer Street won unanimous approval last night from the Urban Redevelopment Commission, clearing the way for construction to start this summer.

The 184-apartment tower, the second of four planned buildings in the Park Square West development, is to be built on land the URC will sell to Boston 184 development company Corcoran Jennison.

The first phase, a 143-unit apartment building on the eastern side of Summer Street with ground-floor retail and a pedestrian tunnel to Atlantic Street, opened in 2001.

Last night's vote marked a new start for a project delayed and forced into redesign by a lawsuit that blocked the city's attempt to seize the nearby Curley's Diner for the $150 million housing and retail development.

"A lot of water's gone under the bridge since we first selected your group," URC Chairman Stephen Osman told Corcoran Jennison President Marty Jones. "I have to compliment you for sticking with the project."

Corcoran Jennison intends to start construction this summer and finish by spring 2009, Jones said.

"We've always felt that Stamford and this particular site did present a great opportunity," she said. "We didn't think it was going to be so long."

The $50 million second phase, designed by Herbert S. Newman and Partners of New Haven, will go up on the west side of Summer Street, north of several commercial buildings that face West Park Place. It will include 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space facing Summer Street and on a new internal roadway south of the Crown Majestic movie theater.

The development will include 37 units - 20 percent of the total number - reserved for renters who earn less than 50 percent of the area median income. Of those, 23 would have permanent rent restrictions; the remaining 14 would be rent-restricted for 30 years. The one- and two-bedroom apartments would range from 738 square feet to 1,078 square feet.

The Zoning Board approved the project last month, but the URC and Corcoran Jennison were still negotiating final design and contract details.

Those details included redesigning the pedestrian bridge between the URC's existing parking garage and the apartment building's garage to make it more transparent, adding more windows to one side of the apartment building and moving above-ground electrical transformers to a less conspicuous location.

The contract with the URC requires the developer to start design work on the third and fourth buildings, planned for vacant land surrounding Curley's, soon after construction begins on the building approved last night.

In 2002, the state Supreme Court ruled the city could not seize the diner, owned by sisters Maria Aposporos and Eleni Begetissince 1977, because the city's decision to take it by eminent domain was based on an outdated 1963 finding that the property was blighted.

Corcoran Jennison and the URC had to redesign the project around the diner and the 5,700-square-foot lot it occupies. The third and fourth buildings are planned to include more than 200 additional apartments and about 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
Zoning Board readies to vote on Ritz-Carlton project;  When it meets March 19, height limit likely to dominate debate
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Doug Dalena, Staff Writer
Published March 6 2007

STAMFORD - When the Zoning Board deliberates about the proposed Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominium towers in two weeks, the biggest debate may be over what the developer provides in return for an extra 50 feet in height, and about the development's effect on some tenants in the adjacent St. John Towers affordable apartment complex.

The board will meet March 19 to discuss the proposal, after closing last night's public hearing on the plan. The board's questions and public comments focused on how much the city should require from developers who exceed the current height limit and whether too many requirements stifle housing development that the board wants to encourage.

Developers Thomas Rich and Louis Cappelli proposed the project, called Atlantic Centre, which would include about 68,000 square feet of retail space, 198 hotel rooms and 289 condominiums managed by Ritz-Carlton, in two 400-foot towers. The building would rise from a three-acre parcel surrounding the Atlantic Street post office, which would become a restaurant under the plan.

Rich and Cappelli want to increase the city's height limit on downtown buildings from a maximum 350 feet to 400. In return, developers would contribute money to the Mill River Park improvement plan.

The proposal, based on a rule in the zoning code for commercial property, would require $100 in park contributions for every 14 square feet of additional floor space above the existing 350-foot height limit.

Rich and Cappelli have proposed a 350-foot version of the project with the same number of condominiums and hotel rooms if the board doesn't approve the taller design. But they said the towers under that plan would be wider, closer together and closer to St. John Towers.

Alternate board member David Stein said that he doesn't think the $950,000 million that the developers would contribute to the Mill River justifies the extra height. He said the contribution doesn't have to be the same as for commercial buildings, which is double what the developers are proposing, but it should be higher.

"While it (the extra height) doesn't increase the number of units, it certainly increases this sale price by a number of millions of dollars," Stein said, adding that that extra benefit should be shared with the park.

But Rich and his land-use consultant, Richard Redniss, argued that too many financial burdens would make it impossible to finance the project and repeat a pattern in which the Zoning Board has approved downtown housing that didn't get built.

Redniss took issue with Stein's assertion that the city already provides adequate incentives to build downtown housing.

"A lot of things you've addressed are ancient, 30-year-old things that so far haven't produced anything," he said.

Board member Harry Parson also objected to the proposed formula.

"I don't think that what's offered here even approached what's needed in the park," he said, adding that he wants some of the affordable housing built in the proposed complex, instead of the fee-in-lieu that zoning regulations allow high-rise developers to pay.

Redniss said that while residential developers should contribute, they shouldn't have sole responsibility for funding the park system's needs or affordable housing.

Robert Wilson, an architect and planner who has worked on affordable housing projects in Stamford and elsewhere, agreed, saying the city needs to create more incentives for affordable housing and downtown market-rate housing.

"When you start to impose these costs on developers, you are killing the goose that laid the golden egg," he said. "We need to be a city. We need the tax base. We need the dynamism."

Redniss has proposed revising the regulations and fee structure for buildings' maximum height to bring more money to the park from tall buildings.

The proposal would require contributions for building height above 290 feet. Developers need a special exception to build to the 350-foot maximum. Redniss would use a different ratio for buildings taller than 350 feet. He is scheduled to meet with land-use staff to refine the formula before the Zoning Board deliberates on the Ritz-Carlton proposal.

Board members also heard from the St. John Towers' tenants association, which said the hotel's parking garage will block sunlight from reaching 15 apartments on the lower floors of the building and increase temperatures near the apartment building.

The parking garage would be as close as 20 feet to some of the apartments, and even closer to some balconies.

Because the association has not reached any deal with Rich that would satisfy its concerns, it is asking that the 16 tenants affected be given affordable housing in the new development.

Rich has declined but said he offered to increase the distance to the parking garage by 10 feet and to subsidize $200 per month in rent for each affected tenant for three years. He said the association rejected both offers, "but we're here to say, on the record, we'll do it anyway."

Tenants' association President Elizabeth Swat saw it differently, saying Rich offered either the design change or the rent reduction, and the latter for only two years.

"They do not displace these people, but they impact them, horrendously," Swat said.

Ritz project appears heading toward approval - rural East Lyme CT story here.
 Stamford ADVOCATE
By Doug Dalena, Staff Writer
Published February 2 2007

STAMFORD - Zoning Board members sound like they're leaning toward approving two 400-foot-high towers in the proposed Ritz-Carlton hotel-condominium project, but the decision may hinge on what the city gets in return.

The building height, 50 feet above what's allowed in the regulations, will make the project more likely in an environment where plenty of high-rise housing has been approved but none has been built, according to representatives of the two developers, F.D. Rich Co. and Cappelli Enterprises.

The board rejected a 400-foot-high building in the developers' Trump Parc project on Broad Street last summer, instead approving a revised 350-foot building. But members said they might approve taller buildings on larger downtown sites.

The Zoning Board has held two hearings on the project; the next is scheduled for March 5.

During Monday night's hearing on the Ritz-Carlton project, called Atlantic Centre, some board members said the 3-acre site at Atlantic Street and Tresser Boulevard might be big enough for the tall buildings, but debated whether the developers' proposed contribution to the Mill River Park and Greenway is enough to justify the extra height.

"I can see more of a reason why we should support it here, but a major factor of that is willingness to support the park," alternate board member David Stein said.

Stein wants a larger contribution than the $950,000 the developers are offering, based on a proposed formula that grants 14 square feet of extra floor space for every $100 contributed to the park. The proposal sets a maximum height of 400 feet.

In the original Trump Parc design, the formula would have produced about $500,000 for the park.

The formula is based on a regulation for commercial buildings that allows only 7 square feet for the same contribution. That regulation led to the approval of a 23-story tower that Louis Dreyus Property Group proposed off Washington Boulevard but never built.

In return for extra space, the real estate company donated about 3 acres along the Mill River for the city's ongoing greenway project. That development site is now full of cranes and construction crews working on the 12-story Royal Bank of Scotland building approved last year.

In a report on the Ritz-Carlton proposal, principal planner Norman Cole told the Zoning Board that the larger floor area may provide an incentive to have a high-rise housing development built.

The Zoning Board has approved several such projects - part of a strategy to concentrate housing downtown near offices and mass transit - that never were built.

The projects included one for 932 apartments by Roseland Property Co. on the 4-acre hole in the ground at Tresser Boulevard and Greyrock Place.

During Monday's hearing, Stein suggested the formula ought to benefit the parks more, perhaps coming closer to the calculation for commercial buildings.

"If you treat residential the same way you treat commercial, you discourage it from being built," said Richard Redniss, a land-use consultant for the developers, adding it could drive the overall development cost too high. "We now have very stiff competition in the region, and we are outpricing ourselves for housing."

F.D. Rich Co. President Thomas Rich highlighted about $15 million in public benefits that the project would produce, including $4 million for off-site affordable housing, $3.5 million in building permit fees, and $2.4 million in annual property taxes.

Some of the benefits would be paid by the developers, others by the hotel or retail tenants, and one - an estimated $1.8 million in annual hotel taxes - by hotel guests.

Stein said the formula for park money doesn't have to be exactly the same as the commercial ratio, just higher than the ratio the developers are proposing now.

During the exchange, Chairwoman Phyllis Kapiloff gave the strongest sign yet that she might support the height and the proposed park contribution.

"I do think that the Zoning Board at this juncture can make or break a developer," she said. "I feel that it's a good amount, and I think we need to see how it works."

If the board approves the height bonus, the money could go to the Mill River Collaborative, a nonprofit organization set up by the city to guide park renovation and raise private money to help build and maintain it.

Mill River Collaborative Chairman Arthur Selkowitz spoke in favor of the project, saying he did not know what the proper contribution should be, but "we would like to have something rather than nothing."

A city representative who opposed both Trump Parc designs spoke out against Atlantic Centre - the only member of the public to oppose it during two hearings.

"Many residents are extremely disappointed with your decision about the Trump building," said City Rep. John Zelinsky, D-11. "They hope you don't make the same mistake."

Zelinsky, warning of a litany of potential pitfalls, questioned the fire department's ability to cope with a fire or other emergency in a 400-foot building.

The building would not get a permit if fire marshals thought it did not have adequate protection, the developers' attorney said.

Fire officials might put an antenna on the building to extend the range of the system, said the attorney, William Hennessey.

Zelinsky also responded to Selkowitz's comments.

"I guess if I was the chairman of the Mill River Collaborative and I was looking for money, I would be in favor of it also," Zelinsky said.

The city's tallest building is the 283-foot Landmark Tower, built by F.D. Rich Co. at Broad and Atlantic streets.

Besides Trump Parc, the Zoning Board has approved three residential towers from 305 to 350 feet high for the Tresser Square project across Tresser Boulevard from the Ritz-Carlton site.


TRUMP PARC IN DISTANCE
Vanessa Valadares, with the city of Stamford's engineering department, and Milton Puryear, director of the Mill River Collaborative, walk along the new river channel just recently completed at Mill River Park in Stamford, Conn. on Friday, December 4, 2009. Photo: ST / CT

Mill River Collaborative awarded $500,000 for park redevelopment
Greenwich TIME
Kate King, Staff Writer
Published: 09:24 p.m., Friday, November 12, 2010

STAMFORD -- The Mill River Collaborative has been awarded $500,000 for redevelopment of the riverside park located between the city's downtown and West Side.

The award is the largest of $2.4 million in grants bestowed Friday by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, said Mark Tedesco, director of the federal Environmental Protection's Long Island Sound office. The grant will be used to build storm water infrastructure that will improve water quality in the river and Long Island Sound.

"It's going to improve water quality and help restore the shoreline," Tedesco said. "A cleaner Mill River means a cleaner Long Island Sound."

The grant will be used to install swales, or tracts of natural vegetation, and storm water treatment units to help filter contaminants from the river, Tedesco said. These contaminants would otherwise flow into Long Island Sound.

The grant is a significant addition to the projected $13 million in funding needed for phase one of the plan to redevelop Mill River Park, said Milton Puryear, executive director of the Mill River Collaborative. The first phase would install utilities, promenades, lighting, landscaping and hundreds of trees in the 12-acre section of the park between Broad and Main streets.

While cost of the redevelopment was projected at $13 million in 2008, the collaborative expects a new estimate in January to be lower due to softness of the construction market, Puryear said. The city has appropriated $9 million for the project, and the collaborative had raised $2.5 million in funding prior to Friday.

"This half-million grant will be added to that, so we're getting right about there," Puryear said. "But we still need a million or so more."

If all the necessary funds are raised in time, the collaborative plans to begin bidding a contract for the redevelopment plan in February, Puryear said.

The group is hoping to break ground on the project in April. The redevelopment is tentatively scheduled for completion in summer 2012.

A second phase of the park's redevelopment would revamp the area between Main Street and the cemetery at Richmond Hill Avenue. This phase is contingent on future financing.

The Board of Finance approved contract changes to the Mill River Park plan Wednesday, permitting the use of $108,000 in already approved funds to pay the project's chief contractor, Olin Partnership, for a redesign of the project's first phase. The Board of Representatives must now approve the contract change.
Funding shortfall seen for second phase of Stamford's Mill River Park redevelopment
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Elizabeth Kim, Staff Writer
Published: 10:09 p.m., Monday, December 28, 2009

STAMFORD -- After recently seizing an opportunity to buy property and potentially add an extra 2 acres to Mill River Park, the city now finds itself facing a $3 million funding shortfall for the second phase of the park's redevelopment.

In October, the city Board of Representatives approved a $5 million purchase that gives the city an empty plot of land at 1050 Washington Blvd. that had previously been owned by the development company Archstone-Smith. Although the deal was seen both as a bargain and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the park, it drained funding reserved for the pivotal second phase.

"We have a beautiful river, but then we have the remaining part," said Robin Stein, the city's land-use bureau chief.

Beginning as early as next year, the city and the Mill River Collaborative are hoping to begin constructing amenities, including footpaths, lawns, water fountains and restrooms. The second phase of the redevelopment project, which would follow the river restoration and potentially bring the public a step closer to the city's vision of a reinvigorated downtown park, is estimated to cost $12 million.

A preliminary capital budget plan from Stamford's Planning Board would result in a total of $9.25 million for Mill River Park next year. The money comes mostly through a tax-increment financing district created in the Mill River Corridor. According to the rules of the district, a portion of property taxes on new developments can be used to finance Mill River Park improvements or acquire additional park land.

The Planning Board reduced park funding by $2 million after learning that Mayor Michael Pavia wanted a more conservative capital budget. The city's director of administration, Peter Privitera, recently recommended the city spend $40 million on overall capital improvements in 2010-11. Last year, the board approved a capital budget of about $47 million.

Stein said Monday he plans to ask the board to consider increasing its allocation, saying it would be more cost-effective to complete the second phase now rather than delay portions of it.

"It's one mobilization rather than separate ones," he said.

Moreover, with bond interest rates at all-time lows, financing the project now would likely be cheaper.  Without an additional $3 million, the city would have to rest its hopes on lower construction costs and other funding sources.  One such possibility is the Mill River Collaborative, which is trying to raise $20 million for the park and is said to have more than $2 million in potential donations.  But such money is generally intended for structures such as buildings or benches that can be named after donors. Applying it toward other portions of the park may be tough, Stein said.

The long-awaited plan to redevelop Mill River Park began in March under the supervision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The removal of two concrete dams, one near the Pulaski Street Bridge and another near the West Main Street Bridge, resulted in the park's centerpiece: a river flowing through downtown for the first time since 1641.

Workers are applying finishing touches to the new river channel. After a construction hiatus, they plan to return in the spring to add plantings.
Stamford to get $7M from feds
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Donna Porstner
Published December 20 2007

STAMFORD - The city will receive $7 million from the federal government to improve Mill River Park, expand Stamford Hospital's emergency room and widen the Atlantic Street railroad bridge underpass, among other projects, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays announced yesterday.

"We hit a home run - a gigantic home run," Mayor Dannel Malloy said.

More than half of the money - $4 million - is earmarked for removing the Mill River dam and dredging, the first step in a long-awaited renovation of Mill River Park.

"This is the major piece that we have been waiting for five or six years," Land Use Bureau Chief Robin Stein said.

Mill River Collaborative Executive Director Milton Puryear said the project will allow the city to move forward with park redevelopment plans.

"It is the canvas on which the rest of park can be created," he said.

The river will be narrowed to less than half its exiting width, which will increase the land in the park and make space for amenities. The master plan calls for a carousel, fountain, ice rink and a network of trails connecting the greenway with Kosciuszko, Southfield and Scalzi parks.  The dam removal also will open up the river to fish that swim up from Long Island Sound.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent $800,000 million on preliminary studies, planning and design.  The city is expected to pay the balance of the $8.5 million project costs, or about $4 million, Puryear said.  The federal funding package also includes nearly $1.5 million for Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority's waste-to-energy plant, which will convert dried sewage into electric power.

Also included is $600,000 to rebuild the city hurricane barrier, $492,200 to remove pollutants from stormwater runoff that flows into rivers and streams, $358,623 toward the $40 million expansion of Stamford Hospital's emergency room, $245,000 to redesign the Atlantic Street underpass to alleviate a traffic bottleneck and $94,000 to buy a new police and fire radio.

Malloy, who has made many trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby for Mill River funding, said the city increased its efforts this year in hopes of getting the project out to bid and the dam removed next year.

"We put in an extra Herculean effort this year," he said.

Shays, R-Bridgeport, said in a statement that he was happy to lend his support.

"With this help, we will be able to continue improving transportation, developing our regional economy and providing critical support for those in our community who need help most," he said.

The $7 million for Stamford was part of an overall $473.5 billion funding bill that cleared the House on Monday and passed the Senate on Tuesday.  The Senate added an amendment that tacked on $70 billion for the Iraq war, according to Shays' spokesman, Dave Natonski.  It went back to the House late yesterday afternoon for a final vote, where it was approved, 272-142.


Unique Village Proposed For East Lyme;  Developer seeks special tax district for 300-acre age-restricted community
By KARIN CROMPTON
Day Staff Writer, East Lyme/Salem
Published on 7/31/2005

East Lyme -- There is nothing in all of eastern Connecticut quite like the proposed Darrow Pond development — a cocoon of a village with 600 units of upscale condominiums for people 55 and older that would be built in the woods in the northern part of town.

And no developer around here or in this state has yet paid for a project in the manner that Karl Frey of Vespera Investments LLC proposes.

On July 13, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed legislation that allows creation of a special taxing district for the 300-acre property off Mostowy Road and for a similar district in Bridgeport. A separate act does the same for the town of Redding.

The enabling legislation, which was co-authored by eight legislators, none of them from eastern Connecticut, passed the House and Senate unanimously.

If established, the district would be able to issue bonds to pay for the development's infrastructure. In East Lyme's case, the district would issue $30 million in bonds soon after its creation.

Additionally, the developer proposes to give the town $10 million up front and a minimum of $100,000 a year in property tax revenue. The development, considered an “active adult community,” would include shops and a post office surrounded by open space.

The town and the district would enter into an inter-local or inter-municipal agreement, which would serve as the governing document, said Frey. The agreement would spell out how the district's taxes are collected and how the bond is paid back, he said, in an arrangement he estimates would give East Lyme more than $66 million in taxes during the first 30 years of the project.

Although selectmen endorsed the legislation this spring with a resolution — with abstentions by selectmen Beth Hogan and Rose Ann Hardy, who said they did not have enough information — Wayne Fraser, the first selectman, said the law is only an opportunity for the town to explore the developer's idea. Fraser said the town will hire a consultant to study the arrangement and advise it.

Fraser called the district “a fantastic idea if it works,” but added, “I'm very cautious when someone says this is Christmas. ... I have not done my due diligence where I would be comfortable in voting on this.”

The town council in New Milford voted not to participate in the legislation, although its zoning commission had approved a project, to be developed by Frey, for a 508-unit active-adult community called Dunham Farm.

According to a story in The Danbury News-Times, “The council agreed the bill did not clearly define the town's ability to control such a tax district.” Frey told the News-Times he plans to continue working with the council to explain the taxing district.

He said he needs the taxing district designation to go ahead with his plan in East Lyme.

“I don't want to do this project if I don't have the special taxing district, because I can't do it the way I'm going to be proud of doing it,” he said. “I don't want to just do a subdivision.”

•••

Two miles north of Flanders Four Corners, where a car dealership and a McDonald's anchor the junction of routes 1 and 161, the scenery relaxes. Trees replace buildings. Mostowy Road winds off Route 161 to the west.

Darrow Pond, an existing pond for which the development is named, is snuggled in back off the road. Many in town call this the “JCPenney property” from the days when the Penney company tested products here. A dilapidated, army-green warehouse still sits atop a hill overlooking the pond.

Frey compares this place to the Walden Pond of Henry David Thoreau. His sophisticated promotional literature includes a book where watercolor drawings mix with aerial maps, data and architects' drawings. Quotations from Thoreau open and close the book.

The theme of this development is to retain the atmosphere and apply “Smart Growth” principles, an approach of mixing housing with commercial and retail uses and preserving open space.

At Darrow Pond, Frey would concentrate the housing on about 60 acres and give the remaining 200-plus acres to the town to be preserved as open space. Frey said he would grant the town a conservation easement on the land.

The project includes small “focus buildings” like a barber shop, a post office, a general store and a clubhouse. Architects' drawings show a covered bridge and a conservatory that overlooks the pond.

In March, the town's zoning commission approved a conceptual plan and a zone change to allow elderly housing. Vespera still needs final approval from the commission for a more detailed plan, which the developer has not yet submitted. Frey plans to pursue the taxing district and the zoning application simultaneously.

For water, he said, the project would likely tap into aquifers the town is not using. He anticipates the system would produce more water than the project could use, and he would give the town the well sites.

As envisioned, the project would use septic systems, meaning it would not tie into municipal sewer or water.

•••

Darrow Pond is not the first attempt by Frey and companies he represents to develop such a project.

In August, Fraser will travel to Tiverton, R.I., to see The Villages on Mount Hope Bay, which could provide a glimpse of what Darrow Pond would look like and how the finances could play out.

The Villages is an upscale, active-adult community with 290 units located on 96 acres overlooking Mount Hope Bay. It was funded with a special taxing district. The developer was Starwood Tiverton LLC, a division of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, whose hotels include Sheraton and Westin. According to The Providence Journal, Frey was Starwood Tiverton's managing director.

Frey used to work with Starwood Capital, a related company, where, he said, he managed pension funds and private/public funds, mostly investing in real estate. Frey formed Vespera Investments LLC in December 2003, according to paperwork at the secretary of the state's office.

Starwood Capital is also involved in a project to purchase the Lincoln Park greyhound track in Rhode Island. Barry Sternlicht, president and chief executive of Starwood Capital, is a partner in BLB Investors, along with Waterford Group chief executive Len Wolman.

In East Lyme, the Board of Selectmen will have a major role in determining whether the tax district is formed.

The legislation describes a short series of required steps. First, 15 registered voters in the town would have to petition the board to call a meeting for the purpose of forming the district.

The board has no time limit on when to call the meeting.

If the selectmen do call the meeting, those who can vote on whether the district is formed, under the law, are any property owners or voters within the district. Frey is the only landowner within the district and would be the only one allowed to vote.

Edward O'Connell, the town attorney, said East Lyme will have control of the district.

“This district does not set up some sort of sovereign entity in the town,” O'Connell said. “This district and the land in this district will be subject to all the regulations and laws of the town of East Lyme. It will be subject to the zoning laws, to the wetlands laws, to various land-use regulations, and subject to taxes. It will not be exempt from any of the town's laws or regulations.”

Some residents have been speculating that the $10 million Vespera would give the town — which Frey said he would like to see go toward acquisition of open space – could be used to buy land in the Oswegatchie Hills.

Some have said that would be more than enough to buy out developer Glenn Russo, who owns or has the option to purchase 230 acres in the far north of the Hills, which is a total of about 700 acres of woodlands fronting the Niantic River.

Russo has twice been denied in his attempts to build condominiums and affordable housing in the Hills, and he has filed two state lawsuits and a federal civil rights discrimination lawsuit against the town. His third application, which he recently submitted, is for 840 condominiums in the Hills.

Fraser said only that his top priority would be to use the money for open-space preservation. Other areas for the money that he favors would be capital infrastructure improvements, such as water systems and roads, and public safety.

•••

The proposed development is considered high density.

Tim Hollister, a land-use attorney with Shipman & Goodwin LLP in Hartford, said that often local governments see a project like this and focus on the density.

“The reaction is, ‘Open-space preservation is very nice. Now can we decrease the density on the area you want to develop?'” said Hollister. He is not involved with this development plan but is representing a client on an unrelated project in town.

“It becomes a nonstarter, because the developer thinks he or she is giving up a lot by giving up a lot of open space, and higher density is the price for that,” Hollister said. “And sometimes towns don't see it that way.”

Hollister said towns also worry that a developer will come back later to develop the remainder of the property. Or they fear a different developer will try to use the same density on an entire parcel instead of using the set-aside principles of open space espoused in Smart Growth.

The answers, the lawyer said, begin with a town's plan of development and what the town wants to see. “There are some portions of each town appropriate for cluster development and some that are not,” he said.

If a town's land-use commissions are “disciplined” and deal with each application on a case-by-case basis, he said, the town will retain control.

Frey said that Vespera could have proposed single-family houses, which would mean clearing most of the forest to make way for large lots, driveways and cul-de-sacs. He said he could put 896 such houses on the property. But, he added, in a typical development, “there is no creativity involved.”

Frey plans an on-site seminar late in August to explain more about the district.

“I love what I do,” he said. “And if I can have that impact on Connecticut, if I set the bar where I think I'm going to set it, then every developer who wants to use a special taxing district in Connecticut should kind of do what I'm doing.

“The town should ask, ‘Well, what's in it for us?'”

A new view of downtown
Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Published January 1 2008

A Greenwich lawyer has plans to build an 80-room hotel, restaurant and spa, new retail and office spaces, underground parking, public walkways and a mix of affordable and market-rate housing in the heart of downtown.

Joseph A. Tranfo, 44, a Greenwich resident who along with his father operates a law firm at 19 Benedict Place, has spent more than $7 million over the last few years buying up properties next to their downtown offices. The acquisitions have been made in anticipation of redeveloping the area tucked behind Greenwich Avenue between Lewis and West Elm streets into a more vibrant block of walkways, underground parking, retail stores, office spaces and housing, Tranfo said.

"We're looking to create a dynamic mixed use community," he said. "There would be a real 24-hour community created."

Tranfo has not yet submitted any formal plans to the town, but he has been shopping the idea to various municipal officials and community leaders for their feedback. One reason is because his plans depend on leasing a 1.3-acre municipal parking lot from the town -- the largest chunk of land in the total 2-acre project.

In addition to replacing the lost parking through spots in an underground garage that would number twice what is available now, Tranfo proposes building seven affordable housing units that would be reserved for Greenwich teachers, police officers and other town workers. He also said his plans include space for traditional mom-and-pop stores that would bring the town more tax revenue.

Although Tranfo's project depends on the town buying into his plans, including agreeing to lease the municipal lot to him for redevelopment, the lawyer said if those plans fall through, he will go back to the drawing board with his Boston-based architect, David Manfredi.

"Something is going to happen over there," he said. "Something should happen over there. Let's all work together to make something happen over there."

For now, some community leaders are expressing interest in the plans.

"It really could be a boon," said Vince DiMarco, an organizer of the Downtown Consensus Group, a committee of people who have been meeting to discuss their ideas for the downtown's future.

Tranfo recently presented his plans to the group and received positive feedback, DiMarco said.

"Pretty much everyone is excited about it," he said.

First Selectman Peter Tesei said he has heard of the plans from other people, but he intends to meet directly with Tranfo to hear his ideas.

"From what I've heard, it involves a great deal of collaboration between the town and private development," Tesei said.

The first selectman said he is refraining from making any judgments about the project until he learns more about the details, particularly the request to lease the municipal parking lot.

Although there are parts of the downtown where it would be nice to have a few more parking spots, particularly at busy times of the year, such as during holidays, parking is generally available somewhere in downtown, Tesei said.

"Very rarely can I not find a parking space," he said. "The question is am I willing to walk."