BRIDGEPORT – Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim has told the developer of the former Bridgeport PSEG Station at 1 Atlantic St. that the demolition of the iconic candy stripe smokestack will have to be rescheduled.
The reason for rescheduling the implosion of the smokestack is that it is now scheduled for the same weekend as the annual Soundside Music Festival at Seaside Park on Sept. 27-28.
“Out of abundance of caution, the scheduling of the implosion at the former power plant on the Bridgeport waterfront will be rescheduled to ensure that there is no conflict with the Soundside Music Festival at Seaside Park,” Ganim said in a statement early Friday to the Fairfield County Business Journal. “A new date will be announced upon confirmation with developer.”
Chad Parks, a principal of the developer Bridgeport Station Development LLC, told the Connecticut Post Friday that the new date is Monday, Sept. 29 after he met with the mayor.
Howard Saffan, organizer of the music festival as well as president of nearby Hartford HealthCare Ampitheater, voiced his concern to the mayor about the original timing of the implosion. He was worried that a Sept. 28 demolition would have meant dust from the 4 a.m. implosion only eight hours before the festival would be problematic.
Bridgeport Station Development, which was chosen as developer of the former PSEG power plant site in November 2024, has plans to create a residential/commercial mixed-use development after the property was transferred to the Baldwinsville, New York,-based developer.
Some of the teardown of the site has begun, including exterior demolition noticeable.
“We at Bridgeport Station Development (are ready) to abate, demolish and redevelop this property,” Parks said at a press conference at the power plant in November. He promised work would begin that week and that “you will start to see a skyline change in the coming months with ongoing demolition.”
Residents lament loss of landmark
Talk of the demolition, which had already been announced last year, brought an outcry from many residents and workers in Bridgeport on the City of Bridgeport’s Facebook page this week.
George Juan Vivo Jr.
Works for City of Bridgeport
“I say STAY !!! The area can easily be modeled to be a tourist attraction just like The Historic Pearl Brewery site in San Antonio, Tx.,” wrote George Juan Vivo Jr., a City of Bridgeport worker. “The city out there took a massive space ‘the old Pearl Brewery Factory & its buildings’ redeveloped it all and managed to keep those building up as well as their coal smoke stack…
The Smoke stack poses as a nautical reference to boaters in the area and it is the most pure reminder to people who grew up and were raised here that we are home.”
Another smokestack fan shared her thoughts.
“When I come down 1-95 from anywhere I’m coming from it says, “Hello Francine!! Welcome home!” Francine Carson wrote. “That candy cane is like the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower!!”
Christopher James agreed.
“During my time in the military away from home, the one beacon I could always depend on to tell me I was back home, back in Bridgeport was the red and white distinctive smokestack welcoming me back home!!” he wrote. “It’s means more than just brick and mortar.”
However, Doug Davidoff of Davidoff Public Relations says to let it go.
“Demolishing the smokestack will create a whole new image of Bridgeport for the 21st Century,” he wrote. “It will allow the city to redefine itself. It will actually attract new interest from people coming into the city and new investment in the city. The smokestack is a turn off. Redevelopment after the smokestack has been demolished is a turn on.”
