Already home to the largest corporate park in Fairfield County, the city of Shelton is fast proceeding on a $300 million plan to transform its blighted riverfront into a bustling residential and commercial district.
Last week, the Shelton Economic Development Corp. held an initial meeting to weigh how to spend a $200,000 federal grant to clean up the former Rolfite manufacturing facility a few steps from a narrow stretch of the Housatonic River. Even as the meeting got under way, crews were finishing a day”™s work pulverizing an old asphalt plant just up the river.
Today, an ugly strip of aging industrial buildings, some of which are used today as office space for small businesses, city planners envision more than 600 condos crowding the riverfront along Canal Street, in turn establishing upscale retailers and eateries on Howe Avenue just up the hill.
It is a model that has worked wonders in Norwalk, which has successfully played the yin and yang of its riverfront mill neighborhood and modern Merritt 7 Corporate Park to attract a diverse and thriving mix of developments.
Of course, Norwalk has “bones” ”“ an extensive and attractive historic district ”“ which Shelton”™s industrial waterfront lacks, not to mention Norwalk”™s location on the Metro-North spine. And Shelton”™s population of 40,000 is less than half that of Norwalk”™s.
But with Fairfield County denizens increasingly irked by traffic snarls, planners foresee increased corporate development on the underutilized spine of Route 8 ”“ and an influx of residents who want to live close to work.
That thesis appears to be bearing out with the new Birmingham on the River condominiums, a converted brick factory itself sitting on a rail spur that serves as an early anchor for future development. The 100-unit building is more than 70 percent sold, according to Bridgeport-based developer Primrose Companies Inc.; units have been marketed at prices between $200,000 and $250,000 ”“ well below what condos fetch in Norwalk and other communities along Fairfield County”™s affluent Gold Coast.
Meanwhile, across town at the 1.7-million-square-foot Enterprise Corporate Park, developer Robert Scinto is near completion of a 17-story condominium and apartment building, adding 170 additional units of housing.
Hoteliers are taking notice of Shelton”™s potential, with Crown Point Real Estate L.L.C. proposing a 125-room Sierra Suites Hotel on Bridgeport Avenue. At present, there are no proposals for a hotel on the waterfront that might generate additional foot traffic for businesses near Canal Street.
There and at other sites, Shelton has a total 70 acres of mildly contaminated brownfield sites, but the city has already seen the fruits of previous U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleanup funds. A farmers”™ market is now open two days a week where a parking lot once sat, thanks to a $200,000 EPA grant in 2005.
A new walking path along the river comes to an abrupt stop a short distance away ”“ when the riverfront neighborhood is complete, the Shelton Economic Development Corp. envisions the walkway extending to the spillway of a small dam upriver.
In an inverse way, regional planners hope the Shelton riverfront development will function as a headwater for additional development up the Naugatuck River Valley to Waterbury. Demolition work is under way for a $300 million downtown redevelopment project in Derby, where the Naugatuck feeds into the Housatonic. And in Ansonia, R.D. Scinto Inc. is developing Fountain Lake Commerce Park which will include space for biotechnology companies.
For now, the healing continues with the cleanup of underground fuel tanks at the Rolfite site.
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