The development company that breathed new life into decaying piers jutting out into the Hudson River in New York City, is now making over the former Clairol plant in Stamford.
And although it is called Chelsea Piers Connecticut, it won”™t be on the water.
Chelsea Piers Management, the owner and developer of the sports and entertainment complex on the west side of Manhattan, has begun construction on a 400,000-square-foot sports facility on Blachley Road just south of Interstate 95.
The project is expected to be finished at the start of summer 2012.
David Tewksbury, co-founder of Chelsea Piers New York and the newly named president of Chelsea Piers Connecticut, said the company looked at sites in Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco before settling on Stamford.
“We saw a true demand in the community for a large sporting facility,” Tewksbury said. “We will be able to serve people from 30 miles around Stamford from Westchester up to New Haven. Fairfield County has a great community of sports enthusiasts, hungry for something like this.”
There are about 50 workers at the site with the number expected to rise to about 150 as construction continues.
Chelsea Piers Connecticut is part of a 33-acre property owned collectively by investing developers Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and Stamford-based Steven Wise Associates, which paid $16.75 million for the property.
The project will feature two ice rinks, dividable turf sporting fields, basketball, volleyball, squash and tennis courts, a gymnastics center, an Olympic-size swimming pool and a family aquatic center. There will also be a core common area on a center mezzanine floor to accommodate event and viewing space. Chelsea Piers will spend about $45 million on the renovations.
“As a Manhattan resident, I am fully aware of the positive and transformational effect of Chelsea Piers,” said Laure Aubuchon, Stamford”™s director of economic development. “A complex like this draws families and individuals from all over. This is not just a great Stamford project; this is a great Fairfield County project. Think of the restaurants, the small businesses, the hotels that will benefit from this; it should even give city businesses more of an opportunity to develop team activities and sports.”
Aubuchon said the northeastern location should give balance to the Building and Land Technology major development at Harbor Point.
“I have to think that Carl Kuehner of BLT has to be thrilled about this development,” Aubuchon said. “It”™s just another selling point for them.”
Tewksbury said the company fully plans on partnering with Stamford”™s businesses and has already been in discussions with area schools and sports teams. Tewksbury said the project is one based on community. The interior walls will feature long lengths of glass and allow for visitors to be able to look through separate sport areas into the next.
“We want there to be interest in each of these programs,” Tewksbury said. “Parents will be able to watch multiple children at once and it could even encourage athletes to try different sports.”
With more than 4 million visitors year at its Manhattan site, the community-focused mentality of the organization has had a strong cultural influence in New York City and is often attributed partial credit for the rebirth of the Chelsea area of Manhattan.
“This project, similar to the Manhattan project, is an adaptive reuse, that always poses interesting challenges,” said Tony Panza, principal at James G. Rogers Architects in Norwalk, the architectural firm responsible for the project. The firm”™s founder, James Rogers, was also responsible for the original Chelsea Piers complex that opened in 1995.
“The Manhattan project was on four piers that stick out into the Hudson like fingers,” said Panza. “In Stamford we have an immense open space of the former Clairol plant.”
Portions of the project unique to the adaptive reuse quality include the removal of columns to accommodate the Olympic-size swimming pool. Because the roof will hold tennis courts and playing fields inside a new floor, the columns”™ weight will instead be displaced downward in what are called inverted king trusses.
“Architecturally that”™s pretty significant,” said Panza. “We will essentially be putting a major building on top of another major building.”
Panza said the roof poses one of the most difficult characteristics of the project.
“Usually you”™d have the whole structure and roof in place before you begin to build,” Panza said. “This way it messes with the time frame and normal course of construction and weather proofing.”
Aubuchon said though there are comparisons being made with the original Chelsea Piers, it should not discount what the organization is doing in Stamford.
“This is by no means the stepchild of the Manhattan location,” said Aubuchon. “Chelsea Piers has shown us that they are fully committed to bringing us an equal brother to New York.”
What an exciting project for Stamford, and the entire region! I would love to handle public relations for this development!