“One simple phrase says it all: it can be done,” Georgetown Land Development Co. proclaims in promotional materials for a redevelopment project in Redding.
Perhaps it can ”“ but the plan is turning out to be anything but simple.
A group backed away from an agreement to buy the former Gilbert & Bennett wire mill in Redding, muddying the town”™s hopes for a conversion of the brownfield property any time soon into a major mixed-use community in the heart of Fairfield County.
Original developer Georgetown Land Development Co. reached a deal in February to sell the mill property to an entity called Georgetown Green L.L.C., whose CEO, Cal Cooper, had vowed to secure sufficient funding to jumpstart the project and as late as May had said at a town meeting he would close on a purchase by June. As first reported last week by the Redding Pilot, Georgetown Green walked away from the deal, tabling for now any immediate commencement of construction at the site.
Chris Lynch, project manager for Georgetown Land Development, said the company is pushing ahead with improvements at nearby intersections, even as it begins anew seeking investors. That process will likely include reaching out to previous groups that had considered developing at the site; Dallas-based Trammel Crow Co. was among the companies that had considered taking on residential components of the project.
“With or without Georgetown Green, this project is going to get built,” Lynch said. “It”™s going to get done.”
Lynch may have reason to feel emboldened, given the pace of fundraising at investment groups such as Greenwich-based Starwood Capital, which has been accumulating cash during the recovery in hopes of capitalizing on commercial and residential real estate deals dangling on the market. That could help rekindle some projects currently in limbo, according to Robert Caruso, managing director of the local operations of CB Richard Ellis.
“You are going to see that coming around a little bit, because a lot of people have raised a ton of money,” Caruso said. “The first movers ”“ the people who have done deals this year ”“ have gotten the best deals.”
Still, the broken Georgetown Green agreement illustrates the continued problems facing developers needing large loans to get projects started, amid continued uncertainty in the commercial and residential real estate markets. While Building & Land Technology”™s Harbor Point development in Stamford has continued construction throughout the recession, others have stalled, including Norwalk”™s District 95/7 project, Fairfield Metro Center in Fairfield and Bridgeport”™s massive Steelpointe Harbor development.
Lynch said Georgetown Land Development has not reached out to Building & Land Technology to gauge its interest.
Like the others, the Georgetown project is designed as a mixed-use community with easy access to mass transit, featuring more than 400 units of housing and retail and commercial space, and a train station on the Danbury branch of Metro-North Railroad.
After decades of pollution by Gilbert & Bennett before the wire mill”™s bankruptcy in 1998, the property was declared a federal Superfund site. In 2002, under the leadership of Steve Soler, Georgetown Land Development acquired the site and a few years later won an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for responsible development. It was one of several projects so recognized from some 100 projects nominated nationally.
Despite the national recognition brought by the EPA award and the continuing need in Fairfield County for housing along mass transit routes, the project stalled after the bond markets froze amid the 2008 financial collapse.
