McCall’s falls for redevelopment

One of Stamford”™s more historic industrial buildings, the former McCall”™s factory on the Mill River on the south side of the city, is now just a memory after it began to be demolished last week.

Antares Investment Partners which owns the building and the land has planned the space as part of its 80-acre Harbor Point Gateway development.

The development will incorporate parkland that will connect with the Mill River Greenway being created along the river.

“Connecticut has made progress in expanding and improving our greenways system and I am optimistic that we can keep moving forward on this,” said Bill O”™Neill, chairman of the Greenways Council. “We all understand the state is facing difficult financial times, but continued investments in Greenways are important and these investments will pay a real return.”

The Antares development consists primarily of brownfields that will be turned into living, recreation, shopping and what Antares calls a “working oasis.”

In addition to the development’s hotel and new living, retail and office space, the city itself is to receive about 11 acres of public parkland, as well as infrastructure and streetscape improvements, as part of the project.

“Stamford”™s been growing for the last 14 years and we”™re going to continue to grow,” Mayor Dannel Malloy said. “People are going to continue to come and hit the shores of Stamford particularly as we build the city”™s lifestyle.”

The city will have to approve the creation of a special taxing district that would allow Antares to issue $145 million in private, tax-exempt bonds to improve roads, sidewalks, sewage lines and parks.

 

The city would not guarantee the bonds, however. That would fall to Antares, which means Stamford would not be financially liable if the project were not finished and the debt not repaid.

Though as city executives pointed out, the infrastructure in that part of the city would eventually have to be rebuilt anyway, development or not.

However, the city remains aware that the finances are not the only issue here; Stamford is staking its reputation as a successful city on the performance of a private entity.