Steelpointe Harbor marks completion of $11M project

Advances at Steelpointe Harbor ”“ the 2 million-square-foot, mixed-use development in Bridgeport ”“ will today attract a trio of elected officials to note the completion of work funded by an $11 million federal grant.

The money went to improve roads and to clean a 30-acre brownfield at the formerly dilapidated 82-acre peninsula.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes will announce the completion of the TIGER Grant-funded infrastructure work at Steelpointe Harbor. (TIGER stands for Transportation Investment Generation Economic Recovery.) They will meet in the parking lot of the coming Bass Pro Shops near the corner of East Main Street and Stratford Avenue at 1:30 p.m. to do so.

In a press release, the city of Bridgeport said the TIGER-funded work “was instrumental for the construction and modernization of roadways around the Steel Point Peninsula to turn around an under-utilized brownfield site after 30 years of delay and setbacks.”

Steelpointe is being developed in phases. The $50-million first phase ”“ including Bass Pro Shops, Starbucks, Chipotle and T-Mobile stores ”“ is underway and will be completed this year. Construction on the Cinépolis movie theater and other components of the second phase will begin in 2016 with an anticipated finish in 2017.

Once complete, Steelpointe Harbor is expected to feature 750,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment; a 12-screen movie theater; two hotels; 1,100 mid- and high-rise residential units; 30,000 square feet of office; and a 200-slip, deep-water marina.

The city terms Steelpointe a “superregional waterfront destination” in a catchment area of 7 million consumers.

The 7 million number incorporates Long Island into the Steelpointe equation. “That is achieved thanks to the presence of the Bridgeport-Long Island Ferry, a year-round ferry service operated by the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company,” the statement said.