At a gathering of the Construction Institute in Bridgeport this week, the architects of a new building at Housatonic Community College won a round of applause for their work designing the facility.
More development blueprints may become reality before long in the poor, easternmost corner of the Gold Coast.
As Fairfield County economic development projects jerk forward in varying gears as the economy grinds back into motion, Bridgeport has been no exception.
In an address to the Bridgeport Regional Business Council last month ”“ his former employer ”“ Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said a new approach to zoning and development is resulting in projects pushing ahead where they were stalled before.
Nowhere is that more significant than in the case of Steelpointe, the 50-acre mixed-used development on the waterfront where land is cleared for construction that could begin in less than a year.
“Rather than giving up when the economy started to slide, the developer Bridgeport Landing L.L.C. and the city worked together to craft a new deal that breaks the project down into bite-sized chunks that are easier to finance, and gives the city more control over the outcome,” Finch said.
Budget cuts have made some aspects of doing business difficult. For instance, the city”™s planning and zoning boards say they do not have sufficient funding to post meeting agendas and minutes online, a staple of other city”™s websites throughout Connecticut.
Still, Paul Timpanelli, CEO of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, said that those departments have made significant progress in updating their underlying zoning regulations, one of several improvements accomplished under Finch”™s short tenure in office.
“Bridgeport, believe it or not, has been holding its own the past couple of years,” Timpanelli said. “There”™s still a number of things going on in the city ”¦ One of the significant achievements that has been made in Bridgeport is that we have a new master plan ”¦ (and) new zoning regulations.”
This month, the Bijou Square mixed-use development downtown is slated to restart, after developer Philip Kuchma received financial backing from the state”™s allocation of urban development funding from General Electric Co.”™s foundation.
Luxury yacht and ferry maker Derecktor Shipyards is presently contemplating growth that expands its workforce to 400 workers.
Greenwich-based United Rentals Inc. reportedly is negotiating an expansion of its Bridgeport facility just eight months after moving into the property. DRS Fremont is similarly planning an expansion in the city through the acquisition of new buildings.
Lecoq Cuisine Corp. is cooking up a $10 million expansion for its high-end pastry operation. Columbia Elevators chose Bridgeport over its longtime home in Port Chester, N.Y. The Bridgeport Holiday Inn and Convention Center recently completed an extensive renovation, giving businesses a better meeting facility.
Businesses even have a new group through which to network, after organizers launched the Bridgeport Business Alliance,k which aims to sign up 1,000 members by year”™s end.
If that is thinking big, the biggest elephant in the room remains Steelpointe. Timpanelli said the project has the financing in place needed to get started, and is now going through the zoning process. If zoning approvals are secured, construction could start within 12 months.
Until then, most projects involve the renovation of existing facilities, which costs half as much as new construction by some estimates.
“There”™s more optimism in the financing world now than I”™ve seen in two-and-a-half years,” said Tim Breda, a commercial finance expert in the Westport office of Boston-based Goedecke & Co. L.L.C. “It”™s not easy, everything has to be fleshed out ”¦ (but) there is money out there. New development is going to be very difficult, (but) repositionings are very possible.”
