A local developer has proposed building a small showroom on Route 7 for businesses involved with “green” design.
Michael Greenberg wants to build the Riverbend Sustainable Design Center at 136 Ethan Allen Highway just north of Branchville, a crossroads that includes parts of Ridgefield, Wilton and Redding that is served by the Danbury Branch of Metro-North.
The single track is currently undergoing a $30 million switching upgrade that will allow trains to run with greater frequency, and the state is in the process of widening Route 7 between Norwalk and Danbury to ease traffic on the route.
“Driven by increasing energy prices, environmental concerns, and public awareness of the health impacts of building design, the building industry is undergoing a fundamental change in how buildings are designed, constructed, and expected to perform,” Greenberg said. “We are looking to deliver state-of-the-art sustainable building technologies and practices to town and the region.”
Greenberg indicated he has yet to finalize funding for such a center, and is in the process of working with partners and town officials in Ridgefield. The facility is being designed by David Conlon Architects, which is based in Redding.
“We will work and do everything we can to make this a reality,” said Rudy Marconi, first selectman for the town of Ridgefield. “Right now due to the economy, a lot of (green) projects have been put on the shelf to the lack of bank credit. If they were going to build, they would have built green.”
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If not on the scale of Ridgefield”™s successful negotiation with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. for a large expansion of its campus there, Marconi said that Greenberg”™s project could have a regional impact beyond its relatively small footprint. Builders need such a center in southwest Connecticut, he said, due to the need for additional collaboration on emerging technologies and business models.
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A 20,000-square-foot exposition center would include information on businesses offering solar, wind and geothermal products and services; building insulators; HVAC contractors; and suppliers of building materials that have been recycled or that feature other sustainable attributes. The expo center would also include trained staff and Web kiosks for prospective buyers to research alternatives.
An adjacent education center will include conference rooms for meetings, training +sessions and educational presentations And Greenberg wants to carve out space for a restaurant that serves organically grown food. A restaurant called The Little Pub recently opened across the street from the Branchville rail station, and its parking lot has been packed during open hours.
The most recent development effort along Ridgefield”™s portion of Route 7 has been Pond”™s Edge Professional Park, a former high-tech center that was repositioned as a medical office complex. While an initial building was completed and occupied, a second building has yet to land a tenant.
A mile south, Georgetown Land Development Co. is attempting to convert the former Gilbert & Bennett wire factory into a mixed-use residential and commercial development, with the 50-acre-plus brownfield site one of the largest such projects under way in the nation.
