Longtime Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton customarily painted a positive picture of the city where he grew up.
Joe Cavo ”” appointed mayor after Boughton became the state”™s Department of Revenue Services commissioner ”” takes much the same tack.
“We”™re an economic hub,” Cavo told the Business Journal. “Even during my short time as mayor, I”™ve been getting lots of emails from businesses looking to come to Danbury. And we”™re certainly grateful for that.”
Sworn in on Dec. 16, Cavo ”” who had served as Danbury City Council president since 2006 ”” said his familiarity with how the city”™s government works, not to mention the sheer pace of the job, have helped him avoid any surprises.
“I walk in every day and say, ”˜Okay, what”™s on the agenda?”™” he said. “There”™s always something going on. There have been no surprises per se ”” just the stuff that happens that I view as part of the day.”
Cavo”™s experience with the Danbury Fire Department ”” he retired in 2017 as its superintendent of apparatus ”” also helps, he said.
“You get used to having nothing surprise you,” he said.
He allowed that Covid-19 was an obvious exception, but said the city has rebounded strongly, echoing the sentiment expressed by Boughton during his farewell address as mayor.
“We have a really good mix of businesses,” he said. “Danbury has a very diverse allocation of business and business owners that work well together on a continued basis. Our banking institutions, restaurants and other businesses all seem to be supporting one another in ways that I don”™t know you see everywhere in the country.”
Cavo also credited the Danbury Chamber of Commerce and Danbury City Center with “doing a great job with our businesses downtown and throughout Danbury. They have lively, robust meetings ”” a lot of good things are happening here.”
He further praised Roger Palanzo, the city”™s director of business advocacy, for helping Danbury navigate the pandemic.
“The problem we have is finding the space,” Cavo said. “Roger is working with companies all the time to find adequate space for them to build their facilities.”
Even so, downtown remains something of a sore spot. Despite efforts to rehabilitate the district through new sidewalks and other beautification efforts ”” price tag $4 million ”” it can still feel a bit like a ghost town after hours. But, the mayor said, more help is on the way.
“A little while after I joined the city council in 2003, we received a study that said we needed to look into rehabilitating downtown,” he said. “And to an extent, we”™re still waiting for that. Is it happening at the rate we”™d like to see? Maybe not.”
Nevertheless, Cavo points to successful projects like Kennedy Flats ”” the 374-unit luxury apartment complex that was built in 2016 ”” as a beacon for the area. While some initially questioned whether market-rate apartments in downtown would work, Cavo said it is now fully occupied and has a waiting list.
Another pair of properties are being redeveloped for apartments, including the six-story, 145-unit Brookview Commons, which is being built on the 3.3-acre lot at 333 Main St. that was formerly home to the offices of The News-Times, Hearst Connecticut Media”™s Danbury newspaper.
The theory, Cavo said, is that “If we have enough people down here, we”™ll need services down here. It”™s the old ”˜If you build it, they will come”™.”
The city is also awaiting delivery of a $1 million transportation study that will include research on establishing a high-speed rail line from Danbury to Grand Central Station.
State Rep. Stephen Meskers (D-Greenwich) recently introduced Proposed Bill No.6097 to the Transportation Committee, which would ask Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti “to review the assets and usage of rail in the state and study the feasibility of using existing assets to provide passenger train service from the town of Danbury to New York.”
“It”™s very feasible,” the mayor said. “It”™s just a matter of bringing all the players to the table and getting it done.” The study has been delayed by the pandemic, he said. While no timetable for its delivery has been set, Cavo said he hopes it will be soon.
As is the case worldwide, much of Danbury”™s future rests upon the pandemic. “We”™re all waiting to see how we come out of Covid and whether work from home will continue to be the norm,” he said.
That will also play a part in the train strategy, he added: “Ridership is way down ”” is that going to be temporary or will it continue even after the pandemic is over?”
Shifting to the influx of New York City residents to Fairfield County, Cavo said that those moves will be permanent. “I don”™t see many people buying a house here for $400,000 and then turning around and trying to sell it in a year,” he said. “I have a neighbor who works in New York City and bought a home here. She telecommutes part of the week and seems fine with it. I think that”™s going to be the way of the future, at least for her.”
Education initiatives
Danbury is also in the midst of reopening its schools for the first time this school year on a hybrid basis, following a spike in Covid numbers that postponed such efforts last fall.
“Our vaccination numbers are going up,” he said. “We just have to continue to follow the guidelines. I”™m very optimistic and hopeful that those key factors will work.”
As with most municipalities, how many Covid vaccine doses the city receives varies from week to week. A spokesman for the mayor said that an “adequate” supply of second doses is expected to arrive each week.
Education appears to loom large in Danbury”™s future. Top of Cavo”™s mind is the Danbury Career Academy, an ambitious project under which the city will pay $93 million to convert 210,000 square feet of office space at the Summit at Danbury into classrooms and labs for 1,400 middle and high school students.
“Nuvance is a big, big part of that whole expansion” at the revitalized complex at 39 Old Ridgebury Road, the mayor said. The health care system signed a lease for 220,000 square feet at The Summit in December, the largest office space lease in Connecticut last year.
The Career Academy was one of Boughton”™s pet projects ”” and continues to be so, as he is chair of the project”™s steering committee. Cavo said the school is designed to help alleviate some of the overcrowding at the city”™s high school and middle schools, which exists “because Danbury is a place that people want to come to.”
Cavo said the school will prove to be cheaper to build than a new brick-and-mortar school and that “the best part is that 80% of the cost of building the school will be reimbursed from the state, which comes out to be about $75 million. That”™s a great deal.”
The clock is ticking, however: Cavo acknowledged that Danbury must deliver the academy”™s blueprints to the state by Oct. 1 to qualify for the funds. The mayor said he was confident that would happen, as will clearing earlier hurdles like city council approval and a subsequent public referendum, which will probably take place in June.
The mayor also has high hopes for the proposed Danbury Prospect Charter School, which is dependent on an approval from the state legislature ”” not all of whose members have expressed their support. The school, which would house 550 students, recently received a $25 million donation from an anonymous philanthropist.
“It makes sense to me,” Cavo said. “It gives parents another opportunity to have a different style of education. I”™m hoping it punches through this year.” He said he has received “hundreds and hundreds” of emails from constituents supporting the plan.
As he has since being appointed mayor, Cavo would not say whether he plans to run for the office in November. A Republican, he would presumably face off against Democrat Councilman Roberto Alves, who announced his candidacy in early January.
“I”™m still the new guy and my efforts are based on the operations of the city,” he said. “I haven”™t really sat down and thought about, ”˜Do I want to keep doing this?”™ It would be a disservice to the residents of Danbury if I started politicking right away.
“As the newness calms down, there will be time to think about it,” he said. “Right now there are still days that it”™s overwhelming, when I look at it and think, ”˜Holy mackerel!”™”
