Longtime Harbor Point nemesis Save Our Boatyard renews fight over Peninsula project
Peninsula at Harbor Point is being billed as the “final piece of the puzzle” for that Stamford project. But that doesn”™t mean that the final word has been heard.
Save Our Boatyard, a grassroots group that has been protesting for nine years against a variety of undertakings at the sprawling Harbor Point, is also against the Peninsula project. The group’s co-founder Maureen Boylan says it is merely the latest in a history of preferential treatments afforded developer Building and Land Technology (BLT).
“They won”™t contact us,” Boylan told the Business Journal, referring to both BLT and the Stamford government. “The mayor (David Martin) flip-flopped many years ago, and now it”™s all about BLT.
“In my opinion, it”™s the largest Ponzi scheme in the state of Connecticut.”
In 2014, Martin responded favorably to a Save Our Boatyard proposal that would have centered on a replacement for Brewer”™s Yacht Haven, then touted as the largest working boatyard in the Northeast. Fourteen Brewer”™s buildings were razed in 2011 by BLT as part of a state-mandated remediation effort.
Martin, however, ultimately went with a BLT plan rather than Save Our Boatyard”™s proposal. The original idea was to replace the boatyard with a full-service marina, but in the ensuing years those plans have metamorphosed, culminating in BLT”™s Peninsula announcement last month.
Real estate firms Cushman & Wakefield and Binswanger have begun marketing Peninsula at Harbor Point, described as “a 14-acre waterfront development opportunity within a master-planned, mixed-use community. The one-of-a-kind site is available immediately for the development of up to 1 million square feet and has an existing 500,000-square-foot office space available for use adjacent to the site.”
”˜That history is gone and never coming back”™
The Peninsula project, Save Our Boatyard says, is not only objectionable ”” it”™s also borderline illegal.
At least some of the Brewer”™s Yacht Haven buildings that were demolished “went back over 100 years,” said the group”™s co-founder Randy Dinter. “They were of historical significance, but mysteriously a brick building caught fire during a thunderstorm, and everything had to be taken down, according to BLT. So that history is all gone and it”™s never coming back.”
Both co-founders pointed out that Stamford has had a long maritime history ”” a rendering of a galleon-style ship sits atop its official seal ”” and that Brewer”™s Yacht Haven had at the time of its demolition been the only one in the area to offer a full range of services, including fuel docks and more than 350 slips.
The peninsula”™s complicated history predates the Martin administration and has involved such players as Antares Investment Partners ”” which planned the development before handing it over to BLT in 2008 ”” former Gov. Dannel Malloy and Ray Dalio”™s hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, which flirted with (and, partly because of the bad publicity, ultimately backed out of) relocating to the peninsula from Westport.
Boylan, who takes some credit for convincing Bridgewater to keep out, said that Stamford having taken in nearly $20 million in fees and conveyance taxes, and another $100 million in property taxes, from the entire Harbor Point development proves that BLT can do whatever it wants with the peninsula.
Harbor Point is a 100-acre mixed-use, master-planned, waterfront community immediately south of Stamford”™s central business district. It has more than 25 acres of public parks and more than 3,400 apartments with an additional 600-plus underway, along with office spaces, restaurants, health and wellness shops, fitness studios, marinas and waterfront activities as well as a mile-long waterfront boardwalk.
While Harbor Point has included the Hinckley Boat Yard since 2018, it is considerably smaller than the old Brewer”™s. Not only that, Boylan said, BLT has yet to make good on its promise to build a boat storage facility on Magee Avenue, which was supposed to take place that same year.
The city approval “remains valid and a start date for the 205 Magee portion has not been set,” BLT co-President Ted Ferrarone told the Business Journal. “Note that the full-service Hinckley Boatyard at Harbor Landing has been open since the summer of 2018, providing world-class service to area boaters.”
Ferrarone also rebutted Save Our Boatyard”™s other major objections, including its position that the 14-acre Peninsula site is only zoned as a working boatyard, meaning that no commercialization is allowed.
“The property is in the SRD-S zone ”” Mixed use and went through an extensive city approval process,” he said. “The Peninsula site is specifically approved for office, retail, parking, public access, marina and other water-dependent uses.”
As for Save Our Boatyard”™s contention that the site is only a water-dependent usage site, which will further complicate or delay the Peninsula project, Ferrarone countered: “The parcel was approved by the Stamford Planning and Zoning Board for office and retail use. Future development designs will take into account all the benefits and limitations of a waterfront site.”
In making July”™s Peninsula marketing announcement, BLT Chairman Carl Kuehner said: “We have been rapidly developing Harbor Point for the last 12 years, transforming the former industrial area into a vibrant live-work-play master planned community and creating a thriving ecosystem for residents and businesses. We are excited to see this premier site, the final piece of the puzzle for Harbor Point, come to life.”
Positive comments by Martin and Gov. Ned Lamont were included in the July announcement ”” further indication, Boylan said, that while you may not be able to fight City Hall, that doesn”™t mean you shouldn”™t try.
“I don”™t know of any private shipyard that can get the kind of help that it does,” she said, pledging to continue to voice Save Our Boatyard”™s objections to anyone who will listen.
Meanwhile, Ferrarone said that the planned Peninsula project will be an important addition not just to Harbor Point, but to the area at large.
“The Peninsula site comes to market at a pivotal time for the state of Connecticut, as corporations and people alike see the benefits that the city of Stamford and state of Connecticut have to offer,” he said. “The site has the potential to yield tremendous economic growth for our state and provide limitless opportunities to for businesses to achieve their success.”