New multifamily development in Bridgeport gets underway

A groundbreaking ceremony on Jan. 16 marked the start of construction for a 420-unit mixed-income housing development in Bridgeport.

Named The August, the mixed-use development will be situated in what is currently open space surrounding the Lighthouse, an office building hosting the offices of the RCI Group, one of the developers of the project alongside Flaherty & Collins Properties.

More than a dozen private sector and government agencies are financial stakeholders in the project, which is expected to cost $190 million and take up 5.2 acres of the planned 52-acre master plan that includes the existing Bass Pro Shops location and an existing retail strip with the city’s first Starbucks location. The August will also add 10,000 square feet of retail space with the goal of establishing a dense and walkable new neighborhood in the heart of Bridgeport’s harbor.

During the ceremony, RCI Group President Robert Christoph Jr. thanked the many individuals, institutions and lenders who had contributed to making both The August and the larger project possible, along with his father who also saw the city’s potential.

“Steelpointe Harbor is what happens when smart development takes place,” he said. “This site used to be the home of a coal-fired power plant and several private yacht clubs cutting off the water’s edge from the public. The waterfront has been kept from the great people of Bridgeport for the last hundred years. We are here today to further public access to the waterfront, which creates a better opportunity to live, work, play and be entertained,” Christoph Jr. said.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim called the project “a huge and impactful development” that offered the city and the state “a monumental project of significance and accomplishment that so many have played a part and role in.”

Seila Mosquera-Bruno, the commissioner of the Department of Housing and the board chairwoman of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), noted that it is “not secret that Connecticut is experiencing a historic housing shortage” and highlighted the role that Build For CT, a CHFA underwriting program promoting the construction of middle-income housing, played in bringing The August to fruition.

“Thanks to Build for CT, Steelpointe will make 160 apartments affordable to folks earning between 80 and 100% of the area median income while facilitating the development of another 260 market-rate units,” Mosquera-Bruno said, adding that workforce housing is critical to establishing thriving sustainable communities.

Gov. Ned Lamont also addressed the ceremony by noting how he and the mayor had been working on the project since he was first elected five years prior. Lamont praised Ganim for pushing the project ahead through a series of complex issues.

“You want to make hay while the sun shines,” Lamont said, gesturing to the freezing rain outside during the ceremony. “Right now the sun is shining on Bridgeport. A lot of people want to be here, a lot of people want to be in the state of Connecticut. A lot of our neighboring states are losing population. Not here in Connecticut. The only thing that’s going to slow us down is if we don’t have housing. And that’s why I’m so proud of this project.”

“If I were an investor,” Lamont added, “I’d be investing in Bridgeport. But they don’t let me invest.”