06/20/2018
Gov. Malloy Announces Grants for Six Communities That Will Help Put Blighted Properties Back Into Productive Use
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that six municipalities and organizations in Connecticut, including Ansonia, Naugatuck, New Milford, Thompson, the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, and the Bridgeport Economic Development Corporation, are being awarded a total of $1 million in state grants that will help the entities in their efforts to remediate and redevelop clusters of blighted properties – also known as “brownfields” – and put them back into productive use.
The funds are being awarded by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) through the recently launched Brownfield Area-Wide Revitalization (BAR) Grant program. This is the second round of grants being awarded under the program. Created in 2015, the program encourages communities to consider areas such as neighborhoods, downtowns, waterfront districts, or other sections with multiple blighted properties and develop strategies to assess, clean up, and reuse the parcels for business, housing, and public amenities that will generate jobs and revenues and revitalize the entire area.
“Blighted properties are an eyesore in neighborhoods and drive down property values,” Governor Malloy said. “By making investments in these scarred, abandoned, and otherwise unusable parcels of land, we can attract many more times that amount back in private investments while also making communities more attractive to business and job growth.”
The grants are part of the Malloy administration’s ongoing and unprecedented efforts to make investments in brownfields that have a positive impact on improving the economic development opportunities in local communities. Since 2011, the state has invested $225.6 million in 170 brownfield projects located in 72 municipalities across the state. For every $1 of state investment in a brownfield project, $11.41 has been or will be invested by non-state partners.
“Connecticut continues to be a national leader in brownfield remediation and redevelopment,” DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith said. “Thanks to the innovative new programs developed under Governor Malloy’s leadership, six communities can take the first steps toward cleaning up and reactivating polluted sites in their municipalities.”
The second round of BAR Grants are being awarded to the following municipalities and organizations:
- City of Ansonia: $200,000 grant to develop a plan to restore the economic vitality of the Ansonia Brass Company site and adjacent former industrial properties in the heart of Ansonia’s downtown. This property is adjacent to the commuter rail station and along the Naugatuck River.
- Bridgeport Economic Development Corporation: $200,000 grant to create a comprehensive implementation strategy to remediate and redevelop the Bridgeport Brass Project Area. The Bridgeport Brass Project Area is located in the geographic center of the city, approximately one-third of a mile north of Bridgeport’s central business district and intermodal center, and provides the opportunity to optimize transportation and waterfront access and site use.
- Town of Naugatuck: $200,000 grant for the planning and development of the inland Port of Naugatuck. The Port of Naugatuck is a proposed intermodal rail freight terminal which would leverage the underused existing rail line and continuous rail access to points north of Naugatuck to transport consumer goods for warehousing and distribution.
- Town of New Milford: $170,000 grant to develop a master plan to assess remediation needs for a cluster of brownfields along the Housatonic River Corridor. The redevelopment project will focus on reuse of town-owned and private properties to help restore public access to the river and serve as a catalyst for economic development within walking distance of downtown.
- Town of Thompson: $170,000 grant to perform planning studies and predevelopment work crucial to the success of pending redevelopment and revitalization of two major mill complexes – River Mill and the Belding-Corticelli Mills. The project area extends over a two mile long portion of the North Grosvenor Dale section of Thompson.
- Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG): $60,000 grant to study the potential remediation and redevelopment of three brownfield parcels in Thomaston including and around the former Plume and Atwood facility. The project area will serve as support to the Railroad Museum of New England and the downtown area.