$6M state grant to clear New Britain DPW yard for mixed-use, transit-oriented development
New Britain officials are trumpeting a newly approved $6 million state grant that will be used to demolish buildings at its former Department of Public Works yard on Harvard Street and prepare the 3.1-acre site for redevelopment.
Officials hope to see the former DPW yard at 55 and 70 Harvard St., which sits near a CTfastrak bus stop, become a mix of multifamily housing and other uses that will take advantage of this mass-transit option.
“I am thrilled that we could secure funding for the critical first phase of a long-needed project that will completely transform the area surrounding our East Main Street CTfastrak station,” New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said in a statement released Tuesday. “The residents on the East Side of New Britain deserve this, and I am grateful that we could secure creative funding sources in order to avoid increasing the financial burden on our local taxpayers.”
The state Bond Commission on Tuesday signed off on the $6 million grant. The request was initially endorsed by the state’s Community Investment Fund board in September.
The Bond Commission also signed off on a larger $1.3 billion package of general obligation and revenue bonds supporting dozens of projects across the state, from $17.4 million to fund Department of Economic and Community Development programs to $2 million to support affordable housing development in West Hartford.
New Britain officials have tentatively picked The Day Brothers to pursue a mixed-use development on the former DPW site. The plan is modeled after a project the Massachusetts-based development group is pursuing in Westbrook, Maine.
There, the firm is working on a transformation of a city-owned lot into a 400-space parking garage, 50 affordable apartments and a roughly 52,000-square-foot, seven-story hydroponic farm. The parking garage was recently finished, and the “vertical farm” is expected to be completed early next year.
The roughly $55 million greenhouse construction in the Maine project is being funded and managed by Vertical Harvest Farms, a partner recruited for the development. The apartment portion of the project has not yet launched.
The Westbrook indoor farm is expected to produce about 2 million pounds of produce annually, according to Carla Tracy, a spokesperson for Vertical Harvest Farms. Tracy said Vertical Harvest has not been recruited for the New Britain project.
The Day Brothers did not respond to requests for comment.
Jack Benjamin, New Britain’s director of planning and development, said the city has spoken with The Day Brothers about a potential project somewhere in the city for more than a year. While the Massachusetts company has been selected as the “preferred developer” for the Harvard Street sites, the city has the option to move forward with another partner, Benjamin said.
For now, Benjamin said, officials are focused on arranging a cleanup of the former DPW site and preparing it for redevelopment. The yard currently hosts a 1,392-square-foot car wash building and fuel island; 11,342-square-foot service building; and a 15,311-square-foot office and garage building.
New Britain’s effort to prepare the site for redevelopment will also involve a realignment of East Main Street.
Benjamin said the city will likely seek additional state and federal grant dollars to help cover the realignment cost and provide gap financing for the redevelopment.
“I expect that we’ll be able to execute a great transit-oriented project on that site,” Benjamin said.
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