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August 10, 2022

Great Pond developers kick off Phase II of 650-acre mixed-use village project in Windsor

PHOTO | HANNA SNYDER GAMBINI From left, Christina Hubacek of North Point, Adam Winstanley, U.S. Sen. RIchard Blumenthal, Windsor Mayor Donald Trinks, Gov. Ned Lamont, Windsor Town Manager Peter Souza, David Winstanley, Carter Winstanley and Brett Powell from North Point.
By Hanna Snyder Gambini

Adam Winstanley said breaking ground Tuesday on the Great Pond Industrial project in Windsor was a very proud moment more than 15 years in the making.

The 750,000-square-foot industrial warehouse development is part of Winstanley Enterprises’ massive 650-acre Great Pond Village project that, when completed, will contain a variety of housing units, from apartments to townhouses and small starter homes for rent, along with retail storefronts, warehouses, bioscience and data centers with a hefty dose of open space peppered in.

Winstanley called the project “a labor of love” for his father, who recently retired from Winstanley Enterprises that Adam Winstanley now runs with his brother Carter.
 
The industrial warehouse development is a partnership between Winstanley Enterprises, Northpoint Development and ABB Industrial Solutions.

The industrial building, which is being built on spec and doesn’t currently have a tenant, will sit on 94 acres in the Great Pond campus off Day Hill Road, and include more than 100 dock doors, parking for 574 vehicles, plus 14 electric vehicle spots, and 150 stalls for trailer parking. 

Contributed
Winstanley Enterprises’ massive 650-acre Great Pond Village project.

Representatives from the development team along with state and local leaders were on hand Tuesday for the groundbreaking of Phase II, which includes the warehouse and a $14.4 million investment in roads, bridges and infrastructure for the project.

Phase I was completed in 2020, with the 230-unit Preserve at Great Pond luxury apartments complex.

Northpoint Regional Vice President Christina Hubacek said ABB’s $150 million remediation of the former Combustion Engineering site off Day Hill Road was the largest brownfield redevelopment in the region, “cleaning it up to the highest environmental standard possible,” allowing the residential units.

“A brownfield redevelopment not only turns old into new, but it brings a site back into production… and brings investment, tax dollars and wages back into a community,” Hubacek said. 

The Great Pond Industrial building is expected to generate almost 300 permanent jobs, $400,000 in state taxes and more than $12 million in permanent wages, she said.

Northpoint’s capital investment is about $133 million. The entire project will run about $750 million, and reach close to $1 billion counting the remediation costs, members of the Winstanley team said.

The effort started in 2008 as a collaboration with ABB when Winstanley and Windsor town officials brainstormed the idea “to focus on cluster development governed by a form-based code,” Adam Winstanley said. 

The concept is unique in that “basically (you) have kind of a city within a city with its own zoning code,” creating more density but combining it with more open space.

The 650-acre Great Pond Village campus will have 225 acres dedicated as open space with walking trails.

“We think it’s a smarter, better type of development,” and that started the journey that spanned years navigating the permitting process on the local, state and federal level, “crafting the vision of this campus,” Winstanley said.

In all, getting to Phase II required about 18 different permits, he said.

Officials said this phase for the infrastructure will take about a year. 

The final vision is “a very unique project,” Winstanley said. “We believe in this type of development where we have little more density combined with open space.”

Windsor Mayor Donald Trinks said it’ll be a top-quality project under Winstanley Enterprises, and “exactly what the community needs.”

He thanked the group for choosing WIndsor and promised the town’s continued support.

Trinks credited Gov. Ned Lamont, who was at Tuesday’s groundbreaking along with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, for creating a business-friendly environment in Connecticut.

Lamont said the Winstanley model is an example Connecticut is following, creating downtown and central areas that are vibrant places where young people and companies want to be, with “open space integrated with our communities.” 

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