WATERBURY - A decade-long effort by the city to buy and redevelop troubled or abandoned properties early this month saw the first “for sale” sign of the lot.
Waterbury wants to sell the former St. Mary’s Elementary School complex, 55 Cole St. and 320 East Main St., to a developer interested in building housing for hospital workers. The city had purchased the complex in August 2023 for $1 million.
The sales pitch is a fresh twist in a dedicated decade of real estate management by the city of Waterbury, which has purchased 13 properties and acquired three with hopes of cleaning them up and turning them into functioning places that serve the community.
Projects so far have included designing an upcoming community health center to remedying brownfield sites to building a reentry center for workforce training.
“It is an economic driver for the city,” Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. said. “It improves the whole large downtown area. It improves the look of the city and all those things come into play. To improve economic development you have to improve the aesthetics and the access. All of those things have to happen. That is what this is all about.”
The approach dates back to the Neil M. O’Leary administration. In recent times, the approach has drawn some questions, including from Republican Alderman Kelly Zimmermann who has expressed concern recent properties were bought hastily and with no specifics on how they would be developed.
But the mayor and Board of Aldermen President Michael DiGiovancarlo and Alderman Majority Leader Christian D’Orso counter that argument, saying it takes time to redevelop buildings and with the city owning these properties, there are prime opportunities to revitalize the city.
“We are not in the business of a real estate agent,” said D’Orso. “One of the things the city is good at is being a facilitator of these buildings and finding the best possible use for them. We are acquiring these buildings at a significant cost savings. To leave the building to decay or purchased by someone that will hold onto it and not know what to do with it is not the best course of action.”
Former mayor O’Leary said the idea was to help the city envision the future by making investments that would move the city forward and improve the grand list and economic development. Under O’Leary’s administration, the city bought 12 properties.
The city has spent an estimated $14.2 million on properties which were funded through a combination of ARPA, capital funds, city revenue and state funds.
“The theme has always been if you can acquire a piece of property at a reasonable fee you can control the property as a destiny for future development,” O’Leary said.
Joe Delong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said that it is not unusual for cities to purchase buildings and that the practice is so common that there have been trainings and workshops at a national level on the practice.
“It is a quality-of-life issue,” he said. “It is creating a more productive environment for others in the private sector to invest. It creates the most conducive environment for both the residents and private industry to attract economic growth.”
Delong added that most cities would prefer not to have step in and fill the void but if there are no other alternatives they step in.
“It is more successful than letting a blighted piece of property bring down economic development,” he said.
One of the first parcels of land the city acquired is 30 acres at East Aurora Street and Huntingdon Avenue, which was handed over by Macdermid, a chemicals factory with its headquarters on Freight Street in Waterbury.
The city invested $33.4 million into the construction of a public works facility which opened in 2017. This was also one of the city’s first brownfield sites cleaned up under O’Leary.
These projects take time.
In December 2022 the city purchased 170 Freight St. for $2.3 million - a property O’Leary said he started looking into in 2011.
The city was able to acquire 130 Freight St. at no cost. In October, the final building at the site, which was the former Anaconda American Brass factory site came down, a significant milestone at the 20-acre brownfield, clearing the way for a mixed-used transit-oriented development.
City officials said they hope to put a request out for a proposal on the property by the end of this year with development expected to be completed in 18 months to two years, Pernerewski said.
“Freight Street is a game changer,” O’Leary said. “Because of transit-oriented development and infrastructure that is underneath in the ground such as sewer, water, and gas, there is the capacity to support any development that would be desired for that location.”
Pernerewski said the idea for Freight Street is to have multiuse development with commercial, retail, and residential, all transit-oriented.
The city’s ongoing work includes transforming more than a dozen sites that threatened human health and the environment into parks, businesses, and commercial and manufacturing spaces.
The city has also purchased four churches no longer in use and repurposed them for a current school, potentially a homeless shelter, a reentry center, and a community health center. O’Leary said he enjoyed a strong relationship built over the years with the archdiocese and when the church began to close the church properties, they asked the city if they were interested in acquiring them.
“The number of people going to Catholic churches has been dropping over the last several decades,” he said. “These properties are in densely populated neighborhoods. It was important to preserve those neighborhoods by enhancing them with new schools and a community health care project. This is when you take a building that is formally a church or a school and you save the neighborhood by not allowing it to become a vacant blighted area.”
In September 2022, the Board of Aldermen unanimously approved the purchase of St. Lucy’s Church on Branch Street for a community health center.
In March, U.S. Sens Christopher S. Murphy and Richard Blumenthal announced $5 million in funding for the community health center. The center is in the design phase but more funding is needed, as the center is expected to cost $12 million.
Board of Aldermen President DiGiovancarlo said the community health center is sorely needed and will take some pressure off emergency rooms. He views it as a vital need for the area.
Also on March 11, the Board of Aldermen voted 12-3 to approve the mayor’s request to purchase the former Sacred Heart church, rectory, school buildings, and convent at 13 Wolcott St. The mayor is planning to turn the church into a homeless shelter, calling it a short-term solution for the problem.
The mayor’s plans for the buildings include moving a Connecticut Renaissance halfway house for women at 24 Central Ave. to the rectory building and then selling the three-story building on Central Avenue.
Connecticut Renaissance already leases space in the former convent to operate a halfway house for women. The mayor wants to turn the school building into a comprehensive re-entry center for workforce training and learning center programs. Pernerewski said the city would sell the rectory and convent to Connecticut Renaissance.
Alderman Minority Leader Rubin Rodriguez expressed concerns about the purchase, adding that the city is not in the business of being real estate agents. He said he has not seen any plans for the buildings. “Our concern was from the beginning what are we going to do with these buildings?” he asked.
In response, the mayor said plans are moving along with Sacred Heart and Connecticut Renaissance. He said Cathy Awwad, executive director of the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, is also working in collaboration with the city on the project.
“It is a priority for us as a workforce board,” Awwad said of the project “We are beginning to have conversations with the Justice Education Center, which does programming for the reentry center. We are going to look at incorporating some opportunities for job training as well as GED preparation and skill remediation.”
DiGiovancarlo said the city is planning to bring vitality to the buildings and clean up the neighborhood.
“Sacred Heart is 100% a work in progress,” he said. “In the end, it will be a good thing instead of multiple buildings sitting there and decaying.”
Properties purchased or obtained by the City of Waterbury in the name of redevelopment.
East Aurora Street and Huntingdon Avenue (30 acres) and Brookside Road (30.34 acres).
Purchase price: No cost as Macdermid, a chemicals company, gave it to the city.
When: May 2014
The city broke ground on the project, which officials estimated had cost more than $35.7 million in combined construction and environmental remediation expenses, in May 2017. Officials said about $33.4 million went into the construction of a public works facility while another $1.5 million covered the cost of disposing of hazardous waste at the former brownfield site.
Rose Hill, a Gothic revival mansion that dates back to the city’s manufacturing peak. The city purchased the property, and the YMCA uses it now.
173 Interstate Lane
Purchase price: No cost, as it was given to the city by the Manufacturing Alliance Service Corporation.
When: July 2016
The city purchased the property for a manufacturing training center. MASC leases the building. The center has a program for 30 youth in manufacturing and carpentry training. It is also a site for project longevity construction and carpentry.
The city purchased the half-acre lot and created the Lisa Stokes Velez and Lt. Vincent Riddick park which opened in 2022.
The city acquired the former Anaconda American Brass factory site, a 20-acre brownfield consisting of three properties on Freight Street where the goal is to transform it into mixed-use transit-oriented development. Also part of the project is 00 West Main St. and 130 Freight St. which were acquired through foreclosure.
Purchased for a community garden and currently used by the East End Community Club.
Purchase of former church which is now the International Dual Language School.
The city purchased the land to use city water towers.
There is discussion of turning this into a retirement community.
St. Joseph’s school, convent, garage and club. The school is now home of the Children’s Community School.
The building is now an offsite location for police business.
Purchase of St. Lucy’s church, rectory and garage to convert into a community health center. More federal funding is needed for the project, city officials said.
The Board of Aldermen voted 12-1 with Alderman Kelly Zimmermann dissenting to purchase the St. Mary’s Catholic Grammar School. There are plans to convert the school into housing.
40 Bristol St.
Purchase price: No cost. Received $1 million from seller Norm Drubner, who transferred three parcels of property.
When: November 2023
In October 2023 the Board of Aldermen approved acquiring the vacant brownfield, the former Bristol Babcock property at 40 Bristol St. in the city’s Platts Mill neighborhood near the Naugatuck line. The property has remained vacant since 2002 and is in disarray after a fire in 2015 destroyed large portions of the complex. The State Bond Commission on Aug. 9 approved an additional $4 million toward city efforts to clean up and redevelopment.
The Board of Aldermen purchased One Exchange Place to fix the building and house employees temporarily from the Chase Building when they renovate that building. There are also two potential tenants interested in occupying space in the building.
The Board of Aldermen voted 12-3, with Republican Minority Leader Ruben Rodriguez and Republicans Kelly Zimmermann and John F. Alseph Jr. dissenting to approve Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr.'s request to purchase the former Sacred Heart church rectory, school buildings, and convent.
The mayor’s plans for the buildings include moving a Connecticut Renaissance halfway house for women at 24 Central Ave. to the rectory building and then selling the three-story building on Central Avenue. Connecticut Renaissance already leases space in the former convent to operate a halfway house for men. The mayor wants to turn the school building into a comprehensive re-entry center for workforce training and learning center programs. The mayor is also considering turning the church into a homeless shelter.
[Collection]rep-am.com