The City of Shelton is foreclosing on a highly visible downtown industrial property with the hopes of demolishing an old factory.
The city — and John Guedes, a key downtown developer — hope to see the Chromium Process Co. property in the heart of downtown meld into the ongoing transformation of old industrial properties on Canal Street, where hundreds of new apartments are under construction.
The plan calls for the dilapidated Chromium building to be razed and replaced with a 60-space public parking lot, with Center Street extended through the north end of the property and connecting to the Derby-Shelton bridge.
It’s tentative, though. First the city has to maneuver through the foreclosure process in civil court in Milford.
Chromium Process Co. stopped production in about 2008 or 2009, when the state Department of Environmental Protection revoked permits allowing the company to discharge wastewater into the Housatonic River. The company went into bankruptcy in 2009, after an 82-year run.
The city filed a lawsuit against Chromium Process last October seeking possession of the property. The business owes $96,759, according to the lawsuit, which cites several years’ worth of unpaid property taxes and sewer use fees dating to 2007.
The lawsuit asks for a foreclosure of each of those liens, money damages, and “immediate possession of the premises.”
The city filed the lawsuit as a last resort, Mayor Mark Lauretti said.
“We don’t normally want to take anybody’s property,” Lauretti said. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
Thomas Welch, the city’s corporation counsel, said Jan. 4 that the city is waiting to see if and how the company responds to the lawsuit.
If they pay all the back taxes and fees owed, the lawsuit would go away.
If not — and barring some other, as-yet unknown defense — the city will proceed with the tax foreclosure, he said.
Last month Welch filed a motion in the lawsuit asking a judge to compel the company to disclose whether they can or plan to defend the claim.
A message left Jan. 4 for the lawyer representing Chromium Process Co. in the lawsuit was not returned. The Valley Indy also left a message Jan. 4 with the company’s president, Norman Tice.
Though run-down, the property is in a prime spot in terms of downtown redevelopment — it sits at the end of Center Street, one block east of the Dunkin’ Donuts on Howe Avenue.
Lauretti said that if the city obtains the land, the first priority would be to “cure the blight issue,” likely by demolishing it.
Another wrinkle: given the longtime industrial use of the land, there’s probably environmental contamination there.
Lauretti said the city will pursue funding to study and clean such contamination through the Valley Council of Governments, which was awarded a $750,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency last July.
The idea for a parking lot isn’t set in stone — but it makes sense, officials said.
Lauretti noted that the costs of environmental remediation would probably lower if it was turned into a parking lot. In addition, people constantly complain about the lack of parking along Howe Avenue.
“It’s right next to all of this economic development that’s occurring,” Lauretti said of the property. “The city has the wherewithal to try to make that property part of the equation.”
