A $1 million grant from the state will fund the demolition of a dilapidated factory in downtown Shelton, the next step in the city’s decades of effort to transform Canal Street from an industrial center to a mixed-use residential and commercial district.
The grant will be used to wreck the Chromium Process building, an iconic but now-derelict factory at 113 Canal St.
Mayor Mark Lauretti lauded the grant Aug. 28 as a “smart use of public money,” saying “the return on the investment is going to be huge.”
James Ryan, the president of the Shelton Economic Development Corporation, called the grant “giant news towards progress in downtown.”
The grant is part of $27 million awarded by the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development to communities throughout the state for remediation of brownfield sites.
Gov. Dannel Malloy announced the grants in Bridgeport last week.
“Many of Connecticut’s brownfield sites have been abandoned or under-utilized for decades because the costs of redeveloping these properties are too expensive for municipalities or private developers to take on by themselves,” Malloy said in a prepared statement.
“That’s why my administration has not only allocated the funding necessary to return dozens of unused and blighted properties in every corner of the state to productive reuse, but also taken significant steps to attract private investment and increase participation in our brownfield programs,” Malloy said.
Lauretti said Malloy is just the latest Connecticut governor “that recognizes the value of investing in downtown Shelton.”
The city has been wrangling for years to take control of the Chromium Process site.
The company stopped production around 2009, after the then-Department of Environmental Protection revoked discharge permits for the business, company officials told the Valley Indy in 2012.
At the time, the city was toying with the idea of purchasing the site.
Instead, the city foreclosed on the property, citing nearly $100,000 the company owed the city in the form of unpaid property taxes and sewer use fees.
The site, once cleared of the old factory, could become a parking lot in conjunction with a plan first floated by developer John Guedes last year to convert the Spongex building — the L‑shaped industrial building next to the Derby-Shelton bridge — to apartments.
Guedes is the CEO of Primrose Companies, which is overseeing the redevelopment of Canal Street.
Guedes’ plan calls for the city to give Primrose a 1.67-acre plot south of the Spongex building known as the Rolfite site, where he has said he wants to put a mixed-use building.
In return, Guedes’ company will build a new road to allow traffic from the area safer access to the Derby-Shelton bridge.
Drivers often use a narrow one-way alley next to the Spongex building as a shortcut onto the bridge, but the line of sight at the intersection is less than ideal
Click here for more background about the deal from a previous story.
Shelton Aldermen voted unanimously in March to proceed with the deal with Guedes.
Lauretti said he thinks the city will be able to demolish the Chromium Process factory within a year.
He said Guedes’ original idea — for the property to be used for parking — may or may not come to fruition, but that wrecking the building is a laudable end in itself.
“That’s been discussed, I’m not sure that will be the final end result,” Lauretti said. “But the goal is to get that blight gone. Getting rid of that blight creates tremendous marketability for the other properties along the river.”
In a press release sent to reporters Aug. 29, the mayor said the grant will allow the city to “make a quantum leap forward” in its downtown revitalization plans.
The press release is posted below.
