ANSONIA — A developer who helped to reshape Shelton’s downtown wants to build a $14 million sports complex at the site of a former federal housing complex on Olson Drive.
The Primrose Companies, based in Bridgeport and led by John N. Guedes, submitted a conceptual proposal to Ansonia City Hall Sept. 9 and offered to purchase the 8‑acre property.
Guedes’ company wants to build:
- a 49,000 square-foot, “all sports” training building
- a 39,000 square-foot indoor soccer facility, and
- a FIFA regulation sized soccer field.
The Primrose Companies is starting negotiations with a proposed purchase price of $250,000.
Locally, the company spent more than $300 million redeveloping part of downtown Shelton, including the Avalon Bay apartments on Canal Street.
It’s Complicated
The deal is complicated, because the City of Ansonia does not own the Olson Drive land, which was formerly home to the federally-subsidized Riverside Apartments.
The land is owned by the Ansonia Housing Authority, an agency with local representation but under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
But the Board of Aldermen has authorized corporation counsel John Marini to make an offer to buy the property from the Ansonia Housing Authority — and city officials said the housing authority wants to sell.
The offer from the city will most likely be $500,000, the fair market value, according to a recent appraisal.
But, at the end of the day, it’s up to HUD to decide what happens to the Olson Drive property. Right now HUD has a deed restriction on the property that prohibits anything other than housing on the site.
The city and the housing authority, at HUD’s instruction, are working through a federal process during which they’ll apply to HUD to remove the deed restriction.
Marini said the city and housing authority reps have had positive discussions with HUD officials as recently as Monday.
HUD Talkin’
HUD’s important because they’ve held sway on the land pretty much since the years after the Flood of 1955, when part of the Olson Drive area was swept away.
The 165-unit, federally-subsidized Riverside Apartments opened on Olson Drive in 1963. By the mid-2000s the buildings were in terrible shape. The apartments were demolished in phases, along with a community center, in 2009 and 2014.
But cities can’t eliminate federally subsidized housing without replacing the units lost.
Neither former Mayor James Della Volpe’s administration nor the subsequent administration of Mayor David Cassetti were ever keen on replacing the densely-populated Riverside apartments with new, high-density housing in an already densely-populated neighborhood.
HUD repeatedly told Ansonia government over the years that the Riverside Apartments had to be rebuilt. A park or open space was out of the question, federal officials said, during sometimes contentious public meetings.
HUD and the Ansonia Housing Authority have an agreement from June 2012 calling for 100 units to be redeveloped at Olson Drive, 48 units of which were to be federally subsidized.
But …
Marini said the housing authority is now working on a plan to provide about 32 federally-subsidized replacement units at sites scattered throughout Ansonia. The authority also plans to purchase two multi-family houses, Marini said. Click here for a previous story.
Marini and Ansonia Economic Director Sheila O’Malley both said HUD officials in the state are open to the plan, and are explaining the steps the city and the housing authority have to take.
In an email Wednesday, Rhonda Siciliano, a HUD spokeswoman, said the Ansonia Housing Authority submitted an application asking HUD to approve the sale of Olson Drive to the city about six months ago, but the application was sent back because HUD wants the city to pay fair market value (the city now has an appraisal from this month).
Siciliano said the housing authority can submit an amended application, but must do so “soon.”
“HUD has explained the requirements several times to the Ansonia Housing Authority and the City but as of right now an amended application has not been received. If HUD doesn’t receive an amendment soon, it will reject the application as submitted,” Siciliano said.
The spokeswoman confirmed that HUD is aware that the Ansonia Housing Authority wants to replace the Olson Drive units elsewhere.
“It is our understanding that the Ansonia Housing Authority intends to establish units throughout the City that are to be subsidized with federal project based vouchers,” Siciliano said.
Marini and O’Malley said the Ansonia Housing Authority is working with a consultant to help ensure the paperwork to HUD is accurate and complete, and in-line with all federal HUD guidelines. They expect the application, or technically, the amended application, to be submitted to HUD within 30 days.
Back To The $14 Million Project
In addition to getting permission from HUD to remove the deed restriction and then buying the land from the Ansonia Housing Authority, the city and its legislators would also have to negotiate and work out a deal with The Primrose Companies.
Ideally, Ansonia would work out a deal with the company that would recoup any money spent to buy the property, then The Primrose Companies would invest in a complex that would be profitable for the company and benefit the Ansonia community.
Perhaps the benefit to the community could include using the fields at a discounted rate.
Details like that would be worked out later, Marini said.
Marini and O’Malley said there’s a demand for more recreation space in Ansonia, private complexes do well in the area, and a successful sports complex could help downtown Ansonia by bringing more people to the area.
Plus, the city wouldn’t be burdened with building, staffing and maintaining the complex, they said.
“We are very excited to be moving forward with this initiative. It’s an opportunity to both meet the needs of public housing, and at the same time redevelop Olson Drive in a way that works wonders for downtown development,” Marini said.
When the Valley Indy first reported that Ansonia was thinking about recreation on Olson Drive, Ansonia residents flooded Facebook with ideas, including a dog park, a splash pad and other attractions.
“It’s important to remember that this would be a private development. It is a business investment,” Marini said. “But at the same time, because of its nature, it could have the ability to enhance recreation in the city in many different ways. Could soccer programs use the field? Might that open up field space elsewhere in town for softball? There are many possibilities, but it is premature to talk about them because we’re just starting the discussion.”
O’Malley pointed out if the property is sold and developed, that’s new tax revenue for Ansonia.
Click here for a previous story in which Ansonia officials talk about the positive aspects for the idea.
The Valley Indy has a Q & A with Guedes that will be published Monday.
Mayor David Cassetti talked about the proposal during a meeting of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen this week.
“This proposal has the potential to serve as a triple play — a win for taxpayers, downtown development, and our recreation programs,” Cassetti said. The mayor credited the Ansonia Housing Authority and HUD for the agencies’ efforts to “forge a path forward for the redevelop and reuse of Olson Drive.”
Where’s Arby’s?
This is not the first time the Cassetti administration has announced the redevelopment of Olson Drive.
In 2014, the mayor announced the city would build a new police station on part of the 8‑acre site, along with 48 housing units (including federally subsidized units to replace those lost when the city demolished the Riverside Apartments).
But that Olson Drive project never moved forward and the city walked away from the concept.
The police department is now being built on Main Street, with the Aldermen choosing a contractor earlier this week.
In a statement emailed to The Valley Indy, Phil Tripp, an Alderman running as a Democrat to challenge Mayor Cassetti, a Republican, questioned whether the Olson Drive project was a political ploy.
“It’s unfortunate for Ansonia, this site has a lot of potential but the city’s approach seems more concerned with the optics of making the announcement (near election time), than actually making something happen. Was the public RFP the first HUD has heard of this initiative? Not a good way to start a negotiation with them. We saw half baked election time approach in the announcement of the Olson Drive Police station in 2013, 153 Main St Apartment Development in 2015, and Petco, Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Main St Police Station in 2017, but residents are still waiting because none of these have come to fruition,” Tripp said.
The candidate then criticized economic development efforts in Ansonia as a whole.
“It doesn’t appear that the city is taking development seriously, the City’s Economic Development Commission tasked with planning such initiatives seems to have only met 4 times in the last 2.5 years, that’s an attendance record of 13 percent. Worse, their idea of advertising such major initiatives is a single newspaper ad run for two weeks? This is why when they tried to sell the Copper and Brass site no one showed up, when they tried to sell 153 Main St they got one viable bid. People are laughing at us, but this kind of showmanship is holding Ansonia back.”
Marini questioned whether Tripp and his fellow Democrats live in Ansonia.
“Do they not see the new restaurants downtown? Over six years there has been a complete transformation of the business climate in this city,” Marini said. “Yes, we are not all the way there yet. Yes, there are things we wanted to happen that have not happened. But there is still a night and day difference. That’s not something you have to take the administration’s word for. You can hear it directly from the business owners.”
He said HUD is aware of what’s happening.
O’Malley said economic development is happening in Ansonia.
“Rugpad (local manufacturer) reached out to us and said they could easily double their employee base. StelRay, who have been on Wakelee Avenue for many, many years, is saying ‘You know what, we want to bump out our building by 10,000 square feet and we want to put a new retail building on Wakelee Avenue,” O’Malley said. “Those things don’t happen by accident. We’re getting inquiries from people who want to build a hotel. You don’t get activity like that unless something is happening.”
Marini dismissed Tripp’s assertion that the Olson Drive concept is a campaign stunt.
“Look, we’re dealing with HUD. There are many eyes on this,” Marini said.
