Contributed Photo
(Left to right) Members of the Seymour Economic Commission Christopher Bowen, Christine Aliman and Claudia Thomas.
“What’s going on with Tri-Town!?”
Above this paragraph sits the number one question anyone in Seymour politics is asked.
The Valley Indy, in the form of its various video chats and podcasts, asks the question once a month during First Selectman Kurt Miller’s regular appearances.
In fact, The Valley Indy addressed Tri-Town three times since May 1.
The answer is usually the same — something’s coming.
And then we wait.
Hopefully, based on statements made last week during “Valley Realtor Day,” we’ll start to actually see redevelopment at Tri-Town in the near future.
I’m a new member of the Seymour Economic Development Commission. It’s a volunteer position in the town where I grew up.
“Valley Realtor Day,” held June 7 at Tri-Town was the EDC’s first chance to really network with a critical group: Realtors in both the commercial and residential worlds.
It’s a symbiotic relationship: we develop the local economy that they sell to their clients, and they bring in those clients and make the tax base grow. We give them something to sell, and they close the deal.
We were joined by various vendors catering to the needs of realtors.
The mayors of Derby, Ansonia and Shelton, as well as the First Selectmen of Beacon Falls and Seymour all gave speeches and presentations touting their towns.
From our perspective, anything positive that happens to one town is a positive for every other town; rising waters raise all ships.
We were all granted a tour of some of the open space in the plaza, including a presentation on potential change to the Plaza that would involve what used to be Ames and Greenfields being knocked down and replaced with a building – either medical or a pharmacy – with other buildings being built on the outskirts of the parking lot on both the Seymour and Ansonia sides of the line.
If it feels like I’m burying the lede here, it’s because we’ve seen proposals for Tri-Town dry up before coming to fruition for almost twenty years now.
As of this writing demolition permits have not been issued by the town — but are in the process of being written.
Fingers are crossed.
The event was catered by Alberto’s, a newly-renovated restaurant with a longtime presence in the Tri-Town Plaza, and gifts were offered by Alberto’s, Subway and Zois’ Pizza, who graciously allowed us to raffle off gift certificates.
These events are critical for getting the wheels greased so that we can show everyone, from business owners to prospective house buyers, just what kind of community we are, and to help the rest of the Naugatuck Valley grow as well.
The writer, a Seymour resident, is a member of the Seymour Economic Development Commission. The Valley Indy asked him to pen a column about the commission and Valley Realtor Day.
