With Derby’s exclusive relationship with a California-based company to spur downtown development over, two Aldermen say now is the perfect time for city to alter its approach to getting the project done — by buying out the remaining property owners in the redevelopment zone.
“We need to be driving this thing,” Alderman Ron Sill said Tuesday. “We need to get something going.”
City officials, meanwhile, say things aren’t so simple.
Eclipse Deal Done
A contract giving Eclipse Development Group exclusive rights to broker deals in Derby’s redevelopment zone — an area that stretches along Main Street next to the Housatonic River from roughly the Derby-Shelton Bridge to the former Lifetouch property — expires Thursday.
Though Eclipse says it still wants to develop the site, Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri said Monday that it was “time to move along.”
“It’s a done issue with Eclipse,” the mayor said. “We gave him two and a half years. That’s it.”
Staffieri said the city had received a letter from Eclipse’s president, Douglas Gray, he characterized as Gray “graciously bowing out” of its deal with Derby.
In the letter, released by the city on Tuesday, Gray acknowledged that his time as Derby’s preferred developer was coming to an end April 18, and that company officials “are very sorry we have yet to pull in the major tenant to bring this project to fruition.”
But it goes on to say that “our intent is to continue working towards the vision and plans we have had for the site and eventually bring this entire development about.”
Article continues after the letter.
Sill said that a lack of activity for years within the redevelopment zone shows the Eclipse plan wasn’t working.
“I never had any faith that this plan was going to work with this company,” he said. “There needed to be a master plan and individual parcels that tie into it.”
He and Alderman Carmen DiCenso want the city to include a question included on an upcoming referendum asking voters to approve bonding to buy the six parcels the city doesn’t own in the redevelopment zone.
Sill estimated a figure of $4 million to $5 million for the question.
With the Eclipse deal done, that would give the city more control over the redevelopment, they said.
Click here to read more about the referendum plans.
DiCenso said that’s not the only way Derby should be taking a more active role.
He said the city should advertise the area as a transportation hub to developers, and a necessary commercial center to people who have moved into new residential developments nearby in Shelton.
“We have a very attractive spot to develop,” he said.
A Massachusetts-based developer evidently thinks so, and already has options to purchase two of the properties in the redevelopment zone.
Eclipse hadn’t bought one piece of property in the redevelopment zone, DiCenso said, and hadn’t been negotiating with property owners.
The city should be moving in that direction, he said, and should start negotiating with those property owners and their attorneys — one of which visited Aldermen March 31 and said much the same thing.
Article continues after video of Aldermen discussing downtown redevelopment at that meeting.
Sill pointed out that the city’s Redevelopment Agency met only twice last year, and should meet monthly.
DiCenso said that the Redevelopment Agency and Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley should have brought future tenants to Eclipse when that company had exclusive rights to make deals.
City, Development Agency Respond
O’Malley said it’s not that easy.
“Everybody thinks they can tell the developer what to do,” O’Malley said. “You can’t tell a developer how to develop or how to spend his money. You have to step away from that.”
She said she’d outline alternatives to the Redevelopment Agency about how Derby will move forward at a meeting scheduled for May 14.
Joe Bomba, the Redevelopment Agency’s chairman, said his group didn’t meet on a regular basis this past year because “there was nothing to meet about. We had a contract that (Eclipse) was following.”
The poor economy caused inaction at the site, he said, because “some of the major stores were afraid to move forward.”
He disagreed with the concept of the redevelopment agency trying to drum up interest among prospective tenants.
He’s also opposed to the idea of going to referendum to buy the properties in the redevelopment zone.
“I don’t think it’s a smart move now,” he said.
Staffieri doubted Monday whether the necessary appraisals and other paperwork could be completed in time for a referendum.
“For the city to go into the real estate market, to be buying properties, it’s very difficult,” he said. “You’d be jumping into a swamp.”
The city purchasing land involves “all sorts of issues,” O’Malley said, including liability of contaminated property, demolition of property and other funding issues.
“It’s a difficult time for Derby residents,” she said. “Economic development is a difficult sell. When you invest in economic development, could be 10 years before you see a return on investment.”
Bomba said city officials should let the Eclipse contract “run its course.”
“This isn’t a dead issue at this point,” he said. “I put a lot of time and effort into this. We’re just looking for the right thing for the City of Derby.”
