Jasmine Wright
Pulaski Highway, in between Fitzpatrick Road and Farrel Drive.
ANSONIA – The City of Ansonia is once again setting its sights on vacant land 64 – 78 Pulaski Highway as the possible construction site for a new middle school.
On Tuesday (Sept. 10), the Ansonia Board of Aldermen voted to authorize two independent appraisals of the 23-acre plot of land, which sits about 0.3 miles from Ansonia High School.
The city had previously entered negotiations to purchase the property in 2022 from its current owner, New York City-based firm Fortitude Capital. However, those negotiations stalled because of a disagreement in the value of the land, according to Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini.
This image from Google Maps shows the area between Pulaski Highway and Coe Lane that Ansonia is considering for a new middle school.
“Our appraisal, which was sort of a short-form appraisal, came in at about a million, maybe under a million dollars. Their appraisal came in substantially higher, at over three million,” Marini said.
Now, Marini said, the city hopes to resolve the disagreement through independent appraisals and talk again about buying the land.
Fortitude Capital purchased the land from Peter and Vera Overchuk in July 2022 for $1.15 million, according to city land records. The city’s capital spending plan, passed last month, budgets $1.5 million for the land purchase.
The Middle School Project
Board of education officials have said for years that the city needs to build a new middle school.
Ansonia Middle School, on Howard Avenue, is more than 85 years old and upgrades to the school would cost about as much as it would to just build a new school, Superintendent Joseph DiBacco said in 2022. The current building has extensive code compliance issues and lacks usable outdoor space, according to previous long-range facilities studies.
Construction of new school buildings in Connecticut is reimbursable – up to a certain percentage – from the state. The amount varies by district – normally, the state will reimburse between 20 and 80 percent of the money a city spends, according to the Department of Administrative Services.
However, in May, the state legislature passed a bill that grants Ansonia an 87 percent reimbursement rate for the new middle school, as long as the city submits an application by Oct. 1.
State Rep. Kara Rochelle recently said she’ll work to extend that Oct. 1 deadline if needed.
Last month, the Aldermen approved a capital spending plan that budgets $101,500,000 – before reimbursement – for the purchase of land and construction of the new middle school. After reimbursement, that’s a cost of about $13,195,000 for the city.
Marini said that the city planned to include the findings from the new appraisals in their reimbursement application. He said the city does not yet have a timeline for when it hopes to complete a sale.
Voicemails were left for DiBacco and board of education president Rich Bshara. Neither voicemail was returned on Sept. 11.
Background
Fortitude Capital is a real estate firm based in New York City. It bought the parcel in July 2022 from Peter and Vera Overchuk for $1.15 million.
Fortitude Capital is owned by Margaret Streicker, a Milford businesswoman who ran for U.S. Congress as the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro in 2020.
The Valley Indy emailed Streicker questions in writing to ask if Fortitude had other options for the land on Pulaski Highway. Those questions were not returned by deadline.
Proposals to develop the open land have fallen flat over the years.
In 2011, a Branford developer proposed the idea of building 36 homes there. However, that proposal drew local opposition.
Marini – a Seventh Ward Alderman at the time – wanted the city to seize the land through eminent domain. The housing plan didn’t move forward.
In 2020, a Massachusetts company proposed using the land to build an assisted living facility. A petition to keep them out garnered 213 signatures in the following months. The company withdrew their application by July, according to city records.
