(Left to right) Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O'Malley, Mayor David Cassetti and corporation counsel John Marini inside Ansonia Copper and Brass in 2023.
ANSONIA – The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) announced $4 million in grants last month for remediation of the Olson Drive property and assessment of the former Ansonia Copper & Brass complex.
Olson Drive
$3.8 million will go toward the removal of debris and contaminated soil on 31 – 165 Olson Drive, in preparation for the construction of a $15.5 million private multi-sports complex. According to Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley, about four to five feet of contaminated soil need to be removed and replaced before construction can begin. She says work will begin as soon as weather conditions allow.
The Primrose Companies, the property’s developer, is hoping to open the planned soccer field by November, with a 39,000-acre indoor soccer facility and 48,000-square foot all-sports training facility following next year.
John Guedes, the owner of The Primrose Companies, estimated that his company had invested between $17 and $18 million in the property (the grant announced in December 2023 put that number at $16.8 million).
Guedes said that, when his company purchased the site, they weren’t fully aware of its history or environmental conditions.
Beginning in 1962, the Olson Drive site was home to a federally owned apartment complex. The outdated buildings started coming down during Mayor James Della Volpe’s administration and continued under Mayor David Cassetti’s administration.
The Cassetti administration purchased the land from the Ansonia Housing Authority and sold it to Guedes for $510,000 in August 2022, a deal which included tax breaks over the next seventeen years.
The sports complex was originally supposed to open last year, but an environmental assessment revealed that the soil had been contaminated by the former subsidized housing and industrial waste from across the river.
In addition, the assessment revealed that the planned foundations for the two sports buildings won’t work after the soil is replaced – they had to be redesigned.
“We’re looking to expedite whatever needs to be done to get these facilities up and running,” Guedes told the Valley Indy. “We should have had them up and running by now, but once we hit these issues, it’s been a slow process.”
Ansonia Copper & Brass
The remaining $200,000 of the DECD grant will go toward assessment on the Ansonia Copper & Brass complex located at 75 Liberty St. and 7 Riverside Drive. The assessment will include underground and soil testing, as well as a determination of the costs of demolishing the dilapidated buildings on the site.
The city is in the process of foreclosing on the property for back taxes.
“Assessment can start right away, whether we take title to the property or we don’t,” O’Malley said.
Demolition and remediation may open the site, which has not been used since its closing in 2013, to new development, a longstanding priority of the Cassetti administration.
