A developer presented three conceptual plans to the Derby Redevelopment Agency Tuesday, but officials said the public can’t see them yet.
After a 65-minute executive session in City Hall, Redevelopment Agency Chairman Joe Bomba said agency members asked Eclipse Development of Irvine, Calif. to make changes to its development plans and come back with a single plan for the agency to review.
Presumably, once that’s done, the public will see the plan.
Executive sessions are meetings closed to the public. They are allowed in certain cases under state law, such as when discussing legal strategy or real estate deals.
Joe Coppola, Derby’s corporation counsel, said part of the reason the agency met in executive session with Paul Bernard, the vice-president of Eclipse Development Group,was because Bernard was talking about potential tenants to fill the redevelopment zone.
Bomba indicated officials wanted to make sure that any “pictures” floating in the community of the plans were actually of a plan endorsed by his agency.
Bernard’s company signed an agreement with Derby to research whether it could develop 22 acres in the city’s downtown redevelopment zone, an area that stretches on the south side of Main Street along the Housatonic River.
The agreement was to last 120 days and expire Friday, Aug. 13. However, the Redevelopment Agency Tuesday voted to continue negotiations with Eclipse. The language of the motion voted upon by members of the Redevelopment Agency was not anymore specific than that.
While the public can’t see the latest Derby redevelopment plans, the agency allowed an open-ended question and answer session during Tuesday’s meeting.
Click the video to see Bernard’s statement to the audience.
Bernard also provided some morsels of new information about the company’s redevelopment project, including:
- All three plans presented to the Redevelopment Agency had a mix of retail, “entertainment” and a restaurant.
- As of now, the plan doesn’t include the former Lifetouch property. Eclipse and Lifetouch could not work out a deal.
- The project will not include residential units, because of the economy’s low demand for such construction.
- It will probably not include office space.
- It will not include a parking garage because it is too expensive.
- The actual development area is about 17 to 18 acres
Bernard also said the company is still very much interested in Derby’s redevelopment zone. He’ll go back to California, tweak the plan and return to the Redevelopment Agency at a later date.
