Farrel Corp. Redevelopment: Stalled Or Stable?

Ansonia’s mayor-elect says he’s confident plans to redevelop two industrial buildings downtown will move forward even though a member of his inner circle said last week that the project had stalled.

Meanwhile, a real estate agent involved in the redevelopment said Thursday that an architect will outline a portion of the project for the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission next week. (Update Nov. 25 4:15 p.m.: The PZC meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Nov. 25 has been canceled.)

Mayor-elect David Cassetti said this week he and members of his transition team met Monday with Moustapha Diakhate, the owner of the former Farrel Corp. properties along Main Street, and were reassured that Diakhate wants to see the project through.

“They seemed optimistic,” Cassetti said of Diakhate and his real estate agent, Vance Taylor. ​“It would be a huge boon not only to our downtown area but to our entire city.”

Background

Diakhate bought the properties in January through Hamden-based Washington Management, LLC. for $1.9 million.

The company purchased a total of about 10 acres of Farrel Corp. properties straddling both sides of the northern end of Main Street.

Click here for a previous story about the sale.

The company will concentrate its redevelopment work on the properties on East Main Street, which total just over 3 acres and about 150,000 square feet, Taylor, of Torrington-based Commercial Real Estate Group, has said. 

The property is to bw developed into a mix of retail and residential.

Stalled?

The week after the election, Alderman John Marini, who also chairs the Republican Town Committee and orchestrated this month’s GOP sweep in Ansonia, wrote a guest columnin the Valley Indystressing a number of ​“daunting challenges” facing the city.

He wrote that at a meeting between Cassetti’s transition team and Della Volpe, ​“We learned for the first time that private developer Washington Management’s plan to redevelop two downtown properties formerly owned by Farrel Corporation has stalled.”

Marini also wrote that Farrel Corp. itself might leave the city when its lease expires in 2015.

Taylor left a message with the Valley Indy Saturday (Nov. 16) to dispute Marini’s assertion and said the project would be moving forward.

Marini on Wednesday stood by his characterization of last week’s meeting.

“We met with the mayor and corporation counsel. We were told that the project had been stalled,” Marini said. ​“Then we heard a different story from the developers, which means we have some homework to do.”

The homework, he said, relates to what the city might have to do to get the deal to work — e.g. a tax break, or even direct investment in the project.

“We’re obviously picking this up midstream and were not privy to all of the conversations that were going on,” Marini said. ​“We hope that this project has life in it.”

Not Stalled?

Taylor and Diakhate met on Monday with Cassetti, incoming Republican Alderman Lorie Vaccaro, and Peter Kelly, the city’s economic development director, for about two hours.

Cassetti said Wednesday he sought — and received — assurances from Diakhate regarding the project.

“I asked him if he was serious about it and he said he was very serious about it,” Cassetti said. ​“They’re waiting for financing.” 

Outgoing Mayor James Della Volpe said Thursday he doesn’t think the plan is necessarily stalled — just taking awhile.

“There’s been movement all along,” Della Volpe said. ​“The one thing you learn in this position is you have to have patience. Things just don’t happen because you want them to happen.”

Peter Kelly, the city’s director of economic development, agreed.

“It still sounds like a viable initiative, but it takes time,” Kelly said.

Kelly said the developer is in the process of lining up financing for the project, and that the city has offered to help, but that discussions haven’t yet gotten specific.

He noted the large scope of the development and pointed out that rehabilitating the old factory buildings to be usable for mixed-use development will cost millions alone — to say nothing of any other construction work.

“You don’t just write a check for something like that,” he said. ​“It takes awhile to assemble the financing and capital to move the project forward.”

Will We Ever Find Out Exactly What They Want To Build There?

There has not yet been a public presentation of Washington Management’s specific plans for the properties.

Officials say, in vague terms, that the plans call for a mixture of multi-family residential units and office space in the buildings, with ground floor retail.

A ​“charrette” to introduce the proposal had been envisioned for October, but never happened.

Taylor said he thinks a public presentation on the project will happen at some point in January.

Kelly concurred Thursday, adding that residents who attend the forum — if and when it ever happens — will be asked to contribute any ideas they have to make the plans better.

“It’s dialogical. It’s not just a presentation,” Kelly said. ​“It’s iterative. Nothing’s etched in stone.”

Taylor said Thursday that an architect involved in the project would be showing some of the plans for the redevelopment to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission Monday (Nov. 25) as part of an ​“informal discussion” to discuss any requirements, regulations, or input PZC members have.

He also said the redevelopment will happen.

“Behind the scenes a lot of work is done, but you don’t necessarily see that on the surface,” Taylor said. ​“From our point of view, we’re still moving ahead.”

Cassetti said he’d like to see a preference for office and retail space — as opposed to residential units — as the project goes forward, but said the nearby Metro-North train station could make residential development there more feasible.

That is, if the terrible train service on the Waterbury branch line ever gets better.

Cassetti said lobbying Metro-North for more train service will be one of many priorities once he takes office Dec. 2.

“It’s not the main (priority) just yet,” Cassetti said. ​“If we are going to get something like what Moustapha and Vance are talking about, we’d talk with Metro-North to see if we could get better train service and remodel that train station.”

More About The Property

The picture below shows the properties envisioned for the first step of the redevelopment —- Taylor said initial efforts will focus on the two white buildings to the south of the parking lot in the middle of the property, as well as the brick building to the north of the parking lot (also pictured above).

The northernmost building outlined in red in the picture, next to the Eagle Hose Hook & Ladder Co. headquarters, is envisioned as possible office space to be revamped once the mixed-used redevelopment of the other properties gets underway, Taylor said.