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The final remaining building on the former SHW Casting Co. on 35 N. Main St. could come down this year.
ANSONIA – The City of Ansonia is looking for a firm to demolish the last remaining foundry building at the former SHW Casting Co. site on 35 N. Main St.
The city issued a ‘request for proposals’ (or RFP for short) on Jan. 20. The RFP seeks a contractor to remove hazardous materials and demolish the building, identified in the RFP as ‘Building 12.’
The demolition is funded by a $6.7 million grant awarded to the city, made up of both state and federal funds, for remediation and demolition work on the site.
Economic development director Sheila O’Malley declined to provide a cost estimate, since the RFP is still seeking bidders. The most recent demolition – of Building 11, in 2022 – cost about $1.5 million in total, she said.
The grant funds will also be used for construction of access roads to the property and preparation of site pads.
City officials conducted a site visit on Jan. 23, which they said around ten interested bidders attended. The deadline for bids is Feb. 9.
The now-blighted, 3.58-acre property on 35 N. Main St. was owned by the SHW Casting Co. until 2000, when it was sold for $60,000 to Pandel Properties LLC. In 2020, the City of Ansonia foreclosed on the dilapidated property and took control of it.
Since then, environmental assessments have revealed high levels of asbestos and heavy metal contamination throughout the site. There were also at least two roof collapses onsite, in 2017 and 2022.
Fuel Cells To Take Place Of Blighted Property
After demolition, the city has a deal with Bloom Energy and Johnson Controls to construct 3.96 megawatts’ worth of fuel cells on the property. The city continues to look for other tenants for the rest of the site, O’Malley said.
Funding for the fuel cell deal is complicated.
The city is expected to pay $37 million to Johnson Controls over the next 20 years to pay for the fuel cells’ construction. After that, the city will own the fuel cells as part of the lease-purchase agreement.
However, city officials say the deal will have no impact on Ansonia’s bottom line.
Budget director Kurt Miller has said that, since the city is leasing the fuel cells, it will see extra revenue from the power they generate. Payments to Johnson Controls will be made using that revenue, he said, and he expects the city to generate an extra $1.5 million in annual revenue even after accounting for those payments.
S&P Global Ratings, a bond rating agency, cited the deal as a factor in their decision to downgrade Ansonia’s debt outlook in December. They said that, if the deal brings in lower-than-expected revenues for the city, it could lead to a downgrade of the city’s overall bond rating score. That, in turn, would lead to increased interest rates for loans the city takes out.
Ansonia’s current bond rating is AA‑, which indicates a “very strong financial capacity to meet financial commitments,” according to S&P’s website.
O’Malley said she expects the demolition to be done, and for fuel cell construction to start, by the end of 2025.