ANSONIA-DERBY — State officials announced that money is being allocated to two economic redevelopment projects in Ansonia and Derby.
Ansonia is getting $200,000 to go toward the Ansonia Opera House, a performing arts venue at 100 Main Street that closed in 1971. Prior to that, it was used for everything from roller skating to high school graduations.
Mayor David Cassetti’s administration created the Ansonia Opera House Committee to figure out how to restore and repurpose the building.
The committee is a public-private partnership between the City of Ansonia and the Kendzierski family, who has owned the opera house since purchasing it in 1983.
Walt Kendzierski, who serves as CEO of the committee, signed a 30-year-lease with the city as a tenant in early 2022.
The $200,000 grant will be used for inspections and structural assessments that will give an idea about how much it will cost to fix the place.
At the start of 2024 the Cassetti administration announced the opera house received a $60,000 grant from the State Historic Preservation Office.
According to a press release, the $200,000 grant announced by Gov. Ned Lamont’s office on Dec. 4 is coming from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program.
The opera house was one of 21 projects receiving money across the state.
In Derby, the Trolley Pointe development under construction on Main Street is receiving a $2.625 million loan from Build For CT, a program of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, according to a press release. Trolley Pointe is a 105-unit apartment building at the site of the former Lifetouch property downtown.
A press release from the finance authority and the Connecticut Department of Housing states that 21 of the 105 units fall under the state’s affordable designation — meaning households that earn between 60 to 80 percent of the area’s median income.
The affordable units are new information. The project had been described as market rate when it was reviewed and approved by the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission.
This is the second new development in Derby to include affordable units without telling the public during the local site plan review. The new apartments recently built on Minerva Street in Derby were also represented as market rate, even though nine of the 90 units fall under the affordable designation.
