
An illustration showing what the facility might look like.
SEYMOUR — A proposal to build a $13 million storage facility at the former Housatonic Wire Co. site on River Street was unanimously approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission on June 9.
The property owner, Alex Budzinski, said now that the project has been approved by both the town’s land-use boards, he’ll begin ramping up efforts to remediate contaminated soil on the site.
“We’ll be doing extensive soil tests in the next week or two,” Budzinski said. “Once the results come back, we’ll know where the soil is that needs to be removed. I’m hoping that will be happening in late July.”
Budzinski said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will be keeping an eye on the soil removal. He said once the bad soil is identified, it gets shipped to a facility in Plainville called Clean Earth, where it gets documented and burned.
Budzinski had said the buyer, Willow Partners Redevelopment, based in Florida, wants the soil cleaned up before construction commences. Budzinski said he is working with DEEP under its ‘Voluntary Remediation Program’ to monitor clean-up efforts, and to ensure the property is cleaned according to state standards.
He said he and his late father inherited the contaminated soil when they bought the property at 109 River St. in 1977. However, soil tests revealed the level of contamination wasn’t serious enough to require a ‘mandatory’ clean-up, according to Budzinski.
Budzinski said the contaminants date back to World War II.
Local engineer Donald Smith, Jr., representing the nearby Trinity Cemetery, which abuts the River Street property on a high slope behind it, had expressed concerns about a lack of detail about the future retaining walls.
“I want to make sure the cemetery property doesn’t end up down below in the storage parking lot,” Smith had said.
The commission, in its decision to approve, said “if staff determines that the layout, construction, materials or aesthetics (of the retaining walls) are significantly altered from what has been presented to the commission, a modification approval by the commission shall be necessary.”
The project calls for construction of a four-story, 100,000-square-foot building on just under two acres of the 4.5‑acre site. Each of the four floors would contain individual self-storage units for people to store their things.
Attorney Mark Ziogas, representing the Florida developer, had said storage facilities are not high traffic generators, and will likely see four to five car trips to the facility per day. He also said the facility would not put an increased burden on town or schools services.
Ziogas estimated the facility would generate upwards of $315,000 a year in taxes.
Budzinski said after trying to market the site for about 14 years with no luck, except for some interest from Wendy’s that never materialized, he’s excited to bring “a 21st century building” to town.
The site has been vacant since 2010 when a fire consumed most of the historic building.
In its heyday, Housatonic Wire produced steel wire for paperclips and notebook bindings from the late 1970s until it closed in 2008.