Politics & Government

Broad Street Redevelopment: Now What?

Now that the town will soon acquire the Broad Street Parkade, what happens next?

Now that the Board of Directors have voted to acquire the property for $1.85 million, the question many residents are left wondering is what’s the next step in the town’s long term plan to redevelop the Broad Street area?

Short answer: there’s many more steps.

Somewhat longer and more complicated answer: read the rest of this article.

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The first thing town officials have said they intend to do now is close on the 19-acre parkade property itself, which is expected to occur by the end of the month. From there, bids will be solicited for a contractor to demolish the dilapidated strip mall on the property, permits acquired, and then the demolition will begin. Town officials have said they expect the actual demolition phase to commence by early summer. However, since the building was found to contain asbestos and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, another classified toxin, no one knows yet how long the demolition could take.

From there, the Broad Street Parkade property would essentially be a large, empty asphalt lot. The town would likely remove the asphalt to further reduce the amount of work and money a potential developer would have to put into the property in an effort to make it more desirable.

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While this is going on, efforts to rezone the area to allow for residential and mixed-use development will likely also kick into gear, adding further value to the parkade land the town will soon acquire.

The next major hurdle the town could soon face in regards to the redevelopment of the Broad Street area could come from a series of three conjoined parcels almost directly across the street from the parkade. Known as the Nichols properties, the lots at 295, 299, and 303 Broad St. once housed automotive businesses, but the properties have long since been vacant and the town is in the process of foreclosing on the parcels for back taxes.

According to Timothy O’Neil, administrative staff attorney and assistant town attorney, the Nichols family have not paid taxes on the properties since August of 2008 and currently owe about $190,000 in back taxes. O’Neil said the family might just be content to let the town take ownership of the properties through foreclosure, as the land is believed to contain significant environmental hazards.

“The worry is that there is some environmental concerns on the properties that might not make the properties worth much more, or any more, than the amount of taxes owed,” O’Neil said.

If the town were to acquire the Nichols properties via foreclosure, it would mean another piece of land it owned in the Broad Street area that it could use toward redevelopment plans or to attract a potential developer, but it remains to be seen how much it would cost the town to remediate the Nichols properties to make them enticing for potential developer.

Voters approved a referendum in November of 2009 that gave the town the authority to spend up to $8 million on revitalization efforts in the area, including the ability to acquire property as part of the redevelopment plans. The purchase and demolition of the parkade is expected to chew up about $4 million of that sum, and it is conceivable that the demolition and remediation of the Nichols properties could equal, if not surpass, the estimated $1.9 to $2.3 million for demolition of the parkade, leaving the town with about $2 million for the remainder of its redevelopment efforts.

The Manchester Redevelopment Agency’s recommended plan for revitalization of the Broad Street area includes the widening and beautification of Broad Street, a greenway connecting Bigelow Brook to Center Springs Memorial Park, and the expansion of the park itself to an entrance on Broad Street, any of which could likely cost about $2 million alone.

The General Assembly approved two separate $2 million grant-in-aid bond authorizations earmarked for the Broad Street streetscape in 2007, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell never placed either on the agenda of the state Bond Commission.

State Sen. Steve Cassano, D-Manchester, said he intends to ask newly elected Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to include at least one authorization on the agenda of the commission’s March meeting, but with the state facing a projected $3.3 billion deficit next year it remains to be seen how keen Malloy will be toward bond projects in the coming year.

Michael Farina, a member of the redevelopment agency, said that he and several other agency members are planning a trip to Washington in late March in an effort to solicit federal aid to help advance the Broad Street redevelopment efforts. Farnina said agency members would pay for the trip out of their own pocket.

“We look forward to aggressively working with our congregational delegation and the governor of the state of Connecticut to receive additional funding for Broad Street,” Farina said. “We’ll go down to Washington, we’ll meet with our congregational delegation on our own dime, and do everything we can to bring funds back to our town.”

Timothy Devanney, chairman of the redevelopment agency, said that every step in the Broad Street redevelopment efforts only increases the value of the area, making it more attractive to potential developers and hopefully making the agency’s efforts that much easier.

“Each time we move forward, the value of the land increases,” Devanney said.

The Manchester Redevelopment Agency is next scheduled to meet at 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning to discuss its plans for the Broad Street area.


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