Messore leaving city post

WEST HAVEN — The city’s commissioner of planning and development is leaving that position to focus on his own real estate career.

Mayor Nancy R. Rossi notified city department heads in an email that Fred A. Messore, commissioner of planning and development, had decided to resign from the position.

“Fred has been with the City for the last three years and has been a valuable asset for the West Haven team,” Rossi said in the email.

“Fred brought a wealth of knowledge and an energetic personality to West Haven City Hall which will be sorely missed,” Rossi said in the

email. “His work ethic was especially appreciated as we have continued to navigate offering city services during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

She said she wishes Messore “well as he continues his career elsewhere.”

The development commissioner position is budgeted at $99,499 for fiscal year 2020, according to Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan.

The commissioner manages the Department of Planning and Development, which includes Planning & Zoning, the Building Department, the Grants-in-Aid Department and the Community Development Administration.

Messore, whose resignation becomes effective on Dec. 31, said he is going to focus on his real estate career as vice president of Colonial Properties. He said when he began his job with the city that he would continue his role with the Orange-based company.

“It’s been an honor to perform this public service for the city that I love,” he said, noting a lot of credit goes to the men and women he has managed in the city’s building and zoning departments for their “professionalism and dedication,” particularly during the worldwide pandemic.

Rossi encouraged those who received the email to wish Messore luck in his “future endeavors.”

In West Haven Messore has been involved with the The Haven, a planned high-end outlet mall that has not come to fruition, the Yale New Haven Health regional distribution center off Route 34 near the Orange town line, among others.

“Fred Messore knows how to close the deal,” Rossi said in a release when he was hired by the city, making a reference to Messore’s job in real estate.

Messore was previously economic development director in Seymour. He left that job in late 2017 to become West Haven’s commissioner of planning and development. On the job in Seymour since 2011, Messore had been involved in several key projects including the first phase of Seymour’s greenway trail in the heart of downtown.

But Messore also was a 1987 graduate of Notre Dame High School who grew up in West Haven and attended Southern Connecticut State University. He served as executive director of the West Haven Economic Development Corp. from 2000 to 2006, and remained involved in West Haven matters in the years since — including in his real estate job. Messore has been with Colonial Properties since 2008.

Fred A. Messore