New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Blueprint envisions plant’s return to manufacturing past
ANSONIA — With some luck, $18 million and buy-in from new industries, the now-defunct Ansonia Copper and Brass site could spark a renaissance for the entire Valley.
That’s the optimistic view that local officials have in their sights, helped out by a new 200page plan that predicts the 116-acre complex could become a manufacturing center again with thousands of jobs and the need for the amenities those workers would desire.
“This plan is the road map for revitalizing the area. [It] is the largest and one of the greatest assets Ansonia has.”
Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s economic development director
“This plan is the road map for revitalizing the area,” said Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s economic development director. The property “is the largest and one of the greatest assets Ansonia has.”
Years ago, Ansonia Copper and Brass, on a site that stretched from the Woodlot through Riverside Drive up to North Main and Liberty Street, was bustling with thousands of workers who produced much of the brass, copper and metal alloys used in the U.S.
But when the costs of foreign steel, copper, iron and brass plummeted, the company was sold. Production was scaled down, and employees were let go until the last furnaces were turned off in 2013.
The Meriden-based architectural and engineering firm DeCarlo and Doll and multi-national engineering firm AECOM created the North End Economic Recovery Municipal Development Plan which fills a three-ring binder and was paid for with a $200,000 Brownfield Area-Wide Revitalization Planning grant.
If the site can be developed as presented, the plan estimates that at least 1,800 full and part-time permanent positions involving both light and heavy industry, office and clerical jobs would be created. Another 225 full and parttime construction-related jobs would be needed during construction.
“The available jobs match nicely with the skills of the area’s unemployed,” the plan states.
The document’s details are meticulous and its recommendations include finding state and federal funding, grants, tax incentives and abatements — and a public-private partnership.
“It would be beneficial if some of the development activities are done in partnership with a university, hospital or large-tech based company to enhance research and development,” the authors wrote.
Inside the plan is a comprehensive history of the city, its labor force and available housing. It provides maps, graphs and a conceptual site model for the complex. It details the hazardous waste remediation, pinpoints where construction can take place and suggests necessary improvements.
“We’ve already had an interested manufacturer come in,” O’Malley said. “They took a look at the plan and described it as ‘phenomenal.’ They said it tells them exactly where utilities are, where buildings can and can’t be constructed and what the costs are.”
Mayor David Cassetti said he believes the site’s rebirth could be accomplished starting with $18 million. U.S Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep.
Rosa DeLauro have toured the site and pledged their support, Cassetti said.
“We will be directing all our resources, time and energy into accomplishing a rebuild of this property,” Cassetti said. “That will not only benefit Ansonia but the surrounding Valley communities.”
Help could come with the creation of a revitalization and redevelopment partnership with Derby and Seymour dubbed RADAR for “Revitalization And Redevelopment of Area-wide Resources.”
“It’s about prioritizing all our needs and addressing them under the umbrella of a redevelopment agency,” said Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini, who is drafting the proposal. “Such an agency will help with a more defined focus and direct attention on resources to the locations that matter the most for continuing future growth in the Valley.”
“The larger the pool of communities, the more opportunity for us and the Valley as a whole,” O’Malley added. “The agency will give us flexibility to move on various parcels and greater capacity to secure funding.”
Ansonia is in the process of completing a purchase and sale agreement that would give it ownership of the Ansonia Copper and Brass complex — which owes more than $200,000 in back taxes and WPCA fees.
Once that happens and funding flows in, the Development Plan predicts “the site can become a birthplace and home for emerging new industries and companies.”
In need of a major fix-up
The site as it stands today is not immediately usable: acre after acre of rusting hulks, broken asphalt and grassless dirt.
Officials predict it will take $8 million to $10 million to demolish at least six of the seven remaining Copper and Brass buildings. One, the 175,000 square foot extrusion center built in 1895 and last renovated in 1944, could be preserved.
“It’s a steel beam structure that is still fundamentally sound and could be renovated,” said O’Malley. She said she believes renovation money for the remaining building may be available through a Technical Assistance Grant.
The plan states that “an incubator type facility would be an important component of the development and may be appropriate” for the renovated building.
In July 2020, the state bonded $500,000 to begin the demolition of the former SHW Casting Co. located on the North Main Street end of the complex.
“Demolition would give us the blank canvas that developers can paint on,” said Cassetti.
Another necessary improvement is building a road from Riverside Drive through the tree- and brush-filled Woodlot and onto Wakelee Avenue near its intersection with Route 8 leading to Seymour.
“That construction will probably cost around $2 million,” O’Malley said.
The proposed road would require the acquisition of three single family homes at 544, 546 and 548 Wakelee Avenue as well as a right of way from Burns Construction and the use of city-owned property.
“That road is essential to any project,” Cassetti said. “It will take trucks off residential streets and lead them directly into the complex.”
Also needed would be $1 million to renovate the single lane bridge inside the complex crossing the Naugatuck River and providing an entrance and exit to and from the former Copper and Brass buildings.
Finally, the plan recommends that the current Ansonia Riverwalk be extended to connect to the Seymour Greenway. This would create an almost continuous walking route from downtown Shelton through Derby across Division Street to Ansonia and finally lead to Seymour. Derby’s Riverwalk ranks as one of the most used in the state.
As for the industrial use, the plan suggests both sides of the site which are bisected by the Naugatuck River “provide space for new, small and growing industries as well as advanced and conventional manufacturing with space for research and development technology-based services” as well as businesses that support those areas.
The former Ansonia Copper and Brass complex, which is on the east section of the site, can “accommodate a wide range of emerging industries,” the plan says. “These industries will be primarily technology based and supportive of the growth patterns of the Northeast.”
A section of MetroNorth’s Waterbury line runs through the site routing passengers to Waterbury and Bridgeport. It also sends occasional freight trains through it.
The western side, which once housed Teledyne Manufacturing and now includes a number of small businesses, “should be zoned general industry to facilitate the development of an industrial park, permitting manufacturing, warehousing, research/ development, distribution, offices and supporting uses,” the plan states.
“It’s the blueprint for the Valley’s future,” Cassetti said.