New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Remainder of Branford’s Bittersweet Farm going up for sale
BRANFORD — A pair of local developers who own more than 120 acres of the former Bittersweet Farm are stepping up efforts to sell the property.
The Belfonti Cos. and A. Secondino & Son have signed an exclusive listing agreement with Cushman & Wakefield of Connecticut. The two partners originally purchased part of the property from the CuraGen Corp., a biopharmaceutical company, in 2005 and the remaining piece from a Pakistani investment group a few years later.
Michael Belfonti, a principal in the Hamden-based development company, said in a statement that it is expected the site will be sold for one of the following purposes: developing a warehouse or distribution facility, industrial/manufacturing facilities, or biotech/ pharmaceutical offices and laboratories.
“Our site is just 10 minutes
from Yale’s downtown New Haven campus, which is experiencing tremendous growth in the biotech and pharmaceutical fields,” Belfonti said. “Bittersweet is one of the last large parcels of land on I-95 which can support such growth.”
Alfred Secondino, president of the Branford-based development firm, said in a statement that “our partnership believes that now is the optimum time to sell, especially given the current high demand for last mile distribution centers and high-bay warehouses.”
New Haven County communities such as North Haven and Wallingford have seen tremendous growth in terms of new and refurbished warehouse space because of the surge in online retailing.
Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove said Wednesday he could not comment on the property being put up for sale.
The Bittersweet property is zoned for industrial use and has direct access to Interstate 95 in both directions. Secondino said the property is the only industrial-zoned property located along I-95 between Boston and New York City.
Ginny Kozlowski, chief executive officer of REX Development/Economic Development Corp. of New Haven, said Branford has a decades-long track record of playing host to biotech companies, including Curagen, and that existing biotech lab and office space in town “is completely leased.”
“From a town perspective, they should work with potential purchasers toward developing the property with an eye toward its highest and best use, not only for the town but for the region, as well,” she said.
Branford has been one of
the communities that has benefited from the New Haven area’s emergence as a biotech hub over the past three decades because of its proximity to the Elm City and the fact the town has played host to biotech companies for much of that time.
But adequate lab space for biotech startups and mature companies long has been a challenge that the New Haven area never completely has been able to address.
“One of the challenges in getting new biotech space is the cost that is involved in developing it,” Kozlowski said. “Another is proximity
to where the research happens, which is why 101 College Street (in New Haven) is getting built.”
The building she referred to is a $100 million biotech research building being developed by Carter Winstanley, located across College Street from an Alexion Pharmaceuticals research facility and is near Yale New Haven Hospital.
“As (biotech) companies grow, they are going to need space to graduate into and, right now, it’s at a premium,” Kozlowski said.
A portion of the Bittersweet property, once a sprawling 136-acre chicken farm, already has been developed into an Army Reserve training facility that opened in 2018.
During the late 1980s, the property was a mecca for artists and was known as the Branford Crafts Village at Bittersweet Farm. And Secondino said Thursday before he and his partner acquired the land that part of it was once owned by the Ashford-based Hole In The Wall Gang Camp, which the late actor Paul Newman founded to help seriously ill children and their family members enjoy outdoor activities.