Norwich agency considers buying Occum tract for 2nd business park
Rural property once included former Tarryk and DoLittle farms
Norwich — The Norwich Community Development Corp. is considering purchasing a more than 400-acre site in Occum where a luxury golf and condominium resort had once been proposed, to develop the city’s second business park.
The site includes the former Tarryk and DoLittle farms on Canterbury Turnpike and Lawler Lane that run along Interstate 395, and several properties off Route 97. It is considered the largest undeveloped tract in Norwich.
Two New York developers had acquired the land for the proposed luxury golf course and condominium project, owned by Byron Brook Country Club LLC. Additional land was acquired by developers Joseph Manzi and Robert Arnone under the ownership name M&A Holding for proposed commercial development off Route 97.
The NCDC Board of Directors on Sept. 24 voted to authorize signing a purchase and sale agreement with Byron Brook Country Club LLC for an undisclosed amount of the property. The board authorized two one-year options, the first expiring in December 2021 and the second in December 2022 to allow time for the city to investigate whether creating a second business park there is feasible, NCDC Attorney Mark Block said Thursday.
The purchase and sale agreement could be signed by early next week,
Block said. The purchase price and the cost of the options was not disclosed.
“We are in the process of determining whether this property is fully developable, as we think it might be,” Block said. “If it is, we would exercise the agreement to purchase. If not, it will not be purchased. We believe it is an opportunity we need to take advantage of, because the city does not have another large tract of land similar to the Norwich business park.”
The country club project was scaled back and then withdrawn in the summer of 2010, with the developers citing the Great Recession that started in 2008 as the reason. The property was put on the market for $13.75 million in 2011.
In 2018, a Portland, Oregon firm secured an option to explore a possible solar array project on 271 acres of former farmland and woodland on the property, but that did not come to fruition.
The NCDC board, the Board of Public Utilities Commissioners and the City Council have discussed the issue in executive session at times since July of 2019, when NPU agreed to spend up to $ 250,000 to investigate the feasibility of extending utility services to an undisclosed area not fully served in the city.
On Jan. 28, the utilities commissioners added $250,000 to the investigation for a total of $500,000, with plans to update the City Council on the status of the project in the fall.
NPU spokesman Chris Riley said NPU made economic development the utility’s top priority in its strategic plan. He said NPU’s $ 500,000 investment is helping NCDC: “evaluate a potential opportunity that would create new jobs and tax revenues for the City as well as generate new revenues for NPU,” Riley said.
The City Council on Monday went into executive session to discuss “the acquisition of real estate or interests in real estate when adversely impact the price of the same; to discuss preliminary drafts of proposals concerning the development and use of the property; to discuss engineering or feasibility estimates and evaluations, including perspective public supply.”
Along with city leaders, NPU General Manager Chris LaRose, utilities commission chairman Robert Staley — both also NCDC board members —and NCDC attorney Block attended Monday’s executive session.
Mayor Peter Nystrom said Thursday the feasibility study “speaks to the city pursuing a possible development.” He said he frequently gets calls from prospective developers asking about land in the city available for development, of which there is very little, Nystrom said.
“In order to do that, you don’t just jump in,” Nystrom said. “You have to do the review, determine any costs. NPU decided to take a proactive role in that.”