The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Developer hammers out $30M project with officials
In all, 238 apartments, a commercial building and possibly a pharmacy and coffee shop would be constructed, if approved
PORTLAND >> Town officials and developer Daniel E. Bertram have fashioned the outline of a new proposal for development of the Elmcrest property.
The proposal calls for a twophase mixed-use development of the long-dormant former hospital property to take place over eight years. It also includes a scaledback tax-abatement program.
The proposal, which has not yet been finalized, was crafted during a series of telephone conversations over the past three weeks between Bertram, the president of the BRT Corp. and First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield.
Those conversations, which have also involved Director of Finance Tom E. Robinson and Economic Development Coordinator Mary D. Dickerson, are continuing.
On Wednesday, Bransfield outlined the status of the discussions in a report to the Board of Selectmen and in a briefing for local reporters. Bertram’s initial proposal for the 14.7-acre site was scrapped in September when the Board of Selectmen voted 4-3 to deny him a seven-year 100-percent tax abatement program he said was key to winning financing for the project.
The revised proposal calls for construction of 238 studio, one-and two-bedroom apartments twinned with construction of a retail and commercial building, a hoped-for 3,075-square-foot coffee shop and, possibly, a pharmacy.
In phase one, 102 apartment units would be built, as would a portion of the retail/commercial property. In all, the project calls for “up to 98,400 square feet of retail/commercial or office space.” In phase two, the remaining retail/commercial property and a 136-unit apartment building would be built.
Bertram estimates the new project would be worth in excess of $30 million. Bransfield said during the discussions that Bertram provided “a ‘guesstimate’ that a full build-out” would yield taxes of as much as $800,00 a year to the town.
The property also contains three historic houses. Two of those, the Brainerd House and the Sage House, would be renovated by Bertram as part of the project. The third, the Hart-Jarvis house, which was the home of Samuel Colt’s wife, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, would be moved to a much more prominent location on the southwestern edge of property. It would be renovated and put to an as-yet-unspecified use by a private nonprofit group, Bransfield said during the briefing, which took place in her Town Hall office.
Previously, Bertram had said the town would be responsible for saving the Hart-Jarvis House. But under the revised proposal, the town would play no role in retaining, moving and renovating the house, Bransfield said.
In its new location, she said, the Hart-Jarvis house could serve as “a signature building” for the development. The proposal also calls for a phased tax abatement program, Bransfield said. In years one to four, the abatement would be 100 percent, she said. In year five, the abatement would drop to 95 percent. In year six, it would drop again, to 85 percent, and conclude in year seven with a 75-percent “deferral of assessment increase on improvements.”
Crucially, the land assessment for the project will not be fixed, Bransfield said. “Therefore, the taxes are anticipated to increase as determined by the assessor for the entire land property. As time goes on, the personal property taxes are not fixed and they would become part of the tax bill,” Bransfield said.
Fred Hassan, the owner of Elmcrest, currently pays $93,000 a year in taxes on the property.
Bransfield said she was stepping forward now with the information about the status of the ongoing discussions because “I think it’s important to try and keep our constituents aware of what’s happening. This (project) is of such importance to our town that I think our residents need to know what we are doing” to develop the property, she said.
Bransfield has also said she was troubled by what she said was “misinformation” that clouded much of the original discussion of the project. In the wake of the defeat of the initial proposal, Bransfield said she had heard from a number of residents who said they would welcome another chance to develop the site.
After that initial rejection, Bransfield had continued lobbying the selectmen to allow her to reengage with Bertram to discuss finding a way to develop what she described Wednesday as “an underutilized property which has great potential.”
Doing so would be a financial gain for the town but would also serve to signal Portland “is businessfriendly,” Bransfield said.
Selectman Frederick R. Knous, a former chairman of the Economic Development Commission, said the initial rejection had sent exactly the opposite message.
“A lot of work remains to be done,” Bransfield said. “I don’t pretend to know how the various boards and commission will vote” if, and when, a plan can be presented to them. But she said it was important for the town to be transparent about the continuing discussions.