Blumenthal tours former brownfield site

MIDDLETOWN >> U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Middletown Mayor Dan Drew toured the Robert M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park (formerly the Remington Rand building) on Johnson Street on Wednesday to talk about President Donald Trump’s plan to cut the federal brownfields program.

The program has helped to create more than 100,000 jobs since its inception in 1995, according to a news release from Blumenthal’s office.

“Trump’s budget proposal would cut the program by 30 percent, from $48 million to $33 million,” the release states.

Last October, Middletown’s Common Council renamed the former Remington Rand building the Robert M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park.

It was built over a century ago as a bicycle factory and over the years has housed automobile manufacturing, typewriter production, a missile-parts defense contractor and other businesses, and was an active part of Middletown’s economic base. The city purchased it in 2000 and, using $200,000 a federal brownfields grant, obtained over $1 million in private investment to convert the building into a small business incubator, the release continues.

In all, 24 small businesses, including a coffee roaster, cross-fit gym and three beer breweries, occupy the space.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Middletown Mayor Dan Drew, left, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, center, visit the former Remington Rand building on Wednesday.