The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A road paved with copper, brass & gold?
Mayor hopes to revitalize city with road, redevelopment of old factory
ANSONIA — Mayor David Cassetti and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal stood on the concrete bridge leading to the former Ansonia Copper and Brass site and looked at the sprawling 60-acre complex of vacant, rusted metal hulks that once churned out products 24/7.
“Once we get these buildings down, we’ll have a blank canvas,” Cassetti told the senator. “A developer can paint whatever picture he wants and submit it to the city for approval.”
Cassetti has big plans for the site and sees the old plant’s destruction as the beginning of an upturn for Ansonia.
But there’s an $18 million wall
A view of the former Ansonia Copper and Brass factory complex in Ansonia on Tuesday. Mayor David Cassetti has big plans for the site and sees the old plant’s destruction as the beginning of an upturn for Ansonia. standing between the city and Cassetti’s vision of prosperity.
It will cost an estimated $8 million to tear down the remaining structures. Another $1.1 million is needed for the U.S. Department of Transportation to design a 28-footwide, 1,500-foot-long road to run through a nearby wooded section behind North and South Westwood roads to empty onto Route 8 heading to Seymour.
It would take another $9 million to pay for the road’s construction, replacement of the bridge over the Naugatuck River leading from the parking lot to the factory buildings and extension of the Riverwalk to Seymour.
“Once we do that, trucks can avoid the city streets and are only
“Once we get these buildings down, we’ll have a blank canvas. A developer can paint whatever picture he wants and submit it to the city for approval.”
Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti
minutes away from Waterbury and connecting to (Interstate) 84,” Cassetti said.
“We will need to talk to Burns (Construction) about purchasing some land and we’ll require fill to build up the road,” the mayor said. “But I’m ready to go to Philadelphia (the regional office of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Administration) or Washington to make our case. This is critical not only to Ansonia but to the entire Naugatuck Valley.”
During Cassetti’s Aug. 18 pitch, Blumenthal liked what he heard and vowed to enlist the rest of Connecticut’s congressional delegation in finding funding.
“Our delegation will be four square, fully passionate and completely behind these efforts,” he said. “This is ground zero for restoring bipartisan cooperation on the local, state and federal level . ... We’re going to pummel any opponents to funding in Washington. We’re going to be a nuisance.”
Both U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, who has visited the site in the past, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said they are on board.
Remediating brownfield sites — areas contaminated by industrial or commercial use — can be a way to give an economic boost to cities and towns, Murphy said.
“Brownfield redevelopment is essential to unlocking untold community benefits for the Naugatuck River Valley and beyond,” the senator said. “Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases the local tax base, creates jobs and takes development pressures off undeveloped open space.”
DeLauro said she helped secure $1 million for in 2015 to build what is now Farrel Boulevard and Ansonia’s grant application for this access road project is a similarly smart targeted investment.
“They open up considerable amounts of developable land at a very low cost,” she said.
DeLauro said she will support “any efforts to revitalize the site and restore its place as an economic driver in this community.”
‘An economic driver’
That’s exactly what the 60-acre complex was less than a half century ago. The area along Riverside Drive to Main Street and North
Main Street was booming with more than 10,000 workers employed at Anaconda American Brass, the forerunner to Ansonia Copper and Brass; Farrel, which has moved to the Fountain Lake Commerce Park and Teledyne, whose buildings now house small businesses.
Those factories ran almost 24/7 with up to three shifts a day and at least one on weekends and holidays. The workers who traveled daily to the jobs cashed their checks downtown, purchased food at Fulton Market and Glick’s Delicatessen and shopped at Spector Furniture, Lewis Jewelers, Seccombe’s Men’s Shop and B&L clothing.
But trade deals, cheaper imports and soaring union wages eventually whittled away orders and jobs, historians said. Farrel consolidated its complex — which once stretched from Ansonia to Derby — into its new operation on Fountain Lake. Teledyne left and Ansonia Copper and Brass turned off its furnaces in 2013.
Looking at the Naugatuck River during his visit, Blumenthal said he remembered a time when it was crusted green with algae
and black with oil slicks.
“We were told it could never be restored,” he said. “Now look at it.”
He said he believes federal help could do the same for the former brass site.
“Not only do the people of the Valley deserve our help, but all of Connecticut will benefit from the rejuvenation and recharging of this property,” Blumenthal said. “What I always loved about the Valley is its feeling of family. Here, town boundaries mean little.”
State Department of Labor statistics show Ansonia as one of the most distressed municipalities in the state because of its loss of factory jobs over the years, said Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director. The city’s 5.9 percent unemployment rate in March soared to just under 16 percent during the COVID-19 shutdowns. The median household income is $53,540 compared with the state’s $76,106 and nation’s $61,397.
She said she believes the Ansonia Copper and Brass site could hold 500,000 square feet of workspace easily generating 1,800 full time jobs and at least 225 construction jobs during its developmental phase.
Blumenthal said he believes the $10 million for the demolition and road design can be found on the federal level.
“Infrastructure is going to be at the very top of priorities no matter who is elected president,” Blumenthal said. “It’s the key to rebuilding America and restoring jobs. One million (dollars) for the road and $8 million for the demolition seems perfectly feasible and doable.”
Money, he said, might be available from the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Defense and from the Environmental Protection Agency. “We need to be creative,” he said. “We need to think big.” Over the past several
years, O’Malley has obtained millions in funding to prepare the site for demolition.
The EPA provided $500,000 for brownfield abatement and demolition of 30,000 square feet and nearly $2 million for an emergency cleanup.
Now O’Malley told Blumenthal there is no evidence of toxic chemicals migrating from the site.
The state Department of Economic and Community Development provided another $200,000 to assess ground-level contamination on seven acres and another $200,000, most of which was used for a Municipal Development Plan.
This year, Ansonia received $176,000 from the EPA/Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments for further remediation. Just last month, Gov. Ned Lamont and State Rep. Kara Rochelle, D-Ansonia, announced the state bonded $500,000 to demolish the adjacent defunct SHW Casting site which had two roof collapses in recent years.
A Master Development Plan for the Copper and Brass site should be completed by early next month, O’Malley said.
“That will give us a road map to what we can do,” she said, showing where all the utilities are, point out the deficiencies in the bridge, provide redevelopment scenarios, state plans and expected costs and include site plans for redevelopment.
O’Malley is awaiting the U.S. Department of Transportation’s decision next month on the $1.1 million being sought to plan and design the road. Her application predicts that phase would take 15 months and construction would take 18 months with a hoped-for November 2024 completion.
“No one has a parcel like that that is contiguously located in a central area and adjacent to the downtown restaurants,” O’Malley said.