‘WE BELIEVE IN BRIDGEPORT’
New tenant announced for former Derecktor Shipyards site
BRIDGEPORT — Frank Borres stood Monday behind the former Derecktor Shipyards on Seaview Avenue in the East End, looking out at the harbor after emceeing a news conference touting the Bridgeport Boatworks’ new tenant, Hornblower Group.
From 1961 until 1978 a young Borres lived just about next door in another harborside neighborhood on the tip of the East Side that long ago was demolished to make way for the Steelepoint commercial and maritime redevelopment.
Steelepoint is owned by the same fatherson team — Robert Christoph and Robert Christoph Jr. — working with the Boatworks to reactivate the shuttered Derecktor.
“I can actually start being optimistic,” Borres told Hearst Connecticut Media as he considered all of the waterfront improvements that, after decades of fits and starts, finally are making progress.
Optimism — and patience — were key themes of Monday’s event welcoming Hornblower that also featured U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and Gov. Ned Lamont.
“Having moments like this takes time,” Robert Christoph Jr. told the crowd of current and former federal, state and local
“The key to Bridgeport coming back is the waterfront. We’ve had a lot of changes. Ups and downs. But the waterfront is still here.”
Former Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch
politicians, other business leaders and City Hall staff. “Not everybody loves time.”
Boatworks owner Harry Boardsen spoke about how his involvement in Bridgeport began in 2017 when Thomas Gill, Mayor Joe Ganim’s economic development chief, introduced him to the Christophs. That led to Boardsen and the developers teaming up to takeover the former Derecktor site and, as Hearst first reported this weekend, striking a deal with Hornblower to perform maintenance on its fleet of cruise ships, sightseeing boats and ferries.
“Things take time,” Boardsen said during Monday’s event. “But we believe in Bridgeport.”
From the Boatworks property an observer can take in the harborfront and point out numerous examples of things taking time.
It was years before the Christophs finally broke ground at Steelepoint, opening in November 2015 the anchor tenant, Bass Pro Shops. A marina and a seafood restaurant — Boca — followed.
But there is still plenty of space on Steelpointe and on the East End properties they have taken on for the Christophs to continue redeveloping as they monitor market trends.
And the Christophs do not appear to be going anywhere, having relocated their headquarters from Miami, Florida, to Bridgeport. Borres runs a public relations/ communications firm that does work for the Christophs: “Can you imagine? They moved from Miami to Bridgeport. They must see something here.”
Between Steelepoint and Bridgeport Boatworks is another slice of Christoph-claimed acreage that, over the years, was supposed to be home to a supermarket, movie theaters and, more recently, an MGM Resorts International casino. All of those deals and potential deals failed to materialize into bricks and mortar.
In a brief interview Monday Christoph said he will soon announce another maritime-related tenant for that land.
“To bring the right caliber tenant and opportunity, it takes time,” Christoph reiterated.
Several mayors over the years have been involved in trying to revitalize the harbor, and two of them were on hand Monday. Ganim when he first served from 1991 until 2003, then again following his 2015 return to office, and fellow Democrat Bill Finch, who held office from 2007 until Ganim defeated him in the 2015 primary.
While Ganim worked on Steelpointe during his first tenure in City Hall, it was under Finch that the Christophs actually lured Bass Pro and finally started building.
Across the harbor Finch started and Ganim continued efforts to retire the aged coal-fired power plant and replace it with the gasrun one that went online in June 2019. Officials hope once the coal facility is shut down to eventually redevelop that site.
Also on the other side of the harbor a new concert amphitheater is being built out of the shuttered minor league baseball park. The latter was built over 20 years ago and Ganim struck the deal with developer Howard Saffan to turn it into an outdoor concert venue. It was supposed to open in 2019 but was delayed until this year by construction issues, costoverruns and the coronavirus pandemic.
Further along Seaview Avenue from Boatworks, Vineyard Wind of Massachusetts is supposed to use another East End property — this one owned by the BridgeportPort Jefferson ferry company — as a staging ground for its energy project in Long Island Sound. In the longer-term the ferry plans to relocate its terminal from the other side of the harbor, in a move that has already been delayed several years.
Himes gushed about the area finally beginning to realize its potential: “We’re in a unique place, in a unique moment.”
As Monday’s crowd dispersed, Finch, who is working with some trades unions that want their members to get work out of the Hornblower deal, acknowledged how long it can take for major projects to get done in Bridgeport. Thankfully, he said, the harbor as an asset remains through it all.
“Whoever the administration is, the key to Bridgeport coming back is the waterfront,” the former mayor said. “We’ve had a lot of changes. Ups and downs. But the waterfront is still here.”