UConn warns proposed apartment would imperil full development of much-touted university tech park
STORRS — The University of Connecticut — so far on the losing end of a fight against a proposed apartment complex on the border of its Storrs campus — is warning that the project would imperil the full development of the bordering and much-touted UConn Tech Park.
Robert Corbett, UConn’s director of real estate and regional projects, said the 358-unit complex would extend too deeply into a wetlands area that contains a restricted habitat for amphibians, not leaving enough available land for UConn to build on the largest parcel of the tech park.
“This parcel alone is a third of the whole research and development program in the tech park,” Corbett said. “We lose one-third of our capacity to develop the site.”
But the developers of the apartment project — first proposed nearly two years ago to the surrounding town of Mansfield and the winner of a key local approval Monday — strongly disputed the university’s contention. They argued it is a smokescreen for what UConn is really trying to get at. The university, they say, wants to stop construction of apartments that would be heavily marketed to UConn students.
“UConn’s real argument, as expressed in numerous letters from university executive vice president Scott Jordan to town officials, is that offcampus “student housing will reduce the number of students housed on campus, thereby reducing UConn’s revenue and increasing its financial burden,” Thomas P. Cody, an attorney at Robinson & Cole in Hartford representing the developers, said.
UConn officials have said enrollment is expected to remain flat for the foreseeable future, and it could be a decade or more before the university’s finances stabilize enough to push for growth in enrollment. At the Storrs main campus, overall enrollment will remain level, or possibly shrink.
Corbett acknowledged that UConn has long expressed concerns that this and other apartment complexes contemplated in town would likely have a high number of students as tenants and would compete with on-campus living options. But that, Corbett said, is separate from concerns over full development of the tech park.
“We believe this is a legitimate loss of land in the tech park,” Corbett said.
The technology park, at the north corner of campus, is aimed at raising UConn’s profile as a research university and becoming a center for industry and manufacturers to work more closely with students and faculty.
Envisioned for more than three decades, the tech park is seen as a high-profile example of trying to catch Connecticut up in nurturing start-ups and providing a nexus between higher education and the commercial sector.
The tech park is divided into eight lots, four of which have been developed, two for parking. So far the state has invested about $205 million into the development, with $159 million for the 114,000-square-foot “Innovation Partnership Building,” which opened in early 2018. The tech park encompasses 104 acres and could eventually have over 1 million square feet of research space.
The largest lot, now at issue, is 25 acres and was envisioned for a building of up to 350,000 square feet. UConn