New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
11 Shelton developments to watch out for in 2023
SHELTON — The city’s burgeoning development scene will be expanding even more with the advent of the new year.
What was once a depressed downtown, with unoccupied storefronts and barren industrial buildings along Canal Street has become a revitalized area, with new construction dotting the entire landscape.
Howe Avenue now has Cedar Village at Carroll’s as well as apartments and retail at Bridge Street Commons I and II and 502 on Howe, which sits on what was the former Webster Bank building.
Canal Street features Marion (formerly Avalon), the Birmingham and Riverside Retail Center, home to Pier 131.
While the focus has remained on downtown, development continues to spread outside that area as well, with many scheduled to be finished or get underway in 2023.
Here are some of the projects planned:
Riverwalk Place
Riverwalk Place — which stands on land once home to The Donut Shop — is a multi-story structure that will have first floor retail and 35 apartments on the upper floors.
Don Stanziale, Jr., and his son, Don Stanziale III, of Midland Development and Contracting, are handling construction on the lot, which is owned by Perry Pettis. The new structure, which sits next to the building that has housed the former Johnny’s Pizza and Beastie Burger, will be completed in January, according to Stanziale.
Riverview Park Royal/Chromium Commons
John Guedes, Shelton resident and owner of Primrose Companies, will be breaking ground on two projects along Canal Street this coming year.
Guedes said Riverview Park Royal, on vacant land at 123 Canal St., and Chromium Commons, to be built on the former Chromium Process site at 113 Canal St., which is now a parking lot. Both are scheduled to start as soon as the developers
close on the construction financing.
Riverview Park Royal construction, according to Guedes, should begin within the next two months.
This project calls for a five-story, 11,000-squarefoot structure with firstfloor retail and 92 apartments. The development will have no less than nine units set aside as affordable under state statute 8-30g, the state’s affordable housing law.
Guedes said Chromium Commons is a “smaller building,” and construction should start by June and be fully completed within 16 months.
The plans call for construction of a four-story building, with first floor retail and 30 apartments — at least three of which will be affordable units — on the top three floors.
Clock Tower at Petremont
Construction of Clock Tower at Petremont — a 100-unit development on Petremont Lane off River Road — is set to begin in March.
Attorney Stephen Bellis, representing Good Guys Development, said the developers finished the rough grade site work. “The construction plans for the Clock Tower at Petremont are completed by the architect and we are awaiting bids from subcontractors,” Bellis said. “(Construction) will take one year plus to complete.”
Brookview Apartments
Developer James Blakeman’s plans call for construction of a building with 30 apartments and onsite parking on the site of the former Hunan Pan restaurant at 309 Old Bridgeport Ave. It would replace the two-story structure and paving presently on the site.
Planning and Zoning Commission approval was granted in August.
The apartment building will match Brookview Apartments, the structure developed by Blakeman and already in place at 305 Old Bridgeport Ave. Blakeman called his latest plans Phase Two, and the new building, as presently proposed, would be a carbon copy of the existing one, which was finished two years ago.
301 Old Bridgeport Ave.
Ben Perry of S&G Shelton, LLC, has proposed a 39-unit apartment complex on property listed as 301 Old Bridgeport Ave., also known as 1 Sunwood Drive.
Perry recently presented his updated plans for 39 apartments in a 10,400square-foot, three-and-half story structure. The plans also call for 81 parking spaces, some of which would be underground.
The public hearing remains open for this project.
Langanke’s
Langanke’s Landing, LLC, has proposed construction of a four-story structure with 60 apartments and 106 parking spaces at 1055 Bridgeport Ave., long home to Langanke’s
Florist and Greenhouses. The public hearing remains open with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Langanke’s Landing,
LLC, had received approval from the commission in 2020 for a Planned Development District at the property.
The plan, at that time, was to remove the florist and greenhouse structures and build in its place a 4,400-square-foot convenience market and gas station with 10 fueling positions and two 3,100-squarefoot buildings that could house either retail or offices.
Langanke’s Florist and Greenhouses owners stated at that time that while the plans, if approved, would remove the present structures — long a fixture along Bridgeport Avenue — the florist business itself would remain on a smaller scale in one of the new buildings. Sale of the property is contingent on approval of the plans.
But the developers have returned seeking an amendment to the approved PDD to remove the gas station and convenience store and other planned buildings and replace them with an apartment building.
Great River Water Club
Developers Ricar, LLC, and Mianus Holdings, LLC, who had previously received Planned Development District approval for land listed at 704, 712, 722 River Road years ago, have now added the neighboring lot at 726 River Road, the former Autoswage site, and are proposing an expansion of the original plans to include condominiums and an office building.
The proposed project, dubbed Great River Water Club, is located across from Murphy’s Lane and the Crescent Village housing development.
The new plan would relocate and increase the size of the previously approved restaurant and event facility, add a 7,800-squarefoot office building, reduce the 102 previously approved apartments to 90, and add 35 condominium units to the existing PDD site.
The public hearing on this proposal remains open with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The 90 apartments will be 28 one-bedroom units, 50 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom units, the plan states.
The 35-unit condominium will have 14 one-bedroom units, 17 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units.
453 River Road
Plans have been filed for construction of a 152-apartment development on River Road, which has raised concerns from residents about traffic, parking and road safety.
Developers, listed on the application as KWIZZ, LLC, of Oxford, are seeking a Planned Development District, or PDD, for the nearly 10-acre site listed as 435 River Road. The lot is zoned commercial and was approved for a PDD in the past, but the owners are seeking a new one.
The plans are still in a public hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The vacant property is across the street from Cumberland Farms and Hook Line and Sinker as well as the entrance to Jordan Avenue.
The development calls for the construction of four separate buildings — each with 38 apartments — and a 5,500-square-foot clubhouse. Each of the apartment buildings are proposed to be 11,800 square feet. There are 274 parking spaces proposed.
Cedar Village at the Locks
Stanziale has proposed developing a four-story structure on property known as the Ascom Hasler site with 129 apartments and 1,745 square feet of retail space.
The Planning and Zoning Commission opened a public hearing in December on Stanziale’s proposed development at 287 Canal St., which would be called Cedar Village at The Locks. The commission then continued the hearing to a future date.
Stanziale, who has an agreement to purchase the site from owner John Watts, told the commissioners his plans for the end of Canal Street also call for him to complete the Riverwalk and create a seating area for people to enjoy looking over the Shelton canal locks and the Housatonic River. The new building would have views of the river.
Fountain Square
Work on Fountain Square — which remained dormant for more than a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 — began again in earnest last fall. Panera Bread and Metro Mattress were the first tenants to open their doors this past summer. The site was formerly occupied by the United Illuminating Co.
Daniel Witkins, Sr., of DFW Building Co., the construction manager for the Fountain Square project, said when Panera opened that the site was 75 percent to 80 percent filled. He said the most talked about tenant, Chick-fil-A , is still coming. Plans for the eatery are in the city’s building office, Witkins said.
Also coming, he has stated, are Wafu, a Korean barbecue restaurant; Jersey Mike’s; Pokemoto; a liquor store; and a jewelry store.
The original approval allowed for three restaurants, a pharmacy, bank, coffee shop, other retail, a small office building and a 123-room Marriott hotel. Since that time, there were changes in the list of tenants, headed by the addition of a Chick-fil-A.
The developers have also applied to include an unnamed “well-known” grocery store.