Housing eyed for Fairfield Hills buildings
NEWTOWN — Five developers are bidding for a lease to convert up to two of the old psychiatric hospital buildings on the Fairfield Hills campus into a mix of housing and commercial space, town officials confirmed on Monday.
“I think the concepts we have are very good, and now it is just a matter of narrowing it down to a finalist,” said Dan Rosenthal, Newtown’s first selectman, who is leading the review of the bids. “After that, there will be a whole public process.”
Rosenthal is referring to the latest step in a two-year effort to convince Newtown that allowing a limited amount of housing in the largest of Fairfield Hills’ abandoned hospital buildings is the only way to save the relics from demolition.
The effort included a year-long series of public discussions about options for the hulking 1930s structures, and a public vote of 9,400-to-7,300 in November that authorized a mix of housing and commercial space in no more than two of the abandoned buildings.
At stake for those who voted ‘no’ is the character of the pastoral Fairfield Hills campus, which some consider to be Newtown’s Central Park. Newtown bought the 185-acre property off development market in 2004, with the goal of making it the civic and cultural center of town.
Now the town begins the process of selecting the residential development proposal that represents the best fit and submitting it for land use review to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
“I was pleased that there was enough of a consensus with the public vote, but I didn’t interpret it as a blank check,” Rosenthal said on Monday. “I interpreted is as, ‘let’s see what we get,’ not ‘let’s take whatever we get.’”
The town would not disclose the names of the bidders on Monday, explaining that the review is a closed process.
Two companies that made presentations to the public in October about plans they might propose if mixed-use housing was allowed on the Fairfield Hills campus each confirmed Monday that they are among the bidders.
Boston-based WinnCompanies, which in October proposed building 56 apartments in Shelton House and 113 more apartments in Kent House, would only say on Monday that it was among the bidders being reviewed in Newtown.
Massachusetts-based Dakota Partners also confirmed on Monday that it was one of the bidders. Dakota in October proposed building 144 apartments in Cochran House, a 190,000-squarefoot structure on the Fairfield Hills campus that is 90 years old.
“What we proposed in the October town meeting is pretty much what we have submitted to Newtown,” said Stephen Kominski, vice president of acquisitions and development for Dakota Partners.
The next step of choosing a finalist is expected to be complete before end of June. At that point, if Newtown has a preliminary agreement with the company to lease and redevelop Fairfield Hills property, the proposal would move to land use review and a public hearing.
“I am still going through the (proposals) and I think we have some really interesting stuff,” Rosenthal said Monday. “But we have to look at all the details.”