State Commits $2 Million To Daniel's Mill Cleanup In Vernon

VERNON, CT — The state of Connecticut Thursday awarded Vernon $2 million to serve as another piece of the puzzle in the efforts to clean up an historic old mill and repurpose it for commercial and residential use. The grant comes two days after the town officials took over the property and entered into an agreement with a developer.

Governor Ned Lamont Thursday said the Daniel's Mill property, located east 98 East Main St., is one of 31 "blighted" properties lumped into awards of more than $19 million. The grants are designed to offset the costs of "assessing and remediating" the 31 properties, located in 23 towns and cities across Connecticut, for the purposes of "putting them back into productive use."

Lamont said, "Cleaning up blighted properties that have been vacant for decades and putting them into productive use will ultimately generate back many more times the amount of these grants through private investments," Governor Lamont said. "If we remediate these properties now, we can turn an eyesore into an asset, revitalize neighborhoods, and transform otherwise unusable property into new space for businesses and residents."

The grants are from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development's Brownfield Remediation Program. The funding from the state is expected to leverage approximately $156 million in private funding and help in the investigation and clean-up of approximately 418 acres of land, Lamont said.

That's certainly the case with Daniel's Mill, which, combined with the neighboring Amerbelle and Anacoil factories, has been targeted for a "Gateway to Downtown Rockville" initiative. The mixed-use project would consist of 110,000 square feet of residential units and 20,000 square feet of commercial uses, plus a brewpub/restaurant and event space development.

The plan is to also refurbish the historic waterfalls in the area. One runs under the Amerbelle building in a spillway and then parallel to Daniel's Mill as part of the Hockanum River.

But the first order of business is to remediate "significant environmental issues" associated with Daniel's Mill, according to Vernon Economic Development Coordinator Shaun Gately.

That's where the $2 million comes into play, Gately said. The town in 2015 received a $300,000 grant through the state's Historic Brownfield Revitalization program to help clean-up the old mill.

Daniel's Mill dates back to the 1800s heyday of the Vernon textile era.

On Tuesday, the town officially took control of the Daniel's Mill property on a tax foreclosure deed, Gately said. A subsequent agreement was signed with John Gumper and his Georgia-based Camden Management Partner Inc., doing business as Vernon Mill Owner LLC, he added.

The development is contingent upon the cleanup, Gately said.

What Gately called an "aggressive" 25-year tax abatement was approved some time ago with the premise that putting the dormant buildings back to use was more important than immediate tax revenue, Gately said.