Waterford to Receive Redevelopment Grant

The town of Waterford will receive a $525,000 grant for the completion of the remediation and rehabilitation of the former Cohanzie School.

Centerplan Properties has an option to purchase the property and plans to build a $20 million 154-unit market-rate rental complex on the property.

Waterford is one of 16 municipalities in Connecticut that have been awarded $27 million in grants and loans by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development for brownfield remediation and redevelopment projects, Gov. Daniel P. Malloy announced today in Bridgeport.

The town has previously received $457,500 in state funding for cleanup of the former school property.

“Many of Connecticut’s brownfield sites have been abandoned or under-utilized for decades because the costs of redeveloping these properties are too expensive for municipalities or private developers to take on by themselves,” Malloy said in a statement.

Along with funding, Malloy said the administration has taken steps to attract private investment and increase participation in the state’s brownfield programs.

In May 2014, the DECD began accepting applications for up to $20 million of brownfield remediation and redevelopment funding in the form of loans and grants to municipalities and developers.

The money is the largest round of brownfield remediation funding in the state’s history.

“We will continue making these investments because we know doing so will generate significant returns for our state and local economies by getting these properties back on the tax rolls, improving the quality of life in these areas, cleaning up environmental contamination and, most importantly, creating jobs for our residents,” Malloy said.

Since 2012’s financial year, the Malloy administration invested $62.6 million in 37 projects to remediate contaminated sites in 27 cities and towns statewide, which has funded completed or ongoing remediation and redevelopment of 608 acres.

Photo Credit: Waterford Patch