Southeastern Cities May See Big Construction Boom

[ctman987]

An article yesterday mentioned that the Utopia Studios developer has big plans for the neighboring cities meaning Norwich and then New London.

Joseph Gentile the developer has plans for two 37 story towers that will house condos, hotel rooms, a nightclub and restaurants on a Norwich marina.

The developer also wants to become the master prefered developer for a lot of downtown Norwich and its waterfront.

This was all mentioned in a small Courant article but whether it be for better or worse and if it happens at all it still is very big news for SE CT....37 story towers are big news....that would make four skyscrapers in SE CT...the hotel at Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods and then these two skyscrapers in Norwich

[MadVlad]

If it starts to boom, watch Trump and Larry G get their hands in on it, depending on the degree of development, of course. Trump wouldn't get involved unless something really big was happening....

[HartfordTycoon]

See, this is what I knew would happen. Hartford better get on the ball because a lot of focus will be shifting towards SE CT. We need to improve our connections to that area and try to get some of that business to come to Hartford for much of the legal and financial services business sure to be generated with a new industry in the state.

[mikel]

I hope New London and Norwich DO NOT allow this guy to start tearing down buildings for other things down the road, which may or may not happen. Both Norwich and New London are beautiful cities that have retained much of their historical buildings, unlike HARTFORD.

[HartfordTycoon]

I hope New London and Norwich DO NOT allow this guy to start tearing down buildings for other things down the road, which may or may not happen. Both Norwich and New London are beautiful cities that have retained much of their historical buildings, unlike HARTFORD.

From what I've seen, it looks like he will keep pretty much all of the historical buildings in Downtown Norwich and restore them to splendor. Other than that, do they have many historical buildings? It seems like he will certainly gobble up some degree of open space and of course the entire hostpital complex in Preston needs to go. I think one positive aspect is that the urban cores are small and condensed and can be relatively easily restored without demolition, and there is also plenty of room to build new structures in this part of the state.

[MadVlad]

He better leave downtown Norwich alone, that is possibly the most beautiful old downtown I've seen in CT....

[drc72]

Who would of ever guesed Norwich would be getting a couple of skyscrapers.

[HartfordTycoon]

Who would of ever guesed Norwich would be getting a couple of skyscrapers.

Not me, that's for sure.

Oh well. Let's just hope it's good for Norwich and CT!

[somad]

An article yesterday mentioned that the Utopia Studios developer has big plans for the neighboring cities meaning Norwich and then New London.

Joseph Gentile the developer has plans for two 37 story towers that will house condos, hotel rooms, a nightclub and restaurants on a Norwich marina.

The developer also wants to become the master prefered developer for a lot of downtown Norwich and its waterfront.

This was all mentioned in a small Courant article but whether it be for better or worse and if it happens at all it still is very big news for SE CT....37 story towers are big news....that would make four skyscrapers in SE CT...the hotel at Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods and then these two skyscrapers in Norwich

There's a bunch of articles including one with the info you mentioned here. Today, Mr Genital is meeting with Norwich officials and there may be more news tomorrow.

The area will have more than 4 towers... Foxwoods is currently building one somewhere around 30 stories, I believe Utopia still plans on building 4 towers on the main site in Preston, and Mohegan Sun has hinted publicly at big plans which include another hotel tower. I know for a fact that Mohegan's hotel averages 93% occupancy per night and is always full on peak nights/seasons, so there is definately room for more hotels... the question is how many.

Is anyone on this board involved or knowledgable about the construction industry? With so many projects going on at once wouldn't the cost of construction go up? Keep in mind that there's Utopia's main site (1.6b), Utopia's norwich site (.5b), North Stonington Studios (1.5b), Foxwoods expansion (.7b), Mohegan Sun's soon to be announced expansion (most likely > 1b), and the other unannounced Utopia ancillary developments (probably>1b). Add on top of that housing, infrastructure, new commercial centers, schools, hospital exapnsion, etc etc etc and there will be a lot of construction going on around here if this Utopia thing takes off.

[somad]

From what I've seen, it looks like he will keep pretty much all of the historical buildings in Downtown Norwich and restore them to splendor. Other than that, do they have many historical buildings? It seems like he will certainly gobble up some degree of open space and of course the entire hostpital complex in Preston needs to go. I think one positive aspect is that the urban cores are small and condensed and can be relatively easily restored without demolition, and there is also plenty of room to build new structures in this part of the state.

Yeap... that's one of the positives about this. He says that one thing that drew him to the area (he doesn't mention the obvious: casinos and equal distance between NYC and boston) is the great architecture. Has anyone here had the chance to flip through some Bill Stanley "once upon a time" books? Those really show how much of downtown Norwich really was lost. The courthouse, parking garage by the water, and dunkin donuts all were sites of Norwich's theaters. They tore down most of the downtown, but yeah there certainly are gems still.

[drc72]

Not me, that's for sure.

Oh well. Let's just hope it's good for Norwich and CT!

Any development is good for the state. Of course within reason.

[MadVlad]

Do we know if any of these will be new tallest for the State? I hope not...

[somad]

Do we know if any of these will be new tallest for the State? I hope not...

Foxwoods, no. The Norwich ones.. maybe if there's a spire. The Utopia Preston ones, no. Mohegan.... unannounced/still in planning and design stages but possibility for sure.

[ctman987]

Downtown Norwich is truly a charming area. Starting down by the marina and heading over by the court and up to the library and city hall Norwich has a lot of very historic buildings. With some help Norwich could become one of those places with trendy little independantly owned botiques and restaurants. Even right now downtown Norwich does have a strong business presence with many locally owned and operated business related firms (law firms, accounting, finance, etc.)

[somad]

Downtown Norwich is truly a charming area. Starting down by the marina and heading over by the court and up to the library and city hall Norwich has a lot of very historic buildings. With some help Norwich could become one of those places with trendy little independantly owned botiques and restaurants. Even right now downtown Norwich does have a strong business presence with many locally owned and operated business related firms (law firms, accounting, finance, etc.)

It also has a huge state office presence. DCF occupies the entire Shannon Building, which is that nice looking yellow building in the same intersection as the Wauregan, the courthouse, and People's bank. One thing Norwich should look into doing is moving the courthouse away from that area of town, perhaps to be built on a blighted section of Franklin St.

[JimSawhill]

An article yesterday mentioned that the Utopia Studios developer has big plans for the neighboring cities meaning Norwich and then New London.

Joseph Gentile the developer has plans for two 37 story towers that will house condos, hotel rooms, a nightclub and restaurants on a Norwich marina.

The developer also wants to become the master prefered developer for a lot of downtown Norwich and its waterfront.

This was all mentioned in a small Courant article but whether it be for better or worse and if it happens at all it still is very big news for SE CT....37 story towers are big news....that would make four skyscrapers in SE CT...the hotel at Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods and then these two skyscrapers in Norwich

Hmmm... will American Wharf Marina be closed?? I hope not!! Connecticut needs more MARINAS not less!!

JimS

[somad]

Hmmm... will American Wharf Marina be closed?? I hope not!! Connecticut needs more MARINAS not less!!

JimS

The towers will go up right where those two buildings at the marina are... I don't know what they will do to redo the marina but I'm sure they WILL redo it because they will probably want to sell larger boat slips to the owners of condos in the tower for their yaughts...

The main Utopia site will have a marina, and I would be surprised if Mohegans or someone else didn't put a marina up in Trading Cove as part of their forthcoming expasion... don't worry, marina lover, this area will have plenty. Same goes for golf courses...

[SOCOM]

Do we know if any of these will be new tallest for the State? I hope not...

It would be impossible unless they added some sort of ridiculously tall spire to. Residential/Hotel floors are significantly smaller than office space. A 37 floor residential is a 400 footer whereas a 37 story office tower is a 500 footer.

[HartfordTycoon]

Not sure if this article link has been posted yet, but this one is interesting to say the least. Joe Gentile makes statements such as "Norwich could rival Providence" and "Providence has nothing on Norwich." Interesting, what about Hartford.......

Day Article

[PCGrad02]

I'll be thrilled if he tears down the parking garages fronting the water and covers the three lane speedway known as Chelsea Harbor Drive(12/2). The towers @ the marina could be interesting, considering the whole island is a landfill/coal mix. I'll be amazed if it actually does happen, but Norwich needs something to get it back on track. The sewer treatment plant sits smack in the middle of Hollyhock Island, I'll be interested to see how they propose building over/around it. The project would be surrounded by road/rail/water access, a rare combination. The new multimodal transportation center will be smack in the middle of the project on the island as well. I'll try and get some pics of the locations during the week.

[MadVlad]

Heh, Norwich will have a better skyline than Bridgeport....

[somad]

Heh, Norwich will have a better skyline than Bridgeport....

They really need to put in some sort of rapid transit loop between downtown and the Utopia and Mohegan area. routes 12 and 32 in Norwich along the Thames River could become the real "urban" area if planned accordingly. Will our legislature wake the f*ck up now?

In a related note... I'm saving up for some down payments on property in that area, and maybe Greenville which I could see really taking off. If Utopia succeeds it would be in anyone's best financial interest to invest in these areas...