PROPOSED: Steel Point Harbor

[Yankee.Peddler]

I think Steel Point is a tremendous project for Bridgeport and Fairfield County. It is not in the city's short or long-term interests to let this project fall apart.

[HartfordTycoon]

Here is a link to the development's website and rendering.

Steel Point Harbor

[Yankee.Peddler]

Here's a new article on Steet Point and rendering. Looks pretty impressive.

Courant Article

[HartfordTycoon]

I like the proposed variety in architecture. The development stands to become a "twin" to downtown Bridgeport across the Pequonnock River.

[runawayjim]

Yeah, the pretty "twin". j/k

[Chessplayer]

I was not expecting the development to be that massive. This looks fantastic for Bridgeport (even if the architecture is generally uninspiring). I'm very excited.

[Yankee.Peddler]

Yeah, the pretty "twin". j/k

[drc72]

Here's a new article on Steet Point and rendering. Looks pretty impressive.

Courant Article

[doz180]

Washington Park Video

A nice video about the rehabilitation of Washington Park in Bridgeport. For those that don't know the area it used to full of vacant houses, drug dealers, and prostitutes. They cleaned it up and brought in affordable housing. I was there last week, it looks great. Of course you are only a block or two away from blight, but it is a big first step.

[MichaelQReilly]

Washington Park Video

A nice video about the rehabilitation of Washington Park in Bridgeport. For those that don't know the area it used to full of vacant houses, drug dealers, and prostitutes. They cleaned it up and brought in affordable housing. I was there last week, it looks great. Of course you are only a block or two away from blight, but it is a big first step.

[The Voice of Reason]

I used to work right down the street from Washington Park in the old Singer Factory. Washington Park is absolutely gorgeous and has ridiculous potential. If a neighborhood like that was in New York or Boston, the homes would be worth millions. There is one house in particular on the north side of the square, an old Italianate mansion, that I used to drool over renovating when I walked by it. If I had the money to invest in development, Washington Park is where I'd go, because whenever Bridgeport picks back up, that neighborhood's value will skyrocket.

Edited December 17, 2007 by The Voice of Reason

[MichaelQReilly]

You're right, its the one on the corner of Barnum and Kossuth. Spectacular home, its completely brownstone.

Edited December 18, 2007 by MichaelQReilly

[Chessplayer]

I assume this snippet refers to the Steel Point project. Anyways, the estimated starting date is August 2008.

http://www.bidclerk.com/project.676699.html

[doz180]

Fairfield is going to have 3 train stations, maybe Bport could get a second. Dinardo is about as dirty as they come though:

Bridgeport's somewhat fuzzy plan to build a second train station on Barnum Avenue falls into the category of sub-optimal circumstances. The East Side property officials are eyeing is part of what was once the sprawling Remington Arms complex, and is in the midst of multiple machinations over its future.

The land is owned by developer Sal DiNardo, who the city says owes nearly $10 million in back taxes on the property. DiNardo says the tax issues predate his ownership, and he filed for bankruptcy protection this week to keep the property from being seized by the city. Sorting out this legal tangle will take years, if not longer.

That said, the idea for a train station is a sound one. A station could be an enormous boon for an area that has endured more than its share of trouble in recent decades. A station on the Metro-North New Haven Line could inspire opportunities the current East Side could never dream of. At the center of a dense, walkable community

[HartfordTycoon]

Looks like Front Street isn't the only project who's housing component had to be postponed.

Hartford Courant

For years, the James O'Rourke homestead stood as the lone structure in the middle of the Steel Point peninsula in Bridgeport, a visual oddity to passing motorists on I-95.

On Monday, the boyhood home of Bridgeport's only member of baseball's Hall of Fame was demolished after efforts to save the house failed, its shaky foundation ultimately making it impossible to move.

Now, the shaky economy also is reshaping plans to redevelop the 50 acres into a $1.5 billion community of housing, shops, restaurants and boating slips on Bridgeport Harbor.

Details of the plans haven't been released, but the scope of the project has been dramatically downsized, from 7 million square feet to about 3 million. Construction of condominiums and town houses will be put off until demand rebounds.

[The Voice of Reason]

I thought this was interesting too.

Obviously with NYC struggling a little, putting luxury housing in Bport is not as attractive as buying up the vacated condos the Lehman guys left behind. Even Stamford is struggling with some of those highrises.

I am sure it will all recover no problem, and I am sure that Housing components will start before any of the retail components open. a project this large almost guarantees its own success by creating a whole new world amongst itself.

with a year or more of infrastructure work to do, Housing may start the same time the retail does.

[MadVlad]

People never learn, the housing is the most important piece of the development, not the least important, they always removed the important stuff, it could end up being Constitution Plaza on the Harbor...

[The Voice of Reason]

There is an article in todays courant about steel point now being built in phases

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-steelpo...0,1579973.story

The shaky economy forced the city and RCI, which replaced Midtown Equities as the lead developer, to downsize the project to what Eversley said is a more realistic scale. The total square footage has dropped by more than 50 percent to 2.9 million, from nearly 7 million in the most recent plans in 2007. The overall price tag also has shrunk from $1.5 billion two years ago.

Two years ago, as many of 3,500 condominiums and apartments were envisioned, but now that number is closer to 1,200. The developer still intends to build 10 percent as moderately priced workforce housing.

I do think this will happen in one way or another, but I am not sure if it will end up being everything ti was promised. some developments need scale to create critical mass. I think this might be one of those developments.

Look at front street, 10 years later it is happening, but at a sliver of its former scale.