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Banking on Bridgeport
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Business New Haven
5/31/1999
By: BNH
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Alex Conroy, developer of Bridgeport's proposed Harbour Place development, says he has found new backers for the $800 million he has pledged to invest in the $1 billion project. The city and state will provide the remaining $200 million. In recent months the project had appeared stalled for lack of financing and even supporters feared the project might go the way of the way of the New England Patriots debacle in Hartford. Now, civic boosters are buoyed at the news.
“Harbour Place will have a major impact on the people of this region,” says Bridgeport Regional Business Council Chairman and Bridgeport Bluefish co-owner Mickey Herbert, “not only for the thousands of people who will work in its hotels, shops and other attractions, but for the thousands of construction workers needed to build Harbour Place.
“In addition to the immediate economic impact, Harbour Place will further enhance Bridgeport's image as a city on the move,” Herbert added.
Eat to the Beat
Restaurateur Earl Conti (Humphrey's, Poor Penny's) and Eddie Malone (namesake of the former Malone's Tavern) have teamed up to take a flyer on the former Old New Haven Restaurant in Ninth Square, which closed its doors December 30 when the money ran out. The reborn 6,000-square-foot eatery, which has yet to be named, is expected to open some time after July 1 at 4 Orange Street. It will join the new Royal Palace Chinese Restaurant at 32 Orange, which was slated to open its doors about the time you this. In addition to his restaurant ventures, Conti was also general manager of the New Haven Lawn Club and the Graduates Club.
Package Deal
Black Enterprise magazine has named the Hamden-based Specialized Packaging Group one of the 100 largest minority-owned businesses in the U.S. With annual revenues of $71.3 million, SPG ranked 35th on the list, the only Nutmeg State firm to be so represented. The firm, which manufactures printed folding cartons, also ranked No. 3 in sales growth, having achieved a 187-percent hike in revenues between 1997 and 1998. SPG has manufacturing facilities in London, Ont. and Baldwinsville, N.Y., as well as a design center in Cincinnati. It employs more than 300 workers, most outside of Connecticut.
A Break for Stop & Shop in Seymour
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. is under no legal obligation to clean up toxic sludge on property it owns in downtown Seymour, the state's Department of Environmental Protection has ruled. The 40-acre site of the former Seymour Specialty Wire Co. vacant since the company went bankrupt in 1992, is owned by the supermarket giant, which plans to build a Super Stop & Shop on the site.
The Seymour Planning & Zoning Commission recently approved Stop & Shop's request to build a supermarket on 16 of the 40 acres. However, the sludge pits are not on the rezoned section of the parcel. The contamination is said to be metal hydroxide sludge, a by-product of the former mill's manufacturing processes. Cleanup, which Stop & Shop has said it will undertake eventually, could cost about $3 million.
Maple Cottage Should Be So Lucky
Yale University has begun to restore historic Skinner-Trowbridge House at 46 Hillhouse Avenue for use by the School of Management's new International Center for Finance. Designed by architects Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis and built in 1832, Skinner-Trowbridge House was described by the New Haven Preservation Trust as “New Haven's finest Greek Revival House...a priceless heritage.”
The 14,000-square-foot building, acquired by Yale in 1978, is being converted by Helpern Architects of New York. Once the renovation and redesign are completed this fall, the facility will house office and meeting space for up to ten senior SOM faculty members. SOM plans to boost senior faculty in the areas of finance, accounting and strategy by 60 percent in conjunction with the new International Center for Finance.
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