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Bridgeport Roundup
The state is starting to see what Bridgeporters already knew: The Park City is rising from the ashes
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Business New Haven
4/20/1998
By: Susan Banfield
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Ten years ago Bridgeport was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The view of the city from the highway, as one passed through on I-95, seemed symbolic of Bridgeport's sad fate: messy clusters of old industrial structures and shabby multi-family dwellings, piled on top of one another willy-nilly.
It's easy to think that nothing has changed, driving through today. It seems like the same old view, if anything made worse by the addition of ubiquitous highway construction.
But in fact, that view is likely to change radically - and soon. Within a few years, if all goes according to plan, I-95 motorists approaching the Park City will be greeted by the sight of a tall ship anchored in the harbor, decorated during the day and festively illuminated at night. Spread out at the
“foot” of the ship will be a vast complex of new entertainment and recreational facilities.
However, this proposed development, to be known as Harbour Place (see accompanying story), is as much a result of the renewal that has already been taking place throughout the state's largest city as it will be a catalyst for revitalization to come. Although not yet visible from I-95, enough major change has taken place in Bridgeport in recent years to prompt both public officials and private-sector investors alike to speak of a renaissance in the city.
It's hard to say exactly when the turnaround began. Many people credit Mayor Joseph P. Ganim (see story, page 3), who is now in his seventh year in office. Since he first took office, Ganim has been working to cut taxes and “deliver a better level of services” in order to make Bridgeport what he calls “development ready.”
“Before Ganim, mayors came and went,” says Michael Freimuth, the city's director of the office of planning and development. “[Ganim's] consistent set of policies and goals and the tenacity to pursue them - this helps to show results.”
In order to attract developers and new industry, Freimuth adds, “a lot of structural things have to be done.” Among them, he adds, is continuing reduction in taxes, rebuilding the city's police department, and investment in public works. (Bridgeport has spent $7 million in the last two years improving city streetscapes - new signage, sidewalks, lights and streetside landscaping.)
City government also enacted changes designed to make development easier - reducing the number of committees a developer had to contend with - and passing the Park City's first new planning and zoning code since 1949.
Ganim and Freimuth both felt strongly that the port and the harbor held the key to the city's future, but that neither would ever be redeveloped without an outside agency to oversee them. So in 1992 the Bridgeport Port Authority was created and Joe Riccio, a former assistant director for planning and development with a background in real estate development, was named executive director.
“We have a fair amount of autonomy,” says Riccio of the port authority. “We're not part of the city's legal and financial structure, and have powers granted by state statute.”
The port authority's primary responsibility is the commercial and industrial development of the harbor. At first, many thought gaming would be the salvation of both the harbor and of the city itself. “The city got sidetracked on casinos,” said Freimuth. “That was all that was reported on, talked about.” Then, in 1995, the casino plan collapsed.
The demise of the casino proposal, while at the time a setback, actually paved the way for rapid progress toward a realistic, viable plan for Bridgeport Harbor. In 1996 the city adopted a new master plan which called for the harbor's commercial development.
In early 1997 the city, together with the United Illuminating Co., which owns substantial waterfront property, sponsored a design charette. Architects and city planners were invited to spend several days brainstorming ways to use the space.
Next, a search committee was formed to find a developer who could translate the charette's ideas into a concrete proposal. The committee placed ads in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, and sent letters to more than 1,000 real estate-development firms.
The developer selected was the Conroy Development Corp. of Greenwich. Not only did Conroy's plans do an excellent job of synthesizing the ideas of the charette and the 1996 city plan. As well, “Alex Conroy has one of the largest real estate-development and financial operations in the world,” explains Joe Riccio. Conroy's backer is ERE Yarmouth, the U.S. arm of Lend Lease Corp., whose assets include $35 billion in real estate.
Alex Conroy, the company's president, turned out to be familiar with the site and was enthusiastic about its potential. “This was a site that was very visible from the highway, with good north-south access, in Fairfield County,” he explains. Also, Conroy “felt the city was on an upswing, psychologically and economically.”
“We want it to be a family destination,” Conroy says. His proposal, known as Harbour Place (see accompanying story), contains a variety of waterfront-related recreational, restaurant, museum, hotel and retail facilities.
“The main thing is it becomes a destination,” says Conroy. “I think it'll help in a very significant way to revitalize the core of the city.” On the drawing board, the project will create about 7,000 new jobs and bring Bridgeport millions in tax revenues.
Many support Conroy's proposal. “It can't miss, with the market for hotels and the demand for entertainment,” says Riccio. However, the project still needs concrete support from the public sector. Conroy, in fact, has recently said he will pull out if he does not have a guarantee of $200 million from the state and the city by the end of the current legislative session. While he himself plans to put up $750 million, “We can't do the project without that [public] support,” he says.
“That's a fact of life,” adds Conroy. “It's not a threat, it's just a reality. If the state won't support the city, we can't justify proceeding.”
Although it is very much down to the wire - the current legislative session ends May 6 - city officials are confident the vote will come through in Bridgeport's favor.
“Chances are good [for passage],” says Mayor Ganim. “The project is well worth supporting.”
“The people I talk to in the legislature are very supportive of the project,” adds Riccio. “It's going to happen.”
Conroy himself is confident, too. “We're optimistic we'll get it,” he says. “It's important for the whole region.”
While it may be an essential element in Bridgeport's redevelopment, Harbour Place is just one of several major new projects slated for the city's waterfront. Another, already nearing completion, is the new baseball stadium going up 150 yards west of the new Port Jefferson Terminal building.
“The Bridgeport Regional Business Council did a study proving the economic feasibility of what minor-league baseball could do for a city,” says Jack McGregor, principal of Bridgeport Waterfront Investors, who built the stadium and are bringing in the new team, the Bridgeport Bluefish.
McGregor cites a number of examples of “almost drop-dead successes” of minor-league baseball teams in previously blighted urban areas. In such cities as Trenton, N.J., Lansing, Mich., and St. Paul, Minn. new ball parks succeeded in drawing suburbanites back into the city center.
The new Bridgeport stadium will seat 5,400, expandable to 7,500. McGregor reports that, although the opening pitch will not be thrown out until May 21, already a quarter of the seats are sold out for the season. He adds that “We're working very closely with Alex Conroy. We collectively envision footbridges spanning the harbor into Harbour Place.”
McGregor also points out that “Evidence of the expected 'halo effect' of the ballpark and ball team is growing. There is serious developer interest in some other parcels in close proximity to the stadium.”
The third major project slated for the port area is a new intermodal transportation center. This will combine a new railroad station, the Port Jefferson ferry terminal, a new high-speed commuter ferry to lower Manhattan, and a large parking facility.
Conroy also hopes to add water taxis to such destinations as the ballpark and the renovated Shakespeare Theater in Stratford. “A lot of people don't have boats,” Conroy notes. “They'll get a chance to see Connecticut from the water.”
Along with the development of the harbor as an entertainment and recreational destination, considerable other new commercial development is under way in Bridgeport. More traditional commercial and industrial use of the port itself is on the upswing.
Logistec, owner of the Coastline Terminal, is one of the ten top banana importers in the country. Riccio reports that it is doing very well. Freimuth adds that the oyster and lobster beds right offshore are more prolific than in recent years, and that these seafood products are now being regularly shipped to such international destinations as Japan. A major new newspaper recycling facility, to be operated by Connecticut Newsprint, LLC, is planned for a site on the harbor opposite Harbour Place. Riccio describes the proposed plant as a “very clean, modern facility” that would create 130 to 150 new jobs and generate millions in tax revenue. “All signs look very, very positive as to whether it's a go or not,” says Riccio.
Just north of the harbor in downtown, the Polka Dot Theater recently moved in. According to Freimuth, the city is also assembling property around the old Poli Theater to create an entertainment and education center.
Since opening its new downtown facility in January 1997, Housatonic Community College reports that enrollments are up 25 percent. The Days Inn near the school will be coming down, and a new, student-focused retail center created in its place, Freimuth says.
There is also significant new industrial development in the city's West End. The old 400,000-square-foot Bryant building has been razed and new construction is beginning on the site. There will be a new 70,000-square-foot, $8 million wholesale Chaves Bakery. Bodine is about to undertake a major expansion. A new West End police station is under construction. Two other parcels have likewise attracted development interest, according to Freimuth.
Across town, in the East End, Bridgeport Hospital has been a significant player in new development. Its own major new renovation helped spur the hospital's involvement in the surrounding community.
“One of the things we were looking at was how do people get here,” says Robert Trefry, Bridgeport Hospital's president and CEO. “We were looking at access routes into the hospital and to other businesses. We got together with other businesses in the area.”
This was the beginning, some three years ago, of the Seaview Avenue Business Alliance, which includes Magatech, Syntex and Lacey, as well as Bridgeport Hospital. Since the group's formation, a number of dilapidated buildings in the East End have been torn down and the police have placed a new emphasis on the neighborhood.
“We've seen the crime rate go down,” Trefry acknowledges. Lacey, a biomed instrument firm, is undergoing a major expansion. Trefry also now heads up the Seaview Avenue Corridor Project, which is seeking ways to connect the Dupont parcel in the Lake Success area to I-95 so that the property can be developed as a site for new businesses.
There has also been substantial activity along the Rt. 8/Rt. 25 corridor. A new Home Depot and a new Shaw's both opened recently, both projects of United Properties, a major area real-estate developer. “We've been in Bridgeport for 35 years,” says United partner Al Lenoci Jr.
In just the last four years his firm has spent $60 million, and plans to spend another $75 million over the coming three years. “We're helping to redevelop Bridgeport,” Lenoci explains. “We see Bridgeport as coming back.”
Other United projects include the recently opened CVS Plaza on Main Street, the National Amusement cinemas in Black Rock, Bridgeport's first multiplex movie theater, and a new Super Stop & Shop slated to open August 15. Lenoci says there are four or five additional projects in the planning stages.
Michael Freimuth reports that the housing market is also beginning to reflect the Park City's turnaround. Housing prices have appreciated six to ten percent, and one can begin to see housing starts and new construction.
“When you drive through the city,” notes Trefry, “now you see children playing on playgrounds. It's a whole different atmosphere than six or eight years ago.”
What's more, Bridgeport has plans to ensure that the recent development mini-boom continues. “We've just finished putting together a recruitment and marketing plan with the Connecticut Economic Resource Center [CERC],” says Paul Timpanelli, president and CEO of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council. “The city has not been in a condition to attract new industry for the last ten years,” he explains. “But a recruitment plan is now timely.”
Approximately $750,000 a year will be spent over the next three years on targeted mailings, advertising, site visitations and the like. The kinds of industries that will be targeted include precision manufacturing, arts and entertainment, medical instrumentation, financial services, computer services and telecommunications.
With its history of precision manufacturing and its affordably priced real estate, Bridgeport is starting to define its own unique niche in the state economic picture.
“We're not trying to be a Fortune 500 marketplace,” says Freimuth. “The city is still 23- to 24-percent industrial. We have some 400 manufacturers here. We look at what the rest of the county doesn't want or can't price.
“Industry has been priced out of Norwalk and Stamford,” Freimuth adds. “We've got to be smart and take that and grab it, as well as grow what we have.”
Whether that will be as Connecticut's new “mini-Baltimore” or as a resurrected industrial center, one thing is certain: Bridgeport is definitely on the rebound.
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