🔒CT allowed the formation of brownfield land banks in 2017; one has helped redevelop a long-polluted Southington property

A fire-scarred and polluted 1.6-acre site along busy Route 10 in Southington resisted development for decades but has recently transformed into two retail buildings hosting an eye doctor, jewelry store, cookie maker and more.

While not a huge project, the nearly $5 million North Main Street redevelopment is significant because it’s an example of the broader steps the state has taken in recent years to encourage and invest in brownfield redevelopment.

That includes state lawmakers’ 2017 passage of legislation that allows for the creation of brownfield land banks, which can take possession of polluted sites — and the accompanying liability for their environmental waste — and work to clean them up to a point developers are willing to take them on.

So far, three brownfield land banks have formed in the state, according to the Department of Economic and Community Development.

The Southington property was the first acquired by the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank Inc., which is managed by staff at the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

The property has since been redeveloped by Southington-based Lovley Development into two retail buildings.

One of the buildings — a 7,120-square-foot retail property at 318 North Main St. — recently sold to Dr. Farid Shafik for $1.6 million. Shafik will move his ophthalmology practice to the building, which has three retail bays.

Mark Lovley, head of Lovley Development, said he’s retaining ownership of the other 7,860-square-foot building at 316 North Main St., which hosts a day care, two medical spas and a nonprofit educational office.

Lovley, who received a 10-year tax abatement to make the project pencil out, was the only one to respond nearly a decade ago to a town RFP seeking a development partner for the polluted site.

Lovley said construction cost $3.5 million, not including environmental remediation.

The roughly $1.3 million cleanup began in 2022. Building construction launched last year. Tenant fit outs are nearly complete. Lovley expects to have the final fit out — for cookie and ice cream shop Cookie Ranger — completed by the end of September.

“It was eight years of my life,” Lovley said of the redevelopment effort. “There was a lot of work involved. It had been a blighted site for more than 20 years. It’s nice to see it cleaned up. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback.”

A complex history

The North Main Street property has a long history of manufacturing use, which contributed to it becoming a brownfield site.

The Aetna Match Co. manufactured at the property during the late 1800s, according to an environmental assessment by consultant Arcadis. From 1900 through 1989, manufacturer Beaton & Corbin used the property to make ceiling and floor plates, as well as plumbing fixtures and fittings.

Metal hydroxide plating sludge, plating waste, machine oils and degreasing agents were disposed of in two lagoons. Storage tanks held oil, gas, liquid waste and raw chemicals. Concrete pits were used as settling basins for wastewater treatment that ultimately discharged into the nearby Quinnipiac River.

In 2003, a fire at the abandoned site destroyed a 25,000-square-foot building, leaving behind three dilapidated sheds, a concrete bunker with a 10,000-gallon fuel oil tank, other tanks and a boiler room.

Pullman & Comley attorney Gary O’Connor, who worked with the Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, said the site threw a few curveballs.

Southington enlisted Lovley before the property was in the hands of a land bank. That meant complex three-party agreements spelling out responsibilities, O’Connor noted. There was also a lack of land records documenting the property transfer from Aetna to Beaton & Corbin, which had to be sorted out in court.

And, the pandemic hit just as the town filed to foreclose on the property, resulting in further delay as the state shut down courtrooms and imposed a foreclosure moratorium.

“This property, although it’s not huge, it was like a law school exam,” O’Connor said. “We had to correct the liens. We had to correct the defects in title.”

Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments Executive Director Rick Dunne said his organization provided a $400,000 no-interest loan toward the cleanup. The state chipped in a roughly $600,000 brownfield remediation grant.

The land bank oversaw the cleanup and, once cleared through the state process, transferred the property to Lovley, Dunne said.

“It allows a developer to build on a contaminated site that had remained abandoned for years and probably would have been abandoned forever without this program,” Dunne said.

Southington Economic Development Director Louis A. Perillo III said the town was able to secure another $200,000 state environmental cleanup grant after a cesspool was discovered.

The project creates jobs and eliminates a long-standing eyesore, Perillo noted. It also eliminates potential pollution into the nearby Quinnipiac River, he said.

“We’ve been trying as a town to clean up that site for 30 years,” Perillo said. “Having it cleaned up was very important to our community.”