For generations, dating to before the Civil War, Cheshire’s Ball & Socket Manufacturing Co. factory churned out millions of metallic buttons and snap fasteners for clothing and uniforms, some of them rare and high-quality enough to be considered collectible.
A century-and-a-half later, three Cheshire natives have banded together to invest $2.8 million — $2.1 million of it a state loan and grant — to acquire, remediate and redevelop the idle 65,000-square-foot factory on 3.02 acres in the heart of the town’s West Main Street business district into cultural, performing arts and dining spaces.
By summer 2017, Jeffrey Guimond and his co-partners Kevin Daly and Ilona Somogyi envision opening the nonprofit Ball & Socket Art Center’s spaces to the public, Guimond said.
He says there are four reasons he and his ex-classmates (Cheshire High Class of ’86) are investing their time and money rehabilitating the building that has asbestos and other industrial-age solvent residues, some of which have leached into soil beneath the structure.
“Once you see it,” said Guimond, a chef, pianist and secretary of nonprofit Ball & Socket Arts, “you see how remarkably beautiful it is. It’s big but it’s not huge. And its location is ideal. The fourth reason is we all grew up [in Cheshire] and we love it.”
But the financial transaction involving the trio’s nonprofit and the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s brownfield redevelopment division plows fresh ground for another reason, said Hartford attorney John Bashaw, who represented the trio in DECD funding talks.
It shows, Bashaw said, that brownfield remediation projects are “not just for the developers of malls and housing projects.”
“Nonprofits can play a role in turning historically contaminated sites into productive use, where traditional redevelopment may not make sense,” the Reid and Riege P.C. lawyer said.
The Ball & Socket redo meshes with the town of Cheshire’s long-term vision for revitalizing its West Main Street district, which the button factory anchored for decades before closing in 1994, said Jerry Sitko, Cheshire’s economic development coordinator.
Rehabilitation of the Ball & Socket property is the final piece of that strategy, which includes laying sidewalk on the north side of West Main, from Grove Street to Maple Avenue, making it more pedestrian friendly.
“We’re putting all these elements together to make a West Main Street Village,” Sitko said. “We’re doing all we can to support this [Ball & Socket] project.”
The town got $1 million from the state for West Main streetscape improvements. The town’s other strategy is to complete about 4.5 miles of the Farmington Canal Greenway, from Cheshire to Southington. Work will begin on 1.8 miles of the trail this spring, Sitko said.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also paved way for redevelopment by reviewing and approving plans and permits for remediation of soil contaminants at the site, Bashaw said.
“To my knowledge,” he said, “this is one of the first times that the Connecticut DEEP is using a comprehensive permitting program to address all federal and state environmental cleanup requirements for a relatively small parcel that is being owned by a nonprofit. To date, these stewardship permits have been used at much larger, commercial facilities.”
Many of the other remediation projects involving DECD have focused on adaptive reuse in former textile mills sites throughout the state into commercial and housing space.
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S. Green/Hartford listing
A historic home turned office building in Hartford’s South Green neighborhood is on the sales block with a $700,000 asking price.
The three-story brick building at 49-51 Wethersfield Ave., adjacent to Colt Park, has 7,088 square feet on the upper floors and 2,752 square feet of basement storage.
Among its many interior-exterior details are a columned front entry; fireplaces with mantels, wainscotings, wood floors and cornice and crown moldings. The 0.348-acre site also has secure parking for 28 vehicles.
Reno Properties Group LLC has the listing for the building it says is ideally suited for an accounting or legal practice, or as offices for a nonprofit organization.
Gregory Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
