Middletown is considering a tax abatement for a downtown property, as a new developer takes over a long-stalled project at the site. According to the tax abatement proposal, ES Goodman LLC is purchasing the property, at 339 Main St., for a reported price of $2.1 million from New Haven-based Upscale Construction. Upscale bought the property […]
Middletown is considering a tax abatement for a downtown property, as a new developer takes over a long-stalled project at the site.
According to the tax abatement proposal, ES Goodman LLC is purchasing the property, at 339 Main St., for a reported price of $2.1 million from New Haven-based Upscale Construction.
Upscale bought the property — the former Bob’s Surplus store — in 2022 and has spent several years and $1.3 million trying to redevelop the 50,000-square-foot, mixed-use building into 42 market-rate residential units.
But it put the property up for sale in June of this year.
ES Goodman, which is controlled by principal Eric Goodman of Mystic, says it will largely maintain the approved plans, with “modest” adjustments to reduce the number of residential units and reconfigure a commercial space on the ground floor to accommodate a high-demand café/bakery. The second commercial space is currently occupied by the long-established La Boca restaurant.
The company says the project is not financially viable without tax incentive support.
Middletown officials are proposing to phase in the tax assessment on the building over eight years after the completion of the development. No tax will be assessed during the first two years of operation once the units are leased. After that, the tax liability will be phased in over the following six years. The base assessment for the building will not change over the phase-in period.
The town’s economic development committee will consider the proposal at a meeting Tuesday evening.
Mystic-based ES Goodman was founded in 2019. It has completed several major projects in shoreline towns including Mystic, East Lyme, Niantic and Groton.
