The Connecticut Department of Transportation will build a new rail station in Windsor Locks after receiving a $17.4 million federal grant, officials said.
“Up and down the Hartford Line, towns like Windsor Locks have engaged in aggressive planning around the train stations to maximize the economic energy created by the investment in this train service,” said Gov. Ned Lamont in announcing the grant.
The new station will be located in Windsor Locks’ downtown area, about a mile north of a platform that currently serves as a stop on CTrail’s Hartford Line. It will sit next door to the $64-million, 160-unit Montgomery Mill apartment redevelopment that debuted in August.
Windsor Locks Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Rodriguez said in December that the Montgomery Mill project was partially meant to encourage DOT to build a train station nearby, but it’s demonstrating other benefits.
Additionally, the town recently selected a development group — Windsor Locks TOD LLC, led by project manager Todd McClutchy of Stamford-based JHM Group of Cos. — to lead the conceptual planning of a mixed-use development on Main Street near where the train station would be built. The area is known as Windsor Locks Commons.
The development group proposed a multi-phased project that would include construction of one or two, four-story buildings with 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of commercial space and up to 70 residential units.
The town also proposed fixing a retaining wall and developing a parcel across the street from the Commons into another mixed-use building and parking garage, but no developer has officially expressed interest in that project.
In addition to CTDOT, other agencies that worked on funding for the Windsor Locks train station include the Department of Economic and Community Development, the Department of Housing, and the Office of Policy and Management, through its Responsible Growth Grant Program, a statement from Lamont’s office said. Windsor Locks also received a Community Connectivity grant from CTDOT for $321,949, for pedestrian improvements.
Lamont’s original CT2030 transportation investment plan, which included tolling cars and trucks in 14 locations, was soundly rejected by Republicans and Democrats, which forced him to scale down the plan to a trucks-only tolling option he said would have raised $187 million in annual revenue, helping to finance $19.4 billion in transportation improvements over a decade.
But Lamont abandoned that plan after Democrats dragged their feet on a tolls vote last month.
