Image courtesy of Shaw Growth Ventures
Downtown Ansonia could soon shed its image as a local leader in distressed industrial real estate thanks to a $14 million multifamily project planned by Berne, New York-based Shaw Growth Ventures.
The phased, 300-unit project was enabled by a city vote last week to approve a package of tax incentives that will help Shaw pay for remediation of one of the properties involved, a former factory.
“We’re 6.4 square miles, so anything you do – and especially in the downtown where these buildings have been essentially fallow since the ’80s – you’re really going to make an impact on the entire city,” said Sheila O’Malley, economic development director for the city. “You’re bringing foot traffic downtown, you’re bringing potential customers downtown, you’re bringing development around the train station.”
Shaw was expected to file formal plans for its project at the end of the week, O’Malley said Wednesday, with a public hearing planned for February.
The project is made up of two city-owned parcels and one parcel Shaw already owns at 501 East Main St., all of them in the city’s downtown Opportunity Zone. The city parcels will make up the project’s first phase of between 90 and 100 units, while the Shaw-owned building will make up the second phase. The city parcels do not need remediation, but O’Malley said Shaw’s building needs around $500,000 of work to replace the roof and remove contaminants.
While Shaw hasn’t publicly named rents it would charge, O’Malley said, typical rents for the area are $1,200 for a two-bedroom apartment, while the nearby, 250-unit Avalon Shelton offers two-bedroom apartments for about $1,900 per month. Shaw hasn’t named the specific amenities it would offer tenants, but O’Malley said the city’s train station and burgeoning restaurant scene have attracted interest from developers who are investing elsewhere in the Naugatuck Valley. The city is also revamping another downtown building into a new police station, and a large sports facility is planned for a former factory site across the river from downtown.
O’Malley said Mayor David Cassetti helmed the process to secure tax incentives for the Shaw project. For its first six years, the project will pay no property taxes, followed by five years where taxes will be frozen at 2019 levels, followed by five more years where the taxes will be gradually stepped up to reflect the new, post-development value.
“The philosophy is get as many incentives as you can to offset the obstacles we have on our sites. We’ll continue to use whatever tools we have available to us to help bridge that gap,” O’Malley said. “Deals can’t be penciled in as easily as they can in Shelton.”
