A preliminary master plan for the Business Park North in Norwich calls for 1.9 million square feet of commercial development including warehouse, distribution and flex space on 384 acres next to Interstate 395. Image courtesy of Bohler Engineering
Norwich economic development officials view nearly 400 acres of undeveloped land off Interstate 395 as an untapped opportunity to expand the city’s commercial tax base and provide a new source of jobs in emerging industry.
The vision: a 1.9 million-square-foot “Business Park North” positioned to attract industrial tenants such as wind energy component manufacturers as New London’s State Pier is repositioned to stage off-shore wind turbine projects.
But after nearly three hours of overwhelmingly negative public comments Monday, the Norwich City Council continued a public hearing until Dec. 19 on a proposed zoning change creating a master plan business district zone for the property. The council also functions as the city’s zoning board.
Dozens of residents raised concerns about loss of wildlife habitat, increased truck traffic on local roads, the effects of 80-foot building heights on abutters’ properties and insufficient public outreach.
The decision to continue the public hearing and delay a rezoning vote throws into question the Norwich Community Development Corp.’s proposed acquisition of the property. At the agency’s meeting this Thursday, directors are scheduled to vote whether to authorize NCDC President Kevin Brown to execute a $3.1-million first mortgage with Braavos Lending LLC for the $3.55 million acquisition, according to an agenda posting.
“If you decide to take a pass on this zoning change we end up with a much less attractive parcel,” Brown told councilors at the outset of the public hearing.
Brown did not respond to messages from The Commercial Record.
Previous Proposal Included Condos, Golf Course
The 17 parcels total 384 acres of former farmland and are Norwich’s largest undeveloped potential development site. A Long Island developer, Byron Brook Country Club LLC, submitted a series of proposals in the early 2000s for a golf course and multifamily development at the site, which stretches from Route 97 to the Lawler Lane overpass on Interstate 395.
One version included close to 700 condos and apartments, but the project was scrapped during the Great Recession.
Still the property owner, Byron Brook has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the Norwich Community Development Corp.
The nonprofit development corporation zeroed in on the former farmland in the northeast corner of the city as the preferred location for the “Business Park North” because of its adjacency to Interstate 395. The NCDC proposes a connector road from the Route 97 off-ramp from Interstate 395 directly onto the property, and construction of a 7,700-foot-long east-west access road across the property. The agency plans to seek a grant from Connecticut’s Community Investment Fund for the $24-million road project.
A market analysis compiled by consultants RKG Associates recommends eight development sites with a total buildout of 1.1 million square feet on 108 acres during phase one of the project, including flex, warehouse, manufacturing and distribution space.
The Norwich-New London submarket contains 5.1 million square feet of industrial properties 10,000 square feet or larger, according to real estate researcher REIS Inc. data, of which 2.7 million square feet are located in Norwich.
Commercial brokers interviewed by RKG Associates noted that there is no major industrial development activity on the Interstate 395 corridor other than a 202,000-square-foot Amazon warehouse in Putnam, according to the market analysis report. Brokers said the market is underserved in availability of modern industrial inventory.
A game-changer could emerge in the $255-million repositioning of New London’s State Pier to support staging of offshore wind turbines and generate jobs at related businesses in the second Norwich business park, RKG stated.
Limited Sites for Expanding Tax Base
At $41.83 per $1,000 of assessed value, Norwich’s fiscal 2022 property taxes are the highest in New London County, according to data compiled by the state Office of Policy and Management.
Norwich’s existing industrial park, the 450-acre Stanley Israelite Business Park in the city’s Yantic section, was originally developed beginning in the 1960s and is virtually at capacity. The Israelite Business Park accounts for 5 percent of the city’s tax revenues, according to data on the NCDC’s web site.
But at Monday’s public hearing, several residents questioned the need for a second park, arguing that many of the existing park’s buildings are vacant or below capacity.
The former mill town of 40,000 has struggled to attract large-scale commercial development in recent decades. The local labor force has transitioned since the 1990s from a reliance on defense industry jobs at the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton to service industry jobs at the native American casinos in Montville and Ledyard. Many of the casino industry employees live in Norwich, where rentals comprise 47 percent of the housing stock with average rents of $1,058 from 2016 to 2020, according to American Community Survey data.
Norwich’s unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in 2019 exceeded the county average before the COVID-19 pandemic sent it soaring to 14 percent in 2020. It stood at 4.6 percent in October, compared with the state average of 4 percent, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor.
At recent public meetings, local skeptics challenged the notion that the Israelite Park has no capacity for growth. The property includes the 6,270-seat Dodd Stadium, the former home of the Connecticut Defenders minor league baseball team before their relocation to Virginia in 2009. The lease with current tenant, the Norwich Sea Unicorns minor league baseball team, expires in May 2023, according to a report from The Day of New London.
