Updated 10:13 a.m.: Copy edits
NORWALK, Conn. – The fate of the Garden Cinema and the proposed Wall Street-West Avenue Neighborhood Plan issue are set to merge Tuesday evening in Norwalk City Hall, and at least one person plans protest activities.
Wall Street area real estate owner Jason Milligan said he’s working to recruit people to attend the Common Council meeting where the Wall-West plan is expected to be voted upon, and bring both a bullhorn and a sign saying, “Save the Garden Cinema.”
“Fireworks at city hall tomorrow,” Milligan wrote in a midnight text message.
Milligan is being sued by the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency and the City of Norwalk because he bought properties that were designated as part of “POKO” phase II and III, without Redevelopment Agency approval, as was required by the Land Disposition Agreement for the properties.
Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Tim Sheehan revealed in testimony last week that a plan has been developed to restart the stalled “POKO” phase I, which will be discussed in executive sessions this month and then revealed to the public, if the Council and Redevelopment Agency Commissioners agree to the terms.
Milligan in August said that JHM Group, the expected redeveloper of POKO phase I, officially referred to as Wall Street Place phase I, was attempting to buy the Garden Cinema.
The Cinema property could be used to provide parking for phase I. You might think that Phase I would already have enough parking because it was approved by the Zoning Commission, but the Commission in 2016 allowed POKO Partners to move some of the parking spaces to its Phase II properties. Then construction halted due to cost overruns, a shortage of funds, and the illness of the late POKO principal Ken Olson, and Citibank foreclosed on the project. Richard Olson retained the phase II and III properties until he sold them to Milligan, separating critical parking needed to complete phase I. Now that Citibank doesn’t own the properties, it reportedly needs to find room for parking elsewhere.
NancyOnNorwalk asked City officials last week if the Garden Cinema is part of the plan being presented to the Council and Redevelopment Agency.
“Nothing is finalized yet and with ongoing negotiations, we cannot comment further,” Norwalk Communications Manager Joshua Morgan replied.
Wall-West
Tuesday’s Council vote is on the proposed Wall Street-West Avenue Neighborhood Plan, not the tax incentives associated with it, Ordinance Committee Chairwoman Eloisa Melendez (D-District A) confirmed Monday.
A copy of the plan is not included in the Council packet available online. The draft available on the Redevelopment Agency’s webpage is dated October 2018. The link to the February update is not advertised on the webpage.
Council member Doug Hempstead (R-District D) said last week that he had received new amendments to the plan only a week and a half earlier.
Opponents are challenging the criteria used by Redevelopment as the legal foundation to justify the need for a redevelopment plan, a determination referred to early in the process as “blight” but now cited as “deteriorated or deteriorating” conditions.
Michael McGuire of the Austin McGuire Company, a commercial real estate company, on Monday emailed Council members “an analysis on the overall health of the real estate markets” of the area that would be covered by the plan.
Wall-West RE Market Analysis Summary
“Blight/deterioration, if actually present, would have to show up as sub-par performance reflected in essential market parameters such as rental rates and vacancy rates. None does. If anyone says differently, make sure to ask for their source, citations and analysis,” he wrote.
Redevelopment consultant RPA had originally cited the area as blighted; after Wall Street Theater operator Frank Farricker challenged the determination, Redevelopment engaged Harriman, formerly The Cecil Group, whose study stated that the area qualifies for designation as a redevelopment area.
That was “highly subjective work done be unqualified people with no valuation expertise,” McGuire wrote Monday, calling the determinations “unsupported claims” as opposed to his “solid empirical market data which I endorse as a court qualified (state and federal) valuation expert.”
“{T}he public was only aware of the blights data (RPA) in December 2018, and for the Harriman work February 13, less than 4 weeks ago,” McGuire wrote. “Replacing the flawed RPA report with the even more flawed Harriman report, and expecting the public to keep pace with these changes is unfair. Please consider this when voting tomorrow.”
Milligan complains that a second public hearing wasn’t held on the plan after it was revised in February, calling it “totally different” with the addition of 18 pages.
There’s been no change to the plan since January, Director of Community Development Planning Tami Strauss said Thursday. Appendixes have been combined to reflect the initial blight analysis and the second analysis showing the “deteriorated or deteriorating” conditions, she said.
Milligan and McGuire have made repeated pitches to the Council Planning Committee on this topic, airing their concerns. The Committee on Thursday voted 6-0-1 to move the plan ahead to the full Council, with Hempstead abstaining on the grounds that he hadn’t had much time to review the current version.
Strauss addressed the accusation that the plan is being “fast tracked” by noting that work on it began in late 2017 and the Planning Committee has met publicly seven times to discuss it, beginning in February 2018.
Planning Committee Chairman John Kydes (D-District C) asked Straus to explain why a plan is needed.
“This neighborhood has seen some development and infrastructure improvements over the last 10 years yet it still does not exhibit the signs of a healthy urban environment, economically, physically, or socially,” she replied. “Despite the addition of apartments and the presence of major employers in the area, the population density is too low for a healthy urban environment. There are highly visible sites that are not built out to their highest and best use. There is significant commercial and ground floor vacancies and there is a lack of appropriate urban amenities, with a lack of connectivity – parks aren’t built out.”
“This plan sets forth the vision of participating stakeholders for how the plan area should be built over the next 10 years,” Straus said.
Garden Cinema
JHM, otherwise called “McClutchy” because it’s owned by John and Todd McClutchy, has a contract on the Garden Cinema for $3 million, Milligan said Monday.
“It is coming down if McClutchy gets it,” he wrote.
Milligan, a real estate broker who owns at least 19 properties in the Wall Street area, said he confirmed the Cinema is still under contract to JHM two weeks ago, when he tried to broker a deal for a client who wanted to buy the theater and donate it to a nonprofit.
Sheehan in court last week testified that Milligan caused irreparable harm to Norwalk when he bought the Phase II properties, because Citibank expected that it could “exercise its interest” in the properties to provide parking for Phase I.
Milligan on Monday called the idea that he is partially responsible for the possible demolition of the Garden Cinema “ridiculous.”
The Land Disposition Agreement does not grant Phase I the right to use Phase II for parking purposes, he said. Thus there’s a disparity in Norwalk approvals, according to court testimony that Zoning approved POKO’s request to move the parking without notifying the Redevelopment Agency.
“They f—- up beyond belief and they are trying to blame others,” he wrote. “Through a combination of incompetence and deceit the players screwed the citizens of Norwalk with POKO.”
Milligan said he’d be wearing a Tyvek sweatshirt Tuesday, and needs a bullhorn so he can be heard inside and out.
“I hope a large turnout,” Milligan wrote. “The short notice is a killer.”
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