NORWALK, Conn. – The time was Fall 2011. The place, Norwalk, Conn.
Business was booming. The recession was over. The city was beginning to spring back to life.
Roads were being paved. Potholes disappeared. And, every few weeks, it seemed, there was another promise fulfilled, another exciting beginning.
Another groundbreaking.
Development was back, and in a big way. At least that was the message being delivered to Norwalk’s voters less than two months before they were to choose between incumbent Republican Mayor Richard Moccia and his Democratic challenger, incumbent Town Clerk Andy Garfunkel.
On Sept. 9, 2011, it was all about Wall Street Place, the project that was supposed to revive downtown Norwalk. Moccia, state Sen. Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), Norwalk Redevelopment Agency Chairman Emil Albanese and POKO Partners Managing Partner Kenneth Olson donned hard hats and grabbed their special shovels and posed in front of 61-65 Wall St. On the wall was a Demolition notice.
“A new era for Wall St.” proclaimed the headline in the Norwalk Citizen. Finally, Wall Street would rise from the ashes. There would be 390 apartments, 70,000 square feet of retail space and 900 parking spaces.
The Hour headline said POKO had 36 months to complete Phase One, which calls for 101 apartments, 236 parking spaces, and 16,182 square feet of retail space, the story said.
And we all know how that turned out. And for those who might be tuning in late, nothing has happened. Not a thing. Nada. Except, of course, for the complaints from zoning commissioners about the weeds.
On Sept 21, about six weeks before the election, Moccia, Common Council member Doug Hempstead and various developers and financial types gathered on West Avenue for a festive event, again with the hard hats and golden shovels.
A story on The Daily Voice by then-Voice reporter Nancy Guenther Chapman described the scene:
“About 40 to 50 people attended the celebration, enjoying light refreshments under a tent before moving to the open air of what had been a topsoil-screening business to watch as city officials and project-backers shoveled dirt that had been spread for the occasion.”
The Hour’s Robert Koch a bit more optimistically wrote “About 100 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony alongside a tent pitched off Merwin Street in what was once the parking lot of the Bigelow Tea Co.” He went on to say the site plan for the first phase had been approved July 20, calling for “325 apartments, 33,654 square feet of retail, 11,550 square feet of restaurant space and a 626-space parking garage in the area bounded by West Avenue, Merwin and Orchard streets.”
Above the story ran the headline: Construction of Waypointe to begin by year’s end.
Demolition of the buildings started in February 2012, and the building is taking shape nicely.
Still time for one more before the Nov. 8, 2011, election.
On Oct. 13, the Men at Work in business suits jumped into action down the road apiece on West Avenue to break ground for District 95/7. Moccia, Albanese, Duff and State Rep. Bruce Morris (D-Norwalk) joined Spinnaker CEO Clayton Fowler in the celebration.
“We’ve just recently been approved for the first building in a complex of buildings that we’ve named 95/7 — a 232-unit apartment building with about 24,000 feet of retail. There will be four floors and covered parking, with about 312 spaces on the 2.7-acre parcel behind us,” Fowler said pointing to the construction site.”
Years of delays had been attributed to the economic collapse, but now, things were ready to move ahead.
Citizen editor Nicole Rivard quoted Moccia:
“We’ve all weathered the difficult economic times. The people of Norwalk have driven by here for a long time saying, `When is something going to happen?’ Well, today something is going to happen,” Moccia said.”
Today, people continue to drive by and ask that very same question.
In March 2013, Spinnaker won a fifth one-year extension on its agreement with the city to build the first phase of 95/7. In August, Spinnaker obtained a foundation permit. Since then, there has been no activity, and repeated attempts to contact Spinnaker to find out when construction will begin have gone unanswered.
Gotta love campaign season. Three groundbreakings. Two years later, one development that is actually happening, two stalled. Why were those two goundbreakings held again?
There will likely be no surprise announcement on the Main Avenue parcel that was to have housed BJ’s Wholesale Club. But there is still time for something to be done about, say, the nightmare that is East Avenue between Cottage Street and Seaview Avenue.
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