Greenwich Housing Authority Plans Renovation, Expansion of Armstrong Court Apartments

A top to bottom renovation and expansion of one of Greenwich’s first public housing complexes was unveiled Friday at the meeting of the Board of Selectmen who must approve a Municipal Improvement status for the project to proceed.

Built back in 1954, the 144-unit complex on Hamilton Avenue — located between Booth Place and the Bimbo Bakeries complex on Hamilton Avenue — is scheduled for a complete renovation that will involve relocation of residents and the creation of 51 new housing units for senior citizens.

The Greenwich Housing Authority is seeking municipal improvement status from the selectmen so it can then proceed to the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Representative Town Meeting, approvals which would then allow the authority to apply for state funding for the project early next year, according to housing authority officials. However, at the selectmen’s meeting Friday, housing authority officials did not disclose the total cost of the project that will involve several phases over a number of years.

The project requires town approval to provide an easement for a driveway onto Booth Place that would access the proposed 51 elderly housing units that would be located towards the rear of the property near the Head Start school, officials said.

The selectmen will accept public comment on the proposal until its Nov. 6 meeting when the board is expected to vote on the municipal improvement designation request, First Selectman Peter Tesei said.

According to Housing Authority Commissioner George Yankovich, the first phase would involve construction of six new three-unit buildings adjacent to the stone wall and outcropping that fronts Hamilton Avenue. Residents in existing apartments would be relocated to those units to make way for major reconstruction of apartments to create two- and three-bedroom units in the complex that was built in 1954, Yankovich said.

He said that all units in the complex will be gutted and outfitted with new electrical, plumbing, heating services, as well as new kitchens and creating new bathrooms in the expanded units. The existing buildings would get new facades as well.

Tesei said, “Conceptually this is excellent and I applaud the Housing Authority for taking the lead for funding. That facility is constituted as the face of our public housing.” He also questioned whether the Housing Authority would conduct soil testing on the site. “As you’re going to be excavating in a very sensitive area, where we’ve had a dump, the issue du jour is sendimentation. Wiill there be any testing ahead?,” Tesei asked.

Yankovich said testing of the property that borders the town’s transfer station property that’s located on Holly HIll Lane was being done on Friday.

According to Yankovich, the project calls for a total of 150 family apartment that are either two- or three-bedrooms and the 51 apartments for senior citizens.

Contributed photos: artists renderings of Armstrong Court proposal.

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