Naugatuck Gets Close to $1 Million for Downtown Environmental Cleanup

Naugatuck will receive close to $1 million to clean up a contaminated former industrial property downtown that the borough plans to buy this week.

State officials announced Monday that Naugatuck is among six municipalities to receive money for brownfield redevelopment for "blighted sites that have tremendous potential for commerce, housing and retail that will create jobs," Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a news release. 

"With the right investment, these properties can bolster our economy and add to our quality of life," he said.

The state awarded a total of $6.5 million to Bridgeport, Naugatuck, Newington, North Haven, Plainville and Trumbull through the Department of Economic and Community Development. In Naugatuck, $975,000 will go toward remediating some of the 11.7 acres at 6 Rubber Ave., the site where the General DataComm. property currently sits. Naugatuck officials have agreed to purchase the 400,000-square-foot GDC building and land for $2 million and are supposed to close on the deal this week.

The news release from the state indicates that the total cost of cleanup on the site, which used to be owned by Uniroyal, will be $2.4 million and that the land will be converted into a mixed-use development that meets transit-oriented development and sustainable criteria.

Naugatuck will soon be soliciting proposals from developers for that site. Officials hope development of that land will revitalize a struggling downtown. 

Naugatuck Mayor Bob Mezzo said the total cost of remediation is not set in stone because Naugatuck has yet to receive a firm development site plan for the area. 

"We do know that certain areas (of contamination) will need to be addressed regardless of what the site plan is and that is why we sought funding from the state and federal government," he said.

He said Naugatuck has a strong relationship with Malloy, DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith and the borough's delegation of representatives and senators whom he said "realize that job creation, the potential for tax revenue and revitalization are very real possibilities" for the GDC site. 

"Clearly these dollars are going to make it more marketable for private developers and this represents another commitment to assisting in downtown revitalization based on tranisit oriented smart growth principles," Mezzo said.

Naugatuck's two state senators, Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury and Joseph Crisco, D-Woodbridge, and its representatives, David Labriola, R-Oxford and Rosa Rebimbas, R-Naugatuck, thanked Malloy and DECD in separate press releases Monday. 

Smith said that in the last year, DECD has awarded more than $34 million to clean up polluted sites in communities throughout Connecticut — an investment that has leveraged about $480 million in private and federal funding to revitalize local economies and restore community assets.

For more information about the application process or other brownfield redevelopment programs visit www.ctbrownfields.gov.