A Home for Veterans in North Branford?

With President Obama's announcement that all soldiers in Iraq will be "home for the holidays," it comes as no surprise that the citizens they serve would want to make sure that every service man and woman has a home to come back to. 

Such citizens are the brains behind Heroes Villages, a company envisioned and created for the purpose of erecting affordable and dignified condominiums and apartments for the country's returning veterans. 

Vietnam veteran Antonio St. Lorenzo, born in Italy and raised in New York's Little Italy, is the CEO and Chief Veterans Affairs Officer of Heroes Village. Along with Chief Architect Anthony Pileggi and Chief Business and Legal Affairs Officer Sean Richardson, Lorenzo and his partners presented the Connecticut-based company's vision for a project in North Branford. 

Richardson addressed the North Branford Town Council at the Dec. 13 meeting.

"What we have propsoed for the council's consideration is to renovate the old schoolhouse [at 5099 Foxon Road] into four condominiums for sale strictly to the veterans," he said. "We want to re-use it and we believe we could sell below market price with the covenant that they would not just flip it and sell it to whomever. We only build with American-made materials and supplies. It's a modest size project for us, but we would be most pleased to undertake it at our expense."

The council's concern for the project is not only in the request to hand over a piece of property free of charge to a company that is for-profit, but also in whether or not the schoolhouse property would produce any substantial returns for the town, in addition to the veterans. 

Richardson explained that the company would take the "blighted" schoolhouse and renovate it at the company's cost, sell it under market price at around $200,000 to veterans, which would put the property back on the tax rolls for the town.

Councilman Vincent Caprio addressed the sale price, stating that it is too high for North Branford.

"I know what real estate goes for in this town," said Caprio, "and everything is $260,000 to $114,000. Your price is above most of the condos here."

"I am not looking to make money off of my veterans' blood, sweat and tears," clarified Lorenzo. "If I make one dollar, I'm happy. The point is to give them a dignified place to live."

The council expressed their desire to aid the veterans as well as benefit the town's taxpayers by considering another piece of property.

Deputy Mayor Alfred Rose added, "As a council member and a developer, everything we've seen, in all conceptual things we've seen, that school was knocked down. There's no value to that town meeting hall without the schoolhouse. The best thing is probably to knock down the rec center as well, then maybe you've got a commercial piece of peoprty that could be developed.

"I'm looking out for the taxpayers and veterans of North Branford," added Rose. "We should have been discussing this before you guys came here and I want to apologize on behalf of the town. I don't want to waste any more of your time."

Caprio suggested other pieces of land, including those being sold by the Water Authority as the schoolhouse area is one of the "few commercial pieces of property in this town that can be developed. Those pieces of land could bring in more for the tax payers." 

"We'd love to accommodate, we'd love to have them," said Caprio. "It would be great to work something out and make everyone happy, I'd love that, but we need more time to discuss it."

The project in North Branford is still in its conceptual stage. Other current projects by Heroes Villages are located in Rocky Hill and East Haven with future locations being considered in these areas. According to Richardson, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has said 90,000 are needed and Heroes Villages, LLC. is projected to build 30,000 units nationwide by 2015.