New London sells slice of Fort Trumbull to developer
Feb. 11—NEW LONDON — As of Wednesday, the city is no longer the only landowner on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
Optimus Construction Management has purchased four acres of land where it intends to construct 104 residential units and a hotel with extended stay suites, Renaissance City Development Association Executive Director Peter Davis said. Optimus last year agreed to a $750,000 purchase price for the land — parcels 2A, 2B and 2C — as part of an approved development agreement.
The New Bedford, Mass., company is poised to start the first new construction on the peninsula in more than two decades. The property is located off of East Street, adjacent to the U.S. Coast Guard station and the Fort Trumbull Riverwalk. A timeline for the construction is unclear.
It's an area that was cleared of homes and businesses as part of a plan developed by the city and its development arm, New London Development Corporation, the predecessor of the RCDA, in the late 1990s to help jump-start economic development in association with the construction of Pfizer's research headquarters. The opposition from a handful of property owners refusing to sell led to the landmark 2005 decision in the U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. New London. The court ruled in favor of New London and its use of eminent domain to seize the properties. The pink cottage owned by Susette Kelo, lead plaintiff in the case, was on East Street.
The land has been vacant since Kelo's home was relocated and the other homes were condemned and demolished.
Linda Mariani, president of the RCDA, said the timing is ripe for new development in light of all the new hires at Electric Boat's nearby facility. "I think the taint from eminent domain maybe is not quite being felt as sorely as it was way back," she said. "People just want to see something done now."
Kathleen Mitchell, a former member of the Coalition to Save Fort Trumbull, was among protesters arrested for trying to interfere with the incoming excavators in the early days of the fight against eminent domain.
"The truth of the matter is Fort Trumbull meant a lot to us at the time," she said. "We fought as hard as we could. We got it to the Supreme Court."
And with the court's decision, dozens of states passed laws restricting use of eminent domain.
"But we can't keep that property empty. We have to do something with it," Mitchell said. "It's not a shrine."
While she is not opposed to a taxpaying development that will ease the tax burden for residents, Mitchell said she is against the city's plans to build a $30 million community center at Fort Trumbull. The facility, she said, will take up land that could be generating taxes.
Bill Von Winkle, who owned several properties in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood and was a plaintiff in the Kelo case, congratulated the RCDA for its recent progress. "They're doing a helluva job. It took a long, long time," he said. "It's time to try and build something to get the taxes rolling."
Von Winkle said he didn't give up his properties until 2006, after the Supreme Court case, and still thinks the compensation he received wasn't enough. "They treated us like we should just get out of the way," he said of the NLDC. "It's a different town now."
He showed his support for the RCDA with a banner hanging at one of his rental properties at 225 Shaw St. It reads "Thank you Peter Davis and the RCDA Crew for getting it done!"
The bulk of the proceeds from the sale of the property, $400,000, will support the $600,000 settlement agreement with Westport-based Riverbank Construction. That settlement was reached in 2019 after three years of legal wrangling that had frozen development opportunities for the land.
The long-pending lawsuit, filed by the father and son team of Robert and Irwin Stillman in 2016, claimed a breach of contract over their stalled plans for a 104-unit residential development called Village on The Thames on four parcels at Fort Trumbull.
Riverbank had a development agreement with the NLDC, but was found to be in default of its agreement over terms of the financing for the project. Riverbank argued it had spent in excess of $2 million for development of its plans, local permits and approvals.
A representative from Riverbank was not immediately available for comment for this report.
New London Mayor Michael Passero notified the City Council of the sale in an email on Wednesday.
"I wish to express my deep appreciation and congratulations to the City's Development Corporation, RCDA, and its Director, Peter Davis, for working diligently to finalize the settlement with Riverbank and for their persistent effort to achieve the vision of redeveloping the Fort Trumbull (peninsula)," it said. "It will be exciting to see the Optimist project make history as the first commercial development on the Fort Trumbull (peninsula) since the redevelopment effort began over 22 years ago."
