BRIDGEPORT — Honey Locust Square, the East End retail project that has run short of cash, may be getting a nearly $1 million boost from city officials to help complete it.
On Tuesday the City Council will consider a request from Mayor Ganim’s administration to spend $588,000 to help private contractor Anthony Stewart and his Ashlar Construction company continue to make progress on the delayed redevelopment project along Stratford Avenue.
“That will be a big help if I can get it,” Stewart told Hearst Connecticut Media.
In addition, according to a document forwarded to the council, City Hall has decided to put an additional $400,000 of the $110 million Bridgeport received in American Rescue Plan coronavirus relief toward that same cause. It will be labeled “small business assistance,” according to a memorandum from Finance Director Kenneth Flatto to the council.
“It’s a project that needs to be done and I’m hoping the council will support it,” said Councilman Ernie Newton, who represents the East End.
He noted Stewart, who grew up in the neighborhood, built much of his career outside of Bridgeport, and in recent years has sought to invest in the city, “Came back, put up his own money, and ran into problems because of the COVID.”
“When COVID hit, all the prices shot to the moon, so that’s what hurt him,” Newton said, echoing Stewart’s comments in previous interviews about cost increases and supply chain issues resulting from the global pandemic that struck Connecticut in March 2020.
Honey Locust Square, which includes a grocery store that residents have sought for years, a restaurant and other retail space, has experienced delays since Stewart was selected by the Ganim administration in 2018 to transform the dilapidated commercial block. Then this past August city officials revealed the project was also running out of money.
“He has enough funding in place to complete the shells of the buildings — to close them in,” William Coleman, deputy director of economic development, had told council members at the time. “But there’s gap in retrospect to the fit out, most particular in respect to the grocery (store).”
So the Ganim administration applied for $4.4 million from the state’s new Community Investment Fund, $2.4 million of that to make sure the market is fully equipped for a future tenant and to help finish off the other structures, and $2.2 million for streetscape and other exterior improvements.
But, the city was not awarded the grant when recipients were announced in November.
And Stewart said he now needs funds to enclose the buildings to protect them from the elements.
“Roofing. And I’ll board up the windows as we wait for the glass to come,” Stewart said. “The exteriors of the buildings are almost done. It’s the glass and the roof that I’m trying to do now. … It allows us to focus on working on the inside through the winter. … And six months from now all the interior will be done as well.”
Coleman in a statement Thursday confirmed, “The current need is relevant to completing the vertical construction. … Specifically, to close in the buildings so that the existing work will not be damaged and so that the interior fit-out work may continue in the winter.”
According to Flatto’s memorandum, the $588,000 will come out of $1 million the council had previously authorized for demolishing and cleaning up the old structures at the Stratford Avenue site to make way for Honey Locust Square.
Flatto wrote that the council is being asked to “expand and redefine” that initial approval so that unspent $588,000 balance can go toward “private development work.”
Coleman noted that Bridgeport is still going to reapply in January for the state dollars to assist Stewart as well.
“We feel they have a better understanding of the project than they may have had in the past and we are optimistic about our chances,” Coleman said of state economic development officials. “However, given that the state review process will still take some time, and given that the buildings are not yet closed in, we are effectively jumping in to bridge the funding gap so to keep the project moving through this critical period and to protect the investment that has been made.”
City Council President Aidee Nieves said she will support the proposal.
“It’s not like we’re giving him new money,” Nieves said. “We just have to change the language and the authorization. … This money was already voted on.”
But Nieves also criticized the Ganim administration for, she said, not bringing this solution forward back in the late summer. She noted how the agenda item for Tuesday’s council meeting is labeled “for immediate consideration” meaning it will be voted on immediately rather than vetted through the normal subcommittee process, which can take weeks and sometimes even a few months.
“We could have done this two and a half months ago,” Nieves said. “Back in August we knew this situation (with Stewart’s finances) was happening.”
Councilwoman Maria Valle, a co-chairman of the legislative body’s economic development committee, said she was unaware of the new effort to provide funding to Honey Locust Square and would need to learn more.
“It’s not our fault he (Stewart) fell short, right?” Valle said. “I have to hear why it happened, whose fault it was, and from there maybe we can make some decisions.”
It is not just the future of Honey Locust Square that is on the line but also Stewart’s own ability to work with the city on future public/private projects. He and a partner have been negotiating with the Ganim administration for two years to be the developers for another key municipal-owned parcel — the former AGI Rubber Co. factory at 141 Stratford Ave. on the outskirts of downtown.
Stewart is aiming to build a mixed-income apartment tower and restaurant there, but any redevelopment deal would require a council vote. And, Stewart earlier this year was at odds with the city’s library board over $500,000 in cost overruns after being hired to build the new Newfield branch adjacent to Honey Locust Square.
“I’m doing everything I can to do this project (Honey Locust Square) correctly and make it a beautiful building,” Stewart said. “It’s just hard. It’s expensive and it’s hard. I’m just doing my best.”