Kory Loucks
Journal Inquirer
October 11, 2010
SOUTH WINDSOR — The push is on to get the first phase of the $50 million Connecticut Studios project started by year-end, officials have said.
Those efforts include adding the project to the town’s 2003 I-291 Corridor District Municipal Project Development Plan and obtaining approval from the state’s Office of Policy and Management under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act, town Economic Development Coordinator Craig Stevenson said Wednesday during a Redevelopment Agency meeting at Town Hall.
“We followed all those requirements but didn’t receive approval from CEPA because there was no project,” Stevenson said.
In order to receive the green light under the environmental act and move ahead with the tax incremental financing, which is part of the complex financing package funding the project, Stevenson said that officials must update the Interstate 291 plan “and add some specificity about the Connecticut Studios project,” which the town’s bond lawyer said is important.
The tax incremental financing bonds are one part of the funding package that would pay private investors 80 percent of future property taxes, with 20 percent going to the town.
Galligan said that 100 percent of the personal property taxes would go to the town, which initially would be between $300,000 and $500,000, with a potential of more than $600,000 once the project is fully operational.
The tax incremental financing bonds would be backed by revenue from Connecticut Studios, Galligan said, with no risk to the town.
The funds raised from the bonds would go to infrastructure costs, including roads, storm water drains, and sanitary sewer lines, Galligan said.
The Connecticut Studios project is going to be rolled out in two phases, with the first phase to include four sound stages in two 40,000-square-foot buildings, a 13,575-square-foot television studio, and a 73,500-square-foot mill building on approximately 40 acres.
The second phase will include additional studios, restaurants, retail, and a 150-room hotel. Stevenson said developers have a letter of intent from a hotel.
One of the reasons for the push, Galligan said, is that crews need to break ground before new state officials are seated in January, following next month’s election.
“If they don’t get in the ground by December or January, the 20 percent construction credits for the studio” might be at risk, Galligan said.
Officials also want to get the project moving so the bonding prospectus packages can go out before Thanksgiving.
The underwriters for the bonds are Stone & Youngberg LLC, a financial services firm with headquarters in San Francisco and East Coast offices in Albany, N.Y., and Maryland, along with MuniCap Inc., a public finance consulting firm headquartered in Maryland.
Stone & Youngberg were the underwriters for the tax incremental financing bonding of the Harbor Point project in Stamford, Stevenson said.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the film studio is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18, at the Connecticut Studios site at the intersection of Route 5 and I-291.
“They like the fact that they are going to have a groundbreaking,” Galligan said of the underwriters.
Stevenson asked Redevelopment Agency members to review the amendments to the project plan and e-mail any changes to the document to him by Tuesday.
They voted unanimously to post the project plan supplement online.
Stevenson said that before the town can hold a public hearing on the amendments to the plan, they must be posted online for 35 days.
The Redevelopment Agency agreed to meet again on Tuesday, Nov. 9.
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