Hartford Business Journal

8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 7, 2025 DE AL WATCH An overhead shot of the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority's 80-acre South Meadows site in Hartford. CONTRIBUTED IMAGE Study: Costs to prep Hartford's 80-acre former trash-burning site for residential redevelopment range up to $333.87M Hefty cleanup costs The MIRA site in the South Meadows has seen more than a century of heavy industrial use. Even with two decades of cleanup to present-day industrial standards under MIRA and its prede- cessor agency, preparing it for reuse isn't a cheap or short-term prospect. The Hartford Electric Light Co. completed a coal-fired power plant on the site in 1921. The plant transitioned to petroleum fuels by the 1940s. The trash-to-energy plant began operations in the 1980s. Today, the 80-acre site along the Connecticut River, just north of Brainard Airport, hosts the repeatedly upgraded power plant and a sprawling waste-pro- cessing facility, which includes a 202,000-square-foot main building, 38,000-square-foot storage building and a handful of smaller ancillary structures. Getting the site ready for redevel- opment would vary in cost and time depending on future use. Daley said he expects the MIRA Dissolution Authority to wrap up with about $50 million in reserves, which he notes would be enough to cover the cost of preparing the site for continued industrial or commercial use. The Weston & Sampson study considered several redevelopment scenarios, including: • Industrial or commercial use with demolition of the "power block facility" alone. This scenario is estimated to take three years and cost $47.7 million. • Industrial or commercial use with demolition of the waste-processing facility alone. This would require just over three years of work at a cost of $27.87 million. • Industrial or commercial use with demolition of all structures. This would require three years and six months of effort at a cost of $68.49 million. • Residential development with envi- ronmental land-use restrictions in place to keep pollution undisturbed. This option would take six years and cost $250.84 million. • Residential development with 13 feet of imported, clean fill over much of the site. This would allow much less restricted use of the site. But it would also require eight years of work and $333.87 million in expense. The study notes that its cost estimates could vary widely. As a development scenario is picked and specific designs are drafted, cost esti- mates will become more precise, said Robert Carr, senior technical leader with Weston & Sampson. By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A n 80-acre site in Hartford's South Meadows received garbage from most of Connecticut for decades, processing it in a massive facility that burned trash for energy. The quasi-public Materials Innova- tion and Recycling Authority shut the faltering plant down in 2022, and local officials have been pushing to prep the large site in Hartford's industrial South Meadows neighborhood for redevelopment. That preparation will take years and cost anywhere from $27.87 million to $333.87 million, depending on how many of the existing buildings are demolished, and what sort of future development is pursued, according to a recently completed study. "That study is basically setting the groundwork for a starting point for a future development of the site," said Mark T. Daley, president and chief financial officer of the MIRA Disso- lution Authority. "This is everything under those various scenarios that would need to be done to turn the site over to a future developer and put the site into a future use, whether it's commercial or residential or industrial." The dissolution authority was formed by state lawmakers in 2023 to oversee the winding down of MIRA's operations and the disposition of its various transfer stations and, most dauntingly, the South Meadows site. The dissolution authority has sold two recycling properties in Hartford and a transfer station in Watertown to companies tied to USA Waste & Recy- cling. A sale of an Ellington property is in the works. The dissolution authority also hired Rocky Hill engineering and environmental firm Weston & Sampson to outline the likely steps and costs for getting the South Meadows property ready for various redevelopment scenarios. With that study now in hand, the authority is nearly ready for its own dissolution, which is expected to be completed by June 30. After that, management of remaining MIRA properties will be in the hands of Gov. Ned Lamont's administration and the state Depart- ment of Administrative Services. Lamont administration officials have asked staff at the Capital Region Development Authority to consider if the agency can organize the South Meadows site's redevelopment prepa- rations, CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth said. CRDA – a quasi-governmental agency responsible for economic development efforts in Greater Hartford – is a logical choice for the job, Freimuth said. But his 13-staff agency already has a hefty workload and would need additional manpower and funding to take on the South Meadows site, he said. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulam- palam said his administration is focused on getting the South Meadows site back into productive use to its maximum potential, whether that means new housing opportuni- ties or industrial development that brings jobs. Arulampalam said he's not set on any particular use case. "The city is 18.5 square miles, half of it untaxable, so it is really important to maximize every bit of land that we have," Arulampalam said. Silver Lane Plaza Continued from page 7 townhouse-style buildings. Town officials are not yet certain if the housing would be offered for rent or sale. Martin said the town would prefer owner-occupied housing. Buckheit said she hopes to present a finalized development agreement to the Town Council this spring, with the aim of having construction begin next year. East Hartford has repeatedly used tax breaks and state grant dollars to incentivize development, which has helped secure several large-scale projects, including an effort to rede- velop the Founders Plaza office park into a mixed-use area with roughly 1,000 apartment units and commer- cial and entertainment space. The town has also used incentives to spur a planned, roughly 400-unit multifamily redevelopment of the former Showcase Cinemas site, off Silver Lane.

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