Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com November 14, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 17 P.O. Box 2468, New Britain, CT 06050 800.969.3837 nteriors.com Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring Keep your exterior colorful and festive year round with our exterior seasonal program! indoor / outdoor plantscapes • holiday decor GOODSPEED MUSICALS proudly salutes our 2016 Corporate Supporters Eversource Energy Hoffman Audi The Travelers Companies, Inc. United Airlines Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. Wells Fargo Amica Insurance Arborio Corporation Chester Village West Hartford Business Journal Liberty Bank Robinson & Cole, LLP Sennheiser Electronic Corporation The Shops at Mohegan Sun CMA 2, Urgent Care Center of Connecticut Comcast ConnectiCare Jensen's, Inc. RisCassi & Davis, P.C. Webster Bank Ashlawn Farm Coffee • Bob's Discount Furniture • Centerplan Companies • Creative Transportation & Tours • Essex Savings Bank • Fried & Kowgios Partners, LLP • MG Electric & Construction, Inc. • R.A. Parady & Sons • The Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station • Sima Drilling Co., Inc. • Starkweather & Shepley Charitable Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation • The Suzio York Hill Companies • Tower Laboratories, Ltd. • United Mechanical Resources, Inc. • WSHU Public Radio Group • Young's Printing THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR CORPORATE SUPPORTERS FOR YOUR GENEROUS PATRONAGE. BECOME A CORPORATE PARTNER IN 2017! As a Corporate Partner, your tax-deductible gift helps Goodspeed produce classic and vibrant new musicals of the highest caliber and provides you with: •Brand Visibility •Advertising Opportunities •Tickets and Hospitality Benefits For Partnership opportunities contact Katie Wasserman: 860.873.8664 x365 or kwasserman@goodspeed.org goodspeed.org some of their competitive advantages.'' Beyond retail and service industries, Rocky Hill is convinced that advanced manufactur- ing also lies in its future, and is pulling out the stops to encourage companies engaged in 3D and additive manufacturing to locate there. Manufacturing, Carpentino said, is one sector that Rocky Hill lacks in sufficient numbers. However, the town eyes only clean, non-polluting producers. For instance, the town recently inked a contract with the developer of solar-power farms to erect one in Rocky Hill. Under the deal, the town will buy the solar farm's elec- tricity to power its municipal operations, saving about $250,000 a year in energy costs, Carpentino said. Rocky Hill's riverfront, too, has develop- ment appeal. The idle Foundry property is being eyed by a private developer for con- version into luxury condominiums. But the brownfield site has garnered overlapping attention from a tangle of local, state and federal agencies, which has slowed redevel- opment efforts, Carpentino said. Despite its growth ambitions, Rocky Hill also has a firm eye on preservation. The town a few years ago bonded $10 million, of which $2 million has been spent to date, to acquire development rights to local farmland. From 2005 to 2014, the town has drawn almost $2 million in state grants for multi- phase, storefront facade and streetscape improvements along Silas Deane High- way, he said. In addition, it is pursuing an extra $2.6 million to complete streetscape upgrades along Dividend Road, north to Parsonage Road, he said. Of all Rocky Hill's development pros- pects, it's the long-dormant former Ames Department Stores headquarters site in the center of town that residents and leaders want most to see revitalized. In the town center, the Ames property has a new owner with whom the town is working closely to redevelop into a combination of resi- dential and commercial space. Revitalizing the Ames property is part of the town's long-term plan to revive what was once a thriving center, Carpentino said. The current owner proposes a mix of mar- ket-rate housing, plus commercial and retail, Carpentino said. With it, Rocky Hill seeks to reclaim the "old village" feel of its center as a magnet for residents and visitors. "We've been working on that forever,'' deBear said. "We hope that it will [be fin- ished] before most of us die." n Clockwise (from above): Vacant ex-Ames Dept. Stores headquarters in Rocky Hill's center; West Street entry to Corporate Ridge, home to WFSB-TV Channel 3, and Henkel North America's regional headquarters; newly built Town Center West, with the Montage Apartments, fronting West Street and Cromwell Avenue/Route 3. P H O T O S | S T E V E L A S C H E V E R

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