17 major development projects set to transform Danbury for years – Danbury News Times

DANBURY The citys post-pandemic landscape is busy with development activity, from new car dealerships opening and proposals for hundreds of new apartments on the booming west side to commercial and residential projects slated for the downtowns Main Street.

The city is doing amazingly well people are coming in from all over the planet it seems to do business in Danbury, said Paul Rotello, the City Councils minority leader and a member of a task force that recently completed work on a master plan for the next 10 years.

The citys top planner agrees.

The diversity of these projects and the variety of uses is an indication of Danburys attractiveness as a place to live and work and expand your business, said Sharon Calitro, Danburys planning director. It shows that our economy is diverse and robust; people want to be here."

The approved building projects and proposed developments 17 of which are highlighted here, coincide with a growth spurt in Danbury that demographers project could put the city of 86,000 at 95,000 by 2040.

The surge of development activity is healthy for the citys bottom line, leaders say, so long as commercial and residential development is managed responsibly.

We have to do it in a focused way, Rotello said. The plan is working.

Here is a snapshot of 17 high-profile construction projects and proposals that have been in the headlines over the past year.

1. Danbury Career Academy, 40 Apple Ridge Road (approved/not built)

A rendering of Danbury's career academy at the former Cartus Corp. headquarters.

The citys much-anticipated campus for 1,400 students will not only alleviate overcrowded classrooms when it opens for the 2025-2026 school year but will mark a new era in Danbury and the rest of the state. High school education will be reorganized into a freshman academy and six career academies, where every student is on an individualized track for college or a job after graduation. The $164 million project, which involves retrofitting the formerCartus Corp. building and 24-acre campus into a new west side high school and middle school, broke ground in February.

2. Hundreds of apartments at The Summit, 100 Reserve Road (approved/not built)

The newly renamed The Summit at Danbury is converting to mixed use to include offices, residential and retail. Thursday, December 19, 2019, in Danbury, Conn.

The short version of this project is when the sprawling 1.2-million-square-foot office park known as The Summit was negotiating with the city to locate its career academy in a section of the office park, The Summit wanted a contingency deal that if the career academy fell through The Summit would be able to retrofit the office space reserved for the school into 400 apartments. The city agreed. Shortly afterword, when negotiations about the career academy broke down, The Summit went back to its plan to build 400 apartments. As of late April, The Summit was yet to submit formal plans to the city for the apartments. Developers envision offering a "city within a city" and have already begun to fill commercial and retail space.

3. WestConn Park commercial and residential development at 3 Mill Plain Road (proposed)

A rendering of one of three apartment buildings at WestConn Park, a proposed 1.3 million-square-foot development on Mill Plain Road in Danbury.

This large-scale 31-acre development near Western Connecticut State Universitys west side campus on Mill Plain Road has been out of the headlines recently as the developer negotiates with the state transportation department to improve the sight lines for the proposed project. Plans call for an 11-building campus of apartments, offices, stores and an assisted-living facility. The project, which would include a bank, a restaurant, a coffee house and retail shops would attract 650 more vehicles during rush hour on the already congested stretch between the Stop & Shop and Amity Lane. The developer calls the project a lifestyle center where people can live, work, shop and play in one area.

4.Savings Bankof Danbury building at Main and White streets (proposed)

A rendering of a new office building at Main and White streets in Danbury proposed by the Savings Bank of Danbury.

This $14 million office building project includes the demolition of the defunct night club Tuxedo Junction, which the city sold to the bank as part of the deal to provide better access for the new building. The proposed red brick building with white trim and anoctangular tower shown on the plans would be used as the banks headquarters.

5. Old Courthouse renovation and 100 units of workforce housing at 71 Main St. (proposed)

The former Fairfield County Courthouse at 71 Main St, Danbury, Conn. Tuesday, July 12, 2022. A complex, multi-party deal would transform a downtown corner with 100 apartments and restore the empty 1899 old state courthouse for new city uses.

This complex, multi-party deal would transform a downtown corner with 100 apartments and restore the empty 1899 old state courthouse for new city uses. The plan, which has been approved by the City Council, authorizes Mayor Dean Esposito to apply with a nonprofit for a $9.9 million in state economic development money to buy the courthouse and four other properties on Main Street and Park Place. Blueprints call for a restored courthouse and a new parking lot for city use, such as the Danbury Museum. The nonprofit would seek the rest of the projects $70 million cost to build the workforce apartments.

6. Conversion of office building into apartments and construction of apartment building at 30 Main St. (proposed)

Rendering of a 208-apartment project on Danbury's south Main Street known as The Legacy on Main.

The project, known as The Legacy on Main has already been through the land use wringer once,gaining permission from the citys wetlands commission. The citys Planning Commission is reviewing blueprints for the 208-apartment project, which call for the conversion of the existing five-story office building into studio and one-bedroom units, and the construction of a 70-foot apartment building in the parking lot with more studios and one-bedroom apartments. A small percentage of two-bedroom apartments would be distributed between the two buildings.

7. Affordable housing project for seniors behind headquarters of Connecticut Institute for Communities at 70 Main St. (proposed)

A $2 million federal grant secured by U.S. Rep.Jahana Hayes, will help pay for a parking garage upon which a three-story apartment building would be built behind the headquarters of the nonprofitConnecticut Institute for Communities. The congresswomans grant brought the nonprofits fundraising to $4.7 million toward the $8 million cost of project. The apartment would have 79 units of affordable housing for seniors.

8. Apartment building at former headquarters of The News-Times, 333 Main St. (nearly complete)

A second-story pool overlooking downtown Danbury and retail shops that open onto Main Street are among the finishing touches to be completed at the 149-apartment house known as Brookview Commons II, across the street from the Kennedy Flats apartment complex. Other features of the six-story apartment building include a car bridge over Padanaram Brook in the back of the property and a pedestrian bridge connecting the new complex to developer Dan Bertrams existing apartment building on Crosby Street called Brookfield Commons.

9. Panera Caf at 5 Sugar Hollow Road (approved/not built)

Panera Bread is moving from leased space on the citys west side and will build a free-standing drive-thru caf nearby. Plans call for Panera to move out of leased space at The Shops at Marcus Dairy and build a 5,000-square-foot single storydrive-thru buildingin the parking lot.

10. Chipotle restaurant and medical office at 1 Sugar Hollow Road (underway)

Demolition and ground clearing has begun at the former Pier 1 Imports store near the Danbury Fair mall to make way for a new drive-thruChipotle restaurant and medical office space. The new Chipotle will be across Backus Avenue from the free-standing Shake Shack and Texas LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants on the Danbury Fair mall property.

11. Mercedes Benz dealership near Danbury Municipal Airport (under construction)

Mercedes dealership under construction at Miry Brook and Sugar Hollow roads. Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Danbury, Conn.

Work is underway to transform a vacant 2.5-acre storage lot into a $7 million Mercedes-Benz dealership at the gateway of an emerging high-end auto corridor. Plans for the property at Miry Brook and Sugar Hollow roads call for Curry Automotive to move its dealership from Federal Road on the citys east end to the new gateway location. The stretch is already home to North American Motor Car, a custom garage and luxury vehicle storage facility that bills itself as the largest of its kind in Fairfield County, and a film directors company that produces $450,000 sports cars.

12. Nissan-Infinity dealership at 13 Sugar Hollow Road (completed)

Nissan / Infinity dealership on Sugar Hollow that was previously a Sports Authority. Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Danbury, Conn.

Nissan / Infinity dealership on Sugar Hollow that was previously a Sports Authority. Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Danbury, Conn.

Nissan / Infinity dealership on Sugar Hollow that was previously a Sports Authority. Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Danbury, Conn. | H John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media Nissan / Infinity dealership on Sugar Hollow that was previously a Sports Authority. Tuesday, April 25, 2023, Danbury, Conn. | H John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media

Doors recently opened at a Nissan-Infinity dealership at the former location of Sports Authority and Bed, Bath and Beyond next to Danbury Municipal Airport. The new dealership, which occupies a 78,000-square-foot building on 8 acres, was approved one year ago.

13. Renovation of former Meekers Hardware building 88-90 White St. (proposed)

An entrepreneur who wants to convert the distinctive red-brick Meekers Hardware building in the shadows of the Uncle Sam statue at the downtown train station into a dance hall will have to work around restraints on the building, because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The entrepreneur, who owns the Billy Beans Caf next door, wants to build a 92-seat dance hall and sit-down bar in the front half of the first floor of the Meekers building. If the entrepreneur has his way, the Meeker building will not only be the only former hardware store in the country listed on the national register, but it will be the only dance hall located in a former hardware store on the national register.

14. Renovation of a former rental shop into a retail cannabis store at 108 Federal Road (approved/not built)

Look for the citys second retail cannabis location to open at the end of summer on the busy east end. Unlike the hybrid medicinal cannabis and retail location known as The Botanist on the west side that serves both medical patients and adults buying cannabis for recreation, the Federal Road shop known as BUD-R will sell recreational cannabis only. Danbury is the only location in the 10-town region where retail cannabis sales are allowed, under city regulations passed in August. State law provides the cannabis businesses will generate a special 3 percent tax for Danbury.

15. Renovation of former Sears anchor store at Danbury Fair mall into aTarget store (approved/not built)

Target is planning a new entrance plaza and a redesigned parking lot for its new two-level store at the Danbury Fair mall. Targets new 126,000-square-foot store in the former Sears location could open as soon as a year from June.

16. Conversion of the former Crowne Plaza hotel into 'innovation studios at 18 Old Ridgebury Road (proposed)

Developer Dan Bertram wants to convert the 240 hotel rooms at the former west side hotel into 195 innovation studios with three floors of maker space for artists and entrepreneurs. What will that look like? The nonprofit DanburyHackerspace will manage the three floors as creative workspace for entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and start-ups as part of a larger plan to convert upper-level hotel rooms into apartments and micro-studios. Plans for the new venture, called Bright Ravens Innovation Studios, include a machine shop, a wood shop, a computer lab, and fine art studios for photography, video and sound recording, for use by artists, do-it-yourselfers, and prototype builders.

17. Clancy warehouse, 100 Reserve Road (status unclear)

A New York moving company in late April withdrew its controversial plans to locate a 210,000-square-foot warehouse on part of the Summits 100-acre campus. This was the second time the company has pulled its proposal off the table in response to neighbors' objections to its size and potential for truck traffic to degrade the neighborhood. Clancy Moving System's future plans were unclear on Thursday, but a valid wetlands permit the company was awarded last year is still in effect. The company aimed to a build a warehouse, an office-maintenance building, and a 28-foot-wide road crossing a wetland.

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17 major development projects set to transform Danbury for years - Danbury News Times