Bristol Downtown Development Corp. on Monday named Long Island developer Renaissance Downtowns as its choice to tackle the city-owned former mall property.
“Finally we’re at the start,” said BDDC board member John Lodovico. “We’re at the gate.”
The 5-1 vote came after Don Monti, president of Renaissance and Bristol developer Ed D’Amato Sr. told BDDC board members that they’d reached an agreement --D’Amato would withdraw his application to be the city’s preferred developer and Monti would make D’Amato part of his team.
“We’re just stepping aside so this thing can go on,” D’Amato said.
Monti said D’Amato’s company has expertise in Bristol.
“They would provide us with consulting services throughout the process,” said Monti. “There is no formal partnership.”
Board member Jennifer Janelle cast the sole vote in opposition, saying she wanted to have more than two developers to choose from.
Read the whole story in Tuesday's Bristol Press.
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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
12 comments:
I hope they do something about North Main Street and those stupid middle road dividers where they plow all the snow, it's a nightmare getting to the post office with all the detours, the entire situation is rediculous!! Why would anyone want to be in business downtown with this stupid setup? All it helps is the city workers and contractors who get extra work to justify their jobs or overtime.
Keep in mind that we are many months, maybe two years from a plan being approved and inplemented.
Stay tuned.
10:43
All the cross overs are cleared. what is your problem?
10:43 This is true looks good for one contractor who owns the land around it and did the job at a high price
10:43 PM, You're kidding, right? The road dividers slow the traffic down and make North Main Street pedestrian friendly...which is EXACTLY what retailers want. The downtown setup isn't the stupid thing around here.
The dividers do virtually nothing. The negatives (which are reality) out-weigh the positives (which are only hypothetical because there has been virtually no increase in pedestrian traffic due to the fact that there has been virtually no business development). Traffic is still extremely dangerous on N. Main (by Blondies for example).
7:17, so you think getting detoured all around downtown in the middle of the day just to get to the post office because of the snow pileups on the crossovers is a good thing? and it's a good thing having to drive with those snow banks in the middle and you can't even see across, and it takes a few days for them to begin clearing them? it's horrible and stupid. At least someone is making money off it.
I'm guessing the very few that support the disaster on North Main Street have made $$ on the destruction/maintainence and are looking forward to spreading the misery to the remainder of North main AND Main Streets .
The negatives are only for those drivers who are still ticked off that they can't fly down North Main St. There may not be much business there now, but the recession will end and when the old center mall gets developed, the downtown area will be revitalized...so why don't you try to stop being so negative and short-sighted?
Anonwestconnstudent:
Time and time again you demonstrate why you haven't graduated from dummied-down West Conn yet.
Pedestrians have nothing to do with the speed cars travel. If you don't believe me, try walking across I-84 on your way home from school (please).
6:43
Then why are so many SUCCESSFUL downtown areas incorporating reduced vehicular traffic in their plans?
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