Housing Developments Proposed and Approved for Stratford in 2024
Potential for 716 New Housing Units
By Barbara Heimlich
Editor
All Photos from Town of Stratford
Proposed Projects
3191 Broadbridge Ave.: 234 units
The largest proposal involves the old Dictaphone Corporation property off Broadbridge Avenue. The owners of the vacant office park want to transform the site into a 234-unit housing complex by converting an existing building and constructing a pair of new ones.
“The redevelopment plan is the adaptive reuse of the property into three buildings, all of which will be residential,” Barry Knott, an attorney representing the developers, wrote in an application submitted last summer.
55 Sutton Avenue: 154 units – Yes, It’s Center School Again!
The long-planned Center School redevelopment labeled originally as a TOD district near the heart of Stratford is also set to see significant movement next year. The town council voted late last year to sell the property for $1.69 million to Romano Brothers Builders, which plans to construct a 154-unit housing complex.
The development, which was one of two proposals that were considered by the council, calls for a four-story apartment building with 134 units plus 20 two-bedroom townhouses facing Sutton Avenue.
“We’re very excited and we’re looking forward to doing this,” Mark Romano, the developer behind the project, told Hearst Connecticut Media following the council’s decision.
Town officials have long eyed the Center School site for redevelopment. The 3.6-acre property sits just a few hundred feet from the town’s Metro-North train station, making it an attractive location for developers.
The school, which opened in 1970, was decommissioned in 2005 and demolished in 2018, with the help of a $1.2 million state grant. Local officials began soliciting proposals to build on the vacant town-owned site about four years ago.
Though the council has voted in support of the proposal, the project still needs to be approved by the zoning commission before construction can officially begin, according to Stratford Planning and Zoning Administrator Jay Habansky.
99 Hawley Lane: 129 units – Round II
The future of this proposed residential complex could depend on the outcome of an ongoing court case. The developer behind a 129-unit apartment building proposed for Hawley Lane has asked a judge to reverse a decision by a land use board to reject the project.
The Inland Wetlands Commission, which is charged with determining whether construction projects follow local environmental regulations, rejected the proposal after staff members determined the construction plan did not include enough protections for local wildlife, and safeguards in the event of a stormwater system failure.
Mountain Development Corporation, a New Jersey-based development company responsible for the Merritt 8 Corporate Park, has since revised the plan in an effort to address the commission’s concerns, according to Christopher Russo, who represents the group.
Russo noted the revised application includes changes to a pump station, a plan to restore more than an acre of wetlands, and protections for vulnerable animals, such as box turtles.
225 Lordship Boulevard: 127 units
Zoning officials are to take another look at a project that the developer behind an already-approved apartment building planned for Lordship Boulevard is seeking permission to expand the project to a total of 127 units.
The expansion was proposed a little more than a year after zoning officials approved a similarly designed, but smaller structure on the same site. At the time, the developer was authorized to construct a 100-unit, five-story residential building in what has traditionally been an industrial area off Interstate 95.
Chris Russo, an attorney representing the developer, has told zoning officials that the project may not be economically viable unless his client is allowed to increase the number of rental units and add an additional floor to the building.
“Unfortunately, since the beginning of the project, the economy has changed,” Russo said last summer. “Obviously inflation and interest rates have impacted everybody. It has also impacted development.”
Approved projects
2590 Main Street: 38 units
The old Masonic Temple on Main Street will soon be an apartment building. The owners are now working to convert the historic structure, which sits near the Stratford Train Station, into an apartment building.
The plans call for the developers to gut and renovate the interior of the 102-year-old building and construct a three-story expansion that will double the size of the former temple. Barry Knott, an attorney representing the property’s owners, has said the apartments will be made up of one-and-two-bedroom units that will be rented to tenants at market rate.
600 Silver Lane: up to 16 units
A 56-year-old church, St. John the Baptist Church, a parish that was a part of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America, on Silver Lane has been approved to transform the building into a handful of condominiums as part of a slightly larger development.
Site plans show the developers plan to convert the 2,100 square-foot church into multiple residential units, potentially up to six one-bedroom units. They also plan to build nine new detached condominiums directly to the east and south of the church.
The developers originally aimed to build a 64-unit apartment building on the site, but later scaled back the proposal as part of an agreement with town officials.
3589 Main Street: 12 units
A dozen new apartment units will soon be available on Paradise Green. Zoning officials this fall approved plans to construct a two-story building next to a shopping plaza at the corner of Main Street and Paradise Green Place.
Site plans show the proposed 7,744-square-foot structure will replace an existing 83-year-old office building that the Stratford-based developers described as “past its usable life” due to its deteriorating foundation.
“The replacement will mirror the residential building on Paradise Green side of the project, bookending the strip shopping center,” the developers wrote in an application submitted to the town earlier this year.
2152 Barnum Ave.: 6 units
A unique project is set to change the appearance of a Barnum Avenue building that has historically been home to restaurants. The owner has been given the green light to build a new floor with a half-dozen apartments on top of the existing single-story structure.
The addition will sit directly above the Mangoz Bar & Lounge, a sports bar that is also known for serving seafood dishes. It will feature six one-and-two-bedroom apartments, according to site plans.
I LIVE IN bridgeport at nob hill looking to move anyway
i am 63 and want a one bedroom and also have a dog sure hope you allow animals at all these places
thank you
donna
Interesting overview. Are none of the proposed units set to be designated as “affordable” in the eyes of the state?
The only projects that are proposing affordable housing is the Paradise Green development, and the development at 225 Lordship Boulevard. Planning and Zoning has no jurisdiction to demand a developer to have affordable housing. Also, the Zoning Board does not have any insight into who is proposing affordable units until they appear before them. To date the only proposed developments that have gone before P&Z is Paradise Green, Lordship Boulevard, Masonic Temple, Silver Lane, and 2152 Barnum Ave.
A little known fact to much of the public is that if a developer proposes affordable housing in their plans, Planning Zoning have little control over them meeting zoning regulations. Developers that proposed affordable housing have to hire a company to maintain the affordable status, and improve and maintain that housing over the years – it is a 40 year commitment.
It also must be noted that the Town of Stratford needs 440 affordable units in Stratford, and a developer only needs 30% to be affordable.