Broker Suggests A Master Developer For Fairfield Hill

By Kendra Bobowick

Fairfield Hills Authority Chairman John Reed said Wednesday, “Interest in Stratford Hall has gone from lukewarm to stone cold.” Real estate prospects remain difficult for the former state hospital buildings and campus purchased by the town in 2001.

Michael Struna, real estate broker for the campus, explained, “Stratford has been the third reinforcement of what’s developing. One of the things we’re finding … is that the economics don’t work.” One prospective reuse had been a restaurant, but renovation costs, which would apply to every building on site, are too high.

“The numbers don’t work” for a developer or business person to renovate buildings on an individual basis for reuse, he said. Regarding the estimates $1.2 or $1.3 million to renovate the Stratford Hall space, “No restaurateur could afford that,” he said.

Switching focus to another building, he said the same problem persists. “At the end of the day the problem persists on an individual basis.” The economics “don’t make sense,” he said regardless of the proposed use. Offering better news, he said, “Somewhere between 20,000 square feet and 200,000 square feet, the economics start to work,” he said. The cost of renovations begin to pay off for a developer if the square footage is large enough, he explained. “A master developer can take over; you really need someone to come in and do the whole thing, or a large segment,” Mr Struna said.