The Board of Finance on September 14 approved allowing Winn Development to apply with the town for a $5,428,363 Brownfield Grant from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.

The next round of Brownfield Grants will be in 2027 and WinnCo will be applying for the grant on behalf of the town to remediate hazardous materials at the Shelton House building on the Fairfield Hills campus.

Although the town is acting as a fiscal agent in the project, all of the work will be completed by WinnCo and funded up front by WinnCo.

"We are not prepaying WinnCo," said Finance Director Glenys Salas. "They (WinnCo) will have to float the costs up front and we'll send them the grant money as the Town gets it."

Reimbursement requests will be submitted by WinnCo and flow from the DECD to WinnCo by way of Newtown's General Fund.

According to Salas, WinnCo is familiar with the regulatory environment surrounding DECD grant programs and will carry the necessary insurance policies to cover the construction in progress. Should work begin prior to the closing on the buildings, WinnCo will also follow the town's requirements regarding insurance carried by any subcontractors.

"Winn has leveraged Brownfield Grants while working on other projects," said Salas.

First Selectman Bruce Walczak called it "encouraging" that WinnCo is already beginning preparatory work and getting its financials together ahead of the project, since the lease agreement was approved by the town in June to renovate Shelton House as a mixed use commercial and residential building.

The agreement between the town and the company may eventually extend to include the larger Kent House, depending on the condition of Shelton House once Winn Development has a chance to inspect the building. The lease was previously approved by the Fairfield Hills Commission in April and the Board of Selectmen in May. Winn Development has a history of renovating public buildings for other uses such as apartments.

With the lease approved, this opens up the building so that WinnCo can begin inspections. State law would not allow a potential purchaser onto the closed historic properties without a lease agreement. With the agreement in place, WinnCo can inspect for asbestos and other carcinogens (which are known to be on the property) as well as any structural problems and environmental hazards that may be unknown to the town. If there are unknown environmental hazards like an oil well, as Council Chairman Laura Miller put up as an example, the town would be liable for removal. Either the town or WinnCo can end the lease agreement at any time if things come up that would make renovations too expensive.

Winn Development will develop the property with the assistance of grants that are now available through historic credits with the property on the National Register of Historic places. The registry is a double-edged sword, because the town is no longer free to demolish the buildings without proving they are significant and immediate dangers for a set period of time.

Once inspections are done, WinnCo will develop a site plan and go before the Planning & Zoning Commission, where details of the buildings will become public knowledge and the public will have a chance to weigh in on those details.

Once the property has its P&Z approvals, WinnCo will have five years to close on the property — it will own the building while the town will still own the land. WinnCo will be responsible for property maintenance and snow removal. The town will receive $500,000 on closing. Then WinnCo will have three years to complete the project.

This initiative follows extensive public discussion dating back to 2020, when the Town hosted four seminars outlining the benefits of rehabilitating the two buildings rather than demolishing them. At that time, demolition of Shelton and Kent was estimated to cost over $6 million, a figure many residents opposed, and is now likely in excess of $10 million.

That same year, a non-binding advisory question on the referendum ballot showed 55% of voters supported allowing housing on the campus. In response, the Town adopted zoning changes permitting residential use in no more than two buildings at Fairfield Hills.

This cleared the way for a formal Request for Proposals, ultimately leading to the selection of Winn Development, a national developer known for historic restoration projects. Newtown also secured state and federal historic designation for the campus, making the project eligible for historic tax credits and a program involving moderate-income housing credits.

Under the proposal, Shelton House would be converted into approximately 50 one- and two-bedroom, moderate-income apartments, with an age-restriction for residents 55 and older currently "up in the air" and likely to come up when the building reaches Planning & Zoning. The one bedroom apartments will be 600 square feet and the two bedrooms will be 900 square feet. Due to the building’s layout, only a small amount of commercial space is proposed for that property, roughly 1,000 or 2,000 square feet.

Kent House, the larger of the two structures, would undergo a more extensive renovation.

Plans for that building call for approximately 125 predominantly age-restricted, moderate-income apartments, along with up to 5,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. Because historic preservation rules limit exterior changes, a large interior entrance hall would serve as the main access point for retail and service uses. The lease for that building is expected to come once the Shelton House project is further on.

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.