Open Houses, Real Estate Advertising

Among Ideas To Market Fairfield Hills

By Kendra Bobowick

It is time to step up the marketing and get private investors on the Fairfield Hills campus, suggested Director of Town Planning and Community Development Liz Stocker.

“We really need to promote the properties,” she said.

Why? For one, Fairfield Hills will look better to the Economic Development Administration (EDA). Ms Stocker is currently working to secure roughly $2.2 million in grants for the utility loop upgrades necessary for bringing electricity, phones lines, gas, and more to the buildings. “We need more public and private partnerships. It makes Fairfield Hills more attractive to the EDA,” she said. “They would be more willing to give grant funds if they see progress.” With eyes on the grant, Ms Stocker has also appealed to US Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Chris Murphy. Senator Dodd is scheduled to meet with Ms Stocker on May 29.

During an authority meeting Monday, she offered several ideas for promoting development. Previous plans had faltered when prospective developers abandoned their intentions to lease buildings. Redevelopment plans afoot since 2001 were a heavy point of debate in the 2007 municipal elections. Number one on her list was making updates to a developer’s package prepared for the authority by Robert Barclay, president of North American Realty Advisory Services, LP.

The advisor had worked with the authority for months to refine a “developer’s package,” which was a snapshot of the campus properties and selling points. Ms Stocker suggested updating the package to “reflect progress.” She also suggested building a website to tout the properties. As the meeting neared an end, Mr Geckle asked Ms Stocker to get in touch with him with hard figures for costs. “We may want to do that right away,” he said. An example of the type of site she has in mind is $3,000.

Advertising also needs a longer reach. “If you look at the [developers] there now, they’re both local…” Hawley Realty out of Danbury is renovating space for expansions in Danbury Hospital’s services, and resident Peter D’Amico is privately funding a Newtown Youth Academy. It is time to start an advertising program in New York, New Jersey, or in real estate journals, she said.

Catching authority members’ attention was a more interactive idea: sponsor a broker’s breakfast, or open house Ms Stocker suggested. She has heard comments from the real estate sector lately including, “What’s up there?” and “How come we don’t know about it?”

Member Don Studley later remarked, “An open house for brokers is a great idea.”

A website and advertising could cost several thousand apiece. Authority member Amy Dent said, “If we have to encumber money, do so. If it has the potential to move the project forward, we should do it.” John Reed agreed.

Ms Stocker has also been in touch with the Economic Development Commission (EDC) and its chairman, Chet Hopper. The commission “is really promoting economic development in all of Newtown,” he said. As far as the space for lease at Fairfield Hills, he said, “We would be happy to promote it. We have always been advocates of business in town and there is no reason why we wouldn’t be perfectly happy to help Fairfield Hills.” Anticipating contact from the authority or Ms Stocker, Mr Hopper believes that authority and commission members should meet.

Standing firmly behind the idea, Ms Stocker believes the authority and EDC should “pool their resources.”

According to a memorandum of her suggestions, a $6,500 budget is associated with advertising in the New England Real Estate Journal and the New York Real Estate Journal. “These actions are the recommended minimum,” the memo stressed.