After years of delay, a Connecticut town’s biggest new mixed-use project in recent memory is taking shape in its center with nearly 100 apartments expected to be finished this year and about 140 more to follow.
Contractors started clearing the long-empty Elmcrest Psychiatric Hospital grounds last year, and are now putting up the first of several buildings on the site.
Brainerd Place was envisioned years ago as a landmark project for Portland, and Middlesex County business leaders see it as a major boost for nearby towns, too.
“This is a trifecta: It’s the redevelopment of a site that’s been in disrepair for many years, it creates housing that keeps our talent and young people here, and it’s going to spawn more economic growth for the whole region,” said Chris Cambareri, economic development director for the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s one of the biggest development projects in Portland in many years, and it’s going to create a huge economic spike,” he said.
Danbury-based Bright Ravens Development Group and The DiMarco Group from Rochester, N.Y. are jointly developing Brainerd Place, a project they envision having retail and commercial businesses including a restaurant, a Starbucks outlet and medical offices along with 240 apartments.
For Portland, it represents a chance to refresh the look of its center.
More than two dozen mostly dilapidated buildings from the WWII-era Elmcrest hospital long marred the view Route 17 and Route 66, just a couple of blocks from the Arrigoni Bridge. Cracked pavement of the long-abandoned parking lot and battered iron gates bordered the town’s busiest intersection for years.
Patrick Raycraft, Hartford Courant
The Arrigoni Bridge and Middletown
In 2009, a developer proposed Portland Town Place, which was to include an apartment tower along with a 65,000-square-foot supermarket. Preservationists balked at the plan to raze every building on the site, noting that three houses from the 1800s predated the hospital and held historical value.
The Portland Town Place plan fell through, but several years later Dan Bertram of Bright Ravens envisioned a different approach: Replace Elmcrest with a large-scale mixed-use complex focused more on housing and less on retail, with no supermarket. The plan, dubbed Brainerd Place, included rehabilitating two of the historic houses, and the developers have since agreed to preserving the third one as well.
But the project hit delays during the pandemic and construction didn’t begin until last year. Almost all of the old hospital buildings have been demolished since then, and the plan now is to build in three phases — with the first 99 apartments in a three-story building as the initial step. Bertram expects tenants will be able to move in starting in late summer. The first phase also includes a Starbucks with a drive-through.
Contractors are putting in the foundation for a second apartment building, which will be the next phase. That will probably have its first tenants moving in by mid-2025, Bertram said.
The third phase is a large commercial building, and the specifics of that are still being revised.
Leasing ads for the commercial space emphasize that the apartments will be a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units with a pool, gazebo, clubhouse and other amenities.
First Selectman Ryan Curley anticipates the developers will give selectmen a progress update in February. His goal is to keep the work on track.
“We’re encouraged to see the continued development of this property. We just want to keep them going, keep that momentum going through all three phases of the project,” Curley said in a town-sponsored podcast this week. “We don’t want any pauses or any slowing down.”
Cambareri predicted Brainerd Place will be “a community within a community” providing housing for young professionals as well as retirees.
“This is something that creates a great economic impact for the entire area. It’s a great shot in the arm,” he said.