Residents Worried About Financial Viability Of Storrs Center Pr...

Sounds like Blue Back Square all over again. Now that the construction has ended, reality is starting to rear it's ugly head.

BBS was supposed to bring in lots of new tax revenues for the town - why then did the taxpayers just have to vote down a 7% increase in taxes.

The town was supposed to recoup their investment from the parking garages. Guess what - very few people are using the garages - they are parking on the surrounding streets so that the residents are unable to park near their houses.

Vote this down Mansfield - the only person that is going to make money on this deal is the developer - especially in this financial climate.

While the issues brought up in the article are real, they should be most concerned about the impact on the UConn water supply.

Fixing a few leaky pipes are not going to increase the water flowing in the Willi and Fenton Rivers.

This is a ridiculous project. Why spend municipal dollars subsidizing a private developer with all of the inherent risks, let alone the sub-market rate of return?

Isn't that called socialism, Shoreliner?

joey wrote:

While the issues brought up in the article are real, they should be most concerned about the impact on the UConn water supply.
Fixing a few leaky pipes are not going to increase the water flowing in the Willi and Fenton Rivers.

Indeed.

This article is a good start--but only that--in exploring whether the Storrs project is viable. To this point town officials have been long on hype and sunny predictions but short on facts to ally residents' concern about costs and water supply. Leyland boasting they have inquiries from retailers means only that--inquiries. Why should taxpayers give rebates to existing tenants? The lack of water supply seems a deal killer but is little discussed. Another key issue: parking. I avoid shopping in that area like the plague now because of parking but unless truly awesome retailers will anchor the district I would not pay to park in a parking garage. That is truly ridiculous. The current lack of parking at UConn, with all its land, is a sin. And who does UConn want to own and operate the garage--I'm sure they make big bucks on the Jorgensen garage (not!)--but the residents of Mansfield. I don't think so. It will take a lot more than the assurances of our weak town government and UConn President Hogan to convince people this project is a go. They'd better come up with lots of facts--detailed facts-- about costs, tax impact, parking, retailers who can make a year-round go of it, water supply, etc., or go back to the drawing board! The projects needs to be great on more than paper.

Another disaster waiting to happen, more retail, parking & housing for the students at great cost for the residents of Mansfield?? College students buy 3 things, snack food, beer & cds... no wait they download all their music now... good bye The Disc & University Music. This is definitely a misguided project.

ARE YOU GIVING COACH RANDY EDSALL A VOTE ON THIS TOO??????????

pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Matt Hart get a grip on yourself...get out of this political orgy while you still can.

Why are you picking on Matt hart? He's just a Town Manager doing his job. Anyway, Mansfield residents have made out on the fact that UConn is their close neighbor and for the most part, their employer. I'm sick of the whining when most of them suck off the teat that is a state agency. Why can't there be something worth GOING to in Storrs. Just like every other decent college/University town, there should be an area like the one they are proposing.

We can't recruit or retain young employees at UConn because there is no downtown like the one they are proposing to build in Storrs with all the amenities it would provide for both staff and students.

By all means, let's not get any new blood in here and let those people who are going to be buried at their desks and have worked here for 30+ years and lived in Mansfield doing nothing but taking home their paycheck be the future of Storrs.

If they do come to UConn, they end up living in Manchester, Vernon, etc. and spending their money there.

Sorry old guys, students and those of us who'd like to try improving UConn need this.

HUSKY FAN1 wrote:

Why are you picking on Matt hart? He's just a Town Manager doing his job. Anyway, Mansfield residents have made out on the fact that UConn is their close neighbor and for the most part, their employer. I'm sick of the whining when most of them suck off the teat that is a state agency. Why can't there be something worth GOING to in Storrs. Just like every other decent college/University town, there should be an area like the one they are proposing.

No, the majority of our residents DO NOT work for UCONN. The vast majority work for private companies and firms.

There are many issues associated with why this center shouldn't be built:

1, There is NOT ENOUGH water supply in this valley to support such a development.

2. Even if you DID bring in huge anchor stores, there isn't a large enough population to support them. Look at Eastbrook Mall!

etc......

Look at other college towns and their downtowns, New Haven, Northampton, Amherst and Storrs/Willimantic. Culture and commerce is not something you can "build it" and they will come. It requires organic growth of a well-rounded community of citizens and businesses to flourish. Storrs is farmland and it's citizens/UCONN employees live in the woods and aren't longing for something to do in Storrs.

what a fantastic joke, go ahead and destroy the beauty of the area so you can build some wild development destined to flop, the voters will say no but most likely they will be ignored as usual, say good bye country settting

Suggestion - have sen. dudd get them a new mortgage

As hard as the taxpayer-funded propagandists blow their kazoos:

**The $220 million Storrs Center ... hailed as a model of urban center planning**

There ain't enough water for this classic Rowland scam.

There should be something decent in the town. The problem is, the town just can't support very much. Businesses have struggled in the current retail space where this new project will be built. With rents obviously being higher in the new center than in the current strip, by what leap of logic do planners think businesses will be able to thrive?

Unlike Northampton or (I'm assuming) Bloomington, Storrs still essentially shuts down for some four months out of the year. The downtown is eight miles from the highway. Why go out of your way to shop there when malls have more stores and you can park there for free? Also, who will be running and profiting from the new garages anyway? There are many reasons to be skeptical of this new plan.

Let's remember back about 15, 20 years ago a proposal to build a business incubator park at UConn, something that could drive economic growth, was shot down.

Now we've seen the Town & UConn waste $8 million already thinking about retail and residential development? Give me a friggin' break.

If there was the economic viability there, private developers could have accomplished it already. Except where they are unnaturally constrained by government regulation.

It's not viable. Should've spent the $8 million to run a new water supply up from Willimantic. Maybe even shockingly allowed economic development to take place like the business park. Retail and housing would naturally follow.

Sorry folks, as the Soviet Union showed...central planning and five year plans are innefficient and doomed to failure in the hands of government employees.

storrs wrote:

Look at other college towns and their downtowns, New Haven, Northampton, Amherst and Storrs/Willimantic. Culture and commerce is not something you can "build it" and they will come. It requires organic growth of a well-rounded community of citizens and businesses to flourish.

Completely agree- having lived in Amherst for many years, what in is downtown evolved because of a fantastically eclectic community. For students, many of them had never seen any of this before- real bookstores, music at Newbury's and Mystery Train they had never heard before, and food they've never tasted before (Antonios!).

No corporate chain store magically creates this. It's the people that count. They have to WANT TO BE THERE, and find reason to be there. That happens all by itself- and when it doesn't, you've got to ask yourself why.

Why? The biggest problem in CT is that everything closes insanely early on weekdays or 5/6PM on Sundays. And the other is this culture of BLAH. Anything remotely intellectual or artistic or even vaguely DARING is alien. And that's fine- if that's what the people want. But that type of downtown is what municipalities and develops would kill for- but no economic development plan can possibly mock up a facade that is that true.

If you've never been to Amherst or Northampton MA, go and just have a nice dinner somewhere. Get a slice at Antonio's. Linger. Take a ride on the PVTA through campus (it's free). There's every chain store possible right outside town in Hadley, but why in the world would you want to see that?

Same applies to what the classic idea of a 'downtown development' would be elsewhere. The taxpayers ultimately SHOULD be worried about what would become of their money. I think people are tired of being taken for a ride by developers and the whole idea of malls and big box stores is coming to an end.

taterprint wrote:

Unlike Northampton or (I'm assuming) Bloomington, Storrs still essentially shuts down for some four months out of the year.

Northampton and Amherst shut down for the summer (and winter break), but students- many of which later become taxpaying residents, choose to stay. After completion of sophomore year, UMass students can live off-campus and typically that's what many do. People would rather be there than their unexciting home town. There's got to be that reason to stay- a Best Buy and Borders won't do that.

It can get quiet up there in the summer, but to residents, that's actually pleasant! Plus there seems to always be waves of orientation.

Northampton does not shut down in the summer. It's a booming town year round. Northampton works because it has a unique downtown with unique shops that draw from within 60 miles radius to spend the day there. If Storrs Center manages to attract the kind of shops Northampton offers, then it will do well. If it tries to get national chain tenants, then it won't work. By the way, back in the 70's when Northampton was a dead town, a lot of residents were against the economic development, that is until they saw their property value gone up. I hope Storrs Center is a success. Connecticut is aging and is desperately boring and has nothing like it.

BUILD IT!

To worry about a 3.7M loan on a 220M project that will yield over $2M in taxer annually is silly.

Build it and then get planning on drilling some new wells and making a water system. This is not Arizona, Eastern CT has plenty of water, it just needs to be managed properly and infrastructure needs to be built to do so.