Monday, April 25, 2011

Part 2 of East Haven’s Severe Lack of Economic Development: Frontage Road

Continuing this series of reporting the facts and backing it up with pictures can be very telling for the Capone Administration. You’ll find the Democratic Town Chairman call me a man of hate, full of venom and a liar when all I am doing is telling the truth about the State of our Town. Pictures don’t lie but men of his caliber do to remain in power.

Now as I wrote in my previous article about Economic Development one of the main keys to our success is a vital Frontage Road. The south part or the I-95 North side of the complex is in pretty good shape except for the 10,000 sq. Foot. Vacancy next to Home Goods but the north part or the I-95 South side is in shambles.

The East Haven Home Depot plaza is one of the only plazas in the State of Connecticut that houses a Home Depot with zero supporting stores. If you look at the pictures you will see that there are 10 vacant retail stores. I can envision a Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Michaels Crafts occupying some of this space.


Former Chinese Restaurant

 It is unreal to believe that not one business would want to be in the same plaza as Home Depot. The former Chinese Restaurant would be a perfect place for a Ruby Tuesday’s or Olive Garden. Instead of Mr. Hongo worrying about the tax abatement given to Car Max maybe he should help the landlord find tenants so we can make up the difference.
10 Vacant Store in Home Depot Plaza


Just outside of the Home Depot Plaza there are several vacant lots that have become urban eyesores. The former Gas Stations Shell and Mobil are prime examples of space that can be connected and developed to make something special on Frontage Road. In either case both of these properties sit dormant with no plans to develop.

The Former Shell Gas Station on Frontage Road











             
 The Fomer Mobil Gas Station on Frontage Road              










Last but not least are two prime locations between the above former Mobil Gas Station and Car Max. Both areas are currently grassy areas but are developable pieces of property that could score some major tax dollars if packaged correctly.






These two large pieces once held the former Bradlees building and could be a potential site for another big box store if the Home Depot property, Mobil Gas Property and Shell Gas Station property were carefully negotiated and configured to one property.

But in order to do that you need and Administration with vision, plans and negotiators. We have none of that with the Capone Administration. All we have are people who tell us that the Republicans gave out sweet heart deals and the economy is bad. We don’t need excuses we need supporting tax dollars for our community so the residents don’t have to shoulder the burden any longer.

To date we have shown 25 prime pieces of Real Estate in the Town of East Haven that is vacant. Can you guess how many in total the Town has? I bet the Capone Administration doesn’t want you to know but we at the East Haven Vine know!!!

Stay Tuned…..Tomorrow Foxon Road!                 


2 comments:

  1. the old mobil gas station is owned by Exxon-Mobil. and they simply wont sell it. what is the adminstration supposed to do ?? i know two people who approached mobil about it...the answer to both was not for sale.

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  2. Angela,

    There are many things that can not be done but giving excuses is not one of them. Where there is a will there is a way! We need bright, articulate people to help us. Instead of spending $100,000 on the PERF report to fire the Chief may we could have brought in a professional consultant to help us with economic development.

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