More than 70 years since a once-thriving silk thread mill shut down, a small northeastern Connecticut community of could reclaim its 33 blighted acres if a builder goes ahead with an ambitious $25 million mixed-use development plan.
The proposal to build 116 townhouse condos with 90% leased at market rate — along with retail and as many as three restaurants — would be a huge boost to the drive to revitalize downtown Thompson and surrounding areas, some community leaders say.
Residents are scheduled to decide Wednesday night whether to authorize two key pieces of developer Robert Letskus’s plan.
A town meeting at 7 p.m. will determine whether to sell tax liens on the the former Belding Corticelli Mill to Letskus’ Refined Living LLC for $65,000. Attorneys say he needs the leins as part of a complex friendly foreclosure action against the current property owner. Also on Wednesday night, voters will decide whether to give his company a three-year tax abatement.
A brick tower rises above the remains of the Belding Corticelli Mill on Riverside Drive.
Town officials have largely endorsed the plan, noting the property has sat vacant for more than 70 years. The decaying brick mill along the French River was mostly demolished in 2006, and one of the three remaining parts — a five-story stair tower — collapsed two years ago. What’s left on the Riverside Street property is some rubble surrounded by decades worth of vines and scrub.
Part of the presentation for developer Robert Letskus’s plan in Thompson. (Courtesy of Town of Thompson)
The town got a federal grant about 10 years ago to do an environmental study, and has concluded that contamination is relatively minor for a sprawling 19th century mill property. Still, Letskus would need to assemble grants and financing for a cleanup, and current estimates are that the project would run about $25 million between construction, site preparation and the environmental work.
In a presentation to voters this week, Letskus said the market conditions are right for residential development in Thompson.
“Up in Boston, Providence, even Worcester it’s very expensive. I think a lot of people are going to start coming over the (state) line,” he said.
Letskus, a homebuilder and owner of Platinum Associates, said he drove through Thompson last winter and decided it would be the right place to build.
“I saw these beautiful green pastures, Thompson Speedway, the golf courses, Alamode (food market) — perfect, great spot,” he said. “For the last six months I’ve been obsessed with this project.”
He has been working this summer to build support from voters, largely calling on community spirit.
Part of the presentation for developer Robert Letskus’s plan in Thompson. (Courtesy of Town of Thompson)
“For more than a century, Thompson thrived on the hum of the mills. The Belding-Corticelli Thread Mill was one of the engines driving the community, powering both an industry and a way of life,” he has told voters.
“But time changed everything … Today, the 33-acre site sits overgrown, contaminated, and littered with debris: a reminder of both what Thompson once was and what it has lost. This is not the face of Thompson. The people of this town deserve better. And now — after decades of waiting — better is finally coming,” he said.
His proposal would keep the 135-foot smokestack and restore a 500-square-foot guardhouse, the only remaining parts of the mill complex. He said those would serve to honor the town’s industrial past.
His presentation this week got largely good reviews. Beforehand, though, social media was alive with critics falsely warning that the condos would be Section 8 and burden taxpayers with new demands for costly social services.
In fact, the plan is for about 12 of the condos to be affordable: Owners can make no more than 80% of the average median income. The other 114 would be sold at market rates. They would be a mix of one- and two-bedroom units.
First Selectman Amy St. Onge projects that the condos and retail would generate about $580,000 a year in new taxes.
Tyra Penn, director of planning and development, said Thompson has a number of redevelopment projects on the books, but projected that this one could be completed soonest.
The measures that voters are asked to approve Wednesday call for construction to begin within a year and a half at most, and be completed within three years.
