Any urban center is where it is because there was a reason to build it there, and the reason is always economic.

Ports, mining towns, railroad hubs, commercial centers — they all sprang up where the workforce and its customers needed them to be. By the relentless logic of supply and demand, when the jobs left a city would become a shadow of its former self.

Most of America has seen that firsthand over the nearly decade-long recession that in southeastern Connecticut is only now ebbing. There are signs that that tide may have turned for New London at last.

The city, which for years has been hanging hungrily on the promise offered by marquee projects — the long-gone Ocean Quest, phantom projects at Fort Trumbull, and now, with high hopes, the National Coast Guard Museum — is experiencing a boomlet of the old-fashioned kind: apartments, restaurants, retail and office buildings being developed because a major employer, in this case, Electric Boat, is hiring.

With a net gain of 800-plus employees expected this year, and large-scale growth predicted for years to come, EB is pumping life into the market for rental apartments and other development.

The city's Office of Development and Planning has compiled a list of the projects underway, applying for permits or seeking financing since the start of 2015: 

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[naviga:li]AR Building Co. of New Jersey has been approved for a residential apartment building of 104 units on Mansfield Road. The company plans 50 studio units, 43 one-bedroom units, and 11 two-bedroom units, with construction expected to begin this year.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]A Boston developer is proposing to convert the two commercial buildings that were formerly Faria Mills at 90 Garfield Ave. into 68 residential apartments, with plans to apply for CHFA financing.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]A Texas Roadhouse restaurant opened in October in a new 10,490 sq. ft. building at the New London Shopping Center.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]O’Reilly Auto Parts received Planning and Zoning Commission approval in February and is planning to build a 7,225 sq. ft. store at the corner of Colman Street and Cedar Grove Avenue this year.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Denny’s restaurant received Planning and Zoning approval in May to renovate and open in the former Pizza Hut at the New London Shopping Center.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Shaw’s Cove 6, an 88,000 sq. ft. office building adjacent to the vacant Parcel J at the corner of Howard and Bank streets, sold in December for $3.6 million.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]1 Hamilton Street Residences, not far from the EB campus on Pequot Avenue, which started in 2006 and then stalled during the recession, was sold in January 2015 and remodeled into two-bedroom apartments, all now rented at $1,500 per month.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]The City Flats project continues to rehabilitate housing stock in the center city.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]New owners have taken over landmark commercial buildings on State and Bank streets, many with mixed retail and residential development plans.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Requests for proposals are out for commercial or mixed-use development on Parcel J and for preferred use of the aging Martin Center on Broad Street as revived residential development.[/naviga:li]

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Living space will be the hottest commodity as EB seeks to attract designers and shipbuilders to construct both adapted-design Virginia-class submarines and the new Ohio-class replacement ballistic missile submarines. They will be joined in the housing market by people working in the new restaurant and retail businesses.

One welcome sign of progress is that the city's planning and development office and the municipal development entity, now known as the Renaissance City Development Association, are no longer working in their respective silos but are coordinating efforts.

All of this momentum is happening in spite of the echoing emptiness of the Fort Trumbull peninsula, which ought to be the city's prime land for development. It's occurring while the National Coast Guard Museum planned for downtown is still way out on the horizon. Their role is to inspire optimism about what the city can be and to appeal to investors and developers who see the potential.

Meanwhile, New London is seeing development under the most basic of all formulas: lots of good, well-paying jobs. It's good news.