Groton — Electric Boat has offered to buy 11 homes on Eastern Point Road, a way of addressing the concerns of neighboring homeowners who will be most impacted by its shipyard expansion plans.

Representatives from EB met with homeowners last week and made the offers, which were "the result of the company thinking about how to address (their) concerns," said spokeswoman Liz Power.

EB officials had previously met several times with Eastern Point homeowners who are unhappy with the company's plans to spend $850 million to improve and expand its Groton shipyard to keep up with the increased demand for submarines. The company presented its plans to the public during a September meeting at the City of Groton municipal building.

The majority of the construction is expected to take place in the south yard, which is across from the Eastern Point neighborhood. The company will construct a new assembly facility and floating dry dock there to build a new class of ballistic missile submarines. Construction is expected to begin in 2019 but will accelerate in 2021, and extend to 2023, around the time the module for the first ballistic missile submarine is expected to arrive in Groton from EB's facility in Quonset Point, R.I.

Homeowners have expressed concern about their property values going down, losing their view of the Thames River and New London, and the noise and congestion that come with living next to an active construction site.

Some of the homeowners are either former or current EB employees like Frank Ricci, a retired engineering supervisor who worked at the company for 34 years. Ricci, who's lived on Eastern Point Road for 45 years, said he doesn't intend to sell his home. His wife still works for EB.

"Not unless they start buying every house around us and start tearing them down," Ricci said by phone Monday. "Something like that would probably change my mind."

Rosann DiRoma, who has lived on Eastern Point Road for 26 years, said she was taken aback by how low the offer was.

“The offer they gave me, I will not sell it at that offer,” DiRoma said by phone Monday night.

She said she saved up and bought her home when she was 34 and over the years has enjoyed watching submarines and ferries pass by along with various fireworks displays. She added all her neighbors get along. 

She said she is supportive of what EB is doing for the economy but it’s a “mixed bag” for those who live nearby. 

The offers, which vary depending on the size of the home and the lot, were calculated by real estate professionals, who referred to recent sales of comparable properties in the area as well public information about the properties, Power said. If an owner believes the company's offer undervalues the home, he or she can have the property assessed by two licensed appraisers, and submit those assessments to EB for recalculation.

Each offer includes a tenant improvement fee, which is over and above the fair market value of the home, and if an owner accepts, he or she can stay in the home for up to two years after it's purchased, Power said.

"They recognize that the building and construction process is going to be intrusive, and they are trying to minimize the negative impact of that," City of Groton Mayor Keith Hedrick said of EB officials. "This is an olive branch. EB is trying to be a good neighbor."

Hedrick said EB informed him on Friday of its plan to make offers on the homes, and as of Monday afternoon, he hadn't heard from any of the homeowners. The area is zoned residential, and Hedrick said he and EB did not discuss rezoning the area for any other type of development, nor did EB indicate what it wanted to do with the homes.

"I had people calling me and asking if we were going to take it for eminent domain and give it to Electric Boat. And the answer was absolutely not," he said.

EB has already purchased two homes on Eastern Point Road including 224 Eastern Point Road, an unoccupied building adjacent to its parking lot, for $97,500 at an auction in August. EB once owned the property, which was also owned for a period of time by Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Southeastern Connecticut.

The company also purchased 306 Eastern Point Road after the four-bedroom, single-family home went on the market recently. It is expected to close on the property at the end of this week. It's unclear if the building was occupied at the time of purchase. Real estate websites place the value of the home around $245,000. EB hasn't decided what it wants to do with either of the buildings, Power said.

j.bergman@theday.com