Norwich – The city will receive a $300,000 brownfields grant to study the environmental cleanup needs of a former industrial building at the planned Uncas Leap Heritage Area on Yantic Street. 

The Norwich grant is part of $2.2 million in grants announced Friday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for seven projects statewide through the Historic Brownfield Revitalization Program. 

The program will provide grants to assess environmental and structural conditions, and conduct community-driven reuse planning for historically significant brownfield sites, according to Malloy’s news release announcing the grants. 

Norwich officials welcomed the funding as the starting point in plans to develop the historic and scenic local landmark into a regional tourist attraction. 

“I guess it pays to be patient,” said William Champagne, president of the Norwich Historical Society and one of the leaders of the effort to improve the Uncas Leap area. “I’ve been working on this for six years now. I’m glad it’s starting to come together. It deserves as many good things as can happen there.” 

The natural gorge was part of an early 17th-century battle between the Narragansett and Mohegan Indian tribes. It also served as a water power source for some of the earliest industrial development for European settlers in Norwich. 

The city acquired the former Artform industrial complex on Yantic Street near the pedestrian bridge over Yantic Falls several years ago for back taxes. A coalition of volunteers from the Norwich Historical Society, the Mohegan tribe, Norwich Community Development Corp. and city departments have been working on a plan to incorporate the property into the heritage park. 

The preliminary plan calls for tearing down a decaying brick portion of the former Artform building and using the shell of an older 1837 granite portion as a visitor’s center or interpretive site to tell the history of the area. 

NCDC President Robert Mills welcomed the grant announcement as the positive momentum the planners need to get the project rolling. 

On Thursday, Mills, Champagne, several city officials and three representatives from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation toured the site as part of the group’s application to the trust for a $50,000 grant that would pay for an engineering plan to stabilize the granite portion of the Artform building.

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