Norwich — City leaders hope to take advantage of a new state Community Investment Fund grant program for distressed municipalities to revive shelved plans for a new police station, possibly on city-owned land on Mahan Drive.

The City Council will hold a special meeting at 10 a.m. Monday to vote on resolutions to endorse funding requests for three projects: $8 million toward a $40 million new public safety complex, $10.4 million to revitalize historic lower Broadway and $500,000 for brownfields renovations as part of a proposed $4.9 million renovation of the former Reid & Hughes building on Main Street.

With the state’s first CIF application round due Monday, and municipal support required with the applications, the council was forced to schedule a special meeting for Monday morning to vote on the measures.

The council met behind closed doors last Monday with police Chief Patrick Daley, Deputy Chief Corey Poore and other senior officers to discuss possible real estate acquisition. On Friday, Mayor Peter Nystrom said the grant application does not limit the project to any one site, but he said land the city already owns on Mahan Drive between the Rose City Senior Center and Ox Hill Road is one possible site.

The spot is near the Kelly Middle School, Norwich Technical High School, the city Recreation Department and athletic fields and at the edge of Mohegan Park. Part of the land, however, holds the city’s skateboard park.

The resolution asks for $8 million, Nystrom said, because the CIF is limited to 20% of total capital project costs. The city will seek other state and federal grants for the police station project, as well.

Voters in November 2012 voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to reject plans for a $33.4 million new police station downtown in the former Sears department store. City leaders backed off on attempts to replace the outdated and undersized station for years after the vote until the new grant opportunity arose.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said legislators this past spring created the $175 million Community Investment Fund for communities that struggle to pay for necessary projects. “There were things that needed to get done that weren’t happening,” she said. “This would be an additional way to get things done.”

Police Chief Daley was not available for comment Friday.

The other two CIF grant requests will be submitted to the state by the Norwich Community Development Corp. The agency is seeking $10.4 million for the Historic Downtown Norwich Broadway Revitalization Project to upgrade historical buildings and streetscapes in the section of Broadway from City Hall to Main Street.

The NCDC application folds in what otherwise would have been separate applications by the Norwich Arts Center for major structural repairs and upgrades to its 1891 Donald Oat Theater building at 60-64 Broadway and by Reliance Health for its offices at 40 Broadway.

The second NCDC application is to support Heritage Housing Inc.’s plan to purchase the long-vacant Reid & Hughes building at 193-201 Main St. Heritage Housing, co-owner of the Wauregan Apartments across the street, proposes a $4 million project to create 17 market-rate apartments and two street-level retail spaces. The CIF application asks for $500,000 in a brownfields remediation grant for environmental cleanup associated with the renovation project.

Osten said CIF applications will be reviewed by a board, which includes the state Senate president and the speaker of the state House. The board will forward its recommendations to the governor to be placed on a state Bond Commission agenda for approval.

Osten said she sent letters of support signed by all four Norwich legislators, herself and state Reps. Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, Emmett Riley, D-Norwich, and Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin, for the Norwich applications.

“The ones that Norwich put in for would really transform the downtown area,” Osten said. “And the police station is something the city has been wanting to do for a long time.”

c.bessette@theday.com