New London ― Last September, attorney Bill Sweeney stood in front of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission to praise a development deal that would transform three long-vacant Fort Trumbull parcels into two apartment complexes and a six-story parking garage.

“This is a day a lot of us have been waiting for,” he said, calling the proposals brokered by the Renaissance City Development Association ― the city’s development arm ― and his client, New Haven-based RJ Development + Advisors, another step toward reinventing the peninsula into a “place of new vibrancy” that would complete the redevelopment of the area.

The Fort Trumbull area in the late 1990s was cleared of homes and businesses as part of a plan developed by the city and the New London Development Corp., the predecessor of the RCDA, to help jump-start economic development in association with the construction of Pfizer’s research headquarters.

Except for construction of the Pfizer facility, now occupied by Electric Boat, and Fort Trumbull State Park, the rest of the peninsula remained undeveloped for years, with the area becoming overgrown and devoid of activity.

But with all Fort Trumbull properties now obligated for use ― but not yet developed ― the RCDA has only one major new project on its plate: the redevelopment of a pair of commercial fishing piers at the northern end of the peninsula.

RCDA notes on its website that its overarching mission, to work with developers on projects that will “complement and support the ongoing redevelopment and revitalization of the Fort Trumbull” area ― as well as nearby downtown ― is “nearly completed.”

RCDA Executive Director Peter Davis on Tuesday said the group’s board of directors has been “wrestling internally with the larger question” of what’s next for the association.

“I know there’s been rumors the RCDA might just fold up, but that’s not true,” he said. “But I don’t know where we’ll be in five or 10 years. Before he was re-elected in November, I asked (Mayor Michael Passero) that question. We want to decide before the end of June where this organization is going.”

Passero said he knows exactly where the RCDA is going: nowhere soon.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done at (Fort Trumbull) in shepherding the development projects already designated,” he said on Wednesday. “That’s going to take years of work and there’s nothing in the ground yet. Their work is far from over.”

A pink cottage, 600 apartments and an expanded mission

Fort Trumbull’s recent history includes a bitter fight in which a handful of property owners refusing to sell their land led to the landmark 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. New London. The court ruled in favor of New London and its use of eminent domain to seize the properties for private development.

The pink cottage owned by Susette Kelo, lead plaintiff in the case, was on East Street, the same road where a new $40 million community center is being built and is scheduled for completion this year.

In response to the backlash against the Supreme Court ruling and the NLDC’s role in the eminent domain controversy, former Mayor Daryl Finizio in January 2012 renamed the group the RCDA and ordered a reorganization of its leadership and policies. Finizio further ordered that the power of eminent domain rest solely with the city.

Passero said one part of his campaign platform ahead of his 2016 inaugural election involved providing an expanded role to the RCDA.

Felix Reyes, the city’s director of economic planning and development, said it’s unfair and inaccurate to compare the RCDA and its predecessor group.

“It’s different leaders and a different mission,” he said. “We need a core agency like the RCDA. They’re vital to assisting us with our redevelopment goals. They’re typically the first boots on the ground providing guidance on next steps, like funding development opportunities and best uses of a property. They create the strategies that the city then either decides to use or not use.”

Talks with developers interested in Fort Trumbull land have moved in fits and starts in the years after the ruling but only gained real momentum in 2022 with the purchase of 4 acres by the Optimus Construction Management company, which plans to build 104 apartments and a hotel with extended-stay suites on the site.

That project has not yet broken ground, though. Davis said the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply-chain issues interrupted the construction schedule.

“They are still trying, though there’s been discussion about another developer taking over the project,” said Davis, who called the project “in progress” as of earlier this month.

The latest and last project approved involves the construction by RJ Development of 500 apartments in two buildings and a 1,200-space parking garage on three parcels bracketed by Chelsea, Walbach and East streets.

Reyes noted the Optimus and R.J. Development projects were the result of years of behind-the-scenes lobbying and site coordination by the RCDA.

“Just because the homes there were demolished and the property separated into parcels didn’t mean you just start building,” he said. “The RCDA had to do a tremendous amount of investigating into geo-technical and site coordination issues that involved meeting with state and federal officials. If you built without that due diligence, it’d be like having a shoe without a sole, a major support piece missing.”

Passero said the RCDA was instrumental in helping forge a modified flood management certificate between the city and the state in 2022 allowing more multi-unit housing to be built on the peninsula.

The scope of redevelopment, though, has since expanded past the peninsula.

Davis, who was interviewed for the RCDA’s top post 11 year after the Supreme Court ruling, said he initially declined the part-time position mainly due to the narrow scope of the group’s responsibilities.

“The only mission was Fort Trumbull, which wasn’t enough of a workload or challenge for me,” he said. “I wanted them to come up with other projects, like those related to downtown. That was done and the council approved $100,000 in operating expenses. Then, I was in.”

Downtown projects

In 2016 the City Council directed RCDA to assess three city-owned properties: the Richard R. Martin Center at 120 Broad St.; the Little Red Schoolhouse at 96 Hawthorne Drive; and Parcel J, a vacant plot of land at Bank and Howard streets.

The Martin Center, owned by the city until 2020, had been an unofficial recreation center with a gymnasium, auditorium and offices that housed the Recreation Department. The building was given to Tauche Capital by the city in 2020 at no cost in exchange for its redevelopment into senior apartments.

The property was sold by Tauche to 120 Broad Street Associates LLC for $7.4 million in 2022, according to city property records.

The schoolhouse on Hawthorne Drive was sold to the Leigh Property Management group for $125,000 in 2022 and is now home to the String Theory School of Music.

Parcel J, off Bank Steet, is now a 137-unit apartment complex called The Docks.

Passero also lauded the work the RCDA did in coordinating the remediation and demolition of the former Thames River Apartments complex on Crystal Avenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s only so much capacity our city staff has to tackle those kinds of redevelopment projects,” he said. “Peter Davis has done an amazing job reinventing the RCDA and, in this era of getting things done in the city I can’t imagine that continuing without the RCDA.”

Pier project on horizon

Davis said his group will next be focusing on planned infrastructure upgrades to the Fort Trumbull piers courtesy of a $3 million commitment made years ago by Ørsted, the Danish renewable energy company. Ørsted and Eversource are partners in major wind farm development projects being staged from New London’s State Pier.

Davis said the RCDA will aid the city in crafting bid packages, as well as take part in the interviewing and issuing contract awards for the pier work. The project will focus first on repairing – or replacing – the smaller of the two fishing piers that extend out past the state park’s riverwalk area.

Davis said that although a preliminary assessment of the docks, leased to a commercial fishing business, was done, a more extensive overview is required by a marine engineer before work bids can be solicited.

“It’ll be some months down the road before we get to that point,” he said, noting the City Council has not yet approved a budget associated with the Ørsted grant. “And we’re looking at 18 months to two years for completion of the job.”

And though there are no concrete plans for future projects the RCDA might be involved with ― the group has not formally met since October ― Davis said there are plenty of possibilities.

“For instance, if there’s ever money that comes down from the state to increase affordable housing, we’re in a position to go out and secure properties for the city,” he said. “Or we could be put to work assessing blighted or non-performing properties in the city.”

Davis, who said his tenure with the RCDA is finite, noted quasi-public agencies like his, with their bond-issuing authority and ability to leverage federal funding not available to municipalities, are more than just “real estate brokers.”

“We’ll wait and see what the next four years brings,” he said.

j.penney@theday.com