As first reported by The Hartford Business Journal, the General Assembly last week approved a massive, more than $1 billion, bond package of investments for Connecticut’s business infrastructure and the affordable housing that is needed to make it work.
The investment in affordable housing is especially important; a recent study found that shrinking racial gaps in housing and pay could bring an additional $15 billion in economic activity to Fairfield County alone.
An analysis of the state bond package can be found here.
One of the hallmarks of the bond package – which passed the Senate by a vote of 35-1 and the House by a vote of 144-4 – is a new “greyfield revitalization program” which is specifically targeted at rehabilitating and repurposing vacant commercial and retail space (the name of the program is a play on words of the popular ‘brownfield’ program which cleans up and redevelops old, polluted industrial properties.)
The new program requires the state Department of Economic and Community Development to create a $50 million grant or loan program to repurpose commercial retail and office space. Under the bill, a “greyfield” is any previously developed commercial retail or office property that is not economically viable in its current state and exhibits conditions that significantly complicate its redevelopment or reuse and is not currently eligible for any brownfield remediation program.
Eligible uses of the grant or loan funds include architectural and engineering assessment of buildings and site readiness to determine suitability for conversion to multi-family housing; demolition; remediation and abatement of building materials that were used according to the State Building Code when the structure was constructed; renovation or conversion construction costs; planning studies to assess the viability of one or more potential future project sites under the program; and reasonable administrative expenses not to exceed 5% of any grant awarded.
The bonding bill also allows DECD to create a strategic supply chain program, which may provide $50 million in grants, loans, subsidies, or tax credits in support of proposed projects to establish, grow, upgrade, or expand companies, facilities, or workforce training efforts within the supply chains of major and emerging industries in Connecticut.
The bill also spends $400 million over two years on housing development and rehabilitation, including improvements to certain kinds of state-assisted affordable housing and housing-related financial assistance programs, and invests another $120 million over two years in Connecticut’s “Time to Own” program, which is a forgivable down payment assistance program offered in conjunction with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority first mortgage program.
In addition to the new Greyfield program, the HBJ says the new pro-business and housing investments in the state bond package include:
- $637 million over two years for the development or redevelopment of affordable housing
- $80 million over two years for the Brownfield Remediation and Revitalization program
- $55 million over two years for the Connecticut Manufacturing Innovation Fund
- $10 million for improvements at Tweed-New Haven Airport
- $56 million over two years for CRDA to encourage new development
- $34 million over two years for improvements and renovations to the Connecticut Convention Center and Rentschler Field
- $10 million over two years for improvements and renovations to Hartford parking garages
- $40 million over two years to encourage economic development in East Hartford
- $30 million in fiscal 2027 to recapitalize the Connecticut Municipal Redevelopment Authority
- $30 million for the Office of Workforce Strategy to support “workforce innovation and sustainability”
