Potential Tenant Backs Away From Woodbury Hall

By Kendra Bobowick

Claris Construction Inc President Phil Clark withdrew his company’s application to renovate Woodbury Hall Wednesday morning.

His firm and the town and a Fairfield Hills Authority subcommittee that had been engaged in lease negotiations in past weeks were not able to come to an agreement suitable for both Claris and the town, Mr Clark confirmed Wednesday.

“I would love to have been working [in Fairfield Hills]” he said.

Both the timeframe for proposed construction of an office building on the Woodbury Hall site to house Claris company offices, a coffee shop, and bank branch, and finances were factors.

“It wasn’t financially feasible,” he said.

Although frustrated, he has a “Plan B” for his office and retail space, and has a team working as of Wednesday to consider a privately owned site — 33 acres — off of Exit 9.

Also let down by the failed deal is First Selectman Pat Llodra.

“I am disappointed that the [Fairfield Hills Authority] subcommittee and Mr Clark were unable to come to a satisfactory resolution of items in negotiations.”

Since all lease discussions took place during executive sessions, Mrs Llodra offered a glimpse into what went wrong: “The economics of the project were a bit daunting from the outset. It is fair and reasonable that a developer invest in projects that bring an economic benefit to his business practice. At the same time, a municipality, unlike private enterprise, has a broad and deep set of responsibilities and accountabilities to the public good and the public dollar.”

She added, “I believe that everyone in the process engaged in the best problem-solving and creative thinking available, but it appears that the challenges could not be overcome.”

In a statement he sent via e-mail, Mr Clark wrote: “I presented a proposal to build a new 30,000-square-foot office and retail building on the Fairfield Hill campus to the Fairfield Hills Authority on March 21. As a town resident, I was excited about the possibility of initiating development on campus by building the first ‘for profit’ project. The hope was to build a high-end eco-friendly facility that would fit into the character of FFH and would attract other business owners to the campus. In order for this project to be financially feasible, I put together a plan that would require no out of pocket expenses for the town in return for lease concessions.

“After 12 weeks the [Fairfield Hills Authority] finally responded to my proposal. Unfortunately, their demands make the project financially unworkable. As a resident of Newtown, and a person who is sick of watching us spend tens of millions of dollars to watch the campus deteriorate, I was overly optimistic that the Fairfield Hills Authority would appreciate the merits of my proposal.”

He continued: “I am disappointed that my project has met the same fate as all the other commercial projects proposed for the FFH campus over the past 11 years.  Hopefully in the near future, someone else can figure out a way to gain acceptance of a project that will spurs some badly needed redevelopment at Fairfield Hills.”

In past weeks a Fairfield Hills subcommittee and lawyers for the town and prospective tenant have been meeting regularly to negotiate terms for a lease for Woodbury Hall. As member Michael Holmes expressed to Mrs Llodra during a Fairfield Hills Authority meeting Wednesday evening, “We put forth our best offers, and [Mr Clark] didn’t accept our last best to this point.” Later in the meeting the authority held an executive session to discuss what terms had been negotiated to date.

Mrs Llodra had opened the discussion saying, “It’s premature to come to any conclusions about why, but one thing we’ll want to do is some reflecting.” Thinking positively, and thinking ahead to other potential lease possibilities, she asked the authority to speak with Mr Clark, and learn what they could about the hurdles of what went wrong.

“Just be sure of the barriers of a lease project as important as this one was,” she said. She then asked, “What’s getting in the way?” Is it the economics or how the authority is going about the lease process?

She is not ready to place blame and said instead, “I think everyone did good work and the best we could.” Mrs Llodra also noted that Mr Clark had hoped for a speedy process from the start, but unlike private entities, a municipality and its procedure moves more slowly.

Authority Chair James Bernardi thanked the subcommittee members who all “put in a lot of time,” on this project.