Becker Renews His Bid To Redevelop Fairfield Hills

By Steve Bigham

The Legislative Council recently received a letter from the Becker and Becker development firm seeking a meeting to discuss its plans for the re-use Fairfield Hills. However, according to Chairman Pierre Rochman, the council is still not ready to put the company on its agenda.

“The Legislative Council, at this point, is not in a position to listen to proposals,” Mr Rochman said this week. “Number one, we’re still waiting for a recommendation from the Board of Selectmen. Number two, there is still some discussion as to what is the council’s role in Fairfield Hills. Is it just voting ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether to purchase it, or are we going to take some position as to what will happen there?”

Becker and Becker President Bruce Becker appears to have renewed his efforts to win the right to re-develop Fairfield Hills… even if Newtown eventually purchases the property from the state. In his letter to the council, Mr Becker indicated that there might be some “misconceptions” about his company’s plans for the adaptive re-use of the campus.

“We would like the opportunity to correct misconceptions about our plan and offer a revised proposal that better addresses the town’s objectives,” he said.

Mr Becker says his latest proposal offers the town 100 or more acres of open space, a handful of buildings, and no town liability over what could be as much as $14-15 million in environmental clean-up costs. He said his plan gives the town all it needs while relieving it of the burden of going into the private development business.

“It’s a simultaneous closing where if the town decides not to purchase the entire property, the town would acquire 110 acres of open space and five buildings for town use. The balance of the buildings [over a million square feet] we would restore and redevelop and put on tax rolls, so the town doesn’t have to worry about managing that very complex, costly process itself,” he said.

Becker and Becker was once viewed as the frontrunner among developers looking to purchase Fairfield Hills from the state. However, Bruce Becker & Co eventually fell out of favor with town officials, and after the town decided it might want to purchase the campus, Becker and Becker dropped completely out of the picture.

What made the Becker and Becker plan of a year ago unique was that much of the project was to be financed by others. The firm was seeking to forge “partnerships” with both the town and other organizations.

For now, however, Mr Becker says he is simply waiting in the wings to see which direction Newtown goes in. He came back to Newtown knowing there were many in town who felt his “partnership with the town” proposal had merit.

Mr Becker believes his firm still sits atop the state’s list of prospective developers should the town vote against buying Fairfield Hills. In Newtown, Becker and Becker appeared to be the clear-cut favorite during the state’s selection process – a process that was suspended this past winter when the town exercised its right-of-first refusal to purchase the 185-acre property.

But Mr Becker feels strongly that his plan would also work should the town decide to purchase the property from the state. He is hoping to get himself back on the agenda this summer.