Middletown Receives $350K Brownfield Cleanup Grant

MIDDLETOWN — The city has been awarded a $350,000 state grant to clean up contamination at a former gas station at Main and Grand streets.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced a $27 million brownfield grant package on Wednesday that provides funding for 20 cleanup and redevelopment projects around the state.

The city has owned the gas station property since purchasing it in 2011 with a $400,000 state grant, which also paid for initial cleanup there. At the time, city officials planned to sell the parcel to the Community Health Center for a new administration building.

“This is the largest round of brownfield remediation funding ever in the state’s history and we will continue making these investments because we know doing so will generate significant returns for our state and local economies by getting these properties back on the tax rolls, improving the quality of life in these areas, cleaning up environmental contamination and, most importantly, creating jobs for our residents,” Malloy said in a statement.

The grants included nearly $5 million for two projects in New Haven, more than $4 million for three in Bridgeport, $3 million for two in New Britain, among others.

City Planning Director Michiel Wackers said once cleanup is complete at the site, the city can offer the building for sale as a development parcel.

The city would require that the building have retail on the first floor and residential or commercial space on upper floors.

The Community Health Center owns an adjacent parcel on Grand Street, and expressed interest in the site in 2011 as the location for a new administration building.

Health center spokesman Paul Mayer said the nonprofit health center is still interested in the site, but costs and the size of any development must be studied further.