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About 50 city and business officials climbed on the off-duty city bus, stopping along the way to hear their fellow travelers discuss their roles in the revitalization of the city’s West End and South End.
“I’m excited about the success so far… and the vision for the future,” Ganim said in a presentation before the trip.
Once the center of Bridgeport’s historic manufacturing base, the sweeping area is now home to: the largest fuel cell in the Western Hemisphere, the largest liquified natural gas filling station on the East Coast and the largest mattress recycling facility in Connecticut, according to a city report.
The largest solar park in Connecticut and the largest bio-diesel production facility in New England are currently under construction as well.
In addition, the state’s largest thermal heating loop and largest medical waste recovery facility are in the planning stages and a developer is working on two anaerobic digesters, which will be the only ones in Connecticut.
At one stop, Gary Flocco of Corvus Capital Partners explained how his group will be converting several old factory buildings into a green workforce housing complex featuring 129 residential units and a charter school for 6th- to 12th-grade students in its first phase. If all goes as planned, he said, the final project will include 325 housing units and a supermarket within the next seven years.
Ben Toby of FuelCell Energy said the Danbury-based developer’s massive complex produces about 15 megawatts of continuous power to the electric grid.
Murphy said he was impressed to see the complex in Connecticut.
“It’s good, clean, reliable power — and jobs,” he said.
The far-reaching Eco-Technology Park initiative, much of which was started under former Mayor Bill Finch, will have an important side benefit: It will boost the city’s image, said David Kooris, director of planning and economic development.
About 135,000 drivers pass through Bridgeport on I-95 each day, with another 80,000 looking out the windows of Metro-North trains.
And what do they see as they pass through the state’s largest city? Vacant, graffiti-tagged buildings with broken windows, housing projects and vacant lots dominate the view in many parts of the corridor.
“For many, this is their exclusive interaction with the city,” said Kooris. “This project can be transformational.”
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