With Permission
A U.S. Army Reserve Training Center in Branford is close to becoming a reality.
The Army has agreed to purchase about 15 acres of the former Bittersweet Farm property in Branford to build a training center and anticipates closing on the property in March.
The proposed purchase was confirmed Thursday when the Eagle contacted Carol Labashosky, spokeswoman for Louisville District of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Labashosky said the Army Reserve “exercised the purchase option” for the property. “While a closing date has not been confirmed, the Army is anticipating a closing date in March of 2014.”
Branford was selected as the preferred site after about 80 other possibilities within a 50-mile radius of Bridgeport were eliminated. The training center is near Exit 56 off I‑95.
The property would actually be purchased by the Army Corps of Engineers, who will oversee the construction project. Labashosky said the purchase price cannot be disclosed until the sale is complete.
Plans call for a training facility that would serve about 300 reservists, mostly on weekends. It is estimated there would be about five full-time employees. The project would include administrative offices, a library, learning center, weapons simulator and physical fitness areas. There would be a separate maintenance shop and an unheated storage building. Click here to read a previous story. Army officials previously estimated the project would cost between $15 and $20 million.
The training center would be built along Route 1, just past the town’s Transfer Station and animal shelter. The 15-acre site is part of the 86-acre property at 777 – 779 East Main St., which is owned by Bittersweet Partners LLC., a partnership between Al Secondino and Michael Belfonti. Secondino’s family has operated A. Secondino & Sons Inc. general contracting company in Branford since 1929. Belfonti is the president and CEO of Belfonti Companies in Hamden, a real estate development and investment company founded in 1980.
Neither Belfonti nor Secondino returned calls asking for comment.
Architectural and engineering plans for the project were submitted to Branford’s Planning and Zoning Commission and other local entities in 2012, even though federal projects do not require local zoning approvals.
When the Eagle initially learned about the Army’s plans to build a center in Branford, it contacted Shawn Morris, spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve’s 99th Regional Support Command, who said training centers typically benefit both the local economy and the military. “It gives the soldiers a state-of-the-art facility,” he said at the time. “It’s good for the community and the soldiers. That’s what the Reserve is all about — living and training in the communities.” (Click here to read that story.)
The project is part of the Grow The Army program, and not part of the nationwide Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program. Site selection for the training center began in 2008. Branford was selected as the preferred site after about 80 other possibilities within a 50-mile radius of Bridgeport were eliminated.
The Bittersweet property was once a chicken farm owned by the Wallace family, and later became a popular artist colony and craft village. In 2001, CuraGen Corp., a biotech pharmaceutical development firm, purchased the Bittersweet property for $2.3 million. The company received approvals from the Inland Wetlands Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission to build a research facility there, but nothing was ever built.
In 2005, the 86-acre property was purchased by Bittersweet Partners LLC for $2.9 million. In 2011, Secondino and Belfonti made an informal presentation to the Inland Wetlands Commission for that parcel and an adjoining 50-acre parcel which they also own. They were hoping to develop a multi-use complex featuring a medical center, offices, residential units and a Costco store, but the plans never materialized. Click here to here to read about that.
Since then, a portion of the Bittersweet property has been mentioned as one of several possible sites for Branford’s new public works facility.
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