Final Beam Frames Dixwell Dream

As the final beam of ConnCAT’s future health-job-childcare hub rose on Dixwell Avenue, Kim Harris and Julia Ficklin each thought of generations past and generations to come.

For Ficklin, that beam meant a longtime dream of her late husband, Alder Tom Ficklin, clicking into place.

For Harris, it meant a trove of resources for the children she teaches starting to materialize.

Harris and Ficklin joined dozens of politicians, developers, and community members Wednesday morning at the construction site of ​“ConnCAT Place,” a long-awaited overhaul of the historic Dixwell Plaza commercial strip between Webster Street and Charles Street on Dixwell Avenue.

ConnCORP, a development-focused affiliate of the local career training nonprofit ConnCAT, convened the group to mark the completion of the metal frame for the initial phase of the $163 million development project. The first building will house ConnCAT’s future headquarters as well as a childcare center run by Friends Center for Children and a children’s mental health center run by Cornell Scott Hill Health. Future construction is slated to bring mixed-income housing, shops including a grocery store or food hall, and a public plaza to the block as well.

Among the speakers was U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who had secured $1.1 million in federal funding for the project last year. ​“Given the environment we’re in, I’m glad that the money is in the bank and they can’t come get it!” she declared, alluding to federal funding freezes under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We are so thankful that you stuck by us, that you believed in us,” ConnCAT and ConnCORP CEO Erik Clemons told the small crowd.

In order to place the final beam into the frame, construction workers affiliated with Whiting-Turner had to tie it to the hook of a crane, use the crane to elevate it about 30 feet into the sky, and then slowly lower it so that crew members balancing atop the structure could slide it into place and secure it.

Before that, everyone from the mayor to the neighbors living down the block had a chance to sign their name on the beam in colorful Sharpie.

Julia Ficklin thought of her late husband, Tom Ficklin, who died in October in the middle of his term representing Beaver Hills’ Ward 28 on the Board of Alders. Ficklin said that her husband, a stalwart of local Black culture and community life, was deeply committed to the mission of reviving Dixwell Plaza. 

“It’s very emotional. At the moment, I’m missing him,” Ficklin said. At the same time, having grown up in the nearby Newhallville neighborhood, she described feeling joy in ​“seeing the community growing despite strife.”

She wrote on the beam in blue sharpie: In memory of Thomas R. Ficklin Jr., Ward 28 Alderperson.

Harris, meanwhile, thought of her young students at the Newhallville-based preschool and afterschool center Harris and Tucker. She’s watched them watch the building slowly rise in their own neighborhood — and believes it will not only provide them with resources, but offer them a model for how they can get involved in their own community life. Harris herself is a board member of ConnCORP alongside Dixwell Management Team member Nina Silva.

“Here’s the thing: Black owned and operated,” Harris said. ​“That doesn’t come around every day” — and it can provide inspiration for ​“the kids of the next generation.”

She wrote in red Sharpie: Ms. Kim Harris, 4/16/25 ❤︎, Much Love.

“You have to have development. The world moves,” Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison said in an interview. As Dixwell moves alongside the world, she said, her priority is ​“making sure the community is also taken into consideration.”

On Wednesday, the signatures on that beam testified to a degree of community involvement in ConnCORP’s plans.

“When you see a structure and you’ve been there since before there was a beam, it’s hard to describe the feeling,” said Morrison. ​“One day, when I’m old and I don’t remember anything, I’ll always be able to say: ​‘My name is written on a beam inside that building!’”

She had inscribed in red: Ward 22 welcomes you!!! ‑Alder Morrison.