After years of delays, Wall Street Place construction will resume

Good news for Wall Street stakeholders: According to Mayor Harry Rilling, construction on Wall Street Place is set to resume within two to three weeks, and infrastructure work on lower Wall Street will begin Aug. 5

Rilling’s brief remarks came at Monday’s Democratic Town Committee meeting.

Wall Street Place, at the corner of Wall and Isaacs streets, has been stalled, stopped, handed off, and more over the past decade. It’s been derisively nicknamed the Tyvek Temple, due to the covering that’s draped the building since 2016, or POKO, after its original developer, POKO Partners, which went bankrupt due to a $9 million shortfall.

Construction on the property stopped in June 2016 when Citibank took control of it through a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure. The bank negotiated with the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency and the City to restart the project, in compliance with a Land Disposition Agreement calling for 100 public parking spaces. 

The parking issue launched the city into a legal battle with Wall Street area real estate developer Jason Milligan, who bought the site that was earmarked for the second phase of the project. The purchase became the centerpiece of a court case that Milligan settled in 2023. 

The developer, JHM Group, appeared before the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in November and received a one-year extension on its approved plans. Those plans call for completing construction of the existing six-story frame structure at 61 Wall Street as a mixed-use building, with 101 workforce residential units, just over 10,000 square feet of retail space, and approximately 40 parking spaces.

On the former site of the Garden Cinemas, demolished in 2022, JHM plans to construct a new building with two residential stories of 50 units above two parking garage levels offering about 152 parking spaces.

“The project involves a complex financial transaction, including with state and federal funding sources,” Michelle Woods Matthews, Norwalk’s director of communications, said in April. “We know that the developer’s legal counsel is in the process of working diligently with various funding sources to try to get the deal closed within the next few months. We expect construction to begin this year in the late spring or early summer.”

Lower Wall Street

As for the other good news, lower Wall Street is due for a makeover in Phase I of a three-part plan. The cost is expected to exceed $27 million, most of it already secured from State and Federal grant programs.

The design project, largely developed over the last three years, is a result of our engagement with the local community and expands upon recommendations for infrastructure improvements from planning studies dating all the way back to the 1986 Business District Management Plan.

“This phase of the project will significantly widen and improve sidewalks in the City’s historic downtown, as well as right-size the travel lanes, improve the lighting, and install a much-desired new crosswalk. The sidewalks will be enhanced with decorative brick banding throughout, new street trees and plantings, and the existing highway lighting will be replaced with much more pedestrian scale decorative streetlights. The design includes curb extensions to improve visibility for pedestrians, protect on-street parking, and calm traffic entering the area,” said Garrett Bolella, the City’s assistant director of Transportation, Mobility and Parking.  

“What is particularly most exciting is the creation of a pedestrian plaza between the intersections of High Street and Knight Street, which will allow for a raised crosswalk across Wall Street with a flashing beacon. The project is the product of the City’s Complete Streets initiative and also includes the addition of bi-directional bike lanes, bicycle racks and high visibility crosswalks throughout.  It is a great example of improvements that can be made to the benefit of all modes of travel while enhancing the local community,” Bolella said.  

In February, the Common Council voted to approve a $2 million contract with Waters Construction Co., for Phase 1. Improvements to the section of Wall Street that runs from about Main Street to past Knight Street include:

• Wider sidewalks
• Streetscape
• New light fixtures that are “pedestrian level”
• Street trees
• Curb extensions that will make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street 
• A “plaza between High and Knight streets” with a crosswalk that has a push button and flashing lights

According to Bolella, Phase I is “99% grant-funded through the State.” It should take about a year to complete.

“The project’s first phase will transform the segment of Wall Street/East Wall Street, between Main Street and Brook Street,” he said. “Waters Construction Co. has been awarded the contract for this portion and they have already been on site performing some pre-construction work, such as verifying locations of utilities, etc.  The contractor will mobilize early August to survey and stakeout the improvements, after which they will commence drainage and demolition work. The entire project is anticipated to take approximately a year to complete. This portion of the project is covered by a State LOTCIP (Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program) grant. The award for this portion is $2,438,521.

“We will have a groundbreaking when the contractor actually starts the construction work; shortly thereafter, the City plans to provide an update to the neighborhood on the progress of larger project (future phases).  Be on the lookout for more information coming soon,” Bolella said.

“A lot of good projects are moving forward in Norwalk,” Lucia Rilling said, speaking on behalf of her husband, the mayor.

They include the expected construction of a new school in South Norwalk and a $14 million Federal grant for the Martin Luther King corridor.

The funding comes through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program, officials said recently. The funding will go toward a variety of Complete Streets-related improvements along MLK and six additional roadways in the area. This project will include: roadway diets, connectivity enhancements, separated bike lanes, improved pedestrian and transit accommodations, updated wayfinding signage, landscaping with street trees, green infrastructure, and digital signage with “real-time transit information.”

City officials said in the grant application that the project would “improve safety and reduce conflicts for all roadway users…reduce the heat island effect in the area…[and] encourage walking and cycling, thereby serving to improve public health and increase affordable transportation mobility.”