Norwich seeks $8.8 million state grant to revitalize lower Broadway

Norwich — New York-based developer Ernest Tollja, the owner of the blighted Fairhaven building at 26-28 Broadway, said Tuesday part of the side of the building has now fallen apart. That's in addition to the boarded windows, which were already broken when he bought it last year, and the sagging roof and the decrepit outdoor steps to the building. "The building is in bad shape," Tollja said. "It will need a lot of money to get it structurally safe, and obviously to finish the apartments." Tollja and his brother Albert Tollja, under TT Investments LLC, purchased the Fairhaven and two other lower Broadway buildings for a combined price of $810,000 last January. They could soon receive some help with the cost of restoring the Fairhaven into 21 apartments. The City Council on Monday authorized the Norwich Community Development Corp. to apply for an $8.8 million Community Investment Fund grant that would help fund a major project that would revitalize several properties on lower Broadway. NCDC President and Executive Director Kevin Brown said the idea is "to take this stretch of lower Broadway that sits prominently right in front of our City Hall, and bring the standards for those buildings — and what they represent to a vibrant downtown — up to what that historic City Hall deserves." Brown said the properties that would benefit from the grant include the "collapsing" Fairhaven building, an adjacent 0.11-acre grassy lot, known as Jubilee Park, the Norwich Arts Center and an office building at 4 Broadway. The city is expected to apply for the grant by Friday. The total project cost would be $11.9 million, Brown said. TT Investments would contribute most of the rest of the funds, not covered by the grant. The Fairhaven building, which has sat "dead and blighted" for more than two decades, is the largest component of the project, Brown said. Tollja said if substantial grant funding is not approved, restoring the building on his own budget would be impossible. The other main component of the project seeks to take the Jubilee Park, which sits between Castle Church and the Fairhaven building, and transform it into what Brown described as a "dynamic, downtown public space." The city submitted a similar application that the CIF board denied in 2022. Feedback after the denial said the city hadn't done enough diligence with the project, Brown said. But Brown said he is hopeful as the city now has more in place than it did then: construction documents for the Fairhaven and Jubilee Park, and a new developer for the Fairhaven that is willing to invest substantial funding. The design plans for Jubilee Park call for a two-tiered, terraced park with a glass enclosure for arts events, flea markets or other public gatherings. Brown envisioned the park being used by nearby courthouse employees, people who attend Castle Church and residents of the soon-to-be-completed Reid and Hughes building, and already-completed Water Street Lofts in the area. The overall project also involves upgrades to Norwich Arts Center and the office building at 4 Broadway, which is visible from the park. Norwich Arts Center President Faye Ringel said the more than $1 million, which would go to improving the center, would upgrade the building's façade back to its historic appearance and add UV-graded windows to protect the artwork in the first-floor gallery. She said that problem had been temporarily fixed at least five years ago with the installation of a window film. "With the grant, we have the chance to have properly historically accurate frames for the windows, plus restoring the brickwork," she added. Decorative ironwork would be restored, and some modern glass removed and replaced with a historic counterpart. The city will hear the results of the application in mid-September, and if it's successful, the city would receive the funding in late 2025, Brown said. If the project is approved, the earliest construction would start would be next fall, he said. "We're really just trying to get this to look like this complete street that everybody wants to talk about," Brown said. TT Investments, meanwhile, has nearly finished work to restore the nearby 59-61 Broadway building it purchased with the Fairhaven. Tollja said the building, abutting Billy Wilson's Ageing Still on the right, should be completed this week, and will house four apartments and a commercial space. "We're hoping by the end of this month to have that building ready to go to market for rent," he said, adding he's hoping a restaurant will inhabit the first floor there. The third building the Tolljas purchased, 51-53 Broadway, on the other side of Billy Wilson's, was finished last fall, and they are still marketing its first-floor commercial space. Tollja said he hopes the improvements of all three will provide for a more vibrant downtown area. d.drainville@theday.com