Borough buys former industrial parcel to control ‘own destiny’

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Naugatuck recently bought the former Risdon Manufacturing site on Andrew Avenue for $400,000. –LUKE MARSHALL

NAUGATUCK — The borough is now the owner of a former industrial property on Andrew Avenue that officials view as a strategic parcel for revitalizing Naugatuck.

The borough recently finalized a deal to buy the 12-acre parcel at 0 Andrew Ave. from MVH, LLC for $400,000. The land was the home of Risdon Manufacturing for 87 years. The company moved to Watertown in 2000. The company’s building on the site was later demolished, and the sale of the land was part of a bankruptcy action.

Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said the borough began a foreclosure process on the property, but MVH filed for bankruptcy soon afterward. He said the borough filed a motion for the property to go to auction and not foreclosure.

“We didn’t want to wait. We wanted a resolution and didn’t want to go through the whole bankruptcy process,” Hess said.

The borough submitted the winning bid for the property at $400,000. The land is appraised at $724,000, according to the property card.

As part of the agreement to buy the land, the borough forgave about $168,000 in back taxes owed on the parcel. The borough ended up paying about $232,000 for the land.

Hess said the borough worked out a deal with Ion Bank to extend a $1.2 million loan for another year and will use this year’s $200,000 scheduled payment on the loan for the land instead. The other roughly $32,000 will come from any budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year, he said.

“We essentially bought the property without having to put a significant dent in our current year’s budget,” Hess said.

Hess said the former Risdon property is in a strategic location, being equidistant from the proposed “Port of Naugatuck” project off Elm Street and the planned transit-oriented development project downtown. He said the property can be used for either project or as a stand-alone project.

“In addition it prevents others from proposing a use that is not consistent with our long-term plans,” Hess said. “It allows us to determine our own destiny.”

That is the long-term plan for the land. In the short term, the borough will temporarily move the recycling center on Rubber Avenue to the former Risdon property while the borough builds a new recycling center on a 13.4-acre, borough-owned parcel off School Street Extension.

Moving the recycling center allows the borough to sell the Rubber Avenue site to a developer, which is part of a larger plan to sell several other public works buildings on Rubber Avenue to revamp the road and get the properties on the tax rolls.

Public Works Director James Stewart said the plan is to have the temporary recycling center opened by spring. He said the design for the temporary center is in the works and some work is needed done on the property to make it suitable.

The borough also needs to get approval from the state to move the recycling center to the site, Stewart said.