The site of the former Gilbert and Bennett Wire Mill fostered Redding’s growth, but it’s long since suffered a reversal of fortune, according to First Selectman Julia Pemberton.
“The history of Redding is built around the history of this wire mill,” Pemberton said. “And this mill has sat vacant and derelict for about 34 years.”
A new $200,000 remediation grant approved by the state in June will help wrap up a long running clean up project, as the town considers redeveloping the former mill as a mixed use development.
The remediation work, which will check for contamination levels, will be expected to last two years.
The 44-acre property has been closed since 1989. Redding’s municipal government acquired it in 2021 after it was foreclosed in 2015.
Gilbert and Bennett Wire Mill Advisory Committee Chair Amy Atamian said the grant would help the town better plan out next steps for development.
“What we will be able to do is complete our assessment of the environmental conditions of the site and develop plans for specific areas of the site that we feel very confident that can be cleaned up in the short term, and open up portions of the site so that the public can make use of the site,” Atamian said.
Remediation studies have happened since the 1990s, but plans to redevelop the area were postponed due to the 2008 financial crisis. A $200,000 grant was handed out in 2021 for the first phase of remediation.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said the new grant, which was handed out through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s (DECD) Brownfield Remediation and Development Program, will help the town eventually figure out what it wants to do with the site.
“It could be housing, it could be retail, it could be commercial space, acres, makerspace, whatever is the imagination and the needs of your community,” Bysiewicz said.
The area, as well as the state, suffers from a housing shortage, and making the site a housing and transit hub could set a national example, said Rep. Anne Hughes, a Democrat who represents Redding.
“We are finally getting the kind of scale of investment that we need to develop this site and to be a leader for ex-urban development for small town, mixed-use space … we can be a model for the whole state and for the country,” Hughes said.
The transit hub concept is similar to a mixed use development project currently undergoing remediation in Fairfield. Officials say the project will take 10 years to complete.
