The town of Enfield recently received $10 million from the state’s Community Investment Fund 2030 for the redevelopment of the Enfield Square Mall. Target, pictured here, is one of the businesses that is expected to remain once redevelopment is finished.
Reminder Publishing photo by Dennis Hackett
ENFIELD — The state’s Community Investment Fund 2030 awarded the town of Enfield $10 million to aid in the redevelopment plans at Enfield Square Mall.
“Many communities apply and there is only so much money. Enfield received the largest amount ever awarded,” said Ken Nelson Jr., mayor of Enfield. “Without tools like this, projects such as the mall and riverfront development would not be possible.”
“These funds are incredibly important,” said state Rep. John Santanella. “It brings the property back on the grand list, creates more tax revenue for the town, and creates jobs both in the construction and operation phases.”
In a press release from Santanella, he explained that Enfield Square Mall has been in disrepair for nearly a decade and that it has had a significant financial impact on the residents of Enfield.
“Since the day after my election, I have been working with the Department of Economic and Community Development to turn the vision for the mall into reality,” Santanella said. “Over the last several months, I have met with a number of legislators, 15 of whom have signed a letter of support for this project. I have met with leadership in the House and Senate and made countless other presentations to members of the CIF committee. Today, all that hard work has paid off for Enfield.”
Giving its maximum contribution, Enfield has committed approximately $16 million in tax concessions to this project. Current redevelopment plans include 300,000 square feet of anchor retail in addition to the existing Target store and nine acres of restaurants and shops.
The funds stem from a competitive application process at the state level.
“In this case, Aaron Marcovich from the town of Enfield worked closely with Woodsonia to help them with the application process. Once the applications are all received, the Community Investment Fund Board reviews all the applications and scores them based on a set of criteria,” explained Santanella. The state’s house and senate leadership, in consultation with the governor, then come up with the final list.
“This is a very competitive process and I believe there were over [100] applicants in this round, many who have gone through previous rounds and been denied,” Santanella noted. “The process takes months of work.”
“I would like to thank Gov. [Ned] Lamont for recognizing how hard Enfield has been working these last 14 months to deal with the troubled properties in our community,” praised Nelson. “Town Manager Chris Bromson has been instrumental in seeing these projects through with the help of Representative [Carol] Hall and Senator [John] Kissel. It truly was a team effort. Matt Hart and Matt Puglease, along with so many others, worked tirelessly to help get us where we are today. Rep. Santanella also deserves credit as once he was elected, he supported the project.”
