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Costco's New Home?

Design plans including a "wholesale retail club" -- rumored to be Costco -- were presented in public for the first time on Feb. 10.  The Inlands Wetlands Commission (IWC) was given an overview of a proposed mixed-use development incorporating 135 acres off East Main Street (700 block) including the Bittersweet Farm land. 

The master plan includes a cluster of single family homes, a multi-story residential village (apartments), upper and lower office park campuses, a lifestyle center and retail restaurant and a “big box”-style wholesale retail club.

Engineer John Mancini of BL Companies (Meriden) explained the plan to the IWC,  which heard the talk on an information-only basis -- no permits or other applications have been submitted to date. 

Mancini made the presentation on behalf of property co-owers Alfred J. Secondino and Michael Belfonti. Secondino owns Branford-based A. Secondino & Son, Inc., an established general building contractor company with a track record of many successful commercial developments in town, including Branford Business Park, Business Park East and 454 Life Sciences, A Roche Company.  Belfonti is president of Belfonti Associates LLC, an entrepreneurial real estate development and investment firm based in Hamden.

The East Main Street property extends out toward the I-95 corridor and touches the Guilford town line at another point. Its spread across a mix of land, ledge and a high percentage of wetlands to create what Mancini described as a "series of pennisulas."

The mixed-use plan requires 2.3 acres of fill, more than ever approved by the IWC. Buffers of 25 feet, instead of typical 100 feet or in some cases as little as 50 feet (with IWC approval) are also in the plans. Mancini said the property could be developed in phases over as many as 10 years.

Mancini noted the comprehensive mixed-use development plan is the first to be done for the land.  Without such a plan, he said, "..it's 135 acres that’s economically ill-feasible to ever be developed.”

The wholesale retail club built into development plan was not named during the presentation, at the company's request.

“We’re not at liberty to tell you at this point. We’ve been asked not to discuss who the user actually is,” Secondino told The Sound.