The former Humphrey Chemical building may have a new life ahead as a train station in the future. The Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) is in talks with Cambrex, the company that owns the long-vacant building located at State Street and Devine Street.

“The state wants to determine what kind of remediation needs to be done to that site,” said First Selectman Mike Freda. “The property owner has been very cooperative and it could be a sale back to the state.”

The building has been vacant for the past 25 years. There has been other development activity in the area recently, including at the former Northeast Graphics property, which is now fully occupied. The site is also convenient to the Route 40 connector, giving commuters easy access to the highway.

“The DOT is pleased we have most of the area already developed,” said Freda.

The project has been in the works for more than five years and it will potentially take up to two more years before the train station becomes a reality. The station in North Haven is part of a larger project to create the Hartford Line Corridor with other stations being planned for Newington, West Hartford, and Enfield. It will also connect commuters to the New Haven station.

The work is being performed through a Federal Transit Administration grant and Freda is “optimistic” that full funding for the project will be realized.

“We are halfway through the design phase that the state has funded,” said Freda, who hopes the process will run smoothly to break ground in the middle of 2018. “Construction is expected to take 18 months, provided everything goes according to plan, keeping in mind the federal funding is still a question mark, but I do believe that state and federal transportation is a very important priority as it is locally.”