Massive Warehouse Proposed for West Street and West Queen
- Philip Thibodeau
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
At its March 3 meeting, Southington’s Economic Development Strike Committee was briefed on a developer's proposal to build a one-million square foot commercial warehouse on a tract of abandoned farmland located southeast of the corner of West Street and West Queen Street, north of Cava restaurant.
The property in question is currently made up of a number of connected sub-parcels owned by the Fragola Company. It includes about 130 acres of abandoned farmland and a small set of unoccupied homes located on West Street immediately across from Welch Road. The undeveloped land is divided in two by power lines that run through it north-south.
Developer Steve Inglese from the New Haven Group sketched out the proposed development for the Committee at its meeting. He said that for the project to move forward, the zoning for land west of the power lines would have to be changed to I-1, which allows for ‘light’ industrial activities. The purpose of his presentation was to see whether the Strike Committee would support such a zoning change before it went to Planning and Zoning for a final decision.
Approval of the change would open the way for construction of a large warehouse on the land. The name of the firm that would use it has not yet been made public. All that was revealed at the meeting is that they deal in “general merchandise” and make deliveries in the northeast via tractor-trailer. For the sake of comparison, a one-million square foot warehouse would be slightly larger than the 855,000 square foot Amazon fulfillment center that opened in North Haven in 2019.
Inglese said that the company would adjust its schedule so that trucks would not contribute to rush hour traffic on West Street or Queen Street. In addition, a berm would be built and topped with plantings and trees so that the warehouse would not be visible from the road. The facility’s main entrance would be located across from Welch Road so that it could make use of the existing signal there.
The cost of the development was estimated at $100 million, and a target date for completion of the facility was given as November of 2027. Once in operation, the warehouse was projected to generate a substantial stream of tax revenue for Southington, around $4 to $5 million a year - a figure that would make it one of the town's biggest taxpayers.
The estimate Inglese gave for the number of employees, 300 to 400, is rather low for a facility of this size - the North Haven Amazon warehouse, for example, hired around 1,800 people shortly after it opened. The low figure might reflect extensive use of automation to move items around.
After the presentation, members of the Strike Committee asked questions about details, but they were broadly supportive of the idea.
