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HHC CEO Jeff Flaks, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, and even Rev. Carl McCluster, the senior pastor of Bridgeport’s Shiloh Baptist Church. It would be understandable if Saffan was feeling a hockey-like check to the head, given his background and the fact that the 5,700-seat open-air venue was originally scheduled to open in the spring of 2019. That was then pushed to the summer. Then it was going to open in 2020. And then Covid-19 arrived. Saffan — who described his travails to the Business Journal in January 2020 as “a combination of Murphy’s Law and the weather” — said the pandemic has actually been something of a blessing in disguise as it has allowed his construction team to more carefully go about getting the facility into shape. “We made some changes in the design, like pulling the stage out another 15 feet for better sightlines,” he said. The extra time also allowed for careful adherence to pandemic protocols, including social distancing. “The subcontractors came in as a group,” Saffan said. “That way electricians weren’t working next to plumbers. We scheduled all the subcontractors in different areas. Outside was less of an issue, but we took the same approach. “And we did not have one incident, which isn’t always the case with construction,” he added. The exterior of the facility at 500 1
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Tortora said that 55 Bank St. has been fully leased and he expects there to be about 25 leases written each month for Continuum 57, about the same rate of leasing as experienced with 55 Bank St. Because of Covid restrictions on large gatherings, Tortora doesn’t expect there to be the same kind of grand opening celebration that took place in April 2018 for the opening of 55 Bank St. “Phase one did have the big opening with a ribbon cutting. With the challenges to group gatherings these days, something like we did with phase one is going to be difficult, We’re trying to figure out how do we do that in a safe and smart way but haven’t finalized that plan yet,” Tortora said. LCOR’s interest in downtown White Plains near the Metro-North Railroad station can be traced back to its development of the mixed-use 15 Bank St., dubbed Bank Street Commons. It negotiated the purchase of a 2.6-acre parking lot from the city in assembling the Continuum buildings site. Original plans called for 24-story structures rather than the current 16 and 17 stories. A hotel also had been proposed for the site along with a parking garage. On Jan. 7, 2019, the White Plains Common Council approved LCOR’s request to modify the approved site plan for 57 Bank St. by adding an additional 36 units,
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Broad St. now includes the fabled “Guitar Man,” the nearly 40-foot-tall metal sculpture that hung on the façade of New Haven Coliseum from 1972 until that venue’s implosion in 2007. It was acquired by Got Attitude Vodka principal Leo Reizfeld, who heard a caller to the “Chaz & A.J.” radio show on WFOX and WPLR suggest that the Bridgeport amphitheater should be Guitar Man’s next stop. As a result, ABC Sign of Bridgeport is restoring Guitar Man, including adding LED lights. “He was in terrible condition,” Saffan said of Guitar Man, “but now he lives again. It’s great to add a little bit of history like that.” The facility will also soon have in place a tensile roof that will cover 92% of its seats, he said. The fabric is similar to that used at Denver Airport. All told, there were over 1 million pounds of steel involved in constructing its stage. Concerts in June (Covid willing) And, by hook or by crook, Saffan is determined that the amphitheater will finally open its doors May 15, with 10 college and university graduations already booked. In addition, concert promoter Live Nation — which with the city of Bridgeport is a partner in the venue, along with Saffan — has booked 15 concerts for the spring and summer, hopefully beginning in June, though Saffan would not say which ones. Also on the docket are college fairs,
WWE events, Masses in June and November, and various other nonconcert events. All are subject to the state’s Covid-19 protocols. Currently performing arts venues can allow 50% capacity as long as 6 feet of distance is maintained between parties. “There are still a lot of acts that don’t want to go on the road this year,” Saffan noted, saying such decisions were made both by concerns about the acts’ and the public’s safety, as well as the uncertainty about recouping the costs associated with going on tour. Figuring all that out is a specialty of Live Nation and Koplik. “If anyone can make sense of the puzzle, it’s Jimmy,” Saffan said. “Every date has a backup date.” Ultimately the amphitheater will host 25 to 35 concerts a summer, he said. As for the cost of putting the amphitheater together, Saffan simply smiled when asked if the widely reported original estimate of $15 million was still accurate. “We’re way past that,” he said, declining to give an actual figure. “This has become a labor of love.” Last year, Saffan sought — and received — an additional $4.5 million from Bridgeport to make up for the unexpected expenses that have occurred since its July 2018 groundbreaking. That brought the city’s total investment to $12 million, a sum that many residents vociferously opposed. Asked if he would request any further funds from the city, Saffan said no. “The city has been wonderful to work
bringing the count for the building to 309 apartments, making a total of 597 units for both phases of the project. Apartment leasing firms show studios in the Continuum 57 priced from $2,055 to $2,205 a month, one-bedrooms from $2,507 to $2,858 a month and two-bedroom units from $3,935 to $6,230 a month. “If we’ve learned anything over time it’s that cities are resilient. While there may be temporary dislocations, we’re still really bullish on White Plains and we’re still really bullish on Westchester County. We’re still really bullish on New York City, for that matter,” Tortora said. “White Plains has a lot going for it in the sense that it’s proximate to New York City and was able to capture some of the migration out of the city and we expect demand to be strong.” Tortora said that the types of finishes and amenities used in the second building are comparable with what went into the first. “Certain amenities are shared like the swimming pool. Phase two will have its own gym area, its own roof deck. It will have its own work-from-home space,” Tortora said. “In a lot of ways the pandemic accelerated trends that we were seeing in the market even before Covid, like the work-from-home trend, the ability to have flexibility in your spaces. We’ve really embraced technology
in that regard. We have a proprietary fiber optic network that we threaded through the building that allows our tenants to cut the (cable) cord if that’s something they want to do. They have Wi-Fi throughout the building and can work from wherever they want.” Tortora said that phase one of the Bank Street project attracted the anticipated mix of millennials and empty nesters and he believes the demographic mix will be comparable for phase two. When it comes to new projects in Westchester or other suburban locations, Tortora said LCOR is looking for new deals all the time, especially in the suburbs. He pointed to three projects in Greenwich that it owns and manages. However, he added that there were no new projects to announce right now. “Once we deliver phase two (at Bank St.) we will have delivered over a thousand units in White Plains,” Tortora said. “The low interest rates are helpful. Lending standards have become more difficult. As an institutional developer LCOR has been able to capitalize on lower interest rates. If you’re someone out there looking for super-high leverage I think the market has gotten a little more challenging but that’s not how we operate.” When ground was broken for the first building, the total investment in the two-
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with,” he said. “Mayor Ganim has been very supportive, and Tom Gill (director of the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development) has been the Robin to my Batman.” Under the terms of the joint venture agreement, which runs for 40 years, Bridgeport will receive per year a minimum rent of $150,000 and $3 of each ticket sold. Saffan said that the clock had yet to start on those terms, given the contract’s force majeure clause that was invoked with the pandemic. For all the tribulations, Saffan remains confident that the amphitheater will become a beacon for events goers throughout Connecticut, New York and even Massachusetts, and stands by his original estimate that its economic impact on Bridgeport will be more than $50 million per year, once it is up and fully running. “We’re going to make a huge difference for music lovers throughout the region,” he said. “There’s nothing else like this. You’ve got places that seat 14,000, or something like the Xfinity (in Hartford) that has 30,000 seats.” With the importance of routing to touring acts, the Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion in Boston, which holds a little over 5,000 people, will help the Bridgeport venue, Saffan said, with acts able to play both facilities before heading into like-sized buildings in New York. “It’s taken us a long time to get here,” he said. “But we’re more than ready to open.”
57 Bank St. phase project was estimated to be $250 million. Tortora declined to speculate what the final value of the project would be. LCOR shows $9.5 billion in projects completed, under construction or in the pre-development stage. It describes its portfolio as containing more than 20 million square feet of commercial space and 21,000 residential units. The company has offices in Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and Berwyn, Pennsylvania.