IMPORTANT Update and Link to Report on the Old Strong School from Ward 14 Alder Sarah Miller

[Lee Cruz]

Thank you to all who have contributed at various stages and phases of the effort to redevelop the former Strong School at 69 Grand Avenue and put this beautiful yet neglected asset back into service for our community. I started working on the project when pregnant with my son Mateo; and he’ll turn eight this summer. Many others worked tirelessly for years before I got involved. As a neighborhood we have confronted barrier after barrier, sometimes from our own city government. Most of all we had to overcome the false belief that our expectations should be low and nothing transformational can happen here. 

The current phase of our effort began in early 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Covid slowed us down, but did not stop us. Since then, a neighborhood steering committee, city staff, Preservation Connecticut, Interboro Partners, and all of you collaborated to study the market conditions and potential uses, gather input and ideas, and design redevelopment scenarios. The output of that effort is this helpful report, hot off the presses. This document will serve as the basis for a formal Request for Proposal to developers, which will be released shortly. In the interim, please share it with your networks so that potential development partners can begin to study the findings and recommendations. 

While there is much to be done, our neighborhood is better positioned than ever before to realize our shared vision of a community-supporting use for the former Strong School that helps to elevate the neighborhood as a whole. 

Thank you for your efforts, determination, and partnership.

Sarah

We encourage you to review the report. It will be used to shape the Request for Proposal that the City will develop and share widely to encourage redevelopment of the old Strong School building.

[Rafael fuentes]

Good to see ppl working to make use of this place. Keep up the good work, to everyone involved