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Related Group’s Jorge Pérez Talks Real Estate, Lawsuits and Donald Trump

Jorge Pérez. Photo: Andrea Fremiotti/ for Commercial Observer

Jorge Pérez does not mince words.

First, there’s his hotel. He didn’t enjoy his recent stay at the Viceroy in Manhattan.

“This [Viceroy] is like, oh my God,” the 69-year-old chairman and CEO of Miami’s Related Group said. “You know, the carpets going through the hallways are horrendous, the rooms are tiny…The only reason I guess we stay here is because it’s like a block away from the Armani people who we are meeting with.”

He and his son, Jon Paul, a 34-year-old vice president at the company, were visiting from the Sunshine State to meet with Giorgio Armani, who was in from Italy, to talk about their collaboration at Residences by Armani/Casa in Miami.

Jorge Pérez and son Jon Paul Pérez. Photo: Andrea Fremiotti/ for Commercial Observer

Armani/Casa will be a high-end residential condominium with 308 units averaging about 3,500 square feet and prices ranging from $3 million to $18 million. About 80 percent of the building is already spoken for, Jon Paul said. The topping out is slated for this summer.

That’s just one of 70-plus properties—from condominiums and rentals to mixed-use—the company has in the works. Since 1979, the 300-person firm has built, renovated or managed more than 90,000 units.

In a year or two, the senior Pérez, called Miami’s “condo king,” plans to relinquish the CEO title to Jon Paul, but will remain the company’s chairman. (Jon Paul’s brother Nicholas, 30, is also a vice president at the company, since joining a year ago. Their sister Christina, 35, is a social worker.)

Residences by Armani/Casa. Image: Related Group

Outside of work, Jorge Pérez collects art and hobnobs with the upper echelon of society including the Trumps and the Clintons. (“[Donald] Trump was a very good friend,” the Argentine-born developer told Commercial Observer last month. “We talked every two weeks. You know we’ve done several Trump buildings—I think five or six towers—and we were friends. I saw him once a month.”) But Pérez’s friendship with Trump took a hit when he became president. Pérez rejected two invitations from the president to serve in his cabinet and has scoffed at Trump’s demands for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. (Pérez, who became a U.S. citizen in 1976, is developing three large projects, and recently completed one, in Mexico.)

Here’s what Pérez had to say to CO on a whole host of issues last month.

On new construction in Miami…

Well, let me break that down into the different aspects of real estate. I have a pretty good pulse of the market and what you’ve heard is that there’s been a lot of condominium development in the last five years, in particular the higher-end condominium product. There is starting to be an oversupply. So, while we were selling anywhere between say, four or five units a month on average, after the large presales that launched the project, today those sales have dropped substantially. That is mostly because of the problems in Latin America.

[At] our condominiums on the water and downtown, 70 percent-plus [of sales] were coming from Latin American buyers. The main Latin American economies—Mexico, Argentina and Brazil—have been in a state of flux. So, there is a certain amount of fear in the business sector. Miami suffers from that.

Because of these huge [currency] devaluations in [Latin America], the condominiums that we had in Miami have become much more expensive and that all has led to a decrease in demand while at the same time we’re building a lot of condominiums. Nevertheless, there are certain areas that we have in South Florida that we think are still strong—Fort Lauderdale on the water, Pompano, Boca [Raton].

On who is replacing Latin American homebuyers…

I think you’re getting a lot of people from the Northeast, particularly in high-tax areas with the Trump tax laws. I think people are coming to Miami—in addition to the sun and fun and business and so forth—because of taxation. Barry Sternlicht is the perfect example. He’s moving his company there. [Sternlicht will be moving his firm, Starwood Capital Group, to Miami Beach from Connecticut by 2021.] We’re seeing people coming in from different countries in Europe, but it’s not making up for the drop in Latin America.

On developing rentals…

The condominium demand has been supplanted by rental demand. In areas that we think there’s supply in we [have] changed our resources to the development of market-rate rental projects, which we’re doing a lot of. And we have a huge affordable-housing division.

On the lawsuit against Related at Parque Global in Brazil…

We’ve been in a case in court [since 2014]. It was an environmental lawsuit, which is a frivolous lawsuit. As a matter of fact, in one of the court cases they showed [an image] of us knocking down trees and they didn’t show our site. Our site was junk. Really.

Parque Global. Image: Related Group

So, we go to Brazil. Everybody tells me [for my five towers, its] a nice site, not the greatest site, but a nice site. And we do a marketing campaign, second-to-none in the world [with the tagline] “Rediscover Sao Paulo.” We bring an English designer, United, we bring architect Arquitectonica—one of the great architects here—[and] beautiful landscape [architect] from Switzerland, Enea. I line up the brokers and….we do great. I do my thing and sell over 80 percent of the first three towers. People couldn’t believe it. I mean, we were popping the champagne. The lawsuit happens. You know what you have to do in Brazil when they sue you? Return all deposits to the buyers. And we had used all the money—20 percent deposits—to do piles. We were already digging piles.

[The project has] been stopped. So now even if I win I have so much money on this piece of land that I never win. I might win a little battle and get some money back and make some money, but it’s disastrous.

We’ve won all the old battles so we’re going to Brazil next month. [There will be a] partners’ meeting to determine whether the market has come back. Remember when we sold, [the market] was good. And then Brazil has dropped in the last eight years.

On the differences between himself and Steven Ross, the chairman and founder of Related Companies, who co-founded Related Group with Pérez…

He’s different than I am. He is New York. I’m Latin American. You know when I first came, the way of doing business was very different for me. I had to really adapt myself to a totally different way of dealing with people. New Yorkers are very in your face; they tell you exactly what it is. We’re much more “let’s go to lunch.” Not as bad as the Japanese, never [getting to] say, “no,” but we’re not confrontational. I’ve become much more like Steve is. People will tell me I am very “I don’t have any time to waste.” [In working with our] Mexican partners in Argentina—it drives me insane; everybody’s like, “mañana, mañana.”

On Trump today versus Trump pre-presidency…

It doesn’t compute. I mean he was a guy that was just not political at all. So as a matter of fact, we had talked about going to Cuba to build golf courses and, all of a sudden, he’s anti-Cuba? Trump was an internationalist. He went all over the place trying to build condominiums. I don’t know if this was all the time his politics or not. We never discussed politics. We just knew him as a very, very generous good friend. I mean he was always courteous, great with my wife. We like spending time with him. But I’m just diametrically opposed to everything that he stands for.

On a future friendship with Trump…

I mean he was a very kind nice guy. We got along really, really well. And I hope that after all this stuff we can talk again…but not about politics. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be friends. I mean, it’s not like these guys are criminals. They believe in certain things that I just think are wrong.

On Trump’s kids…

His kids are all really well-behaved, good [people]. You know they’re very honest, very hard workers. Somebody did a good job with them!

On the number of homes he personally owns…

You know how many units I’ve got? Lots. We built a hundred thousand units. I own units in seven of my buildings. I’m proceeding to sell all those because I thought at one point that my children were going to use some and they’ve all been buying their own houses. I’m moving into this new unit that Rem Koolhaas is designing—a penthouse in another one of our buildings, called Park Grove, which is a very luxurious building in Coconut Grove.

On remaining on the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in America (Pérez was ranked 316 on the 2018 list with a net worth of $2.6 billion)…

I haven’t gone broke yet.

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New Haven’s affordable housing advocates urged to keep up pressure

NEW HAVEN — Advocates for affordable housing have been advised to stay on top of the agencies and personnel responsible for implementing changes recommended to boost housing options for struggling households in the city.

“Use your voices. Make them hear you,” the Rev. Bonita Grubbs, who heads Christian Community Action and was a member of the Affordable Housing Task Force, said after it adopted its final report Thursday.

The task force, which was established in March and starting meeting in June, said passionate public testimony greatly influenced the comprehensive document that covers zoning changes, regional responsibility and stepped-up enforcement of housing violations.

They each had a chance to reflect on the recommendations and how they can be implemented. The group was pleased with the direction it sets out, but Karen DuBois-Walton said one thing was missing.

DuBois-Walton, who heads the Housing Authority of New Haven, said there was no one on the task force who personally had experienced housing instability.

She said this mistake was ameliorated by the testimony of residents who have had to navigate the city’s challenging housing landscape and she thanked them for that. “Your participation and voices made up for gaps,” DuBois-Walton said.

She recommended that, going forward, someone from this demographic should be appointed to the permanent Affordable Housing Commission that the task force wants put in place to oversee policy on affordable housing.

DuBois-Walton, similar to her colleagues on the committee, said the work of implementing the recommendations is just beginning and they should continue to show up at hearings.

Edward Mattison, another member and chairman of the City Plan Commission, said advocates should immerse themselves in their topics of interest. He works for Continuum of Care as an advocate for the homeless.

“The best thing you could do is pick an area, really learn about it and argue as a knowledgeable person. … It does help to say that the change that is needed is great. But it helps even more to say what needs to be done and how it can be accomplished,” Mattison said.

He said if the follow-up is not thorough and persistent, it will become like any number of reports and just sit on a shelf. “We don’t want that to happen,” Mattison said.

Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, who heads the Livable City Initiative, said members of the task force proved to be “a great team” and she predicted the plan will move forward.

One of the biggest recommendations was to have LCI partner with the Economic Development Commission on bigger development projects.

Neal-Sanjurjo said it originally was established to do development and LCI would collaborate with it. She said LCI would continue to work with small nonprofits.

She said larger developments should be housed with a development authority and that is where ECD comes in.

“The one thing that we do not have the capacity to do at LCI is to get resources from foundations and the government in terms of new market tax credits,” she said. “We need a partner who can do that.”

LCI now chases grants to do very large developments, such as the replacement for Church Street South where more than 300 tenants lived. Those government grants are limited in number, however are highly competitive. The current owner has promised to set aside 30 percent of future units as affordable.

Neal-Sanjurjo said what LCI needs are more agents to enforce housing standards, which was its original mission.

“Those are the kind of things we need to focus our energy on. It is an enforcement agency,” she said.

Alder Aaron Greenberg, D-8, moderator for the task force, also advised the public to pay close attention to the recommendations and who is responsible for turning them into policy as they direct their energy to needed changes.

Greenberg said hundreds participated into the making of the report, which saw multiple rallies to push home the seriousness of homelessness on New Haven and substandard housing.

“This is a completely different document than the one that this group could have produced … without all of that … activism and work and reaching out,” he said.

Grubbs said on some occasions these kinds of discussions can be divisive, but that did not happen on the task force.

Alder Abby Roth, D-7, who attended many of the meetings, said “it is a thoughtful report with a lot of actionable items, which I hope we will move forward on.”

Greenberg said there are a number of things that can be done quickly, starting with naming a permanent commission.

He said the City Plan Commission can start to study the proposed zone changes that would allow for denser development, as well as a frame a formal policy on large developers setting aside affordable units as part of a mix of apartments.

There are about 10 items the Board of Alders can start to tackle immediately, Greenberg said, after he forwards the document to it for adoption.

Claudette Kidd, an activist with Mothers and Others for Justice, who was among the core group of protesters, said she was happy with the outcome, but realizes it is only the first step.

Justin Elicker, who has declared his candidacy for mayor, said he was pleased that it was so collaborative with the advocacy groups. He said the report provides a good road map for the city, particularly on zoning changes, that will allow for denser housing in residential areas.

He said it will provide more options, such as allowing homeowners to rent out some rooms or build an in-law suite, which would produce revenue to pay their mortgage and taxes. “That is an exciting economic development opportunity,” he said.

Liam Brennan, who works for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, was happy with much of the report, but said he was disappointed that it did not recommend that the city adopt a bill of rights for the homeless or establish a homeless shelter for young people.

Brennan was a member of the group that wrote the “A Room For All” report, much of which was incorporated into the task force’s recommendation. Brennan is also contemplating a run for mayor.

The remaining members of the task force are: Alder Dolores Colon, D-6, chairwoman of the Black and Hispanic Caucus; Otis Johnson, head of the Fair Rent Commission; and Erin Kemple of the CT Fair Housing Center.

[email protected];203-641-2577

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CT Airport Authority and Tweed New Haven explore partnership to drive growth

The Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) and the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority are establishing a working group to determine how to collaborate on efforts to expand the viability of the shoreline airport.

Tweed airport entrance. Photo by Phil Hall.

The new working group would focus on influencing the legislature to fund capital improvements at Tweed, particularly the expansion of the main runway from its current 5,600 feet to at least 6,000 feet, thus enabling additional commercial flights. The working group would also explore the possibility of either having the CAA acquire Tweed or establishing an operating agreement with the airport. The CAA owns and operates Bradley International Airport at Windsor Locks and the state-owned general aviation airports at Danielson, Groton-New London, Hartford-Brainard, Waterbury-Oxford and Windham.

“This is a positive sign that state and local leaders are moving toward consensus about the overall importance of Tweed and the need to support the greater New Haven business community with commercial air service,” New Haven Mayor Toni N. Harp said. “In the coming months, my administration looks forward to this important dialogue. We all agree a viable commercial airport will help attract and retain world-class talent and to grow as a city and as a region.”

Separately, the New Haven Register reported that Harp terminated the city’s 2009 memorandum of agreement with East Haven. The airport straddles the two cities and the memorandum limited Tweed’s main runway length to 5,600 feet, which East Haven sued to maintain. Harp based her decision on the state’s failure to provide an agreed-upon $2 million in annual subsidies to Tweed, adding that the memorandum gave the cities the right to terminate the agreement it “if the state of Connecticut fails to enact the legislative initiates contained in Section II of the agreement in the 2009 legislative session.”

East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. acknowledged that the 2009 agreement enabled Harp’s action, but has not determined how his city will proceed. The city had withdrawn its lawsuit regarding the Tweed runway length when the memorandum was approved.

“None of the people involved then are involved now,” Maturo said. “It’s up in the air.”

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Real estate broker and man who returned $10,000 check help the homeless

New Haven, Conn. — Many homeless people are haunted by drug addiction, mental illness or a criminal past. Indeed, Elmer Alvarez knows those demons all too well. But he said just because a person is without a home, it doesn’t mean they’re void of character.

For example, the day he found a check for $10,000, he said the first thing that came to mind was, "I got to look for this person." He said it never crossed his mind to try and get it cashed.

"It never crossed my mind because I made a decision to turn my life over. I’ve been clean for three years," Elmer said.

Elmer Alvarez CBS News

The money belonged to New Haven, Connecticut, real estate broker Roberta Hoskie. She recorded her meeting with the good Samaritan.

"I expected to find a guy all nice, clean shaven and blue suit like you," she said.

Instead she got Elmer, who cried when Roberta offered him a reward.

"It shattered the stereotypes," Roberta said.

This all happened about a year ago. But the best part of the story is what has happened since. She helped him find an apartment and paid his rent for seven months until he was back on his feet. She also put him through real estate school, and together, they’re now working on a little real estate project. It won’t make them a dime, but it could be very rewarding.

In the next year, they plan to build a transitional house for homeless teenagers and young adults that will provide all kinds of services that Elmer said are crucial.

"I know what it is to be homeless. Nobody deserves to live like that," he said.

Roberta could not agree more.

Roberta Hoskie and Elmer Alvarez. CBS News

"Because I remember. I remember what it felt like to be in that shelter," she said.

Before she built her multi-million dollar company, Roberta was also homeless — a teenage mom who worked her way out of poverty and is now offering Elmer a chance to make his dream come true as well. Eventually, he’ll serve as an adviser at the transitional house.

A lost check and a found purpose.

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New Haven Public Works employee accused of pistol whipping co-worker

Henry Bell (New Haven police)

NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) — A New Haven Public Works employee is facing charges, after being accused of pistol whipping a co-worker.

Police said it started out as an argument between Public Works employee Henry Bell and a co-worker Wednesday morning outside a home on Middletown Avenue.

It is believed the argument stemmed from an ongoing dispute between the two.

Bell, 51, is accused of hitting the co-worker in the head with a firearm. While this was happening, the gun went off.

That’s when Bell fled the scene.

The victim suffered minor injuries and was treated at a hospital.

Bell was arrested Thursday morning and charged with criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, second-degree assault with a firearm, first-degree threatening, unlawful discharge of a firearm, first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree breach of peace.

The investigation is ongoing.

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Former Reporter Joins Page Taft-Christie’s Real Estate

GUILFORD, CT – Page Taft-Christie’s International Real Estate, part of The Randall Family of Companies, New England’s coastal real estate specialists with 35 offices and more than 650 agents across RI, CT and MA, announces the addition of Fay Abrahamsson to its Guilford office.

"We are pleased to welcome Fay to our team," said Karen Stephens, Broker for Page Taft-Christie’s International Real Estate. "She has immense knowledge of the local market and is sure to be an invaluable resource for our customers."

Shoreline residents may recognize Fay’s name for her many years as a journalist across Connecticut, most recently as a reporter covering local news, events, meetings and elections in Guilford, Madison and Clinton for Shore Publishing’s family of weekly newspapers. She also covered local news and events as an award-winning community editor with Patch/AOL.

"My career has brought me to every street, alcove and neighborhood throughout the Shoreline, and I look forward to sharing my knowledge with Page Taft’s great clients," Abrahamsson said.

Fay previously served as a volunteer board member of the First Selectman’s Task Force in Clinton, and has also volunteered at the Guilford Secret Gardens Tour, Clinton Family Day, Business Expo and Taste all of the Shoreline.

Fay and her husband, Alan, have owned two homes in Guilford, one a "fixer-upper" which they renovated and sold. They now live in Killingworth with Lulu the Labrador.

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fvamissoula · 6 years

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Among CT cities and towns, the wealthiest are the big spenders

When Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin appealed for help to save his municipality from bankruptcy, one response he faced was that the capital city’s big-spending ways had come home to roost.

The perception that Connecticut’s cities, facing struggling schools, poverty, crime and heavily traveled roads, easily outspend their suburban and rural neighbors can be found both around the capital city and elsewhere in the state.

But when municipal spending is examined on a per capita basis, it’s Connecticut’s suburbs — and particularly those in Fairfield County — that lead the way in spending.

Rather than a greater need for government services, it is the availability of wealth, tax reform advocates say, that determines which communities will spend the most.

More importantly, shrinking state aid, a lack of revenue diversity and an over-reliance on a regressive property tax system threaten to widen tremendous disparities that already exist between Connecticut’s poorest and richest communities.

"We’re creating social pathologies in Connecticut," said University of Connecticut economist Fred Carstensen. "By spending so little in the cities, it forces you to reallocate toward police and social services rather than investing in your future. That means less effectiveness in education."

"How do we attract job growth into the city when you’re already fighting with a hand behind your back because you have a higher mill rate than your surrounding towns, you have less services than your surrounding towns, you have a higher crime rate than your surrounding towns?" asked Rep. Steven J. Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport.

Suburbs lead the way in spending

The eight municipalities that spent the most on a per capita basis in 2016 — and nine of the top 10 — are Fairfield County suburbs, according to the state Office of Policy and Management’s Municipal Fiscal Indicators report. The other is Woodbridge, a suburb in New Haven County.

Each of the top six communities outspent the statewide average in 2016, $3,931 per person, by 70 percent or more.

Westport ranked first overall at $7,782 per person, nearly double the statewide average.

The next five are:

New Canaan, $7,517;Weston, $7,356;Wilton, $7,094;Darien, $6,846;Greenwich, $6,677.

At the other end of the wealth spectrum, only seven of the 25 cities and towns classified as "distressed communities" by the Department of Economic and Community Development even rank in the top half among 169 municipalities in terms of per capita spending.

Hartford ranked 19th overall, but first among distressed communities, spending $4,697 per person. The top five towns all outspent the capital city, though, by 46 percent to 66 percent.

After Hartford at 19, the rank of the other distressed municipalities and their per capita spending were:

Derby, 27, spending $4,438;New Haven, 41, $4,213;East Hartford, 57, $4,026;Bridgeport, 71, $3,907;Waterbury, 78, $3,852;Naugatuck, 82, $3,818.

Only Hartford, Derby, New Haven and East Hartford spent more than the statewide average.

Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, spent half of what Westport did on its residents in 2016.

Westport and Bridgeport: Extreme disparities

Located just 12 miles apart along Connecticut’s southwestern shoreline, Westport and Bridgeport — at least at first glance — share little in common.

A wealthy suburb of nearly 28,000, Westport is home to one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates, and about an hour by rail from Wall Street.

With a median household income of $166,307, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 4.4 percent of Westport’s population is below the poverty level.

Meanwhile, Bridgeport — the state’s largest city with 146,000 people — struggles with some of the highest unemployment and violent crime rates in the state.

More than 20 percent of its residents live at or below the federal poverty level and the median household income is $43,137, or about one-quarter that of Westport.

About 58 percent of the homeless in coastal Fairfield County reside in Bridgeport, said Pam Ralston, a manager for the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. The city also received nearly 10,000 phone calls in 2017 from people making housing and shelter requests.

Fewer than 4 percent of Westport’s students qualify for free or reduced school meals, according to End Hunger Connecticut. All of Bridgeport’s students qualify for them under the National School Lunch Program’s community eligibility provision, which allows the nation’s highest poverty districts to serve free meals without collecting household applications.

The disparity between the two extremes is "just stark," Ralston said.

That also extends to local tax rates.

Westport’s tax rate is just below 17 mills, thanks to a growing grand list that features an average house assessment value of about $1 million — market value is closer to $1.5 million — and growing retail, professional and other commercial development.

The tax rate in Bridgeport is 54 mills, and its grand list per capita is about 1/10th the size of Westport’s.

Known for having some of the most beautiful beaches, golf courses and parks in the state, Westport’s crown jewel is its school system.

"Our residents expect a world-class public school system," First Selectman Jim Marpe said, adding that it consumes about 62 percent of a $208 million annual budget.

Only 10 percent of Westport students attend private school, a smaller ratio than in many other Fairfield County towns, Marpe said. "These are sophisticated people," he added. "Many come from private school backgrounds, and they consider our public schools here equal or better."

The town’s schools have high enrollment in advanced placement classes, not just in core mathematics and English programs but also in arts and sciences. And advanced tutoring is available not only for those with remedial needs, but also for those who need to reach beyond the rest of the class just to be challenged, Marpe said.

A 2015 analysis of municipal spending by the Yankee Institute, a Hartford-based, conservative policy group, concluded many Fairfield County towns’ budgets devote above-average resources to retirement benefits.

This is not surprising, since Marpe said the town pays good salaries to ensure not only high-quality teachers, but also police, firefighters, recreation and other municipal staff.

The town also began in recent years to save more for retirement health-care benefits, and its pension fund holds enough assets to cover 90 percent of its liabilities.

But Westport doesn’t get much help from the state, despite the fact that it pays more Connecticut income taxes per capita than just about any other community.

According to the Department of Revenue Services, Westport paid $17,516 per capita — fourth out of 169 cities and towns — while Bridgeport ranked last at $1,029.

Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, who has been outspoken about Connecticut’s needs to invest in its cities, said legislators also need to realize most of Fairfield County has a one-way relationship with state government.

Fairfield County pays a majority of state taxes, and receives the smallest share of government assistance back.

"We do it every year, willingly," he said. "The suburbs are unfairly looked at as hard-hearted."

Only about 1 percent of Westport’s annual budget is supported by state aid, with the rest coming from local taxes and fees.

And Marpe said the latter plays a key role. The town relies on user fees to fund key amenities like the Longshore Club Park golf course and Compo Beach.

It also uses those fees to shield the popular beach from out-of-towners. The summer beach season parking pass costs $50 for Westport residents, $375 for residents of neighboring Weston, and $775 for anyone else.

Karen Dombrowski, 62, who was walking along Compo Beach last Wednesday morning, moved to Westport from New Jersey 2 1/2 years ago after her husband died. She had always visited an aunt and cousins in town as a child and remembers it fondly.

"I love it here," she said. "As I walk by, people say ‘Hi.’ I’ve met so many wonderful friends here. We say this place is magical."

Tammy Roseboro moved to Bridgeport from West Queens seven years ago with four of her six children and a similar goal — finding happiness. But unlike Dombrowski, Roseboro doesn’t see Bridgeport’s P.T. Barnum Apartments — a public housing project that lies alongside a sewage treatment facility and an asphalt plant — as a long-term stop.

"I know I’m not going to stay in the projects, that’s for sure," Roseboro said. "I don’t want to stay. This setting, it takes a lot out of you. It makes you fight because you feel like you have to fight … because you’re not getting what you’re supposed to be getting."

Roseboro, who works as a school bus driver, said battling for her children also means fighting for their education in a district with limited resources and no academic support.

"What can you do to make sure they complete high school, for one, to graduate on time, and can they read on a good level?" Roseboro asked. "The school system is horrible."

Differences in services — and not just those in Connecticut’s schools — are tied in large part to wealth.

Wealth, not need, drives local spending

The New England Public Policy Center, the research arm of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issued a May 2015 report that attempted to calculate the "municipal gap" — the difference between the public services a city or town absolutely must provide, and the resources available to pay for them.

"Our results show large non-school fiscal disparities across cities and towns in Connecticut," the report states. "These disparities are driven primarily by differences in revenue-raising capacity."

Not surprisingly, the largest spending towns in 2016 also were those that had the largest equalized net grand list per capita, according to OPM data.

In other words, those that had the most taxable wealth spent the most.

The top four communities in per capita grand list rankings — Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan and Westport — also were among the top six in spending. Their per capita grand lists topped the statewide average of $165,582 by anywhere from 260 percent (Westport) to 385 percent (Greenwich.)

Of the 25 distressed communities, none were in the top half of grand list wealth and only North Canaan (89) was within the top 130. Hartford, Waterbury, Windham and New Britain ranked 166th through 169th, respectively. The per capita grand lists for all distressed communities were anywhere from 20 percent below the statewide average (North Canaan) to 70 percent (New Britain.)

Is the PILOT program breaking down?

When Bronin began visiting Hartford suburbs in the winter of 2016-17, his appeal for help went beyond citing the city’s high poverty rate and the huge bonded debt amassed by past administrations.

While Bronin conceded past administrations erred by postponing debt payments, he said Hartford’s main problem lies not with poor management, but rather with simple math.

Hartford — already saddled with a 74.29-mill commercial tax rate — cannot tax 51 percent of its property value.

Hospitals, universities, an airport, a trash-to-energy plant, the Capitol and numerous other state offices and facilities all serve the region, yet make no local tax payments.

And while Connecticut’s other major cities lack the state office buildings Hartford has, they also are home to more hospitals, universities, colleges and other exempt properties that provide regional benefits.

Sometimes this argument fell on deaf ears.

"Why should we support a city who’s spending money like drunken sailors?" Andrew Pulvermacher, a small business owner, asked Bronin when he visited Rocky Hill in December 2016.

But Hartford not only failed to lead the state in per capita spending, it didn’t even top the region in 2016, slightly trailing local suburbs like Glastonbury and Avon, despite having significantly higher demand for many services.

Part of the problem is that Connecticut’s method for compensating cities that are home to tax-exempt, regional assets is slipping.

Connecticut has had some form of PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) grant since 1935, and the current system of reimbursement largely was developed in 1969 and 1978, with some revisions afterward.

But since the last recession ended in 2009, legislatures and governors have carved out exceptions and paid less as they grappled with skyrocketing pension and other debt costs run up over decades by the state.

In statute, PILOT grants are supposed to replace about 45 percent of the funds communities lose because they can’t tax state property.

In 2010, communities got $74 million or just 28 percent of the $264 million they lost on state property, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. That ratio steadily has been reduced, and this fiscal year cities and towns received just $50.3 million — or 14 percent — of the $356.2 million they couldn’t collect.

Similarly, the grants designed to replace 77 percent of taxes lost on colleges and hospitals also have been whittled down.

Municipalities received $115 million or 43 percent of the $271 million they couldn’t collect from colleges and hospitals in 2010. By this fiscal year, communities got $98 million — or 23 percent — of $432 million in lost tax revenue.

Many Hartford officials and its legislators say this erosion was the single biggest factor that pushed the city to the brink of insolvency — averted only this past winter with a state bailout.

"We have to take a deeper dive into how we finance and support our cities," Rep. Brandon McGee, D-Hartford, said, adding that absent a re-evaluation of PILOT, the capital likely won’t be the last city to seek assistance.

Over the past year, legislators have said Bridgeport, West Haven and Scotland — a small, rural town in Windham County — were slipping closer to trouble, though not insolvent.

"If you look at the existing grants that we have for cities, we don’t even maintain the formula any more," said Rep. Toni E. Walker, D-New Haven, longtime House chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee. "We’ve got to keep in mind who has the capacity to raise revenue — and who doesn’t."

Malloy tried to redistribute education aid

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy challenged legislators for much of 2017 to redistribute education aid further to favor poorer school districts, but ran into heavy opposition for multiple reasons.

Some liberals in the legislature didn’t like the governor’s plans because they didn’t go far enough. But to dedicate extra resources to poorer communities while minimizing or avoiding cuts to the wealthy probably would have required another state tax increase.

After major tax hikes in 2011 and 2015, Malloy wasn’t interested in a third, and a majority of the legislature agreed.

Since there wouldn’t be significantly more money to spend, the governor wanted to apportion the $2 billion Education Cost Sharing grant differently.

Instead of dedicating two-thirds of the funds to the 30 lowest-performing school districts — which also happen to be some of the poorest — Malloy wanted to up the ratio to 78 percent.

And the 31 wealthiest districts would get nothing.

The state’s Education Cost Sharing formula for years has been the target of critics who argue it has not moved school districts sufficiently close to equality in spending. For example, most Fairfield County suburbs spend more per pupil than do Connecticut’s four largest cities — Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury, according to the nonprofit Connecticut School Finance Project.

Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Weston, Westport and Wilton each spend at least 40 percent more than Bridgeport’s per pupil expenditure of $14,164.

But many rural and suburban lawmakers, particularly from more affluent communities, balked at Malloy’s plan.

In his annual budget address in February 2017, the governor described Connecticut’s method of funding education as "a broken, disparate system where towns are pitted against one another" and where "their state government has yet to build the kind of world-class education system necessary for growing a new generation of workers."

Two days before that speech, Malloy had put things in blunter terms during a press event at a New Britain elementary school. "We are failing children because their parents are poor," he said.

After a historic, nine-month budget debate — and a veto by Malloy — legislators enacted a plan that moved the needle only slightly in terms of education aid and wealth.

They adopted roughly the same $30 million cut to education funding that Malloy had proposed.

A total of 33 poor cities and towns were held harmless while the other 136 municipalities shared a $31 million reduction — a cut Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven called "absorbable."

And no community lost its education grant entirely.

"This is not going to pull the rug out from these smaller districts," said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, in an interview last October shortly after the budget had been adopted.

The governor also tried to shift one-third of the state’s required contributions to the teachers’ pension fund onto cities and towns. This is projected to be one of the fastest-rising, major expenses in the state budget for another 10 to 15 years as Connecticut makes up for more than seven decades of inadequate contributions.

Municipal leaders quickly realized they would be on the hook for $400 million in the first year and — based on some projections — more than $2 billion per year by the early 2030s.

How would this, many local leaders asked, help to equalize education funding?

To make his point, the governor contrasted one of the state’s most affluent communities, Greenwich, with one of its poorest, New Britain.

Both have similar populations and school enrollment totals, but Connecticut spent $24 million more last year to cover pension costs for retired Greenwich teachers than for those from New Britain.

In simple terms, Greenwich can afford to pay much higher salaries than New Britain can, leading to much larger pensions for Greenwich’s retired teachers.

So under the governor’s plan, Greenwich would have to pick up more of the state’s pension burdens — on a per teacher basis — than New Britain would.

But while the governor saw it as a move toward equality, it drew opposition from across the spectrum. Legislators from wealthy communities said teacher pension costs always had been a state responsibility and should remain so. Those from middle-income and poor municipalities said getting a new bill, albeit at proportionately lower rates than wealthy communities were facing, was not the step toward equality they were looking for.

Property tax reform is key

Still, the stakes are huge, because there are plenty of signs indicating Connecticut’s method of funding services at the local level, particularly within cities, is failing.

State government’s first tax incidence report, released in December 2014, helped to confirm what numerous legislators, governors and local officials long have asserted: that the property tax is Connecticut’s most regressive levy. and one that hits hardest in urban centers.

A "tax incidence" report studies which groups effectively pay taxes and how those burdens are shifted. For example, families and individuals that rent their housing effectively pay property taxes that their landlords built into the monthly rent.

Among the key findings of the report were:

Property taxes represent almost 45 percent of the total state and municipal tax burden households pay.The poorest working households effectively pay a far greater share of their earnings to cover taxes than any other group.

For example, the poorest 10 percent in Connecticut — households earning less than $48,000 per year — effectively spend 23.6 percent of their income on state and local taxes.

The next decile, those earning $47,949 to $74,427, paid 13.9 percent of their income effectively to cover state and local taxes.

The $287,630-to-$612,040 bracket was down to single digits, paying 9 percent.

And those in next bracket — $612,041 to $2,019,383 — effectively pay 7.7 percent in state and local taxes.

A state commission empowered to study tax burdens fractured over the issue of property taxes during the final months of 2015.

Nearly half of the State Tax Panel argued it could not complete its charge to assess tax burdens in Connecticut without analyzing property taxes, especially in light of the tax incidence analysis. But others responded that the panel’s charge was limited to studying taxes imposed directly by the state.

The panel was established through a bipartisan compromise among legislators, who stipulated all panel recommendations had to be revenue neutral. In other words, if the group suggested increasing one state tax, it had to recommend an offsetting tax cut of equal value.

So how could any proposals involving municipal property taxes work within that system, leaders of the panel asked.

Anita Singh Lemar, a clinical associate professor at Yale Law School, was among the panel members who protested loudly about that exclusion. "The property tax has gotten short shrift," Lemar said during the panel’s final meeting in December 2015. " … "We’ve ignored an enormous problem of inequity and inefficiency."

She teaches at the Community and Economic Development Clinic, which provides legal services for affordable housing developers, community development financial institutions and neighborhood associations.

Two legislators from different ends of the wealth spectrum agreed Connecticut must solve its urban crisis if the overall state economy is going to thrive.

"There’s no logic in the state’s approach right now," New Haven’s Walker said. "The cities really are the engines of the economy. They have the jobs."

"Connecticut lacks the organic relationship between city and suburb that exists in other parts of the country," Steinberg said. "There is not that sense of shared responsibility, which is too bad. We have the data. We know what the problem is."

"I think we all recognize that one of the greatest challenges that Connecticut has is we have a broken taxing policy at the local level," said Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. "A one-size-fits-all approach does not work. … The General Assembly should be representing the entire state, but it operates in a far more parochial manner than our municipal CEOs do."

Studies like the New England Public Policy Center report, analyses by CCM and other groups all have stressed the need to give cities and towns new sources of revenue besides the property tax.

Connecticut has tried twice in the past seven years to dedicate a significant portion of sales tax receipts to municipalities, but both initiatives largely were repealed within a few years of enactment as pressures on the state budget increases.

The challenge, Steinberg said, is for the legislature and governor to commit to property tax reform at the same time they try to catch up on decades of unmade pension contributions.

"We have to get rid of this attitude that ‘I’m an individual, not part of a community,’" Walker added. "We all thrive together or we all fail together."

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Glimmer Of Hope Elusive In Real Estate Price Trends

(Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)

Surely, we’ve bottomed out, right?

With real estate prices taking a beating in nearly every Connecticut town during the recession, homeowners – and home sellers – would welcome any glimmer of hope that property values have resumed their traditional steady march upward.

But that hope can be hard to find in the Constitution State.

As one possible indicator of a stable and healthy housing market, The Courant isolated cities and towns where median sale prices for single-family homes grew between 2013 and 2015, and then grew again from 2015 to 2017. Similar nationwide data for counties suggests nearly 70 percent of the country has been able to sustain price growth over two two-year periods.

But for Connecticut towns: It’s barely 20 percent.

Just 35 cities and towns in the state saw median price growth in both two-year periods, with roughly half growing by less than 10 percent over the entire four-year period.

So which direction to aim the U-Haul and go shopping for a mortgage? Not so fast. The towns that made the list have little in common, and nothing to suggest that one area of the state – or one sector of the housing market – makes for a safe bet.

The towns with rising prices in both two-year periods are geographically diverse – literally touching or nearly touching the four corners of the state, and with all eight counties represented.There are rural, suburban and urban communities, and they come in all sizes, from tiny Canaan – the state’s second-smallest municipality – to Bridgeport – the state’s largest.They cover a range of price tags. Nearly a third of towns had median sale prices below $200,000 in 2017, while about the same number had median prices above $320,000, including two – Westport and New Canaan – that topped $1 million.

Finding any commonality is tough. While the towns with continuous growth are generally scattered around the state, there are a handful of contiguous towns that made the list, including a string of five connected Hartford County towns – Windsor, Bloomfield, Simsbury, Granby and Hartland. Those municipalities, however, have little in common other than connecting borders.

And four very small towns – Sprague, Morris, Scotland and Hartland – had the most dramatic price growth over the four years, with median prices rising more than 25 percent. But the small number of sales in those towns may have skewed the results.

One clear common feature: The enduring price growth does not mean those towns have recovered from the late-2000s pain. Despite four years of growth, only two – the rural burgs of Hartland and Woodstock – have seen prices fully recover and reach the median prices they saw in 2007, before the recession hit.

In addition to those mentioned above, the following towns saw median-price growth from both 2013 to 2015 and 2015 to 2017: Bolton, Brookfield, Cheshire, Derby, East Hampton, East Lyme, Ellington, Enfield, Fairfield, Goshen, Killingly, Lisbon, Middlefield, Monroe, New Britain, Newington, Newtown, North Haven, Seymour, Sterling, Stonington and Thompson.

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fvamissoula · 6 years

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Fischer of Fischer Commercial Real Estate handles $440,000 sale of 12,980 s/f former Bank of America

115 Main Street – Seymour, CT

Seymour, CT The 12,980 s/f former home to Bank of America at 115 Main St. on .8 acre in downtown was sold within 72 hours of being listed by

Alan Fischer, Fischer Commercial Real Estate

Fischer Commercial Real Estate. The sale price was $440,000.

Alan Fischer, CCIM, SIOR, of Fischer Commercial Real Estate represented the seller and the buyer in the all-cash transaction.

Bank of America used the property as a branch bank and a regional training center. The new owner is a local investor who plans to reconfigure these spaces into multiple, rentable office suites and street retail.

Founded in 1976, Orange-based Fischer Commercial Real Estate specializes in helping people make informed decisions on selling, buying or leasing commercial and investment properties throughout Connecticut.

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fvamissoula · 6 years

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New Haven’s downtown development project is underway

New Haven’s downtown development project is underway (WFSB)

NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) –

For New Haven’s Hill to Downtown community plan, it has been a long time coming, but it’s finally beginning to take shape.

The Hill to Downtown district is bounded by the Route 34 connector and Church Street, from the Yale Medical School and down to Union Station.

Tuesday was the official groundbreaking for the first phase of the development, which will turn a piece of land on Gold Street into a four-story building with 110 apartments and retail on the ground floor.

“New Haven is definitely an attractive place. There’s a lot of cultural and entertainment options in New Haven,” said developer Randy Salvatore.

Thirty of the apartments will be affordable housing, and for Salvatore, this is just a start.

Across the way, he has plans to renovate the old Welch Annex School into 30 more apartments, and he recently got approval to put up two more apartment buildings with 194 units at Congress Avenue and Lafayette Street, currently two parking lots.

“That’s what excited me about this particular project, is the opportunity to create something from parking lots, yet in an area that’s so accessible, whether it’s the train station on one side, Yale Medical School, Yale hospital a block over this way and right across Route 34 you’re right in the center of New Haven,” Salvatore said.

More than 50 years ago, construction of the Route 34 Oak Street connector fragmented the area, separating it from the hill and downtown neighborhoods.

Now the plan will transform more than 11. 5 acres of neglected properties and surface lots.

“We’re likely to draw people who work in other places like Stamford, New York to come and live here because we’re so close to the train station, and people who live here downtown can walk to work,” said New Haven Mayor Toni Harp.

While the projects are not connected, there’s the future of the old Church Street south housing complex, which is getting prepped to be taken down and eventually redeveloped as well.

“Whatever happens in that area will benefit what we’re doing here, and whatever we’re doing benefits that. So I think 1 plus 1 makes 3 in that case,” Salvatore said.

“You’ll come back here in 4 years and there will be a neighborhood,” said Matthew Nemerson, of New Haven’s Economic Development.

Salvatore is pretty ambitious. He said the hope is to have this first apartment building up and with people living there, by the end of the year.

Parents and young athletes have been weighing in on whether or not…

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fvamissoula · 6 years

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Obituary: Doris Cousin “Aunt Do” 91 of East Haven

Information via Clancy-Palumbo Funeral Home

Doris Cousin "Aunt Do" 91 of East Haven passed away peacefully at CT Hospice on April 15, 2018. She was born December 24, 1926 in New Haven to Joseph Sr. and Florence (Petrelli) Cousins. Doris is survived by her brother, Edmund Cousins of Wallingford and nephew, Anthony J. Nazzaro (Paula), nephew, William Nazzaro (Theresa), niece and best friend with whom she lived, Jo-Ann Dziuba (Anthony), nephew, Joseph P. Cousins and numerous great nieces/nephews along with her pet companion, "Molly."

Doris is preceded in death by her parents, step-mother, Mary Grace Petrelli, sister, Claire (Cousins) Nazzaro and brother, Joseph Cousins Jr. Doris was a member of the Civil Air Patrol, advocate for animals and worked at the New Haven Symphony. She retired from Yale University as a manager in the Telecommunications Dept.

Family and friends are invited to meet and attend a graveside service on Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. in All Saints Cemetery, 700 Middletown Ave., North Haven CT (please meet directly at cemetery office). Funeral services are in the care of Clancy-Palumbo Funeral Home, (Clancy Funeral Home) Kirkham Ave., East Haven.

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fvamissoula · 6 years

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Lawmakers still haven’t decided how to tackle CT’s red ink

Sens. John Fonfara, right, and Scott Frantz of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has been warning legislators since early February that their preliminary budget for the upcoming fiscal year is significantly in deficit.

The response he got last week from two budget-writing legislative committees was bipartisan — but less than helpful.

The Appropriations Committee failed to meet its deadline to recommend spending adjustments.

The Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee offered a host of ideas that collectively would deepen the hole in the next budget — already at $265 million — by at least another $130 million.

Malloy also has been waiting since early December for legislators to close a deficit hovering near $200 million in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The administration did not weigh in last week on lawmakers’ reluctance to propose deficit solutions. But Malloy offered an assessment two weeks ago about why legislators — who proudly touted the bipartisan budget they adopted last October — are finding fiscal solutions harder to come by as this year’s state election season draws closer.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy

“The grand coalition seems to be fraying, and I think that’s what gives rise to the inability to respond to the budget being out of balance,” he said.

Despite deficit projections totaling $460 million across this fiscal year and next combined, the finance committee adopted numerous proposals to lower taxes, cancel previously approved tax and fee hikes, and reverse an increase in teachers’ contributions toward their pensions — less than four months after the increase took effect.

There were proposals to provide tax relief for businesses and for consumers attending entertainment venues or getting their cars washed.

The panel also pushed back by one year a $30 million payment the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes must make to the state as part of a deal to open a new casino in north central Connecticut.

Many of these changes passed with bipartisan support. The pension contribution reduction, from 7 to 6 percent of payroll starting July 1, would save teachers $40 million next fiscal year. It passed by a 50-1 vote in the finance committee, with the only dissenting vote coming from Sen. Art Linares, R-Westbrook — who is not seeking re-election.

Leaders of the finance committee defended the proposals, while acknowledging the state might not be able to afford them right now.

Similarly, Sen. L. Scott Frantz of Greenwich, the Senate GOP chair of finance, said most people understand the committee is just one component of a larger budget process. And he also said it’s important that the panel make recommendations about what’s best for Connecticut.

“Hey, this is all subject to negotiation,” Frantz said. And we are in such rough shape right now it will boil down to some very intensive talks.”

Frantz added that, “We don’t feel like we did as much as we could have” as a committee.

Sen. John Fonfara of Hartford, the Senate Democratic chair, said he doesn’t believe the finance committee’s role simply is to propose sufficient revenue to cover whatever the Appropriations Committee wants to spend.

Rather, he added, the finance panel’s proposals should reflect “our view of what the world should look like in terms of how Connecticut builds and grows its economy. Some of what we did today is reflective of that view. Now will that ultimately be the final resolution? Not all of these things will survive. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put forward what we believe the policy of the state of Connecticut should be.”

Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford

“We still have another month to potentially address some of those revenue problems that we do have,” added Rep. Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, the committee’s House chairman.

Fiscal analysts for the governor and for the legislature must develop new revenue estimates by April 30 that reflect new data from the mid-April state income tax filing deadline. Legislators are hopeful that revenue projections for this fiscal year and next will improve with that report.

When it came to the Appropriations Committee failure to issue any spending recommendations before its deadline, Democratic and Republican leaders from the House and Senate issued a joint statement attributing it — at least in part — to “multiple weather-related closings” that interfered with meetings.

But sources said Democrats and Republicans could not agree on how to find the resources to mitigate or eliminate previously approved reductions to social services in the 2018-19 budget.

Kelly Donnelly, spokeswoman for the governor, called it “disappointing” immediately after the Appropriations Committee announced it wouldn’t meet its deadline. Leaders of the committee said they would try to develop a spending plan, albeit a late one, by April 20.

Ultimately, top legislative leaders could craft revisions to the preliminary budget for 2018-19 before the regular session ends on May 9. But they also could adjourn without making adjustments, asserting that the preliminary budget was balanced — at least on paper — when it first was adopted last October.

Although this approach would be unusual, it would not be without precedent. The 2008 legislature adjourned without adjusting a preliminary budget for 2008-09, despite projections it was almost $120 million in deficit.

Rep. Melissa Ziobron, R-East Haddam

Rep. Melissa Ziobron of East Haddam, ranking GOP representative on the Appropriations Committee and an ardent supporter last October of asking teachers to contribute more toward pensions, expressed her disappointment Friday with the finance committee’s actions one day earlier.

“The people on finance, they’re looking at things in a silo,” she said. “I have the fortunate, or unfortunate, responsibility of looking at the entire budget. Their vote yesterday put a hole in the budget.”

Ziobron added that she believes many legislators, Republicans and Democrats, still believe asking teachers to contribute more toward pensions is the right move given the fiscal challenges facing Connecticut.

“We know we still have problems,” she said, adding that the higher teacher contribution was one of the steps that made it possible to avoid a proposal from Malloy to shift huge teacher pension costs from the state onto cities and towns. “If we did that, it would cause layoffs. I’m trying to keep teachers in the classroom.”

Despite the mixed messages coming from the budget panels, at least one constituency was listening closely.

Donald Williams Jr., executive director of the Connecticut Education Association.

The executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, Donald E. Williams, said the state’s largest teachers’ union nonetheless believes legislators should make repeal of the teacher pension contribution increase one of their top priorities.

“Teachers were unfairly singled out more than any other group,” when lawmakers ordered the increase last October, Williams said. “Teachers have faithfully paid their fair share for decades. This is not a problem of their making, and they should not be punished for it.”

Jan Hochadel, president of AFT Connecticut, said, “While the near-unanimous, favorable vote means the measure advances, our members understand this fight is far from over. As educators, we appreciate that the state faces significant fiscal challenges and that long-term solutions will require more than just defeating unjust policies. They (committee members) get that repealing this tax depends on lawmakers taking a more balanced approach to the budget process than the failed austerity policies of the past three years.”

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