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Friday, May 30, 2014
Volume 11, No. 22
•My Crazy Girlfriend is coming to
a town near you, Page 18
•Vote for your Readers’ Choice,
Page 31
•Central eventually takes care of
Plainville, Page 36
ESPN shows off its newest technology
By KAITLYN NAPLES
STAFF WRITER
After a little over two
years of construction ESPN
held the official grand opening of its new digital center
last Monday morning. The
new state-of-the-art facility,
dubbed DC-2, will be the
home of “SportsCenter,”
starting in June, as well as
NFL programming this fall.
It also is a step into the
future for ESPN and digital
media.
“This is the future of
ESPN,” said Sara Walsh,
SportsCenter anchor.
The 194,000 square foot
building has five studios, six
control rooms, and 26 edit
studios and the largest studio in the building is nearly
10,000 square feet— or
twice
the
size
of
SportsCenter’s current studio with 100 more monitors
than its current studio.
Every wall in the new studio
has some kind of feature
and they all serve as a
unique backdrop for segments and interviews. There
are features in the floor, like
a rising interview platform,
as well as interactive monitors, LED lighting, and the
new studio can accommodate 18 live hours of
SportsCenter per day.
“This building illustrates ESPN’s commitment
to technology (and its confidence in a technological
world that is constantly
changing),” said ESPN’s
president John Skipper. He
added that the new studio
and its features will allow
ESPN to “provide the best
sports content on every
platform.”
In addition to its
advanced technology, DC-2
was built with energy efficiency in mind. The facility
See ESPN, page 5
KAITLYN NAPLES
SportsCenter anchor Sara Walsh, left, joined Mayor Ken Cockayne for a photo at last week’s grand opening
of ESPN’s new digital center in Bristol.
Renaissance takes its message about downtown to public
By NICOLE JACQUES
CORRESPONDENT
Master
downtown
Bristol
developer
Renaissance Downtowns
urged citizens to “stay the
course” in supporting Phase
1 development plans for
Depot Square during a public dinner held at Nuchies in
Forestville on May 19.
Following weeks of
Arts
23
Churches 10
public meetings at which
some Bristol residents
expressed doubt in the slated actions proposed by the
development
company,
Renaissance officials sought
to use the Nuchies dinner as
an opportunity to describe
the progress they made over
the last four years under
partnership with the city, as
well as answer questions
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from the public while providing explanations of the
next steps to come.
“We’re at a crossroads—now it comes down
to the general public” said
Nuchies co-owner Dave
Pasqualicchio, who introduced the Renaissance
team and urged residents to
continue their support of
the long-awaited develop-
ment plans.
“Anything can work,
but it’s going to take work,
and hard work,” said
Pasqualicchio. “Everyone
has
challenges,
even
Renaissance…[Downtown
development] is not going
to happen overnight.”
Ryan Porter, director of
planning and development
for
Renaissance
Downtowns, said that over
the four years Renaissance
has been involved in Bristol,
progress has been made.
Since aligning with the
city
in
May
2010,
Renaissance has brought
over 2,600 members to revitalization support organization Bristol Rising, and has
held over 150 public outreach meetings. Physical
developments such as the
demolition and reconstruction of 11 Summer St., the
relocation of McDonald’s,
and encouraging and supporting the opening of
downtown businesses such
as Barley Vine and Bare
Bones have also been part
of the process, said Porter.
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Friday, May 30, 2014
Renaissance: ‘The plan has not changed’
From page 1
Porter also addressed
concerns raised at the May
13 City Council meeting, at
which a number of residents expressed disapproval
for what they called a
“change of plans” on
Renaissance’s part in the
development corporation’s
decision to continue Phase
1 with the construction of
an apartment complex.
“The plan has not
changed,” said Porter, who
called the the concern a
misconception. “We still are
going to be delivering [the
originally proposed project]
here in Bristol.”
Some residents also
expressed concerns over the
pace
of
Renaissance’s
accomplishments over the
last four years, saying more
progress should have been
made during the time period. Porter explained that
the track of development
has been normal, if not
faster than other communities, citing similar projects
such as West Hartford’s Blue
Back Square, which took
years to complete after initial ideas surfaced in 1999
and construction began in
2005.
Renaissance’s
next
steps in the Phase 1 plan
(which included the relocation
of
McDonald’s)
includes construction of a
five-story apartment building, with a first floor
reserved for retail spaces.
Rental prices for those
apartment
spaces
are
expected to range from $750
per month for a studio
apartment and upwards of
$1,000 to $1,400 or more per
month for one- and twobedroom spaces (approximately $1.85 per square
foot).
Construction on that
part of the phase, however,
may not begin until anywhere
between
nine
months to about a year from
now. Porter said financing
the project is the current
roadblock, with an estimated $11.7 million in private
funds still needing to be
raised.
Renaissance finance
plans have asked the city for
$6 million in public funding
for the construction. In
addition, officials from the
organization are currently
exploring state CHAMP
grants, EB3 financing, and
bonding as supplementary
financing options.
Renaissance stressed
the financing issue should
not be viewed as a setback.
“The answer cannot be
that we abandon the
thought of downtown development,” said Don Monti,
president and CEO of
Renaissance, continuing on
to say that the public investment is necessary.
Despite the presentation,
some
residents
remained skeptical, saying
the project may be giving
Bristol something that it
does not want.
“I know [Renaissance’s]
intentions are good, but I’m
nervous—I’m very nervous
about what’s happening. I
don’t like it,” said Steve
Cohen, an early supporter
of Renaissance, who said he
does not feel comfortable
with the city zoning changes
made for the project.
Others who voiced
their opinions at the dinner
said that although the project may make some people
nervous, that does not
mean the city should halt
work on it.
“The Bristol residents
keep saying not here—I say
why not here?” said Linda, a
current West Hartford resident and long-time Bristol
homeowner. “If you want to
change Bristol stop trashing
it and change your town—
it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Fred Hall, a Bristol resi-
dent, is also optimistic
about the project.
“This is not a lot of piein-the-sky talk—this is real,”
said Hall. “Let’s make this
happen and have us be
looked back on as the greatest generation in the [history of] Bristol for what we’ve
done.”
While construction for
the next steps of Phase 1
remains months away,
Renaissance said it is
important now and in the
coming months that citizens remain active in supporting the 75 businesses
that surround the downtown area.
“Nobody is going to
take this project seriously if
we don’t get things going, so
we need to get things
going,” said Porter.
Renaissance’s finalized
Phase 1 plans for Depot
Square are due to the City
Council by June 16.