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With a daily convoy of cement mixers and tractor trailers loaded with steel for two mega-warehouses, the former airstrip at Rentschler Field is undergoing the biggest construction job since it was built 90 years ago.
On nearly 300 acres south of Cabela’s in East Hartford, graders are flattening the ground while a fleet of dump trucks deliver gravel. Directly over where the old runways used to be, crane operators are erecting the massive steel framework for twin 1.2-million-square-foot warehouses.
For Cam McGregor and three other Arco National Construction managers overseeing the work, the drive is on: National Development is looking for its tenants in the new buildings — Wayfair and Lowe’s — to be getting certificates of occupancy by April 1.
“We’re doing pretty good, we’re on schedule right now,” McGregor said during a tour of the site last week.
National Development bought the historic airfield with nearly 300 acres from Raytheon Technologies, and is erecting two of the region’s largest warehouses. The property had plenty of appeal: It’s flat, already developed for business, and almost directly alongside an I-84 interchange. The closest neighbors are Cabela’s and the Rentschler Field stadium, so there’s been virtually none of the neighborhood opposition that has hit similar projects in more residential Connecticut settings.
Structural steel is still going up; so far only 20% of one building’s steel is done, and 50% of the other. Throughout the day, a procession of tractor trailers arrives laden with beams.
“We’ll see nine to 15 a day, probably for about four to five weeks,” McGregor said.
Other jobs are moving ahead, too. This month, Arco’s subcontractors are trucking in pre-fabricated concrete walls for the Wayfair building, while other crews pour concrete walls for Lowe’s. McGregor figures the foundations will require 1,000 to 1,200 cement mixers’ worth of concrete.
Earlier in the spring, contractors brought in fresh soil to raise elevations for the foundations.
“I was told they had one 10-wheel dump truck coming in every 90 seconds, 12 hours a day for two months,” Mayor Michael Walsh said.
The goal is to have roofs installed before Thanksgiving, with interior work including plumbing, electrical and more under way through the winter. McGregor estimates there will be 150 to 175 workers on the site then.
To Walsh, the work represents a massive advance for East Hartford, where business had been stagnant for the past couple of decades. Initially National Development planned 2,000 long-term jobs at the warehouses; Lowe’s will install more automation than expected, so that figure has been cut to 1,000. It remains a big gain, Walsh said.
“It’s 1,000 jobs on site, 400 construction jobs for two years. The town will get $4 million in impact money, $3 million of that to plan the youth sports facility and $1 million to close the East Coast Greenway gap through East Hartford,” he said. “We’ll get $4 million in inspections and permits money.”
The town has granted a five-year incentive that does away with most of the tax bill for the first five years, but after that East Hartford stands to pull in substantial new annual revenue from acreage that had been yielding only $150,000 a year as an airfield.
“Starting in the fifth year, we’ll get about $4.5 million which is very consistent with what Pratt & Whitney pays us now for their operation. So this will be as big as Pratt in five years in terms of tax revenue,” Walsh said.
“Also, it does what we’re looking to do on Silver Lane: It puts jobs here, it brings stability, it adds income and foot traffic,” Walsh said.
He noted that National Development’s plans also call for a high-tech manufacturing and technology park near the entry drive to the warehouses.
“It’s going to be two to three buildings, we’re hoping it’s high tech jobs but we don’t know yet, he said. “National Development is shopping those as we speak.”
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