The Mayor’s Office announced in a press release last week that Bristol Enterprises LLC has bought the former O’Connell and Bingham School properties. The Connecticut-based developer will convert both properties to market-rate senior housing, with construction on both buildings expected to begin prior to the end of the year, said the news release.
“Bristol Enterprises’ proposal to repurpose the former O’Connell School and Bingham School into active senior housing is a fantastic project that meets a market demand, introduces the properties to the tax rolls for the first time in the city’s history, and preserves two historic properties that might otherwise have been demolished,” said Mayor Ken Cockayne, in the release.
Ted Lazarus, principal of Bristol Enterprises, said in the mayor’s office news release he anticipates that there will be approximately 38 living units in the former Bingham School building and 49 units designated for the former O’Connell School. Lazarus, said the release, intends to incorporate the latest in geothermal and solar energy technologies so that both buildings will be energy neutral, each creating its own energy needs with respect to heating cooling and electricity.
“We’re very excited to be preserving these masterpieces of Connecticut school architecture and transforming them into something that will continue to serve the Bristol community for years to come,” Lazarus said, according to the news release. “I expect that many of our future residents will have attended these schools as children, and we are pleased to be participating in a project that will provide much needed housing for the growing numbers of seniors in the area.”
The developer expects to complete construction on both properties and have them market-ready by the first quarter of 2017, said the release.
