Most of the office park at Thorndal Circle is close to being sold to TC Northeast Metro Development Inc., which is proposing to demolish five office buildings and construct five residential buildings with 175 homes, according to filings with the Darien Planning and Zoning Department.
The proposal will be the subject of a public hearing by the town Environmental Review Commission at 7 p.m., today, Wednesday, May 22 in Darien Town Hall, Room 119.
If approved and built, the 11-acre development will be one of the biggest in town, comparable to the Corbin District downtown as well as Darien Commons and Heights Crossing in Noroton Heights.
From one of the project documents filed in Town Hall
Thick lines appear to show the borders of the proposed development with five residential buildings. Darien Police Headquarters borders the development in the lot just above the label for “Hecker Avenue.” A corner of Darien Library can be seen near the lower right corner. Nielsen’s Florist is on the Post Road between the library and Thorndal Circle, and behind it are the present office buildings 6 (by the library parking lot) and Building 3 (between Building 6 and the Thorndale Circle roadway).
Image from the Cushman and Wakeman website
An aerial view of the site, including land that will not be developed, on the other side of Stony Brook. Spring Grove Cemetery can be seen at the bottom of the picture, the Post Road is on the right and the I-95 northbound Exit 11 ramp near the upper righthand corner.
Image from the Cushman and Wakeman website
Aerial view of the site. Darien Police Headquarters is the building with a dark roof at the bottom of the picture. The lot in the center of the picture, with yellow borders, isn’t shown as part of the project in the aerial photo just above this one. It may or may not be part of the project.
Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets, a large commercial real estate firm that represents the owners, says on its website that the Thorndal Circle property is “under contract,” a real estate term meaning “the seller has accepted an offer, but there are still conditions to clear before closing,” according to Opendoor, a San Francisco-based real estate company.
Although the reasons for the buyer to have conditions before actually acquiring the property are unclear, the decisions town land use boards make on whether to approve the project and under what conditions could potentially make the buyer cancel the deal, likely putting the property back on the market.
The property proposed for redevelopment is at the back end of Thorndal Circle, farthest from the Post Road. Two other office buildings (Building 6 and Building 3), just behind Nielsen’s Florist, don’t appear to be part of the proposal — maps of the proposed changes filed with the P&Z Department don’t show them being within it.
Flooding and Improving the Natural Environment
The filed documents go into detail about ways the proposed development would improve rather than harm the natural environment of the area, addressing the particular concerns of the Environmental Protection Commission, especially lessening the amount of stormwater flowing off the property toward Stony Brook rather than getting it absorbed or held underground.
The applicant is proposing to tear down the office buildings nearest the brook, on the west side of the property, and remove a lot of the parking areas there in order to help the ground absorb some of the storm water that now flows into the brook. Two large stormwater basins will be put in that area with native plants grown in them. A timber pedestrian bridge will go over them for passive recreational use.
From one of the project documents filed in Town Hall
The two large basins, with a timber foot bridge between them, located between Stony Brook and one of the residential buildings in the northwest corner of the development.
Native vegetation will be planted in the area near the river to replace invasive species. That “will create a vegetative structure more conducive to local wildlife species,” according to one of the documents. “Plantings [in that area] will also provide biofiltration of sediment and pollutants.”
The documents — at least the ones filed for the EPC deliberations — don’t focus on other aspects of the project.
For instance, there doesn’t seem to be anything in the papers filed so far that mentions the timeline for construction, details about the homes, and whether or not they would be large enough for families with children.
If the EPC approves the project, it will go to the Planning & Zoning Commission, where those and other details of the project can be discussed. The town’s Architectural Review Board will also review the project.
Documents Filed with the P&Z Department Describe Some Parts of the Project
There aren’t a lot of prose descriptions in the applicant’s documents filed with the P&Z Department (and available online) but the maps in particular show some amenities available to the residents and where the five residential buildings will be located.
The maps show a swimming pool with a clubhouse. One map points out various things just outside the clubhouse and by the pool: an outdoor kitchen and bar, dining tables and high chairs, communal dining tables, fire pits with cushioned seating, a self-closing, self-latching pool gate, planters, chaise lounges with umbrellas, a “decorative stone wall with fence topper” and a “restroom building.” The club house and pool will be on the north side of the development, close to Interstate 95.
From one of the project documents filed in Town Hall
The Clubhouse and pool area.
From one of the project documents filed in Town Hall
Renderings of the front and back views of one of the proposed residential buildings (the others look almost identical). This proposed building is three stories high (75 feet), the bottom view may show garage doors on the ground floor. Are they townhomes? Apartments? A public description may come for the first time at Wednesday night’s public hearing.
The Company Proposing the Project
At a meeting of the Environmental Protection Commission on April 3 (see the video below) EPC Vice Chairman James Millard said the company proposing the project is one of the largest property developers in the country and can be expected to hire engineers, consultants, professionals dealing with the environmental impact who “will be second to none.” He said the company can be expected to set high standards for the project and it can be expected to have the money to pay for them.
Documents filed with the Planning and Zoning Department identify it as TC NE Metro Development Inc. The “NE” stands for “Northeast” and the “TC” stands for “Trammel Crow” company, which bought it and made it a unit of the larger business.
(Trammel Crow previously was run by Harlan Crow, a billionaire whose many gifts to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have been in the news over the past year.)
Trammel Crow, in turn, was bought in 2006 by CBRE, the largest or one of the largest real estate businesses in the country. It invests in commercial real estate, operating the buildings and providing services to the occupants and to real estate investors.
Millard said he’d read many of the documents related to the proposal that were submitted to town officials, “and there is a lot of work already done” in proposing ways to reduce water going into Stony Brook from the site, “so I think you’re going to find that that is their intent.” The committee can urge the applicant to reduce surface flows from the property as much as possible, he added, “and we can hold their feet to the fire.”
Enviro Protex Comm 4-3-2024 from Darien TV79 on Vimeo.
The April 3 discussion about the proposal for the Thorndal Circle Office Park starts at the 21:20 and ends at the 30:37 minute mark.