By James Lomuscio
Representatives of Bridgewater Associates, the Westport-based international hedge fund, tonight presented themselves as environmental stewards in a pre-application for the redevelopment of the 21.7-acre corporate campus at 1 Glendinning Plkace and 25 Ford Road.
A Bridgewater Associates parking lot at its Glendenning headquarters flooded in a March 2011 storm. Proposed improvements are intended to allieviate the flooding potential. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Neil Engler for WestportNow.com
The pre-application came almost a year after the company, Westport’s largest employer, said it was abandoning plans to move to Stamford, first announced two years earlier. (See WestportNow June 27, 2014) Bridgewater employs 1,500 persons in Westport at multiple locations.
Landscape architect Wesley Stout detailed plans about removing 170 paved parking spaces, “two acres of paving,” near confluences of the Saugatuck and Aspetuck Rivers, “and burying them into a parking garage.”
“We will excavate and create two levels underneath the current surface and put a green roof on top,” he said.
Stout said the parking lot would transform into a “great lawn or commons” surrounded by a riverfront buffer. The Bridgewater parking lot has flooded repeatedly in past storms.
Also planned is a new bridge from the Ford Road entrance and nearly a thousand feet of buffering along the water’s edge fronting Ford Road.
“And we’re doing a new fish ladder,” Stout said about the state’s trout management area along the Saugatuck that skirts the Bridgewater property.
“We’re really trying to make this environmentally responsible,” he added
These eco-friendly carrots are part of the hedge fund’s plan to redevelop its campus main buildings, a plan that would increase coverage around 10 percent, representatives said.
Neil Grassie, Bridgewater’s head of facilities, noted that the company’s main building “is somewhat tired, 60 years old,” and could be improved in terms of upgrades and codes.
“We want to increase the functionality of the buildings without increasing traffic, staff or height,” he said.
Grassie noted that Wednesday night Bridgewater officials met with 10 of the 41 surrounding neighbors who had been invited to discuss and address residents’ concerns.
Engineer Craig Lapinski of Manchester-based Fuss & O’Neill said that the property consists of two parcels: the 15.84-acre Glendinning property accessible via Weston Road and 5.89 acres south of it fronting Ford Road. Both are in a Designed Development District (DDD) zone.
Five buildings exist on both properties, with buildings A, B and C the main ones. The properties have four parking areas totaling 250 spaces, the largest being the paved surface one to be replaced by underground parking.
“There are a number of different waterways that converge here, the Saugatuck Rover, the Aspetuck River and two confluences,” Lapinski said, adding that there is dam on the property and three vehicular bridges.
Lapinski said since the property sits within the 100-year flood line, Bridgewater has held preliminary meetings with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and the town’s Planning and Zoning Department, fire marshal and town engineer.
Following the presentation, P&Z member Catherine Walsh said it was “a much improved plan than was presented five years ago.”
“We would like to be back with a formal application this summer,” Grassie said.
In March 2014, the P&Z approved a zoning text amendment that would allow Bridgewater and five other DDD zones to make building, parking and environmental improvements. (See WestportNow March 13, 2014)
Land use attorney Lawrence Weisman proposed the amendment to specifically allow his client, Bridgewater Associates, to improve its Glendenning property.
Weisman said Bridgewater, among other things wanted to move its parking lots away from the Saugatuck River and make buildings compliant with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) by installing elevators.
He also said the amendment would allow construction of a dedicated meditation area on the Bridgewater campus.
Bridgewater’s billionaire boss Ray Dalio is strong believer in the power of meditation and offers transcendental meditation (TM) to his employees.
