Fairfield County Business Journal 020518

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FEBRUARY 5, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 6

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

Stratford’s downtown revival to begin with demolition of defunct school

17 westfaironline.com

Building Boom page 18

BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com

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n 2008, the town of Stratford received a $50,000 grant from the TriState Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit policy advocacy organization, to conduct a feasibility assessment of transit-centered development projects in the town center. The primary goals of the assessment were to identify opportunities to revitalize the downtown district and attract new development to enhance the town’s tax base, while simultaneously preserving the character of the community. Ten years later, Stratford is starting with a construction project designed to expand the town’s housing stock and retail community. The first step in this endeavor is the demolition of a former elementary school that will open 3.6 acres of land to new development. Stratford’s Center School opened in 1970 on Sutton Avenue and at its peak housed about 255 students in kindergarten through 6th grade. » STRATFORD

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An architect’s rendering of a 32,000-square-foot, mixed-use building planned by developer R. D. Scinto Inc. on the former Tetley Tea site in Shelton. Griffin Hospital Occupational Medicine & Rehabilitation Services will occupy the second floor. Story on page 18.

Henkel unveils R&D facilities in Trumbull, Stamford

BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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enkel unveiled its two newest research and development facilities on Jan. 26 — one at its Stamford headquarters and the other 27 miles away in Trumbull. At 4 Trefoil Drive, the R&D will be for the company’s beauty care as well as its laundry and home care divisions. At its 200 Elm St. headquarters, space has been set up for consumer goods research. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, corporate senior vice president for R&D laundry and home care, said the decision to build another research facility in Trumbull — where the company also has a laundry and home care facility at 30 Trefoil Drive — was made on Aug. 8, 2016, just a few weeks

before Henkel announced it was relocating its North American headquarters from Scottsdale, Arizona to Stamford. “We needed a bigger lab close by,” Müller-Kirschbaum said. “The idea was to have a campus.” Although the two Trefoil Drive buildings are on either side of the Lakewood-Trumbull YMCA at 20 Trefoil, they are situated in such a way that a footbridge is being built between them that crosses over a small creek to allow employees to safely travel back and forth. Charles Crawford, head of R&D for Henkel’s laundry and home care division in North America, said the bridge should be finished by March to coincide with 4 Trefoil’s becoming fully operational. The new 27,000-square-foot, two-story building will house

about 15 employees, while “close to 100” work at 30 Trefoil, he said. The Trumbull location includes product formulation laboratories, a consumer product and fragrance evaluation center, packaging design and two pilot plants that support production scale-up capabilities for the beauty care and laundry divisions. Crawford said that the consumer center is of particular importance to Henkel, and that the company expects “a couple hundred consumers a week” to visit and give their feedback on potential new products and alterations to existing ones. Consumer products developed by the division include Persil ProClean, All, and Purex laundry detergents; Snuggle fabric conditioners; and Renuzit aircare products. » HENKEL

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