AMERICA’S LEADERS MUST BE A FORCE FOR UNITY
BAIL BOND INDUSTRY FACING CHALLENGES
PAGE
PAGE
4
11
NOVEMBER 5, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 45
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
westfaironline.com
Battle for Connecticut governor is too close to call
Ned Lamont, left, and Bob Stefanowski.
BY GLENN KALINOSKI AND KEVIN ZIMMERMAN gkalinoski@westfairinc.com kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
D The hotel is scheduled to open this month.
Stamford’s long-delayed Residence Inn by Marriott readies for its debut
BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com
T
here’s nothing like this in the market,” proclaimed Todd Lindvall as he walked through the work-in-progress lobby of the Residence Inn by Marriott on Stamford’s Atlantic Street. Indeed, the new hotel is being promoted as the city’s first extended-stay lodging establishment and the downtown area’s only all-suite property. “We’re the only hotel in the downtown that’s centered that way,” added Lindvall, area general manager. “The rest are sort of on the fringe of the downtown, which is a huge plus for us.” The scheduled Nov. 19 opening of the $45 million, 156-room, eight-story hotel concludes a difficult gestation period for the property. Initially
announced in 2013 by the developer Seaboard Properties, the hotel was situated on the former site of four mixed-use buildings that previously housed retail, offices and apartments. But construction was beset by delays and then came to a stop when Seaboard declared bankruptcy in December 2015, with only 60 percent of the work completed. Seaboard, which also owned the Courtyard by Marriott that sits back-to-back with the Residence Inn and faces out on the parallel Summer Street, initially insisted that the construction would be finished, but quickly the company found itself in a flurry of litigation and property auctions that left the project in limbo. (Last April, John DiMenna, the 75-year-old former president of Seaboard Properties, was sen» » STAMFORD
6
emocrats are poised for victory on Election Day in the races for senate and governor in New York while the governor’s race is too close to call in Connecticut. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski has pulled to within the margin of error of Democrat Ned Lamont in the latest Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters. The survey shows Stefanowski cutting Lamont’s lead from 8 points in Quinnipiac’s last poll to 4 points, and essentially agrees with a Sacred Heart University poll showing the GOP candidate trailing his opponent by 3.4 points. Lamont leads Stefanowski 47 percent to 43 percent, with independent candidate Oz Griebel at 7 percent. For its latest poll, Quinnipiac surveyed 1,201 Connecticut likely voters from Oct. 22-28, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The university has classified the governor’s race as “too close to call.” Women back Lamont over Stefanowski by a 55-34 percent margin, with 7 percent for Griebel. Men back Stefanowski over Lamont 51-38 percent, with 7 percent for Griebel. Lamont tops Stefanowski 90-4 percent among Democrats, with 5 percent for Griebel. Stefanowski » » GOVERNOR
6