Billionaire couple Austin and Allison McChord plan to transform a 125-acre Connecticut island into a public park and nature center, replacing proposed luxury housing. The project will include a beach, boardwalk, and environmental education center, providing public access to currently exclusive coastline. The venture aims to revitalize the polluted land while fostering community-driven park development.
Rendering courtesy of SCAPE Studio
Located on the Long Island Sound in Southeast Connecticut, Manresa Island holds centuries of history and ecological significance.
Plans to turn the long-restricted Manresa Island in Norwalk, Conn., into a 125-acre public park, beach and nature center represent a massive gain not just for the state, but for the entire Northeast, speakers said at an Oct. 1 news conference announcing the effort.
The blockbuster philanthropic project is anticipated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to realize, the Hartford Courant reported Oct. 2.
"From Hell's Gate down in Manhattan to Point Judith, the entire length of Long Island Sound, [there is not an] opportunity like this one anywhere," U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. 4th District, told about 100 political, community, and business leaders outside the island's towering NRG power plant. "This is truly once in a lifetime."
Billionaire engineer and venture capitalist Austin McChord and his wife, Allison, are buying the sprawling former NRG facility and surrounding acreage from a New York developer that was planning to build luxury housing.
The residential development would have included a few trails open to the public, but the McChords proposal is to make all of the property open to all, including its 1.7 mi. of shoreline.
Most coastline property in Connecticut, especially in uber-affluent Fairfield County, is largely in the hands of wealthy homeowners or private associations that expressly keep the public out. Even individual communities often try to restrict municipal beaches to local residents.
"In a state that has only 27 percent of our shoreline available for public access, unlocking these [nearly] 2 miles for public access in this densely populated area is going to be absolutely transformative in advancing our mission of outdoor recreation, [and] access," said Katie Dykes, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP).
Island to Be Made Ready for Nature Lovers
Rendering courtesy of SCAPE Studio
The McChords established the nonprofit Manresa Island Corp. to soon purchase the property, according to the Hartford Courant, then commence what is certain to be an enormously costly environmental cleanup and maintenance of the island. The nonprofit's preliminary plans show a public beach, recreational spaces, an extensive boardwalk, docks and a pier, and long stretches of natural marshes.
The 250,000-sq.-ft. power plant itself would be kept intact but reconstructed as a multi-story public exhibition space and environmental education center. Architectural renderings of a potential design concept show the 165-ft.-high boiler building, the most iconic but foreboding structure in that stretch of Fairfield County's coastline, transformed into one with glass walls and surrounded by grassy fields, woods and hiking trails.
"Parks like this don't exist in Connecticut," Austin McChord, a Norwalk native, told the audience.
Connecticut's political and governmental leaders were effervescent in their praise for the idea, the Hartford newspaper noted.
"This absolutely dazzling gift is one of the biggest to Connecticut in this century," commented Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Gov. Ned Lamont added, "We've got a lot of people per square mile, everything's getting developed, there's not a lot of open space. [But] one of the things I love about Connecticut is that there's a beautiful park usually within a five- or 10-minute drive. It makes it accessible to all our communities regardless of zip code."
Norwalk Common Council President Darlene Young said she believed that preserving the wildlife on Manresa Island and opening the fenced-off property to the public for the first time in more than 60 years is important.
"This is my first time on the property, and I've lived in South Norwalk for 32 years," she explained. "Coming in, I saw a deer trying to find refuge. This is their habitat and we're going to retain that."
Connecticut Light & Power, now an Eversource subsidiary, built the coal-burning plant on the island in the late 1950s and began service in 1960. Homeowners across nearby neighborhoods complained of soot on their cars and windows until it switched to oil in 1972.
NRG bought the facility in 1999, but it was partly flooded by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. By then, the utility was already making plans to take it out of service, which it finally did a year later. The plant has been vacant ever since.
Photo courtesy of SCAPE Studio
State agencies studied what to do with the heavily contaminated land and its rusting buildings, but there was little progress until Argent Ventures announced last year that it was buying the property for upscale housing.
Earlier this year, the McChords negotiated a deal for Argent to sell the plant and the island to their nonprofit instead.
Allison McChord said she and her husband came up with the idea of saving Manresa years ago.
"Austin and I spent an afternoon kayaking around Manresa," she said. "Even from the water we saw the potential and said to each other ‘Someone should make this an amazing park.' When we finally got on site, we were totally blown away by the diversity, the scale of the power plant, the views along the shoreline.
"Austin was on the roof first and said, ‘You can see Manhattan,'" she recalled. "I said ‘No, you probably see Stamford.' But he was right."
The couple has not sought tax money for the project and have emphasized that their design team will work closely with the Norwalk community to decide exactly what the property is used for.
State Sen. Bob Duff, D-25th District, noting that the power plant was once infamous as one of Connecticut's worst pollution sources, called the McChords' plan a game changer for the region, especially when considering how much of a polluter the power plant had become.
"Many decades ago, Stamford and Norwalk were fighting over who gets the power plant," he added. "We lost. But this will turn it from one of Norwalk's most colossal mistakes to one of Norwalk's greatest achievements."
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