The daily walk to work includes the familiar sounds of a city—birds chirping, dogs barking, horns honking—and one that’s considerably more rare in these days of financial crisis: the sound of construction. Where is this happening? In Stamford, Connecticut, where several of the city’s mixed-use projects have broken ground within the last year and are all strongly linked to Stamford’s train station, the second busiest on Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven line after Grand Central Terminal.

The Stamford Transportation Center, as it is known, offers fast and frequent commuter rail service in Connecticut and the ridership numbers reflect this. For Metro-North express trains to New York City, Stamford is the last stop heading inbound and very often the first station stop after leaving Harlem outbound. The average express trip takes only 47 minutes and is available 18 times each morning peak. In 2008, 3,600 commuters boarded in Stamford each weekday morning heading into Manhattan. Some 2,000 reverse commuters arrive in Stamford each morning, traveling from New York City and stations west of Stamford while more than 2,500 arrive having boarded at stations to the east.

The Stamford Transportation Center serves as the origin/terminus for Metro-North’s New Canaan Branch as well as providing access to Amtrak and Peter Pan and Greyhound intercity buses. The station was recently renovated to improve passenger access as well as to accommodate additional and longer trains. Plans are underway to renovate and expand the adjacent parking garage.

In addition, the Stamford Transportation Center serves as a hub connecting to other transit modes, one result of transportation providers and state and local officials working collaboratively to develop and market these intermodal services. Connecticut Transit Stamford (CT Transit Stamford Division) provides 18 bus routes around the city and connections to Norwalk, White Plains and Port Chester, New York.  The I-Bus service to White Plains is one of the first jointly sponsored bus services between the two neighboring states. The Stamford CTC (Commuter Train Connection),a dedicated bus distributor service, circulates throughout downtown Stamford carrying railroad commuters to office complexes throughout the city limits. Many private companies and building also provide their own shuttles to the Transportation Center, enhancing the options further for residents and employees looking for an alternative to the automobile.

View from the Stamford Station to the north

Nearly completed Royal Bank of Scotland
headquarters (foreground)
Trump Parc under construction (background)

Source: Regional Plan Association

This access to transit allows one to stand on the station’s platform today and see several active construction sites with residential and commercial buildings in various stages of completion. These projects represent a transformation of the downtown. The recent surge of development has occurred during the recently completed four-term tenure of Mayor Dan Malloy, a leader on transit-oriented development, sustainability and downtown revitalization. Almost every project currently underway has a significant residential component, and together they represent the downtown’s rebirth as a residential neighborhood set within one of the largest employment centers in the state.

Some of these projects are highly visible towers or district-scale redevelopments, while others are smaller scale infill projects that reinforce the pedestrian fabric of the downtown. At the smaller end of the spectrum, a building rehab at 11 Forest Street is presently transforming a former two-story children’s furniture store into a three-story mixed use building with ground floor retail and a dozen loft style apartments. Just three blocks away, Trump Parc is now the city’s tallest building. Located at the key intersection of Broad and Washington, this 35-story tower is the new visual marker for the city center, visible when approaching from the north, east or west or from miles away on I-95. With a prominent location across from a new riverfront park, these residences signal a new era of built form for the city. Also joining the skyline and adding to the city’s employment, a LEED Gold office tower has just been occupied directly across the street from the transportation center, housing the North American headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). 

These three projects and other single building infill are located primarily to the north of the transportation center. In years past, this rail station served as the downtown’s southern boundary, separating it from industrial lands that jut into Long Island Sound. Recent real estate trends have recast the station so that it will soon occupy the heart of Stamford’s newly expanded downtown, and will link the downtown to Long Island Sound, significantly increasing the size of the city center and its ability to attract sustainable development.

View from Stamford Station to the south

Phase 1 Metro Green (left)
First residential tower of
Harbor Point under construction (right)

Source: Regional Plan Association

The South End peninsula is the new frontier of the city’s redevelopment. In 2005, a private development company based in Greenwich, Antares, acquired more than 80 acres south of the station, cleared and cleaned the land, and has begun creating a mixed-use community with office, retail, a hotel, and ultimately 4,000 residential units. This project, known as Harbor Point, will capitalize on roughly half of the property within walking distance of the train station—an area which had been dominated by industrial, non-transit-supportive uses. The first two office towers, totaling 400,000 square feet, and the first residential building, with over 300 units, are under construction by Building and Land Technology of Norwalk, the project’s present owner. Other smaller projects are contributing to this neighborhood’s transformation—Jonathan Rose Companies recently completed the Metro Green Apartments project, creating 50 affordable housing units that are a first phase of a LEED Neighborhood pilot project located between Harbor Point and the transit center.

Historical Perspective
The current transformation is only the most recent in a long history of reinvention in Stamford. In the late 1940s the city and town of Stamford were consolidated, ensuring that the ensuing decades of suburbanization did not result in a loss of tax base to the municipality and preventing the freefall that befell so many other Connecticut cities. In the 1950s and 60s, city leaders embraced urban renewal and helped their struggling industrial “Lock City” become a corporate headquarters giant of the 1980s—“The City that Works.” Stamford grew significantly during this time, adding over 16 percent to its population between 1980 and 2008, while the state overall grew at a 12 percent rate and its peer cities posted declines. Although many projects built during that era were automobile-oriented, they were located within the downtown which is being retrofitted to be more walkable. Over the last two decades, planning efforts and market trends have gradually improved the pedestrian environment of the station area.

Decades of public policy, beginning with the 1984 Master Plan, set clear priorities for downtown office and retail development and ensured that a market for downtown space would not be cannibalized by competing locations at Stamford’s edges. The plan limited commercial development outside of the urban core and redefined the formerly commercial and office-dominated downtown as a mixed-use center by integrating homes, shopping, and entertainment at the city’s core. Overall this policy has been very successful. The city also received support through a $100 million station reconstruction project in the late 1980s. These policies and investments led to the city’s most recent rebirth in the 1990s and facilitated its rise as a financial services alternative to Midtown and Lower Manhattan, attracting the North American headquarters of UBS, RBS, and others. This increased demand has solidified the station area as the premier office location in the city and southwestern Connecticut.

Future Perspective
City leaders are now looking beyond the rewards of past investments and policy initiatives and have begun work on new public investments to promote sustainable development in the coming decades. Outside of the downtown, two neighborhood centers in the eastern section of the city have become models of sustainable development. Glenbrook and Springdale are both home to commuter rail stations on Metro-North’s New Canaan branch line; each has recently rezoned its neighborhood center for walkable and transit-oriented growth.

Two investments in particular will set the stage for the next generation of transit-oriented growth. The first is a transportation investment: a light rail streetcar line that will extend the city’s transit-oriented zone deeper into the downtown and to adjacent neighborhoods. Recognizing that transit access and a renewed focus on the Stamford Transportation Center has spurred redevelopment of properties located within walking distance, Stamford's land use and engineering bureaus want to extend its impact. Stamford has been bolstered in this effort by building managers and investors who have utilized shuttles and improved pedestrian links to capitalize on this transit accessibility. With a preliminary route and mode study to be completed this winter, the new light rail streetcar service could serve to extend the energy created by the existing station deeper into the city and establish new walkable nodes of activity beyond the downtown core.

Trump Parc, situated on the
soon to be restored Mill River

Source: Regional Plan Association

The second major investment by the city is a world-class park now under construction that will balance the intensification of the downtown with open space and recreational amenities. The park will follow the Mill (Rippowam) River, dammed since the 17th Century, along the western edge of downtown. Some of the land for the park will be reclaimed as a result of changes in river management on the part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Dams and concrete walls along the Mill River are being removed to restore the river to a more natural and narrower course. This process will create acres of new parkland as well as shrink the 100-year floodplain, freeing the western edge of downtown from insurance hurdles that currently constrain redevelopment. Designed by the landscape architect Lori Olin, the park will include a continuous system of paths linking the downtown to Long Island Sound and surrounding neighborhoods and will feature a carousel, a kayak launch and other amenities.

While one investment is grey infrastructure and the other is green, both light rail and the park will provide alternatives to the automobile. In focusing its growth strategies around mixed-use, transit-oriented development, Stamford has differentiated itself among communities in metropolitan New York and the Northeast, attracting households and jobs that will sustain and build on the city’s unique attributes—achieving a high quality of life for its residents, workers, and visitors with excellent transportation access.

Return to Home

Have a comment? Email us at vtc@policy.rutgers.edu