#MIDDLEBURY
This artist’s rendering shows the Brookside Memorial Funeral Home currently under construction on Benson Road in Middlebury. The business is expected to open in fall 2017. (Image courtesy CK Associates)
By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE
The Middlebury Economic and Industrial Development Commission (EIDC) at its Dec. 14 special meeting unanimously recommended a tax abatement for Brookside Memorial LLC, a funeral home and crematory business formed by Raymond and Panagiota (Penny) Albini, who also own the Chase Parkway Memorial funeral home in Waterbury and will continue operating at that location. A town meeting to vote on the abatement along with two previously recommended abatements was held Dec. 19, and all three abatements were approved.
The assessed value of the new building will be $3.2 million according to estimates in the application, potentially qualifying it for a 5-year tax abatement of 35 percent the first year and 5 percent less per year in each of the succeeding four years. There also will be $60,000 of taxable furniture and equipment. Actual tax abatement calculations are done by the assessor. Occupancy of the completed building is planned for fall 2017, and the business will create three full-time and four part-time jobs within the first two years of operation, according to the application.
The Albinis purchased the land for the new building, with about five to 10 usable acres fronting on Benson Road, from the Town of Middlebury in June 2015. The town had acquired it in June 2014 from Baker Residential in lieu of $75,925.07 taxes owed. Zoning regulations were revised in November 2015 to permit funeral homes in the LI-200 zone as a permitted use.
The 8,134-square-foot building was designed by architect Alphonse K. Kuncas Jr. of CK Associates in Waterbury, and structural engineer Joseph L. Calabrese, owner of a company bearing his name in Waterbury, is managing the construction.
The rectangular building has two carports, two parlors, administrative offices, bathrooms and a crematorium. Parking for 100 cars is included, as is space for a possible 2,000-square-foot expansion.
Calabrese told EIDC members during an April 26 architectural review of the building that Connecticut field stones or New England mosaic stone, as used on the Moore, O’Brien and Foti building on Straits Turnpike, would be used in pillars and columns. Two copper-topped cupolas will follow the theme of the cupola on the Middlebury Historical Society building. A crematory garden for onsite burial is planned for four or five years in the future, Calabrese said, and will be designed by a landscape firm familiar with such designs.
The next regular EIDC meeting will be Tuesday, Dec. 27, at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Conference Room.
UPDATE Dec. 22, 2016: The EIDC will not meet Dec. 27. The next meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017.
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