Business View Civil & Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 11

42 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 There has always been a community desire to reconnect to the river. Mayor Florsheim reminisces about coming to Middletown as a Wesleyan student in 2010 and not realizing there was a waterfront. Over the decades various plans and visions have been proposed, but ultimately shelved or reimagined. Although Interstate 91 cannot be moved, the water treatment plant was recently decommissioned. “We’re moving in a positive direction,” says McHugh. “We had the 21st Century Infrastructure Development Bond passed at $55 million. It’s going to give us some great opportunities moving forward.” Recently, the New York City firm Cooper Robertson has been brought on to lead the master planning process. The company will develop a plan for what each parcel of land will look like. “One of our first keystone projects for the riverfront will happen over the next 18 months,” shares Mayor Florsheim. “There’s a restaurant, right on the riverbank at Harbor Park. It used to be the Mattabesett Canoe Club, but it’s being renovated and getting an exciting new tenant. Over the next decade, the Connecticut Riverfront is going to transform and become something new. We’re at the end of the middle, which is an exciting place to be.” It’s not just Middletown’s Riverfront Redevelopment project that is garnering state- wide attention, but also the city’s reputation as a center for healthcare. Main Street is home to both Middlesex Health Care Center, affiliated with The Mayo Clinic, and the Community Health Center, Inc. McHugh describes the latter as, “not only a leader in Connecticut, but also in the country. It provides health care to people who really need it. It has several buildings in the north end of town, and during COVID, it led our state in both testing and vaccines. It also employs lots of people who will hopefully move into the apartments we’re developing. Where else would they want to go? Middletown does have it all: healthcare, the university, aerospace,