Bridgeport's Efforts to Sell Sikorsky Memorial Airport Face Hurdles

Jun. 13—BRIDGEPORT — At the start of the city's 2025-26 budget season in early April, Mayor Joe Ganim's fiscal proposal to the City Council included $3 million from the hoped-for sale of Sikorsky Memorial Airport.

Similarly, three years ago, Ganim counted on using $4 million from a Sikorsky deal to help balance his 2022-23 budget.

But so far, the Bridgeport-owned aviation facility based in Stratford remains in the city's hands. And it appears doubtful that will soon change.

Daniel Roach, a Ganim aide whose responsibilities include helping oversee Sikorsky, confirmed this week that the administration is still looking to sell the property to the Connecticut Airport Authority "or some other possibilities."

"I can't get into details on those right now," Roach added.

Proponents of a CAA purchase believe the organization, which operates Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks and a handful of other airports in Connecticut, is best positioned to make upgrades and return regular passenger service to Sikorsky Memorial, which caters to business, charter and private flights. A $10 million deal that the CAA and Bridgeport had been negotiating fell through in 2023.

The authority's executive director, Michael Shea, reiterated his agency's belief that Sikorsky "has a lot of potential" but said that the CAA currently has no funding source to move ahead with an acquisition.

"We've stayed in touch," he said. "But I wouldn't necessarily say the conversations are active."

Meanwhile, the just-concluded legislative session of Connecticut's General Assembly resulted in good and bad news for advocates of any Sikorsky sale.

On the one hand, legislators and other state officials put the final touches on a multiyear effort to replace the 1980s-era Property Transfer Act. The costs of meeting its environmental cleanup standards were cited as one reason Bridgeport and the CAA's earlier negotiations fell through. That financial burden may be lessened under replacement requirements finalized this spring to take effect next March.

The Transfer Act essentially required the parties involved in a sale of land likely containing hazardous waste to investigate the parcel in its entirety and deal with all the pollution found.

Brendan Schain, legal director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, indicated the new rules are more flexible, giving buyers, sellers and lenders options.

"So, for a huge piece of property where I may be developing part of it and need to obtain financing, I may choose to investigate that portion of the parcel and not the entire thing," Schain explained. "I can choose to investigate all the parcel (or) part of it now, part later. It allows me to make a series of business decisions."

The changes have been cited as good for the environment and necessary to spur redevelopment in dormant sites.

"Pollution will get addressed," Schain said. "But it allows people to control more the timing and assigning responsibility. And we did create real efficiencies that should make these cleanups faster and less expensive but still protect public health."

An analysis the CAA had previously undertaken of Sikorsky Airport under Shea's predecessor, the retired Kevin Dillon, revealed anywhere from $6 million to $19 million worth of contamination.

Shea said that while the state's move away from the Transfer Act is helpful, the cleanup would remain costly for his agency.

"That's still an impediment," he said. "At this juncture, there is no surplus stable funding source."

Bridgeport legislators in the recent session had also hoped — but, in this case, failed — to address what the Ganim administration views as another major hurdle to an airport sale.

Three years ago, then-state Sen. Kevin Kelly, R- Stratford, got language included in that year's state budget granting the Stratford Town Council a say if Bridgeport wants to lease or sell Sikorsky. Stratford Mayor Laura Hoydick's administration opposed a deal with the CAA and submitted a counteroffer to buy the airport from Bridgeport.

The Ganim administration had hoped to negate Kelly's previously approved language.

"There were some conversations that happened late toward the end of the session," said state Rep. Christopher Rosario, D- Bridgeport.

But, Rosario continued, he and his colleagues were also focused on other needs like obtaining additional education funding for Bridgeport and attempting to acquire state aid to help build a proposed minor league soccer stadium here.

"We just ran out of time on this," Rosario said. "Going forward, these conversations need to be originated with the Senate and House leadership early on next session."

But the effort also ran into opposition. Kelly's successor, Sen. Jason Perillo, R- Shelton, said he "absolutely intervened" to protect Stratford's rights.

"My priority is to ensure the Town of Stratford has a say in what happens with that airport," Perillo said.

Roach acknowledged the setback.

"The Transfer Act, I think, was the lesser hurdle than the ( Stratford) language," he said.

Hoydick is obviously pleased her town's council must still be a participant in the airport's future, and she would like to have a dialogue with Bridgeport City Council President Aidee Nieves about Sikorsky.

"If we want to improve the asset, which I believe most of us do, we just need to get around the table and start talking about it together," Hoydick said, adding she is still interested in purchasing the property.

"But I'm happy to work with Bridgeport to have it viable," she continued. "If Bridgeport doesn't want to sell it, maybe we (agree to a) joint venture. There's a lot of options here."

For her part, Nieves has lost patience with Roach's claim he is still trying for a sale to the CAA.

"I'm a nonbeliever," she said. "I don't believe any sale's really going to go through. There's no strong movement to make anything real happen."

As for that $3 million Ganim included in his spring budget proposal, the council left it in when it passed the final document in early May. However, Councilman Scott Burns, a budget committee co-chairman, noted that the city owns other properties that could be sold to fill that hole should a Sikorsky deal again not happen.

"It wasn't necessarily tied to Sikorsky," Burns said.

But he would like to see the aviation facility acquired.

"I have not given up on selling it," Burns said. "My understanding is it's not really going to get developed and return any commercial flights unless it's sold and upgraded. I don't think we have the wherewithal to do that."

"We need to come to an agreement that benefits everyone," Rosario said. "We have such a valuable asset. We're losing time. We're losing money. We're losing jobs."

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