by Karla Ciaglo CTNewsJunkie
WATERBURY, CT – Governor Ned Lamont stood alongside city and state officials Monday morning in the parking lot of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families to announce a $4 million grant for infrastructure improvements in downtown Waterbury.
State officials, including Deputy Commissioner Matt Pugliese of the Department of Economic and Community Development and House Speaker Matt Ritter, joined Lamont and Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. to highlight the project as an example of strategic, long-term investment in Connecticut’s urban centers.
Funded through the state’s Community Investment Fund (CIF), the grant will support upgrades along the West Main Street corridor, including repairs to and modernization of sidewalks, roadways, lighting, sewers, and storm drainage. The work is designed to replace underground systems that date back more than a century.
“This is the meat and potatoes of what we do,” Lamont said. “This is how you keep a city like this vibrant and growing. This is not only going to clean it up.”
The grant is part of a larger $18 million infrastructure project planned for the area. City officials expect to go before the Board of Aldermen later this month to seek approval for an $18 million bond authorization. They noted that the CIF grant would reduce the city’s borrowing needs and could be supplemented by future CIF allocations or federal grants, including a potential RAISE grant for the aboveground streetscape improvements.
Mayor Pernerewski said the West Main Street project aligns with a broader transformation underway in downtown Waterbury, where vacant office spaces are being converted into new housing.
Since its creation, the CIF has awarded more than $500 million to 171 projects across the state, focusing on areas that have historically been overlooked in public infrastructure funding.
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. discusses development in the city on June 9, 2025.
“We’re looking at several hundred apartments coming online in the next year or two,” he said. “This corridor is central to that transformation.”
The mayor also referenced a 22-acre redevelopment project on Freight Street, which aims to convert brownfield property into a mixed-use hub with residential, commercial, and public space. Future redevelopment plans may also target the historic train station and the former headquarters of the Republican-American newspaper.
“When I was growing up here, Waterbury was a vibrant place – stores open late on Thursdays. All of those stores were filled with clothing stores and jewelry stores and all those things,” Pernerewski said. “I see this downtown being transformed into the 21st century version of that over the next few years.”
The project also intersects with workforce and economic development priorities. Pernerewski noted that Waterbury’s manufacturing base remains strong, while modernized, and said the city is actively connecting students to trade and apprenticeship opportunities through school and nonprofit partnerships.
City officials also confirmed that Waterbury Hospital, one of the area’s largest employers, is close to securing a new buyer. Meanwhile, a major Amazon distribution project in the South End is expected to bring over 1,000 new jobs to the region.
“There remain a lot of opportunities in the city,” Pernerewski said. “We’ve been working very closely with the schools to start looking at students who might benefit from being in trade programs. Waterbury remains a heavy solid manufacturing area. It just doesn’t look like it used to.”