Amid rumors of a big-box department store coming to Main Street, Middletown’s common council has decided to hold a public workshop about the project before the end of December. The Hartford Courant reported that developer Glenn Russo’s proposal includes a Target department store on top of a three-level parking garage behind police headquarters.

The city signed a development deal with Russo in spring 2005. Under that agreement, the city would buy any private property in the development zone and turn it over to the developer.

According to Middletown Mayor Seb Giuliano, it is not yet confirmed that the big-box retailer is Target.

“Nobody has come forward and said it, but that’s the educated guess for who the developers are negotiating with,” Giuliano told the Argus. “I don’t have anything from Target and no one from Target has called my office or the Chamber of Commerce to tell them they’re interested in coming to Middletown.”

Giuliano expressed that he is unsure that bringing a department store to Main Street is the best decision for the city.

“My understanding of how big-boxes work is you go into the store and the idea is to spend all of your shopping dollars there within the four walls,” Giuliano said. “The point is to get you to do everything you need to do in their building.”

Giuliano said that he has been told that a Target would bring in 800,000 to one million shoppers a year, mainly 24 to 45-year-old women.

“Well, it might bring them here but in after you shop, are you really going to walk around Main Street?” Giuliani said. “I don’t know if Target is going to benefit downtown business the way another national retailer would.”

A concern of many merchants regarding the project is the required acquisition of private properties located around Dingwall Drive and deKoven Drive in order for the development to take place. It has also been suggested that $18 million in federal money granted to Middletown to improve the city’s parking might fund the project’s parking garage.

Critics of the proposal claim that these factors have caused most talks about the deal to happen behind closed doors, which has led the common council to schedule the public workshop. The date for the workshop should be announced by the end of the week.

The agreement with Russo was negotiated during former Mayor Domenique Thornton’s tenure in order to provide more office space in the heart of town for a mortgage lenders facility. That deal fell through, but the development agreement remained intact, giving Russo the means to explore the big-box option.

“The city has a lot of obligations under this preferred developer agreement, and I don’t know I’m willing to do those things to have a big-box downtown,” Giuliano said.

“The mortgage lenders idea went away pretty much as soon as the preferred developer agreement was approved, so if one of the main reasons you go into an agreement is gone you say ‘bye bye’ to the whole thing, but that’s not what we’re doing right now.”

Giuliano did remark that he thinks the city would benefit from having a Target in another location.

“I think Target in Middletown is not a bad idea,” he said. “Nobody’s opposed to having Target in Middletown, but what everyone’s having a hard time with is a Target downtown and having to dislodge local businesses and turning over prime property.”

Professor of History William Pinch, a Middletown resident involved in city issues, wondered how well a big-box retailer would mesh with the downtown area.

“I think there are good reasons to want a department store downtown, but there’s an important aesthetic issue here,” he said. “Will the store block views of the river? It could really close to that nice vista. The building has to be attractive and it has to fit into the existing streetscape. So much damage has been done downtown already.”

Vice President for Public Affairs Justin Harmon said the University is generally supportive of efforts by the business community in Middletown.

“We support efforts to strengthen the environment for business in the city, particularly as it affects the well-being of residents and the vitality of the community as a whole,” he said.

According to Giuliano, the initial approval period extends until May, and if the City doesn’t approve the plan, it will not move forward.