Went Field Restoration and Expansion Project
Bridgeport, Connecticut

Went Field - Before: Abandoned, deteriorating buildings served as hideouts for drug dealers and other criminals.

Went Field - After: Went Field Park is the gateway to the 200-acre West End Industrial area.

The residents of Bridgeport's West End Area can now enjoy the beautiful, safe greenspace created by the restoration and expansion of the 10-acre Went Field Park. Community spirit and involvement, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding, and additional leveraged funding transformed a dangerous, crime-ridden area into a multi-use community recreational park adjacent to a local elementary school and a high school. The abandoned, deteriorating buildings that served as hideouts for drug dealers and other criminals have been replaced by basketball courts, softball fields, football/soccer practice fields, track and field elements, a volleyball court, a fenced playground, a pavilion, and an amphitheater.

For over 50 years, Went Field served as the winter quarters for P.T. Barnum's Circus. Large stables sheltered circus animals and exotic animals on the property; performers and trainers lived in surrounding homes. In later years, the property was used by a number of small businesses, including Exmet, a former metal extrusion company, and Swan Engraving, a former printing company. In the 1960s, Bridgeport experienced severe economic decline due to the loss of vital industries and the abandonment and perceived contamination of former industrial properties. It was estimated that this small city (pop. 130,000) contained as many as 400 brownfields sites. Nearing bankruptcy by 1990, Bridgeport was one of the poorest cities in the nation, with residents of the West End area being among the poorest in the city, having an average annual income of $15,000.

Located immediately adjacent to an Interstate 95 exit ramp, Went Field Park is the gateway to the 200-acre West End Industrial area. To renovate and expand Went Field Park, the city of Bridgeport needed to assess, acquire, and cleanup the park site and two adjacent commercial sites. With the help of a $200,000 Assessment Demonstration Pilot grant and an additional $75,000 from EPA's Targeted Brownfields Assessment Program, the sites were assessed, revealing toluene and chlorinated solvents in the groundwater. Additional funding for the $4.4 million cleanup and redevelopment was leveraged by the Park City Brownfields Redevelopment Partnership from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Park Service, the State of Connecticut's Departments of Environmental Protection and Community Development, city bond funds, and community fundraising. The Park City Brownfields Redevelopment Partnership is a consortium of nonprofit agencies, community groups, and government agencies, originally established for the Went Field project, which continues to work on brownfields projects throughout Bridgeport.

Community support and involvement played an important role in the Went Field project. Local residents, representatives from the neighborhood schools, municipal planning, police, and park departments, Barnum Museum, Bridgeport Regional Business Council, Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, Latino Softball League, and West End businesses were all stakeholders in the project. Nonprofit organizations such as ASPIRA (an organization supporting Latino youth), Groundworks Bridgeport (an organization supporting local redevelopment projects), and the Went Field Park Association were also among the stakeholders involved in this brownfields redevelopment project.

Before	During	After	After

Bridgeport was one of the first cities in the country to use stakeholder involvement coupled with the redevelopment process to revitalize an entire community instead of individual parcels of land. Dedication of the community and the funding partners to attending the numerous public safety and update meetings, publicity events, design charettes, and the meetings to develop a community plan resulted in the successful Went Field Park project. With continued support of the city of Bridgeport, the local development council, and local businesses, brownfields continue being redeveloped for neighborhood revitalization and manufacturing reuse, thus providing jobs and revenue for the area.

To learn more about the Went Field Park project, contact Michael Taylor, President, Vita Nuova, LLC, 203-270-3413.

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