Why Not Downtown?

For many months now, there has been wrangling between Town Plot residents and a developer who initially wanted to build a high-rise apartment building off Highland Avenue. The development plan has now been changed to 330 condos. That's a lot of condos for a neighborhood that's already heavily congested.

I would love to see someone build high-quality condos (or apartments) in downtown Waterbury, using existing buildings on Grand and Bank Streets. The parking garage is close enough to those streets for resident parking, and the condos could be really nice, combining historical architectural elements (like brickwork and wood moldings) with modern conveniences. It's been done in other cities, so why not in ours? The location is incredibly convenient, with the highway ramps just down the street, and there certainly are plenty of empty floors in the downtown buildings.