Gaudiani recalled as a hard-charging visionary by friends and critics
Oct. 18—Colleagues and erstwhile rivals of Claire Gaudiani, the former Connecticut College president whose name later became synonymous with eminent domain, on Friday recalled a hard-charging, multi-faceted individual whose vision for New London was decades ahead of her time.
Gaudiani, the former head of the New London Development Corp (NLDC), died Wednesday in New York City at age 79.
Ulysses Hammond, who recently retired as interim executive director of the Connecticut Port Authority, was hired by Gaudiani in 2000 to be Conn College's vice-president of administration and legal affairs at a time when the former college president sought to forge closer ties with the school and its host city.
"She was a visionary and no less than 25 years ahead of her time," Hammond said, describing the college at the time as like an island unto itself. "She wanted to take that campus on the hill into downtown New London."
Plans later sidetracked by a recession included attracting a major bookstore downtown to serve as an "anchor" location where students, faculty and other college staff would travel to buy texts.
"Claire also looked hard at getting student housing in city and renting an entire floor of Mariner Square on Eugene O'Neill Drive where engineering classes would be taught," Hammond said. "All of this was an effort to open up the gates of the college and increase interaction with New London."
Hammond noted some of his former boss' ideas eventually came to fruition — the Manwaring Building on State Street now houses dozens of Conn College students.
"It just took 20 years to happen," he said. "She was transformative."
But Gaudiani's vision extended far past the manicured lawns of the college.
As part of an ambitious plan to spur economic development in the city, Gaudiani, as head of the NLDC, convinced Pfizer Inc. to construct a $300 million global research center on Pequot Avenue and led an effort to redevelop nearby Fort Trumbull in the late 1990s.
The City Council at the time passed its responsibilities for the development to the NLDC and granted the nonprofit agency the powers of eminent domain, which it used to buy — or take — privately-owned land on the peninsula.
Though the majority of Fort Trumbull property owners sold, several homeowners held out.
The most famous of the displaced homeowners, Susette Kelo, who was the subject of the 2017 movie "Little Pink House" that chronicled the controversy, said she hopes Gaudiani rests in peace.
"There has been a lot of water that has passed under the bridge since Kelo vs the City of New London," she said in an e-mail. "Fort Trumbull residents were nothing more than pawns to the corrupt Democratic party of the City of New London."
She added, "They reaped what they sowed and received nothing, and still, to this day, have learned nothing. Myself and my Fort Trumbull neighbors, we have not forgiven or forgotten what the city of New London did to us. We simply have learned to live our lives around the tragedy."
New London resident Kathleen Mitchell helped organize opposition to the development plan, which ended after a narrow 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld the takings, saying the city was within its rights to seize the properties for economic development.
Mitchell on Friday said she, for the most part, got along with Gaudiani, "aside from the dastardly things to do with Fort Trumbull."
"She had a great sense of humor," Mitchell said. "I remember we were walking into a meeting on State Street, I think it was an NLDC meeting when all the Fort Trumbull stuff was happening, and I held the door for her. She had this deep, Mafioso voice and said to me, 'Thanks a lot, sweetheart.' I probably said something smart-ass right back."
Mitchell, while not absolving Gaudiani for her role in the eminent domain debacle, acknowledged Gaudiani as an "intriguing" individual with both admirable and ignominious qualities.
It's only in the last few years that large portions of Fort Trumbull have been cleared for development.
A large swath of the Fort Trumbull area was left undeveloped for more than two decades. The City Council last month approved nearly $6.5 million in tax breaks over 20 years for a developer planning to construct 500 new apartments there.
That 2023 deal that calls for selling the city parcels to RJ Development + Advisors, LLC for $500,000 was brokered by the Renaissance City Development Association, which replaced the NCDC in 2012.
During the council's tax break discussion, the unsavory aspects of the property's history were referenced by Mayor Michael Passero, who called the eminent domain plan one that inflicted an "open sore" on the peninsula that's just now beginning to heal.
Passero, whose political career in New London began decades after the controversy erupted, said Gaudiani's proposal came about 20 years too early.
"One of my mantras is to let the market dictate development; you can't force it, and you have to be able to support it," he said. "Back then, they didn't have $40 billion in Electric Boat contracts, an off-shore wind industry, an incoming Coast Guard museum or (federal pandemic relief) funding."
Passero said he only met Gaudiani once, while he was a guest at the prestigious New York Yacht Club a few years ago.
"She was surrounded by a half-dozen people, just holding court in this opulent setting," he said. "She was brilliant, and it was like meeting a famous person."
