A new Caliber Collision location in Waterbury, CT, at one time expected to open in January is still in limbo as the city reviews a property tax and employment agreement between it and the largest operator of body shops in the U.S.
“Until it clears legal, it will not be submitted [to city legislators] for a vote,” said Joseph McGrath, Waterbury’s director of economic development, via email. He didn’t know when the review will be done.
An agreement in place calls for Texas-based Caliber to provide 40 jobs at the new collision center in exchange for tax appraisals holding the property value at $691,600 for two years, rising to $1.2 million for the next five, according to the Hartford Business Journal. Waterbury estimated the new building would bring the property’s value to $1.7 million, the Journal reported in September. It said the city’s finance director was asking Waterbury’s Board of Aldermen to agree to a pledge of 25 new jobs instead of the 40 that had been finalized in July 2023.
A Jan. 1 opening had been set between Waterbury and builder Calito Development Group, with the revised agreement to go before the board for a vote in October, media said.
City Eager to Maintain Area Momentum
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. said last year the new location would benefit the city’s business, and McGrath told the Hartford Business Journal this year, “We are really excited with Caliber coming to the city.”
The abandoned car dealership that once stood on the site of the new Caliber facility.
Pernerewski told the news outlet the city understood how initial plans for employment could change. McGrath told Autobody News in a March telephone interview that 30 new jobs had at one point also been discussed, and to have a new opening number was a technical element that “had to go back to the board” for formal approval.
Of a Caliber Collision opening and new jobs, McGrath said, “They will get there.”
He said the Ford dealership that formerly occupied the site of the new repair facility had been “vacant for a while; the area has been vibrant for redevelopment.”
News reports said several new chain locations, including a bank, grocery store and apparel shop, are planned, under construction or open in the area.
“The property had to be cleaned, demoed, rezoned, to get that new building,” McGrath said by phone. Caliber “did everything they said they would. It’s a beautiful building, very nice.”
Building Sells for $5M, Caliber Hiring
Calito sold the completed, roughly 12,100-square-foot building, about 400 feet smaller than projected last year, for $5 million to California investor Moffett Creek Ranch Partnership, the Hartford Business Journal said April 1. The property last fall had been offered by Marcus & Millichap at $5.2 million, with annual rent of $318,000, for a cap rate of 6.15%. Lease payments by the offering would escalate 10% a year every five years.
Calito bought the former Ford dealership for $1.18 million, estimating all-in costs at $4.5 million, the Hartford Business Journal said.
The sale indicates a completed building. Caliber Collision, with some 1,800 shops in its system, had posted openings at the new store on its website for auto body technicians and on LinkedIn for a general manager; both ads are expired.
Caliber representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment on the coming location.
After January, an “end of March” date was confirmed via email by a Caliber Collision rep. McGrath said in March that May 5 was the most recent, now possibly tentative opening. A ribbon-cutting hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce was in the works.
Paul Hughes