Dozens of Middletown residents attended the first public meeting at city hall on Jan. 16 for a new state-funded study focused on redeveloping the Middletown Community Campus.
The 200-plus-acre campus off Mohagen Avenue has largely been abandoned, except for a few sites, after a major state psychiatric hospital closed around the turn of the century.
Several years ago, the sleepy campus began to welcome a new wave of private investments, which brought in an academy and college, followed by a medical center and an elementary school—a momentum that could be aided by the state program.
Formerly known as the Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, the state initiative aims to incentivize the redevelopment of abandoned sites based on a shared community vision….