New London – Three Coast Guard units moved into a renovated office building in Fort Trumbull Friday, becoming the first tenants since the peninsula was cleared for economic development.
The move is “going to bring some life” to the peninsula and hopefully attract other tenants, said John Brooks, executive director of the New London Development Corp.
”There already has been some interest by other entities that would like to be at Fort Trumbull or be close to the Research & Development Center,” he said.
The Coast Guard’s Research & Development Center, International Ice Patrol and Marine Safety Laboratory, 160 people in total, take up the third and fourth floors of the 88,000-square-foot building at 1 Chelsea St. The first two floors have not been leased.
”We’re looking forward to being active citizens in New London and doing our part in the whole effort out here to make this place work,” Capt. Matthew Sisson, commanding officer of the R&D Center, said Friday while unpacking in his new office.
Technicians were busy Friday hooking up the computers while movers brought over boxes and equipment from the old location at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus.
Coast Guardsmen plan to raise their flags outside the building Tuesday morning, then get to work.
In the meantime, the IIP is using a remote operations center at the Coast Guard Academy to monitor the icebergs that are drifting south toward the trans-Atlantic shipping lanes. The center was set up in the academy’s science building, Smith Hall, in 2007 in case anything ever happened to the center in Groton.
”Semper Paratus,” said Cmdr. Scott Rogerson, IIP commanding officer, quoting the Coast Guard motto, which in Latin means “always ready.”
The R&D center moved into Avery Point in 1972, followed later by the Marine Safety Laboratory and the IIP.
While the units will have less space in New London, the heads of all three units said they appreciate being in a modern office building, with upgraded technology, and being closer to the other Coast Guard entities – Coast Guard Station New London, the academy, the Coast Guard barque Eagle and the future National Coast Guard Museum.
”We’re looking forward to working even more closely together,” Rogerson said.
For the ice patrol, the new location is just one of the major changes the unit in undergoing this year. The unit just started patrolling near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in newer planes with improved radar and it will start reporting to the Coast Guard district in Boston instead of its current command in Virginia.
”How we do the mission, from where we do the mission, and for whom we do the mission within the Coast Guard is all changing in 2009, but the mission itself is not changing,” said Rogerson, adding that the timing of the move is “almost perfect” since the ice season has not officially begun.
Formed after the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912, losing more than 1,500 passengers and crew, the unit’s goal is to prevent similar disasters.
The Marine Safety Laboratory, which does forensic oil analysis, is moving to New London more gradually than the other units. One set of laboratory equipment will stay set up in Groton while the duplicate set, and the 20,000 oil samples stored by the unit, are being brought to New London.
”We’re sort of like Noah – we have two of everything,” said Wayne Gronlund, manager of the lab and a retired Coast Guard captain, explaining that the extra equipment is required in case anything breaks. “We still have a lot to do to get the new lab set up, but it’s a nice space and we’re looking forward to a move.”
The lab in Groton will be shut down once the lab in New London is ready, which should happen by the end of the month, said Gronlund, who was waiting in the new lab Friday for two large centrifuges to be delivered.
”Everyone is really excited to come over here,” said Chief Warrant Officer Daren Babcock, who coordinated the move for the R&D Center. “We left the old center and we left a lot of memories there, but we’re ready to create many more at this new facility.”
Sisson plans to eventually display Coast Guard artifacts related to innovation in the building. These artifacts are currently stored in a warehouse since they are too large to be on display elsewhere.
The development plan for the Fort Trumbull area, drafted in 1998, calls for a mixed-use village that would include a hotel and housing. But the original master developer, Corcoran Jennison, couldn’t obtain financing and the NLDC is now looking for another developer.
J.GROGAN@THEDAY.COM 

New London