Nearly 40 years after a brass mill shut down on the banks of the West Aspetuck River, the long-vacant industrial property in New Milford is finally being lined up for a new purpose, one that could turn a contaminated brownfield into a working municipal campus and, eventually, help create new public riverfront space elsewhere in town. The tower is proposed for the former Century Brass Mill property on Scovill Street, where the town plans to eventually build a 60,000-square-foot public works complex. The latest plans were reported by the News-Times and CT Insider, while New Milford’s 2026-27 budget confirms that the Century Brass project remains an active municipal priority.
The first step is surprisingly small: a three-story fire-training tower assembled from five repurposed shipping containers.
For a community that once watched the brass mill dominate this stretch of town, the eventual transformation could be significant: an abandoned factory site becoming a place where municipal crews maintain roads, equipment and public infrastructure. But the plan reaches beyond the former mill property.
That means the Century Brass redevelopment could ultimately produce two very different outcomes: an old industrial brownfield put back into productive use, and an existing municipal yard converted into green space beside the river. For New Milford, the transformation is less about erasing the past than finding a new use for land that has been waiting for one for decades.