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Where most Fairfield residents saw an old rubber factory situated next to the railroad tracks, developer Hal Fischel saw an opportunity.
Over the last seven years, Fischel, through his development corporation Fischel Properties, turned the old DuPont rubber plant on Mill Plain Road from a decaying reminder of the industrial past into a modern multisport facility called Sportsplex@Fairfield. The development has 12 different facilities for sports and athletics, as well as a restaurant, a juice bar and several nonsports tenants.
The renewal of the property began when Fischel purchased it in 2007, but it took several years of work before the facility was ready to start soliciting tenants.
"It took major rehab, major. That took some years," Fischel said of the complex. "There was an 80-foot smokestack; there was a huge water tower. Where the restaurant is now, which has 60-foot ceilings, there were giant boilers that filled the whole building."
It...