As Yale readied a makeover of a cornerstone downtown building, its former occupant — Au Bon Pain — started looking for a new home in New Haven.
The restaurant chain Monday vacated its popular location at the intersection of Broadway and York Street, the gateway to the Broadway commercial district. (Read about that here.)
It had one year left on its 20-year lease. Yale asked the company to leave to make way for an upgrading of the property.
“It wasn’t by choice,” Au Bon Pain “Chief Branding Officer” Maria Feicht told the Independent Tuesday. “We loved being a part of the Yale community. They asked us to vacate a year early. If you really want to be a part of the community, and it’s Yale University, it’s not being a good partner to say no.”
Feicht said the company will “continue to look for new sites in New Haven” to move into. It opened the Broadway-York business on Aug. 5, 1994.
Yale University Properties arranged with the owners of Rudy’s on Chapel Street to open a new restaurant across from the former Au Bon Pain at 304 Elm St. within 60 days. Called Maison Mathis, it “will feature sandwiches, Belgian waffles, chocolates, and other food.” The owners invited the 25 people who lost their jobs at Au Bon Pain Monday (on four days’ notice) to apply for positions at the new joint.
Yale needed the building (1 – 13 Broadway) vacant because it plans to renovate it as part of “a redevelopment of a key corner that should better reflect the revitalization our city is enjoying,” said Yale Vice-President Bruce Alexander, who over the past 20 years oversaw the revitalization of the commercial district.
Work should begin in two weeks, according to Alexander. He said Yale will renovate, not demolish, the building. It won’t add any stories, but it will add “a higher façade to give the building more presence on that corner.” During construction, the Origins shop, which is also in the building, “will likely move, at their option, so the interior of the corner space may be reconfigured. That is under discussion currently.”
Yale has not to date submitted requests for permits to do work on the building, according to city Building Official Daniel O’Neill.