Becker Meets Berkowitz

“You’re SeeClickFix?”

Bruce Becker, meet Ben Berkowitz. The builder of 360 State Street and the founder of new-media darling SeeClickFix—two architects of the future face of New Haven’s economy — have business ventures facing each other on State Street. Yet they had never seen each other face to face.

When they came face to face Wednesday night, the double ​“B” men exchanged compliments, each for the other’s contribution to New Haven.

The civilities took place at the regular monthly gathering of New Haven Green Drinks, a group of professionals interested in green technology and sustainability issues.

Becker spoke to a convivial crowd of 75 gathered at the Downtown at the Taft bar on the green features of his 32-story tower rapidly rising on the corner of Chapel and State.

All was well greenwise and schedulewise, he reported: The building’s fuel cell will provide about 90 percent of the electricity needs of the 400 plus rental tower – getting regulatory approvals has been more daunting than the actual construction. The complex will have a Zip Car fleet and charging stations for future electric cars. Most recently, Devil’s Gear Bike Shop signed a lease for ground level retail space.

The event’s kibbitzers had questions about another kind of green, as in money: Who’s going to live in the building? And what are the future tenants going to shell out in rent?

Applause rippled through the room when Becker announced the Devil’s Gear lease. He called the lease ​“part of our green mission,” in keeping with the bicycle-pedestrian, transit-oriented focus of 360 State.

The primo question on the minds of hungry downtown shoppers: Which mystery green grocer will be moving in?

Becker could not announce yet a lease in that regard. ​“We’re in heated negotiations,” he said. One contending idea is a hybrid food co-op. He said the community-owned City Market in Burlington, Vermont, is a model. He’s talking about that with New Haven’s CitySeed organization, which runs farmer’s markets.

Doug Peterson, who buys produce for Whole Foods in Milford, told Becker he’s all for that. He understood that with only 15,000 to 20,000 square feet available at 360 State, Whole Foods was long out of contention. Whole Foods needs 30,000.

However, Becker added a cautionary note: With the announced demise of Shaw​’s, he and his team are weighing a more conventional model as well. ​“There’s more impetus [now] to have one that serves the whole city.”

Lisa Spetrini works for Fagan Design and Fabrication in West Haven, a company that builds, among other products, wooden columns. Was Becker satisfied that he had used enough local materials in 360 State? she asked.

Answer: Very much so on local labor, especially with the city-mandated local and minority requirements for hires. As to contractors, no company nearby had the expertise to build a 32-story tower, Becker said, so he brought in Suffolk from Massachusetts. The fuel cell comes from United Technologies, which is Connecticut based. The cabinets are from Canada. The steel, all of it recycled, comes from Rhode Island, Becker said. That pleased the green audience.

Conclusion: ​“We’re proud we don’t have a lot coming from China, but we probably could have done better.”

Becker said that if there was one ​“dream” green feature he would have liked to utilize, it was geo-thermal energy. The well his company dug, however, proved not so promising, so it went for the fuel cell.

Green As in Moolah

Becker announced that a handful of apartments of the 400 or so have already been rented. One to an empty nester, one by a man for his mom, and another on a month-to-month basis.

He said,he expects he expected all the apartments to be finished and rentable by September, with 300 definitely ready to go by Aug. 1.

Rent levels are hardly set in stone and will ultimately be dictated by the market, but studios will go for between $1,200 and 1,400. If you have a large family or a grand piano, you can get a steal on a three-bedroom for $4,000. A leasing office will be open on the corner of Orange and Chapel within two weeks.

Becker said he expected a third to half the renters to be Yale affiliated, graduate students, and people connected with the new Yale-New Haven Smilow Cancer Center. The number of university students has increased without a concomitant increase in housing stock, Becker added.

Seeing who the people are who move in is ​“the exciting, the fun part,” he said. Through the building’s website, 500 viable rental prospects are waiting.

How related was the green-ness of the building to the green interests of potential renters?

Becker wasn’t sure. His colleagues did say some potential renters asked whether no-no materials such as formaldehyde were in the particle board or whether the partitions contained VOCs, that is volatile organic compounds.

The answer was no in both cases. ​“We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Becker said so the materials would be as clean as possible. He surmised that would be meaningful to health-conscious renters.

The heaviest question was lobbed by Green Drinks organizer Debra Lombard. She asked Becker if the building could be easily dismantled should such a demolition decision be required in 50 years or so. Would he okay it?

Becker said the building was built to last for centuries, but that it could be taken down in parts the way it was assembled. Lombard said she thought Becker ducked the question as to whether he would pull the trigger.

“From a green perspective this is exciting,” Kevin McCarthy (at left in photo) said of the event.

“If architects were here, there’d be blood,” added David Streever

Becker said he enjoyed sharing an evening with people who were as passionate about issues as he was. He and Berkowiz were overheard to be making a date to play ping pong in the not too distant future.