A key State Street property remains a ghost town of graffiti, rats, and second-hand furniture, now that a development deal has fallen through.
In the spring, nationwide developers Fairfield Residential signed on to a contract securing the right to buy the landmark property at 1040 – 1070 State St. and 49 – 53 Mechanic St. The company wanted to convert the complex to luxury housing. (Click here to read about their hopes for the site.)
The project didn’t pan out. The company has let its contract expire without buying the site, Fairfield Residential’s Andy Montelli confirmed Thursday.
“It’s a nice piece of land in a great neighborhood,” said Montelli. “But right now, we’re facing issues that are unprecedented in my career. Development has never been harder. The economy is really, really a mess. We just have a lot of concern about the ability to get a project done and make it make sense today.”
The three-acre lot, the site of the former Star Supply factory, lies at the end of the bustling State Street commercial corridor.
Fairfield Residential, the largest privately held multi-family developer in the nation, was the second group to seriously pursue the notion of revamping the century-old buildings. One year before them, local developers the Christie Wareck Company drew plans for a mixed-use housing and retail complex, secured zoning approval, but failed to make the project work. Significant environmental clean-up costs are one challenge of the site.
Montelli’s company pulled out at a time when a recession has halted building booms in New York and Hartford, although New Haven’s Yale-fueled construction boom remains basically steady.
“For Fairfield at this time, it’s not the right thing,” Montelli said. He said his option to buy expired around August.
The property is now back on the market for $3.1 million.
“I Don’t Know What Their Problem Is”
Meanwhile, the brick warehouses are home to nighttime graffiti artists, wild weeds, rats — and a second-hand furniture store that’s operating without city approval.
Universal Hotel Liquidators, which sells surplus hotel furniture, set up shop in one of the Star Supply buildings in the summer of 2007.
The business was supposed to be temporary, according to City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg. Over a year later, she sent a letter to storeowner David White charging that he was still using the space without seeking proper approval.
Gilvarg sent a letter to White on Aug. 5, asking that he call her office to “determine if zoning relief is necessary.” The area is zoned Light Industrial. A store selling furniture “predominantly at retail on the premises” is not permitted in that zone.
“We were clear from the very first day they were in there that they needed to file a site plan application [before the City Plan Commission] for even a temporary use,” she said in a recent interview. “I don’t know what their problem is.”
Reached at his store this week, White said he was “not sure” if he received Gilvarg’s letter. He was informed that the city says he’s operating without necessary approvals.
“What does that matter?” he replied. “We have zoning.”
White said the store is “only here temporarily.” He said he aims to move his business to a different building. He wouldn’t say when.
The temporary set-up has raised eyebrows with at least one neighborhood stakeholder. Ben Berkowitz, who heads the Upper State Street Merchants’ Association, said the temporary signage — a banner on a fence — and barbed wire don’t fit in with the quality of the commercial strip.
“It doesn’t look like a building that’s occupied,” he said. “There’s razor-wire on the front of the property. This is a nice retail district. They need to have a more presentable face.” Berkowitz said he was speaking in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the neighborhood group.
“If Universal Hotel Liquidators is going to remain there as a retail business, then that’s excellent,” he said. “If they’re going to use this as a temporary nesting place where they don’t put any investment into the maintaining of the front of the property, then I as a citizen, I personally am going to take exception to it.”
Rats And Tags
The area’s alderman, Roland Lemar, said he has received no complaints about the way White is running his furniture business. He said while the hotel portion of the site is well-maintained, the owners have kept the rest of the property in “a deplorable state.”
“It’s an overgrown area with a lot of vermin and rodents running around,” he said, recounting how he once saw an opossum emerge from beneath a mess of weeds. He’s gotten “numerous complaints” from Mechanic Street neighbors who see rats scurrying around the vacant buildings, near their homes. The property has been used a dump, piling up with garbage and mattresses, he said.
“I feel it does violate our blight ordinances,” Lemar said.
Gary Hogan, deputy director of the city’s anti-blight agency, said the city has long been aware of graffiti problems on the building. Tags have been popping up along Mechanic Street, but more problematically, on second-story surfaces.
“When you’re going down State Street, the first thing you see is that blight on that second level,” Hogan said. He said the city is planning to sit down with the owners about the condition of the building.
“We’re going to engage the owner in a discussion about keeping it graffiti-free,” he said.
Property owner Larry Cohen, who’s a principal of Star Supply, and his attorney, Mario Zangari, did not return calls requesting comment for this story.
Star Supply, which distributes heating and cooling systems, was one of several property owners that recently received a retroactive tax break from the city, according to a story by the Advocate‘s Betsy Yagla.
Alderman Lemar said something needs to be done about the building so that the neighborhood can move forward in developing the key piece of land.
He argued that allowing the hotel business to remain there is thwarting the neighborhood’s development.
“The longer that an unpermitted use remains on site and allows Star Supply to collect an income on the property,” he said, “Star Supply and its owners are less likely to actively seek to liquidate the property or work with developers who would create a more neighborhood-friendly and positive use.”
“It’s not in the interest of the neighborhood for Star Supply to continue to own it,” he said, “particularly if they’re not going to maintain it in the standards of the neighborhood.”