City Scrambles To Save Downtown Crossing

Last month U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal offered his congratulations as he looked out a downtown New Haven window onto a mini-highway slated to become a $140 million ​“urban boulevard” and office tower. Monday he spoke about the project again during a visit to New Haven — but this time he vowed to save it from Republican budget-cutters in Washington.

The project is ​“Downtown Crossing,” under which New Haven plans to fill in most of the Route 34 road to nowhere to create bike lanes, safe pedestrian crossings, narrower streets, and a 10-story, 400,000 to 500,000 square-foot biotech-oriented office building called 100 College Street. The project is central to two New Haven goals: Creating new jobs and making streets safer.

A budget bill passed Saturday by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives could, if it were to become law, wipe out all previously approved but untapped ​“Tiger II” grants. Such as the $16 million Tiger II grant New Haven won last October for Downtown Crossing. A grant that made the whole project — with its private, state and city bond dollars—possible.

“I’m determined to fight” to make sure the final budget bill doesn’t cut that money, Blumenthal said Monday during an unrelated visit to the Hill Health Center.

City officials and the project’s developer, Carter Winstanley, were meanwhile scrambling to find out details about Saturday’s D.C. vote — and what they need to do to keep the suddenly threatened project alive.

“It’s unclear to us” what this all means, Winstanley, whose company is putting up the bulk of the money for Downtown Crossing, said Monday.

Mike Piscitelli, the city’s deputy director of economic development, expressed cautious optimism. (He’s pictured at last week’s community forum on Downtown Crossing.)

He said the city is stepping up efforts to get its development agreement signed with Winstanley and its ​“scope of work agreement” finalized with the state Department of Transportation. Those steps are essential to start drawing down on the TIGER grant. The hope is that by the time a budget is finalized, the city will have received the first batch of TIGER money and therefore be exempt from the cut-off.

Ultimately, the Federal Highway Administration decides when to open the spigot to start distributing TIGER money. (FHWA and state DOT officials couldn’t be reached on the Monday holiday.)

Downtown Crossing is a footnote to the larger fights that led to Saturday’s vote. Tea Party-affiliated Republicans were challenging party leaders by insisting on more cuts than the leaders had originally proposed in their budget bill, which deals with the remainder of this year’s budget, not next year’s. And the TIGER cuts have to do with a challenge to President Obama’s larger transportation projects, such as high-speed rail lines. Some of those projects have been imperiled anyway in places like Florida, thus preventing backers from drawing down TIGER money — and making them an easy target for budget-cutters.

Piscitelli noted that unlike those high-speed rail projects, New Haven’s Downtown Crossing project has enjoyed full support from local and state decision-makers. A speedy decision in December by the Board of Aldermen to OK the city’s bond portion of the project, for instance, makes it easier for New Haven to start drawing down on the TIGER money, Piscitelli said.

The final budget bill must still be approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate and signed by President Obama, after much negotiation. So the withdrawal of the TIGER money is by no means a fact.

The city’s not taking chances. ​“We’re aware of the proposal” and ​“accelerating” work on Downtown Crossing as a result, Piscitelli said. He added, though, that he would ​“not characterize” the project as ​“in jeopardy.”

In his visit Monday, Sen. Blumenthal noted that the announcement of the TIGER grant led the developer and city officials to start work on the project, making hiring and other business decisions. ​“It’s dollars [already] promised. People are counting on it,” he said.

“It’s one thing to cut prospective” programs, Blumenthal said, but it’s another thing ​“to cut dollars already committed” when people have already started hiring. ​“I’m determined to fight.”