Factory’s Suburban Move: A New Opportunity?

As New Haven’s oldest manufacturer prepares to pack up and leave town, the owner of Cody’s Diner down the block sees a possible uptick in business — eventually.

Troy Bacon (pictured at left) didn’t mourn the news that C. Cowles & Co. has decided to relocate to North Haven from its sprawling factory at Water and Chestnut streets.

His diner gets little business from the factory as it is, Bacon said. He envisions another factory-to-condo conversion at the building.

“It’s a huge building. You could get 100 apartments in there,” Bacon said over lunch Tuesday. ​“I was already talking to some people who said they’d buy a condo there,” Bacon said over lunch Tuesday.

“It should be a home run for someone to get in there. You see how expensive rents are? Especially around here?”

It’s unclear what will happen to next to the five-building complex owned by C. Cowles & Co.

It is clear that workers will no longer turn out light fixtures, auto parts, and boiler controls inside the complex. C. Cowles announced earlier this month that it will move its operation to the old Marlin firearms factory in North Haven, along with other divisions currently located in East Longmeadow, Mass.

C. Cowles expects to spend three months moving the Massachusetts divisions to North Haven. Starting in December, the company will gradually move its five divisions to North Haven in a process that should take a year, according to Larry Moon, who has owned the company since 1992.

That will close another chapter in New Haven’s once-proud manufacturing history. C. Cowles opened in New Haven in 1838, making lanterns, then other parts, for horse-drawn carriages. It made the transition to car and truck, as well as heating, parts in the 20th century, and grew into a multi-state company with an international customer base. Its divisions turn out, among other products, those tilt-levers for steering wheels, decorative striping that people put on their cars, electronic controls for boilers.Close to 100 people work at the New Haven plant. They will all keep their jobs, Moon told the Independent Wednesday.C. Cowles is believed to be New Haven’s oldest surviving manufacturer, the latest symbol of the vanishing industrial base that is being replaced by the ​“eds and meds” economy of the 21st century.It is moving for one of the same reasons so many other manufacturers fled New Haven for the suburbs generations ago: to operate in a single-story building. ​“We’re operating on four floors here,” Moon said. ​“This factory has been here since the 1890s. It’s just time to go into a modern facility that’s more conducive to manufacturing. We made it work here, but it’s cumbersome.”So Moon decided to consolidate his New Haven and Massachussetts operations in the 226,000-square-foot old Marlin factory off I‑91 in North Haven, which he bought for $1.7 million, and to expand there.

Tax Boon For ​‘Burbs

That’s great news for North Haven taxpayers. It helped officials there decide to increase town services without raising taxes this coming year.

In New Haven, meanwhile, which is raising taxes and looking for jobs for the unemployed and underemployed, the news drew a more mixed reaction — though less negative than might be expected.

To state Rep. Pat Dillon, C. Cowles’ little-noticed decision to flee New Haven sounds an alarm bell.

“This year there’s been much talk of PILOT [state Payments in Lieu of Taxes] dollars to New Haven. That’s important, but our mill rate and ability to compete cannot rely on PILOT without a diversified, durable tax base,” she argued.

She noted that ​“part of New Haven’s industrial history” leaves along with C. Cowles, joining an exodus of major employers who provide jobs for a wide range of skill levels. She also noted that the departure ​“follows the departure of UI [United Illuminating] to a suburban campus in Orange, and the pending purchase of AT&T by Stamford-based Frontier that represents a loss of local control of another legacy industry — and possibly job loss.” She noted that the state has been handing out grants and forgivable loans to other Connecticut companies to remain in their towns, the most recent announcement involving a Stamford firm. ​“The city, too, has tools to engage the firm to stay here. I hope my concerns are premature and that talks are taking place,” Dillon said.

The city’s top economic development official, Matthew Nemerson, said he has indeed been trying to get a sit-down with Cowles CEO Moon — not to ask him to revisit the move, but to discuss future plans for the three buildings.

Nemerson argued that the Cowles move could mean more jobs for New Haveners, since the company plans to expand. Elsewhere in the country, North Haven would be part of New Haven, not a separate municipality, he said.

“I don’t think there’s any bad news,” Nemerson said. ​“He’s expanding. He’s doing well. If he’s building a brand-new facility inside a venerable and modern facility with access to highways and only four minutes from his current site by the highway, even if there are workers who worked in the neighborhood and walked there, they can carpool. I’m not worried about it.”

Can You Get There?

Dillon is worried. She cited the lack of adequate mass transit to suburban jobs. (Read about that here.) ​“Our people cannot get to those jobs,” Dillon argued. ​“Even in New Haven the west side is a transit desert. We should ask the state and industry beginning with UI and Cowles to kick in for transit. It worked in Montana —some towns have free transit.”

Workers themselves are split on the move, including the ease of travel.

Dawn Velez, an assembler, said she lives in Cheshire and is looking forward to having a shorter commute. ​“I worked at Marlin’s before.”

Maria Rivera (pictured), who’s worked in assembly and quality control for nine years, had the opposite opinion. ​“I don’t like it because it’s going to be too far away,” she said. She said it might take her 45 minutes to get to the new location in wintertime.

Rivera said she’s also not looking forward to working in a larger facility, where everything will happen in one big room. At the current plant, work takes place on five floors, creating a ​“smaller workplace,” she said.

“That sucks also,” said a man who works in shipping. He said he’s not excited about adding more time to his commute from Bridgeport.

CEO Moon said almost all his employees, including those who live in New Haven, drive to work. ​“I don’t think we’ll lose anybody” in the move, he said.

Fort Knox

Meanwhile, a block over at Cody’s Diner, Troy Bacon was positively bullish about the prospects of a new residential community inhabiting the C. Cowles complex, as he channeled a potential developer.

What about the highway? he was asked. Right now I‑91 and I‑95 ramps practically slam into the Cowles building, filling the air with noise and pollution.

Those ramps are coming down with the completion of the new Q Bridge project, Bacon noted.

He cited the fate of another factory across Chestnut Street from C. Cowles. It has been reborn as the successful Sage Arts condo complex (pictured).

Think of all the people working at Yale-New Hospital, Bacon said. Right now they contend with a ​“traffic nightmare” coming off the bridge into downtown. They can scoot to work hassle-free along Water Street from a renovated historic C. Cowles condo, he said.

“You’re a stone’s throw from Wooster Street. Downtown. There’s no crime; we’re like Fort Knox here,” he added.

Moon said he hasn’t begun to think about the future of the New Haven compound. He’ll probably sell it, he said. But it’ll probably be another year and a half before the company has finished transferring divisions to North Haven.

Nemerson said he believes Bacon has a good point about the complex’s residential potential. The task of shepherding that potential to reality now falls on his administration.

Thomas MacMillan contributed reporting.