Empty C. Cowles Plant Finds A Suitor

A factory that for almost two centuries turned out parts for horse-drawn carriages and then cars and trucks may now become the latest Wooster Square housing conversion, at the hands of one of New Haven’s busiest builders.

That developer, Randy Salvatore, stopped by the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team meeting Tuesday night at City Hall to let neighbors know that his company is under contract to purchase the former C. Cowles & Co. factory on Water Street. He said that out of the gate he wants neighbors’ input and ideas for the project as soon as the ink is dry.

“We’re trying to start a dialogue with this group and any of the other neighborhood groups to really find out and get some feedback for what you all would like to see in this neighborhood,” Salvatore told neighbors Tuesday night. ​“That’s typically the way we think it makes sense to start this process.”

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, and electronic controls for boilers. The company moved its New Haven and its Massachusetts operations to North Haven over the past year.

Meanwhile Wooster Square, once home to several factories, has continued to be one of the city’s hottest residential markets. Directly across Chestnut Street from C. Cowles, for instance, an old factory was reborn as the successful Sage Arts condo complex. Two separate large apartment communities are on tap for the Olive/Chapel/Union Street area.

Salvatore — who joined builders like Robert Landino and Robert Smith in an apartment-building gold rush in town — said his RMS Companies has a contract to buy the entire former factory site on Water Street and all its surrounding parcels. He said he could not disclose how much the site is going to cost him because the contract isn’t final.

He told neighbors that other than creating a mixed use, residential/commercial structure and preserving and restoring much of the historic features and character of the building, he is waiting to talk to the community before his team delves further down the design road.

“We don’t have a lot of set ideas, but we do have some ideas of what we would visualize for the site,” he said. ​“Our intention with some of the more historic buildings is to keep those. Not only are they historic, but there is a lot of charm inside that we could create inside for an apartment unit, so our intention is to leave as much as possible with the structure.”

When asked about a proposed timeline, Salvatore, who recently cut the ribbon on his $40 million upscale apartment complex on Chapel Street West known as The Novella, said he’s in no hurry. He has set a tone of working with neighbors as he emerges as one of the city’s most active new developers, including in his Novella project and a pending deal to remake blocks of the Hill. Read about that here and here.

“We are prepared to go as fast as the process will allow us,” Salvate said at Tuesday night’s meeting. ​“But that really is a function of the community process and the ongoing dialogue, if there is need for zoning throughout. But as quickly as we can gain the input and continue to have the feedback. We know it’s financeable, and we’re prepared to move as fast as the process allows.

“We love what we see in New Haven,” Salvatore said. ​“We think that there are so many wonderful things happening here, and also think that there are some voids that we think we can fill and continue to add to what’s going on here in the neighborhood.”

Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg (pictured) said neighbors communicated a lot of what they want to see happen with development in the neighborhood during a series of canvassing efforts and listening sessions completed in the summer of 2014. With the help of the City Plan Department, that information was compiled into a report that has since been forwarded to RMS Companies.

Neighbors also will get an opportunity to share their ideas again during listening sessions specifically for the C. Cowles project during the last week of November.

“I think there’s a lot of really great data and I think people really want to see developments that fit with the historic character of the neighborhood and with the really rich history of the neighborhood,” Greenberg said. ​“I’m really excited to work with RMS properties. They’re coming to this project with a really open mind, and I am really encouraged by all the processes we’ve had in the neighborhood around development were we’ve been sitting down, talking to neighbors, listening to stakeholders. I think there have been real models of recent past of how that can work.”