The proposed development, seen from the west.
What does $395 million buy? Some 76,900 square feet of new shops, 785 parking spaces, 719 new apartments, a new 160-room hotel and 4.6 acres of office space.
Those are a few of the figures that the city has submitted to the Board of Aldermen, as lawmakers now consider whether to approve a new plan to develop the old Coliseum site.
The total project cost of $395 million would include $32.5 million in public dollars. The rest, $362 million, would be private funding from LiveWorkLearnPlay.
Aldermen are considering a proposed land disposition agreement between the city and LiveWorkLearnPlay, the Montreal company the city has chosen to create a new mixed-use development on the site, which is bounded by George, Orange and State streets and MLK Boulevard.
Click here to read the proposed agreement. Click here to read an economic impact report prepared by Willdan Financial Services.
The proposal amounts to what would be the biggest private development project in the city’s history.
Here’s how all the numbers — and letters — taken from the agreement and the impact report add up:
Input
From the north.
$1: How much LiveWorkLearnPlay would pay for the site.
2: Number of phases. The first phase would be completed by 2017, and the rest by 2020.
4.5: Size of the site, in acres.
$2,000,000: Amount that LiveWorkLearnPlay has already spent in planning the project.
$5,000,000: Maximum amount the city would pay to improve the site for LiveWorkLearnPlay for Phase One. The city would pay for no more than 40 percent of the cost of the improvements. The city would try to find funding for the rest from the state and federal government.
$7,000,000: Maximum amount the city would pay for site improvements for Phase Two, not to exceed 40 percent of the total cost.
$114,450,000: Total cost of Phase One, including $12.5M in public infrastructure costs.
$395,490,000: Total cost of the entire project, including $32.5 million in public infrastructure costs.
Preparation
As part of Phase One, the city would have to make a number of infrastructure improvements:
B: is for bikes. The “buffered bike lane,” also known as the state’s first “cycletrack,” separately planned for Water Street, will be extended to the intersection of South Orange Street and MLK Boulevard.
C: is for cars. The city would re-do the intersection of South Orange Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard to make it a 90-degree “T” intersection. Orange street would be two-way, with a total of four lanes. Before Phase Two, the city would reconnect South Orange across Rt. 34.
P: is for pedestrians. The State Street pedestrian underpass under Rt. 34 would be redesigned with “lighting, signage, landscaping, music [!], public art and sidewalk surface reconstruction.”
S: is for stormwater. The city would construct a new stormwater “detention” system below South Frontage Road, providing 5.8 acre-feet, or 252,648 cubic feet, of underground storage for “stormwater runoff that historically had drained into the Route 34 flooding area,” the deal states. “The water stored in these chambers would either be released when flood waters receded or would infiltrate into the ground and recharge groundwater.” The plan also calls for a “water amenity” and additional storage near Route 34 and the I‑95 ramps and get rid of that part of the mini-highway, the way the westernmost part of the mini-highway has already been filled in to make way for the 100 College Street project.
T: is for transition. The Rt. 34 approach to Orange Street would feature traffic calming, landscaping, lighting and signage to “beautify this entryway into the city, and ensure that the quality and memorable sense of arrival to downtown begins earlier, sending appropriate signals to motorists to slow down as they enter an urbanized context.”
Construction
The plaza.
719: Total number of apartments to be constructed, comprising 342 in Phase One and 377 in Phase Two.
20: Percentage of those apartments that will be “affordable,” meaning restricted to “low income and workforce households with household incomes between 50 and 120 percent of the Area Median Income.” At least 10 percent of the affordable apartments would have two or three bedrooms. No more than 50 percent of the apartments on any one floor would be affordable. The city would work with the developer to secure 19 units of project-based Section 8 vouchers and $1.5 million in capital fund from the New Haven housing authority.
76,900: Amount of retail space, in square feet. Phase One is to include 58,200 square feet. Phase Two would include 18,700 square feet. A number of retail uses would be prohibited, including: discount department stores, dollar stores, guns and ammo shops, “charity thrift shops,” and adult bookstores or adult entertainment.
52,630: Square feet of public space. Plans call for a large public square in the center of Phase One construction, the western half of the site. The development would also have a “Retail Laneway” connecting the plaza to State Street. The developer would not be able to permanently close the public space, but could prevent public vehicle access for “legitimate reasons.” The plaza as planned may not be the final design, but the development can’t have less than 30,000 square feet of public open space.
160: Number of rooms in the new hotel that would be built, on the corner of Orange Street and MLK Boulevard.
200,000: Square feet of office space to be built by the end of Phase Two.
785: Total number of parking spaces. Preliminary plans show structured parking with a grass roof. Any parking structure that has to be “above grade due to financial feasibility concerns” would have to be “‘wrapped’ by active uses and/or screening on all street frontages.”
Impact
2: Number of “business fairs” the developer would be required to hold, to feature “suppliers of goods and services with particular emphasis on New Haven-based businesses.” The developer would also be required to “make good faith efforts” to recruit and assist New Haven startups and entrepreneurs to open stores in the development’s new retail space.
3: Number of job fairs the developer would be required to hold — two before Phase One is complete and one before Phase Two is complete.
4,485: Number of jobs projected to be created in New Haven County during construction. That includes 2,720 directly created, and 1,764 indirect jobs.
$288,000,000: Total amount of labor income to be earned in New Haven County during construction, $82 million of that would come in Phase One.
2,701: Number of permanent jobs to be created in New Haven County once the development is complete.
$179,000,000: Total annual income of all those new workers, an average annual income of about $66,000.
$8,570,000: Projected annual property tax New Haven would collect once the development is complete. The city would collect $2.39 million after the completion of Phase One.
$2,350,000: Projected annual sales tax revenues after completion.
$1,100,000: Projected annual hotel tax.
W: is for workforce requirements. The developer would have to comply with all city workforce and equal opportunity requirements and communicate closely with labor unions, with the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunities, the city’s Contract Compliance Director. The developer would be required to comply with the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s immigration verification process.
C: is for small contractors. Among other things, the developer would be required to make “every effort” to “aggressively” meet Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) contracting goals. Namely, at least 25 percent of construction subcontracts should got to MBEs. The developer would work with the New Haven Contractor’s Alliance and the city’s Small Business Development Program and hold a workshop on contracting opportunities.
G: is for green. The land disposition agreement includes a section on a “Commitment to Sustainability.” The developer would be required to build all office and commercial space to LEED Silver standard, all residential space to the highest LEED standard that’s “financially feasible,” and hotel space to the “highest sustainability standard required by the applicable hotel flag company.”
The developer would have to “make reasonable, good faith efforts to establish rooftop farms and/or green roofs” and to incorporate fuel cell or geothermal technology into the project.
P: is for transportation planning. The developer would conduct a traffic study to determine the projects effect on traffic flow. The developer would come up with a Transportation Demand Management Plan with proposed improvements to mitigate any effects using things like road and signaling improvements, bike sharing, ride sharing, and public transportation. The developer would then work with the city to “allocate responsibility for implementing the provisions” of the transit plan.
The deal requires LiveWorkLearnPlay to participate in a “Bike Share System” with at least one bike sharing station. The development would have bike storage and “changing/showering facilities” in office and hotel space, “provided the office or hotel tenant agrees to such facilities.”