Paul Bass Photos
Cox: Worried about who comes next.
The future of one of New Haven’s budding creative-economy hubs will be decided soon — upstate in Rocky Hill.
An auction is scheduled to take place there on June 19 for a 320,771 square-foot former swimwear factory and (before that) trolley storage facility hard by I‑91 at 1175 State St.
A listing for the auction presents the complex as tired, empty and neglected — only 15 percent occupied with no local management, a “non-core asset” belonging to an “out-of-town” “absentee landlord.”
Walk inside, and that 15 percent materializes as one of the livelier and funkier, if hidden, future-oriented business communities in town, called Trolley Square. Businesses from a fast-growing e‑marketing firm called Digital Surgeons to the Channel 1 skateboard/graffiti-art shop and a vintage clothing shop, from Lumber Liquidators to a new outfit called Octopusake share space with art, photography, aikido, and capoeira studios as well as a busy fitness center. One-shot happenings, such as a pop-up “Fem/me” exhibit and a “Beer, Bourbon, BBQ & Bacon” fest, have brought up to 4,000 people inside the remodeled space where workers once turned out Robby Len one-piece bathing suits.
Tenants and city officials expressed hope that a new owner who sees that potential and has more of a commitment to invest in the Trolley Square property emerges on June 19.
Street artist Believe in People donated his design services to the complex.
The bidding starts at $1.8 million. That’s how much the current owner, a partnership run by controversial New York City real-estate mogul Joshua Guttman, paid to buy the brick circa-1925 building in 2003.
Since then, the owner promised major improvements. He ran into trouble with city inspectors as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which fined him $48,100 in 2007 for asbestos removal-related health and labor violations. He hired a property manager from Bridgeport who oversees buildings in numerous cities at once.
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
He also ran into the ultimate roadblock: the never-ending state government effort to rebuild the State Street Bridge, closed off a block away. That project, across the street from 1175 State, has dragged years behind schedule and choked travel and commerce along the area’s one main artery. At one point, Jack Guttman, part of the Guttman family business, looked at another former trolley storage building across the street with thoughts of expanding. (He’s pictured on that tour.) The Guttmans apparently decided instead to focus their energies outside of New Haven.
Despite the obstacles and neglect, the Trolley Square building started humming with activity. It has become, in the words of one major tenant as well as city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson, an emerging New Haven slice of Brooklyn. (In fact, if that bridge ever gets fixed, people will be able to walk from 1175 State to here for a $3.50 cup of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe pour-over joe.)
“A part of New Haven that’s beginning to play the part of Brooklyn with a New England” twist, is how Nemerson put it. He said Joshua Guttman was among a crew of out-of-town “bottom-feeders” who bought big old “complicated” abandoned industrial buildings two decades ago, cheap.
“I think there will be a lot of people bidding on this project. He’ll probably make a lot of money,” Nemerson predicted.
Lou Cox hopes Nemerson’s right about the interest. Cox, who moved his Channel 1 shop from downtown to Trolley Square, is on a month-to-month lease, paying $1,000 a month for 1,000 square feet. He worries about what will happen to tenants like him; he also worries about the building suffering from further neglect in the wrong hands.
The building manager (who also could not be reached for comment) told Cox that Trolley Square was not a high priority for the New York-based owner, Cox said. The owner is auctioning three properties at once on June 16. The other two are a former factory building in Chicopee, Mass., and a former Ames Department Store headquarters in Rocky Hill.
Tenants’ hopes recently rose when the Guttmans finally paved the driveway off State Street, Cox said. “I thought the building was going in a positive direction.”
The Guttmans failed to respond to phone and email requests for comment for this story.
Down the hall from Channel 1, David Salinas of Digital Surgeons said he’s not concerned about the sale.
For starters, he has another three years left on his lease. His new-media company, representing the new economy, is the kind that landlords work hard to attract and keep.
“I’m one of those people that don’t get worried before it’s time to get worried,” He said. “For all you know, Donald Trump might buy the building and put $5 million into it.
“It’s a great building. With some TLC, it can be fantastic.”
It’s been good for Digital Surgeons, the online marketing company Salinas, a University of Bridgeport grad originally from Queens, founded. As the business has grown over eight years — with clients ranging from the city of New Haven to Ovation guitars to Lady Gaga—Salinas has been able to keep expanding, and designing, the space. The company now has 32 employees. The main workspace looks out (over the highway) onto a majestic view of East Rock. The above photo shows another room where three of Salinas’ employees were working Monday.
Salinas said he spent a lot of time in Brooklyn in his youth, before tech and urban amenities drew investors and young new entrepreneurs and artistic types who transformed the landscape. He said he senses the same transition happening in New Haven, a college town where rents are low compared to New York. (It’s no coincidence that his firm designed the city’s latest web-based homeowner-marketing campaign.) He sees that transition happening in spots like Trolley Square He argues that the bridge closure doesn’t matter that much, because the promise lies not in retail business, but creative and tech space.
Carla O’Brien, co-owner of the CrossFit gym at Trolley Square, also has a long-term lease. “We’re here to stay” no matter who buys the building, she said. “The building is definitely lacking in maintenance and upkeep.”
Erik Johnson, director of city government’s Livable City Initiative (LCI), said he had hoped Guttman would invest more in the building and market it better. “That’s been a little disappointment,” he said. “There’s clearly a market for affordable non-downtown office” space. Johnson said to succeed, Trolley Square needs “five Digital Surgeons,” new-media tech-oriented companies, rather than more workout and dance spaces, to anchor it. For now, there’s plenty of room for all.