Allan Appel Photo
Rising “Belden Brook Homes” at housing authority’s Brookside redevelopment.
Spacious backyards with scenic views. Spiffy new pedestal sinks. Energy-efficient doors and windows and laminated floors. And a chance to be part of a $200 million transformation of a failed housing development.
Yul Watley and Jimmy Miller.
Housing Authority Deputy Director Jimmy Miller and general contractor Yul Watley pitched those assets as they showed off the latest phase of the Brookside development — - 20 homes that will be occupied by their owners and serve a cornerstone of what they hope will be a viable mixed-income community with another 433 rental apartments and another 18 private homes by the Hamden border.
The 20 two and three bedroom homes have different colors and designs, though each is about 1,400 square feet. They all sit in an attractive, flat enclave at the corner of Solomon and Jennings Way, two new streets that have been created by the city as part of their contribution to the re-imagined Brookside and Rockview projects, which were razed in 2008.
Miller said the homes will cost between $250,000 and $300,000 to build, but will be sold for between $150,000 and $175,000. To qualify, a prospective buyer’s income must not exceed 80 percent of the area median income, or about $75,000.
They’re being marketed first to those families who were displaced when the Rockview and Brookside were razed in order to make way for the broader new neighborhood the HANH is building. Other HANH tenants get the second shot at the homes, then members of the general public with qualifying incomes. So far, three purchase/sale agreements have been signed and two have been approved by their banks.
“We’re calling them ‘Belden Brook Homes at West Rock,’” said Miller. He said the name was chosen after the little brook that runs behind the homes.
Not far behind that brook is a section of the fence that Hamden put up over the past decades to keep out what they perceived as crime-inclined residents of the old Brookside. If all goes right, Miller said, with a mixed-income community coming into being, that fence will come down, as its reason for being will have disappeared.
The first 12 homes are to be finished this fall and winter and the last eight by summer of 2013, he said.
Yul Watley toured a reporter through No. One Jennings Way, named for local activist Curtis Jennings, a member of the West Rock Implementation Committee, which has helped plan the community. Watley said it will be the model home to spur sales and should be finished by the end of October.
As he showed off the durable laminated floors and the sink unit he was installing, Watley took well earned pride in his work.
Click here for a story of how Watley, who started in business selling hot dogs from a cart, has developed HANH’s most successful resident-owned business.
He developed his Advanced Construction Technology company from a tiny operation doing clean-up and rehabs of HANH properties into a 15 to 20-person company that has been able to secure the multimillion dollar contract to build Belden Brook homes.
He did this in part by teaming up with Leigh Small of Crystal Management, who has assisted Watley with the “back office” aspect of making construction bids.
Watley and partner in ACT Leigh Small.
Watley pointed out that two of the subcontractors he has hired are also HANH tenants. He also said that 60 percent of the Belden Brook house crew are black or Hispanic
“That’s double” what the city requires, Miller pointed out.
“The problem in minority communities is lack of assets. Income is fleeting. It’s assets that develop wealth,” he said.