Yet Another Wooster Square Housing Plan Debuts

The envisioned expansion of Wooster Square to the downtown border has taken another leap, as a third-generation New Haven builder unveiled a proposal to build a 325-apartment community on Union Street.

The developer, Noel Petra, brought his plan to a community meeting attended by two dozen people Monday night at the Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James at the corner of Olive and Chapel streets.

Petra has quietly shopped the plans to city officials in recent weeks. His 2.59-acre project — tentatively entitled ​“87 Union Street” — would replace a series of warehouses and a plumbing supply store with six wood-framed stories of market-rate studios, one‑, two- and three-bedroom apartments, and townhouses, plus some ground-floor retail on Olive Street. The project would face Olive Street, Union Street, and Fair Street — which, Petra hopes, the city will extend to connect Olive and Union.

Petra’s project is right next to another proposal, which has come further along, to convert the empty Comcast building at Olive and Chapel into 200 luxury apartments. That project is already on its way to city approvals.

Petra told the gathering Monday night that he wanted public feedback on his plan, ​“and we’ll work on the endgame from there.”

“We believe this is a better community-oriented venture,” said David Waldman, president of David Adam Reality in Westport. Waldman has supported multiple retail leasing projects in downtown Westport, and is now part of Petra’s development team on the 87 Union Street project.

Petra and his team showed the two-dozen attendees the potential design of the complex. The group received mixed results in return — support for the idea of bringing house and a neighborhood feel to the area, concerns about a lack of subsidized housing and a broad city zoning approach to the district’s changing architecture and function.

Like the developers of the Comcast project, Petra is not seeking any public subsidy, and is seeking zoning relief: a change from a warehouse-oriented district to a BD‑1 zone, which allows for denser development and for mixed-use development; and a text amendment allowing for a roof height of 70 feet. He also seeks permission to include less than one parking space (0.75 spaces, to be exact, per apartment).

Taken together, the two projects would bring more than 500 new apartments to the no-man’s land connecting Wooster Square with downtown. They would effectively bring Wooster Square right to railroad tracks dividing the area from downtown.

And immediately on the other side of the tracks, the 32-story 360 State Street tower has brought hundreds of new renters downtown, while developer Max Reim of LiveWorkLearnPlay has obtained permission to build a $395 million mini-city of apartments, stores, offices, a hotel, and a public plaza atop the old New Haven Coliseum.

In other words, housing is hot. People want to build downtown and in Wooster Square, and people want to live there. The closeness of two train stations, the lively mix of restaurants and nightspots downtown, and the growth of medical and high-tech jobs in the area appear to be helping to drive the revival.

Petra said the biggest demand these days appears to come from Baby Boomers and early-20s ​“Generation Y”-ers. In an interesting twist on how public amenities can spur private development, he predicted that a popular new neighborhood dog park across the street from the property will help lure renters.

Petra said his team looked to notable buildings in the area in designing 87 Union Street in order to give it a distinctive New Haven feel. It drew on some of the windows at Union Station and at Chapel Street’s English building as well as a the Liberty Building on Temple Street, the brownstone on Court Street, and the massing at the John Pitkin Norton House on Hillhouse, where the roof levels vary. The overall idea is to avoid the look of a big giant box.

The plan also calls for a courtyard that opens out on Olive Street.

City Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson said the city is encouraging the spread of housing. He also said he likes the idea of reconnecting Olive and Union with Fair Street; it’s unclear at this point if the city will have the legal authority to extend it.

At Monday night’s meeting, Alder Dolores Colon praised the design for inviting people and families to interact with their friends or kids on the sidewalks. Unlike the 360 State Street ​‘s secluded apartments and private park on the roof, 87 Union Street sounds more like a ​“neighborhood” with easy accessibility to the streets and shops, she said.

Colon said she would like to see some low-income housing offered, since many working families cannot afford high market rents.

Michael Rose (pictured), who has lived on Olive Street for 17 years, echoed that sentiment.

The 17-year Olive Street resident said the developers should be catering not only to the college students, graduates and professionals who may occupy the apartments, but also to the ethnic and working community already living in the city.

“If you come in, make it applicable to everyone,” he said.

Anstress Farwell of the New Haven Urban Design League cite the Comcast project next door, which also seeks specific zoning relief to build bigger than the law otherwise allows. She called the design for 87 Union Street too high and dense. ​“It’s another mega-project,” she said.

Waldman and Petra responded that decreasing the density of the complex, while possible, wouldn’t allow the same relationship between residents and the city to take place. A smaller design would mean fewer apartments and no stoops leading down to sidewalks like those seen on Court Street, they said. 

Residents would essentially be ​“getting a view, but it’ll be of parking,” said Waldman.

Farwell also decried the lack of planning for the area as a whole. She said city officials should take a more comprehensive approach to changing zoning in the space between Wooster Square and Union Station, instead of considering one-off zoning-relief requests from different develops.

Other concerns raised included increased traffic on already congested Olive Street.

In response, Petra (pictured) said his team seeks to focus car movement on the Union Street side. There is also the possibility, he added, of opening up almost 25 public parking spaces on Fair Street. Those plans have yet to be finalized.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Petra called the feedback a good start for the project.