by | Jan 9, 2019 3:07 pm | Comments (7)
Simon Bazelon Photo
Hammer presents plan, with McCraven & Clemons.
A vacant Yale-owned building at the edge of Dixwell and downtown may soon house a convenience store that gives culinary students a chance to show their stuff — and peddles local food but not alcohol or tobacco.
by | Jan 9, 2019 9:01 am | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen photos
Hotel Duncan, set to reopen in fall as “Graduate New Haven.”
Franzen: Suddenly, no calls back.
The old Hotel Duncan’s boutique successor plans to have a ground-floor restaurant, a first-floor cafe — and, at least for now, no unionized employees.
According to the new hotel’s owner, that’s not for lack of trying. On the hotel’s part, that is.
by | Jan 8, 2019 5:04 pm | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photo
ECIC Director Michael Harris at City Hall Tuesday morning.
Invest in job training. Invest in physical spaces. Invest in accessibility.
Continue reading ‘New Innovation Director Plots Tech-Jobs Strategy’
by | Jan 8, 2019 5:03 pm | Comments (6)
Liese Klein Photo
Kroop: Hamden needs welders.
Yes, it’s important that new apartments are going up and businesses are growing and expanding in Hamden. But when Dale Kroop thinks about economic growth in his town, he’s looking beyond the next project and next company moving in.
by | Jan 8, 2019 8:32 am | Comments (1)
Travis Carbonella photo
Land Trust Growing Entrepreneur Rasha Abuhatab and Garden Education Coordinator Esther Rose-Wilen.
Thomas Breen Photos
Land Trust ED Justin Elicker, Xavier Hernandez, Carlos Veliz, Jahlil Moses, Rose-Wilen, Brianna Chance, Sadilka Lopez-Roldan, Abuhatab, and Garden Education Manager Bradley Fleming.
A new business that builds and installs garden beds. Another that converts garden plots into greenhouses. Yet another that turns locally grown herbs into incense. All from a program that grows New Haven high school students into local entrepreneurs.
Continue reading ‘Land Trust Graduates New Crop Of Entrepreneurs’
by | Jan 7, 2019 2:01 pm | Comments (13)
Thomas Breen Photo
Now you see it: Original coal-fired plant, slated for demolition.
First a crew stumbled upon bags and bags and bags of asbestos inside the abandoned old English Station power plant.
Then bricks started falling off a second building onto Grand Avenue.
Amid it all, a foreclosure led to the polluted property changing hands yet again, this time to an investor from Kew Gardens, N.Y.
by | Jan 4, 2019 3:23 pm | Comments (16)
Christopher Peak Photo
Tom Breen Photo
YNHH’s Sparer (at center): No impact on service.
A nine-story downtown medical complex has gone into cardiac arrest.
by | Jan 4, 2019 1:41 pm | Comments (6)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Chef Sunny Cheng: Trust me.
Omakase is a Japanese phrase that means, “I leave it up to you.” Chef Sunny Cheng and his wife, Kathy, are betting New Haveners will do just that when they stop by their new sushi bar, Otaru — and embark on a sushi adventure.
by | Jan 4, 2019 8:29 am | Comments (1)
Patriquin Architects Photo
Following on a meeting at the Historic District Commission (HDC) about a major expansion of the historic Copps Island/Norm Bloom & Sons oyster farm on Quinnipiac Avenue, architects invited all abutting neighbors to contribute alternative ideas. Two proposed new massive, view-altering, riverine buildings proved controversial.
The meeting, held in the third floor conference space at Patriquin Architects, on Grand Avenue and Front Street, drew only a handful of neighbors. They made up for their numbers by proposing a massive rethinking and reconfiguration of the plan
by | Jan 3, 2019 8:38 am | Comments (5)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Council members Justin Farmer, Lauren Garrett.
Bus routes that connect people to school or to town hall. Hiking trails created near affordable housing in the southern part of town. Stores, “calmer” streets, close-to campus housing in a new “university district” in the north. Plus new sewers.
Two Hamden elected officials floated those ideas as the town dives into a once-in-a-decade look into how to adapt to changing times.
by | Jan 2, 2019 3:33 pm | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photo
Book Trader Cafe on Wednesday.
Store Manager Kelly Pyers.
A downtown used bookstore and cafe was burglarized early Wednesday morning when someone broke in through a side entrance, smashed open the register, then stole a few hundred dollars.
by | Dec 20, 2018 9:02 am | Comments (2)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Architect Boroson explains the new Mid Block Development on Chapel Street …
The City Plan Commission advanced plans that will bring more than 200 apartments to New Haven in the next three years and put a rental car and truck facility in Wooster Square.
by | Dec 19, 2018 8:48 am | Comments (15)
Kenneth Boroson Architects
Northside’s proposed new mid-block complex at 842-848 Chapel.
Bailey File Photo
At the scene of the 2007 blaze.
A surface parking lot at the heart of downtown may soon boast a new six-story complex with 120 apartments — some as small as 400 square feet and renting for $1,250 a month.
by | Dec 18, 2018 8:52 am | Comments (2)
Buchanan Architects, LLC
An aerial-view rendering of Mandy’s proposed conversion of the old St. Michael’s Church school buildings.
A local mega-landlord has pulled out of a deal to purchase and convert three vacant Wooster Square church buildings into 23 high-end apartments, citing environmental clean-up costs as the project’s primary obstacle.
by | Dec 17, 2018 8:42 am | Comments (3)
Patriquin Architects Photo
People in the Heights generally love the oyster farm that for decades has been harvesting, shucking, and shipping the bivalves from the banks of the Quinnipiac River just below the Grand Avenue Bridge.
Norm Bloom & Sons keeps alive the local oystering industry and the working waterfront that are part of the area’s history and appeal.
Now the company proposes to build two large new structures that potentially are out of scale with the surrounding residential buildings —and to relocate two historic ones — in order to expand the business. Will the positive relationship continue, or will it become only love on the half shell?
by | Dec 17, 2018 8:35 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photo
A few small businesses on Grand Avenue, the same block as…
… the Spanish American Merchants Association, and its 34 new small biz program graduates.
Thirty-four current and aspiring small business owners graduated on Friday from a Grand Avenue training program that teaches Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs how to build, open, and sustain small businesses.
Continue reading ‘34 Graduate From Fair Haven Small Biz Program’
by | Dec 14, 2018 1:09 pm | Comments (9)
Thomas Breen photo
Inside Fashionista.
Fashionista’s Nancy Shea on Thursday night.
A beloved, eccentric vintage clothing and accessory store on the border of Downtown and East Rock was burglarized this week, depriving the owners of several thousand dollars and of key information about their rental business.
by | Dec 14, 2018 8:41 am | Comments (0)
Thomas Breen photo
Scores strip club on St. John Street.
Scores lawyer Anthony DiCrosta and Clock Shop lawyer Jay Lawlor in court on Thursday.
A Mill River strip club filed for bankruptcy the afternoon before its eviction hearing, buying itself time before having to leave in order to make way for a new complex of 130 low-income apartments and artist lofts.
Continue reading ‘Strip Club Stalls Eviction With Bankruptcy’
by | Dec 13, 2018 1:29 pm | Comments (0)
Lucy Gellman photo
Micro-biz owner Mubarakah Ibrahim baking bean pies at her home.
Connect local restaurants with nearby farms. Remove regulatory hurdles for food-related micro-businesses. And build an incubator kitchen and community center that caters to New Haven’s culinary entrepreneurs.
Officials proposed those and other food-related economic development initiatives at a food sector-focused meeting of the Development Commission.
by | Dec 12, 2018 1:33 pm | Comments (7)
Medical marijuana coming to the former 7-Eleven.
New Haven will soon get its first medical marijuana dispensary and it’s coming to upper Whalley Avenue
Continue reading ‘Medical Marijuana Coming To Upper Whalley’
by | Dec 12, 2018 1:33 pm | Comments (2)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Plan for new store.
CVS got the OK to open a new store in a growing Dixwell Avenue commercial plaza — on the condition that it seek to prevent drivers from turning left across traffic.
Continue reading ‘New CVS OK’d For Dixwell Ave., Minus Left Turns’
by | Dec 11, 2018 8:25 am | Comments (4)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
“Elves” busily constructing greenhouses at Temple Plaza.
Potter Hannah Leckman will be bringing her pottery to the Holiday Village.
Elves were spotted in the shadow of the Temple Street Parking Garage, but they weren’t building toys. They were building a forthcoming New Haven “Holiday Village” set to open in Temple Plaza Thursday and featuring gifts by local artists and craftspeople.
by | Dec 10, 2018 1:05 pm | Comments (0)
Might a new business model be in the offing to spawn the next generation of quality local news organizations?
by | Dec 6, 2018 1:08 pm | Comments (1)
Full house at State House Wednesday night for innovation pitches.
Thomas Breen photos
Kim Harris presents her idea.
A new small business that sells portable martial arts “wooden dummies.” A new nonprofit that brings people together in Newhallville. A fireman-cum-software engineer using tech to support emergency responders. And a citywide push to teach residents how to code.
Those are a few local entrepreneurial initiatives to emerge this week as the city took next steps toward a future as an innovation economy.
Continue reading ‘Coders, Collab Chart Economy’s Next Moves’
by | Dec 5, 2018 8:59 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen Photo
Michael Piscitelli.
Rather than hire a new economic development chief in the near future, Mayor Toni Harp is asking Michael Piscitelli to serve in the role on an “acting basis” for a year.