Markeshia Ricks Photo
After helping to cut the ribbon Tuesday on a $40 million upscale apartment complex at the corner of Chapel and Howe, Mayor Toni Harp decided it’s time to rebrand a corner once known as New Haven’s red light district.
“Chapel and Howe — that’s where all the girls were and some of the guys” back in the 1970s and ‘80s, Harp noted. “Maybe we’ll call it ‘the green light district’ for ‘go,”
Harp and other city and business officials joined developer Randy Salvatore under a cloudless fall sky Tuesday to cut the ribbon on The Novella, a new 136-unit apartment complex at the corner of Chapel and Howe streets.
The complex, which is already 40 percent rented, is the result of about 18 months of planing and working with the community to transform a former parking lot into a mixed-use development that also includes two spaces — one of which is 1,100 square feet and the other of 3,400 square — for retail such as a restaurant. The apartments rent for between $1,500 and $3,000 a month.
Dwight Alder Frank Douglass said the months of back and forth with Salvatore weren’t always easy, but he’s happy with the outcome. “I’m so glad that even the parking lot is gone,” he said. “There was a lot of activity in the parking lot whether people know it or not, but this has brought life back to this part of the neighborhood. I’m proud.”
City Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson said New Haven is the “hottest city in Southern in New England” and The Novella project is “emblematic of what’s going on here.”
“We’re standing at the corner of Chapel and Howe, and we have a $40 million investment on one side and Yale’s $20 million investment on the other side,” Nemerson said. “And to think 20 years ago people would not have imagined that this was possible.”
Nemerson, who just returned from a Conference of Municipalities meeting in Hartford, said the city is on the lips of those outside of the city because of the positive things that are happening with technology, community policing economic development and housing.
“Everybody wants to know what we’re doing right and how many great things are happening here,” he said. “We have to be very proud of the fact that over the last 50 years not one developer who built a new spec building from scratch came back to build a second building. And Randy’s signed up, I think for five other buildings. It’s one thing to get somebody in to build one building but when they come back for a second building and say this is where I want to invest more money and more time and really place my future then you know you’ve done the right thing.”
Salvatore, who heads RMS Companies, said he’s looking forward to future development in the city (including this project) because he’s had a good experience so far.
“I look forward to working with the city for years to come. You treated us fairly, objectively and created a business friendly environment that makes a developer eager to make continued investments in this great city of New Haven,” he said. “The reason that people are willing to make those investments and looking forward to making those investments is because of the things New Haven is doing. As long as everyone continues to move in that direction you’re going to see a lot more continued development and growth throughout the city.”
Leasing Consultant Gary Sessions shows Harp the state-of-the-art theater room.
Harp called the project innovative and vital to increasing the housing stock in the city which is becoming an increasingly attractive place to live.
“This new construction project provides just the latest opportunity to promote so much positive growth and progress throughout New Haven and showcase the excitement among residents about downtown and surrounding neighborhoods,” Harp said. “Beyond that, these new housing units add further evidence that New Haven is at the hub of a vital region with economic development, job growth and cultural opportunities promoting the need for more housing. We know that New Haven has a dramatically low vacancy rate and think that’s good news. People want to live here, and to the extent that developers want to build housing units and address that low vacancy rate,we think that’s even better news. People want to live here, people want to stay here and more people are coming here.”