Rendering of a new lab-and-office building ...
... to be built by Ancora at SW corner of ex-Coliseum site.
A North Carolina-based real estate developer has purchased the southwest corner of the ex-Coliseum site for over $10.6 million — furthering an already-city-approved plan to build up that part of the property into a new 11-story lab and office building.
According to the city’s online land records database, on March 8, a holding company called Ancora 265 S. Orange Holdings LLC bought a 0.78-acre surface parking lot at the corner of South Orange Street and North Frontage Road from a holding company called 275 Orange Phase 1‑C LLC for a total of $10,681,750.
The seller of that property is an affiliate of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, the Norwalk-based firm that is overseeing the broader redevelopment of the former Coliseum site into hundreds of new apartments, parking spaces, and shops as part of a project called “Square 10.”
The buyer of the property is an affiliate of Ancora, a Durham, N.C.-based science-focused real estate developer.
The Phase 1A construction site.
The sale comes roughly a month and a half after Spinnaker affiliates won site plan approval from the City Plan Commission for Phases 1B and 1C as well as an amendment to their already-approved Phase 1A development proposals. In all, those three subphases should see the construction of 320 new apartments, a new 657-space parking garage, a new 11-story lab and office building, a retail “laneway,” and a new public plaza at the 4.5‑acre block bounded by Orange Street, George Street, State Street and MLK Boulevard.
“This letter confirms our plan and process towards the development of Parcel 1C (265 South Orange St.) as a lab and supporting office building, with accompanying amenities and access to the adjoining parking garage being constructed separately on Parcel 1B,” Ancora founder and CEO Josh Parker wrote to Spinnaker VP Frank Caico, according to a Feb. 28 letter filed on the city’s land records database in conjunction with this latest property deal.
Thomas Breen photo
Parker also write in that letter that the “equity for the project,” which should begin construction this summer, comes in large part thanks to an ownership interest that the British financial services giant Legal & General (L&G) has in Ancora.
“The project has been reviewed and approved by the Ancora L&G Investment Committee, and the company’s leadership remains supportive of the project,” Parker wrote. “Specifically, approval has included closing on the land acquisition of Parcel 1C and spending the necessary capital to advance the project to GMP and construction readiness. Construction is projected to begin this summer.”
According to a City Plan Department staff report, the site plan approval granted by the City Plan Commission in January for Phase 1C of the Coliseum redevelopment was for a new 213,635 square-foot building to be constructed atop a 0.78-acre site bounded by South Orange Street to the west, North Frontage Road to the south, the Phase 1B parcel to the east, and the retail laneway to the north. The new building will be 183 feet tall, consisting of nine stories and two floors of “mechanic penthouse.” “The remainder of the building will be laboratory and office space including amenity space for the tenants, a loading dock and loading spaces, mechanical rooms, and south-facing terraces on the second through ninth floors.”
The approved site plan includes no on-site parking for the site. Instead, 300 parking spaces in the to-be-built Phase 1B garage will be provided for this new lab and office building.
Paul Bass file photo
Spinnaker's Clay Fowler: "It does make our story more easily told."
In a Monday morning phone interview with the Independent, Spinnaker CEO Clay Fowler said that this Phase 1C property sale — and Ancora’s plan to build a new lab and office tower at that site — fit within “our initial vision for the project,” as well as within a “biotech cluster” that is a “sector that New Haven is particularly good at.”
“We’re really pleased. We think we have a great partner in Ancora. They’re incredibly well funded by one of the largest insurance companies in England,” Fowler said.
He said that this property sale “gives us momentum with the rest of the vision for the project,” including the 200 new apartments already under construction as part of Phase 1A.
Does this sale change Spinnaker’s involvement in the other phases of the ex-Coliseum site’s redevelopment?
“No,” Fowler said. “We just thought they were a great partner. We’re not an expert in life sciences. These folks bring the appropriate tools to the project.”
Does this sale help at all with the overall financing for the ex-Coliseum redevelopment, given how rising interests rates have made it more difficult in recent months to borrow money for new construction projects?
“Not really,” Fowler said. He noted that his company is “clearly underway on the first apartment project” as part of Phase 1A. “But, with a large user next to us, I think the market gets a little bit better, the prospects of of being able to tell the story of growth is much more evident.” This sale “does not counteract financing rates,” he repeated, “but it does make our story more easily told.”