Allan Appel Photo
“I’m literally praying we consummate the deal,” said Housing Authority Deputy Director Jimmy Miller. His excitement was at the prospect of a commitment from Yale-New Haven Hospital to become the first commercial tenant on Wilmot Road, in the gateway building of the ambitious 1,000-family redevelopment of West Rock.
He announced the news Wednesday night in an appearance before the Community Development Committee of the Board of Aldermen. Miller’s task was to convince the city to sign a cooperative agreement granting tax abatements for the future development at 120 – 122 Wilmot Rd.
The abatements would be for 47 apartments for the elderly and disabled and for two commercial spaces totaling 9,000 square feet, and roughly divided into two store spaces. That’s all part of a larger rebuilding of the old West Rock projects into a mixed-income, mixed-use community near the New Haven-Hamden line.
The committee voted to pass the project on to the full board with a favorable recommendation.
Miller (pictured above with LCI Deputy Director Cathy Schroeter) said the abatements are critical to attract commercial tenants to the area, which historically has been isolated.
He announced that Yale-New Haven Hospital is close to signing an agreement to open a facility at the prospective building to provide dental, pediatric, and geriatric services. He called Yale-New Haven a trusted, ideal tenant.
Miller said the deal could be signed as soon as Monday night.
In addition he announced another tenant who would rent the other half of the space to run a laundry and a small market; the second deal could also close next week. He added that the authority in its letter of agreement with the potential grocer will have input so that healthful foods including produce be sold, and no alcohol.
It’s all part of the authority’s and the city’s dramatic effort to transform West Rock, and in that effort 120 – 122 Wilmot Rd. is critical. “We intend to make it a gateway” ultimately drawing people to the area from Southern Connecticut State University as well as from Hamden, Miller said. He said he is confident the symbolic fence of separation between Hamden and West Rock would come down as the area became more viable and vibrant.
“The mayor’s made it very clear if we don’t end isolation … that’s how we’ll assess success. If we don’t we’ll end up with a cul de sac [again].”
Click here for a story on an earlier, larger 11,000 square foot commercial component at Wilmot.
And here for a story on the groundbreaking for construction of the first phase of the West Rock Redevelopment plan. It includes the razing and rebuilding of the former projects at Brookside and Rockview to create 425 new housing units, rental and homeownership.
The abatements for the 47 apartments will mean the landlord, that is, the housing authority, will pay only $250 per year for each of them in taxes. That abatement will be in effect for longer than he’ll be alive, Miller joked. That is 39 years. These conditions are fairly standard, Miller said.
The commercial abatements would be more unusual. “We’ve done it to induce commercial entities” to an an area that has been historically isolated and without services, Miller said.
By terms of these abatements, the commercial tenants pay no taxes for the first five years; HANH pays. However in year six, they begin to pay a prorated share of a reduced tax. By year 11, the taxes would be at full tilt, and the property would provide $39,000 of income to the city.
Miller was at pains to point out that there’s an empty lot paying nothing at the moment. West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson said, “We used to call the area ‘Out of the way.’ I support it wholeheartedly and I’m certainly for using tax abatements to help low income people.”
The project is planned for a total cost of $17.5 million. Half of that comes from federally backed bonds that the housing authority will sell; another $5 million will be in the form of low-income tax credits; a bank loan of $1.5 million comes from Webster Bank, and the authority is providing $2 million of its own cash.
There are no capital dollars for the project from the city beyond the abatements.
Committee Chairman Alderman Marcus Paca praised the plan, saying that residents in his experience never call West Rock “home.” Now they’ll be able to. After he added an amendment that Miller provide a full copy of the agreement and some better visuals to help aldermen see the project, it passed unanimously.