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.
At least that’s the plan unveiled by the local job-training nonprofit Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT), at a zoning hearing Tuesday night.
ConnCorp — a ConnCAT subsidiary that has been buying up property in Dixwell — came before the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to seek a variance to permit a front yard of 0 feet where 12 feet are required and a special exception for the planned convenience store at 96 – 100 Ashmun St.
ConnCORP plans to move the current entrance to the south side of the building and build an accessibility ramp.
The proposal now heads to the City Plan Commission before returning to BZA next month for a final vote.
ConnCORP plans to lease the building from Yale and refurbish the front facade facing Ashmun Street, livening up the currently “nondescript” building, attorney Joseph Hammer told the BZA.
The new convenience store will sell groceries, household and personal health products as well as prepared foods, such as grab-and-go sandwiches. It will have a pizza oven onsite. The store plans to operate from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Sundays.
ConnCORP President Paul McCraven said the store will sell largely “local food” produced at the ConnCAT culinary school a few blocks away at 4 Science Park.
McCraven added that one goal of the venture is to create jobs in the neighborhood, especially for students graduating from the culinary school.
The building in question.
BZA members raised no objections to the plan during the hearing. No one spoke in opposition to the application.
A BZA staff report notes that the building “has a long history of nonresidential use; it was last used as an office/storage space for construction operations by the University and in previous decades by a private contractor.”
Erik Clemons, the CEO of ConnCAT, said that the store is expected to open in August 2019. He said he hopes it will make the neighborhood more vibrant. The store will not sell alcohol or tobacco products, he said.
Yale, which has been gradually buying properties on the Dixwell end of campus, has owned the 96 – 100 property since 2014.