Housing Authority Buys Q River Site

The housing authority has officially purchased two Fair Haven Heights properties by the Quinnipiac River as part of its latest effort to redevelop long-underused city plots into new places to live.

According to the city land records database, on Feb. 28, the Housing Authority of the City of New Haven purchased 16 and 36 East Grand Ave. for $1.42 million from Long Water Land LLC, a holding company controlled by Carl Youngman of Newton, Mass.

The properties sit on either side of (but do not include) the Grand Vin wine shop just east of the Grand Avenue Bridge. One is a 0.8‑acre lot right on the Quinnipiac River, the other is a single-story commercial building that houses Ziggy’s Pizza Restaurant. The city most recently appraised both properties for tax purposes as worth a combined $680,000.

The property transaction comes roughly three months after the housing authority’s board signed off on the East Grand Avenue deal to facilitate the construction of around 40 new mixed-income apartments along with ground-floor retail space.

In a comment provided to the Independent for this article, Karen DuBois-Walton, who heads the housing authority and its nonprofit affiliates under the umbrella organization Elm City Communities (ECC), heralded the property acquisition as enabling the agency’s creation of more affordable and market-rate places to live, without identifying exactly how many housing units will be built as part of the final project.

“As part of this endeavor, we will be seeking an architect’s expertise to help us determine the design and unit count for the development,” she wrote. ​“We are committed to engaging with the community throughout the process, ensuring that their input is valued.”

She also said that Ziggy’s lease has been extended for its current location at 36 East Grand, ​“providing continuity for this beloved establishment.”

She also noted the City Plan Commission’s recent approval of Youngman’s company’s coastal site plan application to build a new ​“sloped revetment and retaining wall” along the Q River’s shoreline at 16 East Grand. ​“The erosion control structure permit has been transferred to ECC specifically for the purpose of the redevelopment, signifying our dedication to responsible and sustainable development practices,” DuBois-Walton said.

The East Grand Avenue property deal comes amid a surge in housing authority efforts to not just renovate existing low- and mixed-income housing that it already owns, but also to build build build anew. Some of the housing authority’s other planned new construction projects around the city include at the vacant ex-Church Street South site, which the housing authority bought last year for $21 million, as well as at the dilapidated former clock factory complex on Hamilton Street, which the housing authority is still in the process of trying to buy for $4.5 million.