Newman Architects rendering
New J Press HQ (red brick building with blue awning).
A local high-end men’s clothier is moving back to its original York Street address with a planned new four-story building adjacent to Yale’s campus.
At this past Wednesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission on the second floor of City Hall, the upscale retail outlet, J Press, won site plan approval to build its new headquarters at 260 York St.
The company operated out of that very location for over a century, from 1907 to 2013, when it was forced to close its doors and eventually demolish the historic French Second Empire-style building because of damage incurred during Winter Storm Nemo.
For the past half-decade, J Press has been based out of a temporary space at 206 College St.
Thomas Breen photo
J Press VP Jim Fitzgeralnd, attorney Mark Sklarz, engineer Chris Hulk, and Newman Architects’ Linda Blaszka.
“It’s a bellwether tenant for the city,” local attorney Mark Sklarz said. And J Press’s planned return to its historic York Street location, he said, will transform a currently vacant lot into a cornerstone of dense urban fabric of the Broadway Commercial District.
J Press will occupy the new 16,000-plus square-foot building’s first floor with a clothing retail outlet. The second and third floors will be J Press office space. And the fourth floor will be a new cafe or bar or lounge, to be operated by a third party that has not yet been selected.
“We designed it so that it meshes with the neighborhood,” Newman Architects’ Linda Blaszka said as she walked the commissioners through architectural renderings of the proposed building.
It will be composed of brick, limestone, and bronze accents, she said. “Classic noble materials.”
Hulk, Blaszka, and Petra Construction’s Guido Petra.
“The fun part,” local builder Guido Petra of Petra Construction said, “is trying to build it.” That’s because the proposed new zero-lot-line building will occupy nearly every square inch of the 0.11 acre parcel.
The York Street sidewalk, he said, will be the only point of access for construction vehicles and personnel, since the building is surrounded by neighbors on all three other sides.
“We’re trying to build a four-story building on a postage stamp,” he said.
Because of those tight working conditions, J Press plans to close down the sidewalk and one lane of York Street traffic for a year as it stages the various cement trucks and construction cranes and Dumpsters and port-o-potties necessary for the project.
“I won’t be driving that way,” City Plan Commissioner Leslie Radcliffe said.
The project is now ready to move forward, as J Press has already received from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) a variance to permit a floor-area ratio of 3.4 where 2 is allowed, a variance to permit a rear yard of 0 feet where 17 feet is required, a special exception to permit 0 off-street parking where 37 spaces are required, and a special exception for a cafe liquor license.