Paul Bass File Photo
Reim with the previous design.
The fledgling plan to build a $400 million new urbanist mini-city on the grave of the old New Haven Coliseum isn’t dead yet. It has changed.
The developer, LiveWorkLearnPlay (LWLP) of Montreal, showed city officials a new plan last week that moves a centerpiece of the project, a four-and-a-half-star hotel, from the corner of Orange Street and Water Street Extension a block east.
On one level, it’s a breakthrough: The Harp administration had decided to abandon the idea of spending $15 million to move underground gas and electrical lines — and of fighting in court with United Illuminating over who would pay the bill — in order to accommodate the original plan. For almost a year it has asked the developer to agree to a new design that doesn’t involve moving the utilities. And the developer produced that design last week.
But that doesn’t mean shovels will go into the ground any time soon, or even that the Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration is ready to sign off on releasing a promised $21.5 million to reconfigure the streets around the project, which is bounded by George, State, Water Street Extension, and Orange.
The city has given LWLP until July 1 to flesh out the new plan so the state can decide whether it’s feasible. And LWLP principal Max Reim has “left open the possibility that he would ask for more” public money beyond that state promise and the $12 million the city has committed to public improvements, said city Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson. (Reim did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)
Newman Architects
The previous plan, now history.
“They went back to the drawing board, took another look at the site, and have a new proposal. We’re moving forward,” Harp said during her weekly appearance on WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday” program.
The Harp administration has been pushing the developer to advance the project. The previous DeStefano administration in 2013 negotiated the deal giving LWLP the right to develop the property — and gave the developer 14 years to build it. Officials originally predicted the developer would have broken ground by now. The LWLP website still announces that construction will “construction start in Spring 2015.” In fact, there’s not even really a final deal yet.
“We’re encouraged that there’s a new plan to move forward. We’re excited that there’s a new energy behind this. That said, open items need to be thought through to make sure it works,” state Deputy Economic Development Commissioner Tim Sullivan said Monday.
The project calls for building 1,000 mixed-income apartments, 30 – 40 new businesses, the four-and-a-half-star hotel, 30,000 square feet of stores, and a public square. Malloy had insisted that the first phase of the project include the hotel.
If the long-delayed project ever does happen, LWLP would build the hotel on behalf of a national chain. It previously reached a deal for permission to “fly the flag” of the Hyatt chain. Harp said Monday a second hotel chain has also expressed interest.
Local employers are telling the city they need the hotel built because of a shortage of rooms in town.
LWLP’s new plan calls for moving the hotel to the corner of State and Water St. Extension (a one-block roadway between State and Orange, parallel to Route 34). Unlike the old plan, the new plan doesn’t call for building into the street. The hotel would include 200 – 220 rooms, with a second tower with 80 – 120 longer-term rentals, according to Nemerson.
The apartments will now be moved from the hotel’s new corner to George and Orange, Nemerson said. A planned office tower has been shelved for now.
Asked how the state would react to a request from LWLP’s Reim for more government money, Sullivan responded that it’s “impossible to say until we see” the details.
Nemerson’s office got another long-stalled project moving, in the Hill, by similarly having it redrawn in order to avoid expensive road work.