Aliyya Swaby Photo
East Rock neighbors will soon be able to do their jogging at mActivity, a newly approved high-end gymnasium on Nicoll Street.
The Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously agreed to grant the fitness center and health club a variance to open in a storage unit warehouse at 285 Nicoll St., in an industrial district.
At November’s BZA meeting, gym owners Pablo Perez and Burch Valldejuli decided to ask the board to postpone a vote because they did not have written permission to use parking spaces in three public lots on Mitchell Street. Tuesday night they came back with more than enough parking spaces for their proposed establishment and dropped a request for a special parking exception on top of the use variance.
The owner of the warehouse and factory Rick Narang submitted a letter agreeing to allot the gym 43 parking spaces of 72 total parking spaces for a period of at least 10 years. Currently the property is used to store industrial machinery and stage the Alexion Pharmaceutical construction project.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa sent a letter supporting a parking zone in front of 285 Nicoll St. She wrote that the neighborhood’s community management team had a “positive response from the residents in attendance,” because members “are very excited about having the building filled with a tenant that will provide vitality to that area.”
About 25 East Rock neighbors attended the management team meeting Oct. 27, all of whom were “warm and enthusiastic” about the project, team chair David Budries wrote in a letter to the board.
The gym will change the atmosphere of the immediate area, which is currently barren and “vulnerable to undesirable activity,” according to a letter from neighbor Eva Geertz. “If we changed the nature and appearance of that block — i.e., the old factory — and made it clear that this is in fact a geniune neighborhood where people work and live and go about their business, the area would be significantly less vulnerable.”
The gym will be open from 4:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and cost about $60 per month for membership.
Perez said he would put up walls around the parking lot on Canner and Nicoll Streets, to prevent car lights from shining into people’s windows early in the morning. The board approved the variance on the condition that he build this wall.
Building designer Fernando Pastor of SeedNH said he plans to repurpose the historical building, using recycled materials and green construction techniques to build. The building has been unoccupied for the last 20 years.
Valldejuli said they plan to be “good partners” in the neighborhood and hope to offer healthy activities, some free of charge, to New Haven community members. They hope to open in spring 2015.