Design of the new lab-and-office building that might now not be built.
The site of New Haven’s next planned biosciences office and lab tower will remain an empty lot for now — as Yale pulls back its biotech investments in light of possible federal funding cuts.
That’s the latest with the planned project on a surface parking lot on the former Coliseum site, now known as New Haven’s “10th Square.”
That lot was slated to hold a new 11-story lab and office building in addition to a recently opened apartment tower.
Mayor Justin Elicker shared the update on the bioscience development, which is being backed by British pension and insurance fund Legal & General (L&G), after a press conference at City Hall on Thursday morning.
“The NIH cuts have created so much uncertainty, and Yale potentially could have been a tenant in that building to help it have a long-term financial path,” he said. “And that’s on hold.”
In March 2023, Ancora Partners bought that 0.78-acre surface parking lot at the corner of South Orange Street and North Frontage Road for $10.6 million with plans to build a $230 million, 277,435-square-foot, 11-story Class A life sciences and tech tower.
In January 2024, state and city officials gathered on the grave of the old New Haven Coliseum to announce that the state would be sending $1 million here to help the city’s newest biotech developer.
Not much has happened there since.
Developers initially predicted the building would open this year. However, according to Elicker, the building is still looking for tenants, and construction has not begun.
In February, the Trump administration announced a change capping the NIH’s coverage of “indirect costs” of research — things like lab infrastructure, utilities, and administrative staff — at 15 percent in the grants it hands out. The New York Times estimated the change could cost Yale $131 million in funding this year after the university received $602 million in NIH grants in 2024.
At the time, the administration defended the funding change as decreasing “administrative bloat” in favor of direct spending on research. Critics warned it could cripple scientific research nationwide. The cuts were blocked by a federal judge earlier this month, though the administration is appealing.
While Elicker said conversations between the university and real-estate development company Ancora are not final, he said there “was some optimism” that the university could rent space in the building.
A statement provided by a Yale spokesperson on behalf of Alexandra Daum, Yale’s associate vice president for New Haven Affairs, cited the uncertain federal funding landscape for pulling back from leasing space in the building.
“Yale had contemplated leasing a small amount of space in the proposed lab building at Square 10, but conversations with the developer were still conceptual and no specific deal had been reached,” Daum wrote. “Given the uncertainty in federal funding and the uncertainty expressed by Ancora about their ability to break ground on the building, it didn’t make sense to continue conversations about new leased lab space at this site.”
Ancora CEO Josh Parker deferred to L&G for comment, writing that the company is the lead on the project. L&G declined to comment.
Elicker said that the city will suffer as the university limits its development because of uncertainty around federal funding.
“If development projects don’t happen, that’s millions of dollars of tax revenue lost to the city. That’s hundreds of jobs that would have happened that don’t happen,” he said.
Blumenthal To Yale: Be Like Harvard
Both Elicker and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal also took the opportunity last week to encourage Yale to fight back against possible federal funding cuts, citing Harvard University as a model to follow.
In recent months, the Trump administration has sent letters to several prominent universities demanding they accept a series of policy changes, including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and agreeing to federal hiring audits, or lose billions in federal funding. Last week, Harvard became the first university to reject these demands, and on Monday, it sued the federal government over funding cuts.
So far, Yale has avoided the new administration’s spotlight. Yale’s new President, Maurie McInnis, has said that any response to federal funding cuts would be “context-dependent.”
“I hope Yale will join in supporting Harvard and in standing up itself for these values and principles,” Blumenthal said, adding he had spoken with McInnis about the issue.
Elicker echoed the senator, saying he thought Harvard’s response was a “very courageous” defense of academic freedom. He added that he was “optimistic” that McInnis would stand up to the Trump administration, noting that acquiescing had not helped Columbia University avoid funding cuts.