Farewell Free Parking For 9th Sq. Tenants

Free parking will soon be a perk of the past for tenants at a 335-unit Ninth Square apartment complex on the brink of changing hands.

In response to the rate hike, the city’s parking authority has created a new ​“affordable housing” discount at a nearby garage that will soon transition from private to public ownership.

At Monday night’s regular monthly meeting of the city’s parking authority at 232 George St., Park New Haven Acting Executive Director Doug Hausladen told commissioners about Boston-based landlord Beacon Communities’s plans to discontinue the free parking for tenants who live at the 335-unit Residences at Ninth Square apartment complex.

Based on what Beacon told tenants during a landlord-tenant meetings held last week, he said, tenants will have to pay $75 per month to park at the complex’s 81 George St. garage.

That new rate won’t kick in immediately upon Beacon closing on its acquisition of the neighborhood-anchoring mixed-use, half-affordable complex, though.

Rather, the rate will go into effect upon the renewal of each tenant’s current 12-month lease.

“Everyone has existing leases,” Hausladen said on Monday night. ​“Those existing leases will be honored. But upon their expiration, Beacon Communities is moving people into a residential parking rate. Not at zero dollars like they have now, included in their rent. It will be an add on on top of their rent.”

Beacon Communities CEO Dara Kovel confirmed by email the parking rate increase.

“The 9th Square property has been financially distressed for many years,” she said. ​“Beacon’s primary objective in buying the building was to preserve the affordability and improve the physical condition of the property. Given the property’s financial situation, we could not afford to provide free parking in the George Street garage.” She pointed out that $75 per month is roughly 60 percent the current going rate for downtown parking spaces.

To handle potential tenant parking overflow from the privately-owned George Street garage, Hausladen and Park New Haven Chief Financial Officer Brian Seholm pitched commissioners on a parking rate structure for the garage at 270 – 290 State St. that includes a discounted rate exclusively for tenants living in rent-subsidized units at the Ninth Square complex. That garage will pass into city hands and parking authority management upon completion of the Beacon deal.

Hausladen and Seholm said the State Street garage currently charges $125 per month for public parking.

They asked commissioners to keep the $125 per month market rate for the State Street garage even after the city takes over the property.

They also asked commissioners to approve the creation of a new monthly rate for tenants who face the the parking price hike from their new landlord.

Hausladen and Seholm pitched a new monthly rate of $83.33 per month at the State Street garage specifically for tenants who live in rent-subsidized apartments at the Ninth Square complex.

Per the terms of complex’s sale, Beacon must keep 56 percent of the apartments available to tenants who make 60 percent or less of the Area Median Income.

“We wanted to create a specialty rate at this garage for the project, to support the project’s work,” Hausladen said, ​“and that matches the rate that we give our city employees, of two-thirds the public rate. That breaks down to $83.33 a month, which will kick in on the tenants’ renewal lease at their option. They don’t have to park with us. It’s a market rate. We are creating a subsidized [parking] package for the affordable housing package.”

Hausladen and Seholm said that the authority will rely on Beacon to provide written documentation that a tenant lives in a rent-subsidized unit, and is therefore eligible for the parking discount.

“We would stay out of the business of assessing people’s income,” Seholm said. If Beacon provides a letter stating that a tenant is in one of its affordable units, that’s all the proof the parking authority would need to grant the discount.

Commissioners unanimously approved the $125 market rate, the $83.33 ​“affordable rate,” as well as a $2 hourly market rate and discounted rates of $1 per hour for the first two hours for customers who patronize Ninth Square merchants, and a free first hour for medical providers who provide care for residents at the Ninth Square complex.

“It’s Gonna Be Tough”

Current tenants interviewed Tuesday at the Ninth Square apartment complex expressed reservations about the upcoming parking price hike.

“For what they charge for rent, it’s gonna be tough,” Luis Lespier said about the $75 tenant parking fee.

The 39-year-old Section 8 recipient said he has lived in a seventh-floor apartment at 44 Orange St. for the past five months, though he’s currently looking to move to an apartment closer to ground level.

Leaning on a walker as he left the building for an afternoon walk, Lespier said a back injury led him to losing his job as a supervisor at an electronics manufacturer about a year ago. His monthly rent is $1,142, he said. He has a car, and currently parks it for free at the 81 George St. lot.

Patricia Hoskie, who has lived at the Ninth Square complex for 11 years, said she doesn’t have a car. But she knows plenty of tenants who do. Quite a few neighbors have complained to her about the upcoming parking hike, she said.

“It sucks,” she said. Parking ​“should go along with the apartments.” If she had a car, she said, the new $75 monthly fee would be a strong encouragement for her to find a new apartment.

Jared Fleming, who has spent the past five months working as the in-house maintenance man at the apartment complex, was more sanguine about the coming parking increase.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” he said with a smile. ​“It kind of sucks, but I’m not a big complainer.”