Opinion: Yale’s Malling New Haven

The man who rebuilt New Haven’s ​“new urbanist” downtown in the 1980s sounds an alarm about Yale’s subsequent retail rebranding. 

Several months ago Yale’s representative to New Haven, Bruce Alexander, retired. Despite all the time that passed under his reign and his notoriety, there have been a number of articles written about him and his accomplishments, all of which lauded him ​‚going so far as to give him credit for the renaissance of downtown New Haven.

As they are going to have a substantial impact on the city, I think it’s appropriate to discuss what he proposed, what he did, and how this will impact us
over the next 25 years. 

My comments are solely directed at Alexander’s attempts to build a mall in downtown New Haven. He had a large number of other responsibilities, which I will leave to others to analyze. However, the improved perception of New Haven over the past 10 years is entirely the result of the improvements made in the downtown in the early 1980s and 1990s. Much of this is being eroded by his implementation of a mall-based retail strategy in downtown.

As the perception of the city’s downtown shapes everybody’s opinion of New Haven, some lengthy comments on what we have been trying to do since WWII and the opinions of myself and others about what should be done, follow. Hopefully this article and the accompanying materials will return Yale to a downtown neighborhood retail philosophy so the downtown can continue to prosper. 

Three assaults have been made on our downtown since WW II.

First of course was the Mayor Dick Lee redevelopment program which was a disaster on every front — adopting what I call the ​“winter wheat” approach to downtown development. This is a theory similar to the agricultural policy of burning the winter wheat to promote the spring wheat’s arrival. In New Haven’s case these policies tore down a large percentage of our historic downtown. By 1980 downtown was basically closed, most buildings vacant, one or two restaurants remaining, streets deserted, particularly at night, the final statement on the Dick Lee redevelopment idea — a complete failure. We are finally, 50 years later, seeing signs of a renaissance, but there are still large areas in ashes. 

Second, we have the Mayor John DeStefano approach, which also has never worked, namely building large buildings — schools, aquariums, basketball stadiums — which are supposed to generate traffic and enthusiasm for downtown and all of which have failed. This is what’s called ​“the edifice complex”; cities all over the United States show the disastrous signs of these desperate attempts. The construction of Gateway Community College along with the arts magnet school have done nothing to impact positively downtown New Haven and have foreclosed any attempts for neighborhood development in three or four blocks of central downtown. The streets with the least retail activity and pedestrians are the blocks directly adjacent to the college. 

Third, we have the Bruce Alexander approach, similar to all the other failed downtown development policies put in place over the last 50 years, which is build a mall.

Despite the failures of the Chapel Square Mall, the Meriden Mall, the Stamford Mall and so on, Alexander, with the approval of Yale, recklessly decided that he had the answer and built what is euphemistically called The Stores at Yale In New Haven, namely a mall.

What should we be trying to do? We should be trying to create a downtown replete with local stores, interesting restaurants, local owners who are invested in downtown New Haven, a culture of support for smaller stores and a refusal to lease to large chain stores and to include a large residential population. Examples of these are Middletown, Connecticut, most of New York City, Georgetown, and the long-term neighborhoods in most large American cities. 

First, an article from the Hartford Courant way back in 2001 contains several thoughtful comments from a variety of Yale-related employees: “… Too-strict leases can often damage longtime businesses, push them out and ultimately change the character of a region.” And landlords should be conscientious of what those mom-and-pops offer in terms of local character.” In the same article another said: ​“The vision for Broadway has now largely been realized. The goal is a proven recipe: an eclectic mix of local stores and big-name stores.” Thus the demise of downtown malls and the fundamentals of successful downtown retail were anticipated in 2001 by Yale associates. 

Second, my comments have been guided by a report by David Roth of the Yale Law School, who wrote in 2011 a major hundred-page document about Yale and its retail strategy. The report gives concrete explanation for the vacancies that are plaguing the area. It details specific examples of how Yale has systematically excluded small business owners. This report also projects that harm will be done by Yale not only in the downtown area, but
also to other parts of New Haven and adjacent communities as Yale continues to gentrify areas and increase its real estate footprint. 

Unfortunately the underlying philosophy of Yale’s real estate holdings in New Haven is entirely the opposite of all these tenets.

Yale’s goal is to make as much money as possible, with no concern for neighborhood retailers, heavily subsidized national mall stores, leases 95 pages long and only five-year terms with rents at the top of the market. There is virtually no attempt by Yale to encourage and nurture local retailers. 

The Alexander managing team ignored these policies, removed most of the local stores in the downtown and left instead a substantial number of chain stores and increasing vacancies. 

We’re surrounded by Apple, Barnes and Noble, Chipotle, Dunkin’ Donuts, Hallal, J. Crew, LL Bean, Patagonia, Shake Shack, Subway, Taco Bell, Urban Outfitters and two Starbucks with no emerging stars from New Haven. Nobody left owns and operates his or her store. Instead, like most mall stores, Yale stores are filled with inexperienced store managers who leave every five or six months. 

As a result, predictably, Yale has a significant number of vacancies. Every mall or development abhors vacancies and does what it can to make sure there are no vacant stores. Yale seems incapable of leasing spaces probably because of the size of their leases and the amount of money they are charging. Vacancies at the moment: 172 York Street, the former Rhumba space off Sherman’s Alley, Tahli II behind the Yale Co-op, the Copper Kitchen on Chapel Street, 976 Chapel Street and 1010 Chapel Street, 224, 228, 230 and 260 College Street, 296 Broadway, space adjacent to LL Bean, and the space between Patagonia and the Good Nature Market. These vacancies have been with us for at least a year or two and up to five years. A charming New England university downtown has been converted to a struggling suburban mall with disastrous results. Most chain stores are now moving away from retail locations to a vigorous on line presence. Apparently the winds of the Amazon revolution have not blown past Woodbridge Hall.

Based on these policies and the dilemmas of every single downtown shopping district, we’re in for a rough ride hopefully not bringing us back to the desperate days of the 1970s. 

What can we do about this? As Yale owns all the buildings I’ve described and shows no signs of changing its retail philosophy, there’s nothing that the City of New Haven or any of us can do. Hopefully, the new replacement for Bruce Alexander, John Callahan, will understand what a mess he has inherited and revert back to New Haven specialty neighborhood stores. That is the only retail option for success in New Haven. One hopes that he will understand the precepts of neighborhood retailing, change the shopping-mall lease to an understandable user-friendly document that will operate in tandem with a new attitude that local stores will be encouraged and nurtured. If Bruce Alexander’s retail aspirations and plans are followed, the downtown will deteriorate further. Expect more vacancies, more Taco Bells, more LL Beans.

Joel Schiavone and fellow Redevelopment Authority commissioner Brian McGrath discussed New Haven retail and their proposed urban renewal plan to promote neighborhood-monitored eminent domain of slumlord properties in the Dwight/West River/Chapel West district, during a recent edition of WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program; McGrath, unlike Schiavone, praised Yale for filling downtown storefronts. Click on the above video to watch. Click here to read their urban renewal proposed plan.