Neena Satija FIle Photo
New Haven still believes it can do better than having a strip club at a sprawling complex where more than 1,500 workers once turned out more than three million clocks a year. The state has agreed to help that quest.
That quest involved the former New Haven Clock Factory at 133 Hamilton St.
The complex, which once had 14 buildings, had its heyday close to a century ago; the clock factory closed in 1959. Since then it has been rotting, though small businesses like the current (and controversial) Primo “Gentleman’s” strip club (and Key Club affiliate) are still active on the first floor.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Wednesday that the state will grant New Haven $200,000 to study what it would take to clean up the polluted site and redevelop it, as part of a broader $7 million in “brownfield remediation” grants awarded statewide. The grants are part of the Connecticut Remedial Action and Redevelopment Municipal Grant Program.
The city applied for the money on behalf of the Yagovane family, which has owned the complex since 1987. The family is looking to sell it to a developer, but needs to know what’s involved in cleaning it up, according to city economic development officer Helen Rosenberg. Hence the study.
“It makes sense to figure out what needs to be done before they make any aggressive efforts to” sell the property, Rosenberg said.
The city is hoping that lofts might go there for renters, or “maker” space (where people can live and work), or a specialty crafts or furniture operation. That would fit in with the Mill River District industrial plan. The property is located right off I‑91 in the industrial stretch on the other side of the highway from Wooster Square.
“This is a study to look at the highest and best use and to give them harder numbers [and] a more realistic view of what the building is worth,” said city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson. “A lot of people who looked at it were interested in developing it thought with such a complicated [and narrow,wood-framed] building,” they needed to know more about remediation costs.
Previous dreams for the property have failed to come to fruition. Rosenberg was working on the same property back in 2000 when the city won $1.5 million in federal grants and loan guarantees to tear down part of the complex to enable Palmieri Food Products to expand its spaghetti-sauce business. But the New Haven Preservation Trust opposed the demolition, and the city ended up not accepting the money. Since then some demolition has “happened anyway by deterioration,” Rosenberg noted.
Organizers of the 2011 Occupy New Haven action on the Green considered seeking to re-occupy themselves at the clock factory along with a “Free Store” and community garden. That plan also failed to come to fruition.
Only the strip club has survived in a small portion of the property. On Oct. 26, 2013 a visitor to an after-hours party there named Erika Robinson lost her life when she was hit by a stray bullet in a gang-related shooting.
The city obtained the state grant on behalf of the Yagovane family, which bought the property 28 years ago. Bill Kraus, an historic-rehab consultant and developer who represents the family, said the vision is to convert the “inspiring” and “historic” property into a live/work space for artists or creative craftspeople. He said he and the family haven’t decided yet whether to develop the property themselves or to sell it to someone else to develop it. The state-paid study will help them decide.
“We are taking one step at a time,” Kraus sad Thursday. “This is a really important development. We’re going to see how this phase unfolds.”
Mayor Toni Harp issued a statement thanking the governor for the study grant: “These projects help the city ‘recycle’ viable urban parcels where existing infrastructure and utilities, along with a nearby workforce readily support redevelopment. They also accelerate the return of these parcels to the city’s Grand List.”