Melissa Bailey Photo
Workers will start tearing out lead and asbestos from New Haven’s historic gun factory in the next couple of months, if the state comes through with a pledge to help a fast-growing hometown financial services company move to a new home.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell (at center in photo) has pledged $5.5 million in state aid towards rehabbing Tract A of Science Park, the iconic abandoned Winchester Repeating Arms Company building at the corner of Munson Street and Winchester Avenue.
The support will help transform the old factory building into a new headquarters for New Haven’s own Higher One, a financial services company started by three Yale undergraduates 10 years ago. Higher One handles financial services for students at 650 colleges and universities. It employs 170 people across the street at 25 Science Park and plans to move into the new space to accommodate a growing workforce. (Click here, here and here for related stories.)
At a chilly press conference Tuesday in the factory’s “bombed-out” inner courtyard, Rell hailed Higher One a “success story” for New Haven and the state. She said she expects the state Bond Commission to approve a $2 million grant Friday to pay for site construction. The state will pay another $3.5 million for environmental cleanup, state officials said. The $5.5 million will be part of a larger package including $1 million in sales and use tax exemptions and up to $18.5 million in tax credits in the next 10 years. Those tax credits are contingent on how many jobs Higher One creates.
The company plans to add 200 new positions in New Haven by January 2015.
Standing next to a large dirt pile, Chief Operations Officer Miles Lasater (at right in photo above) showed Rell and Mayor John DeStefano (at left in photo) where he would put them: In two large buildings with broken windows revealing the debris of bygone industry.
Tract A of Science Park.
Higher One plans to spend $46 million on the rehab, Lasater said. It comes at a time of great expansion for the company — after turning 10 years old, the company made $36 million by going public on the New York Stock Exchange in June. He said he looks forward to finding a new use for the historic building. He called the new spot a “cost-effective” and convenient place to grow.
After years of producing the Gun That Won The West, the building comes with significant environmental cleanup. Fifteen neighbors from Dixwell and Newhallville are being trained in environmental remediation to get the job done.
If all goes well, they’ll start clearing out lead and asbestos from rooms like these (pictured) in the next couple of months, according to Abe Naparstek of Forest City Enterprises. Forest City, a large national developer, is joining forces with New Haven-savvy Winstanley Enterprises to develop the site.
The duo plans to draw up a design next year to add 200 apartments to the same complex where the Higher One offices will be, Naparstek said.
Building Higher One’s new offices should take 12 months, Naparstek said. Plans (pictured) include a rooftop terrace, lots of offices, and a second-floor cafeteria inside a 140,000-square-foot space.
Svigals + Partners