Factories-To-Housing Tax Break, Rezoning OK’d

Two abandoned factory buildings in the Hill are each a step closer to revival as housing, after alders approved a tax break and a zoning change on Monday night.

At a full Board of Alders meeting in the aldermanic chamber of City Hall, alders took two votes intended to facilitate the creation of 212 new apartments in buildings where factory workers once manufactured chairs and lighting.

The legislators agreed to reduce property taxes on a proposed housing development at 10 Liberty St., a vacant brick building where Electrix Illuminating once manufactured lights.

LMXD, a New York-based developer, plans to replace the old factory with 150 housing units, all rented below the market rate. 

A proposal submitted to alders notes that the development ​“is one of very few new 100% affordable housing development[s] expected to be developed in the City.”

According to that proposal, the apartments will be reserved for tenants making between 30 percent and 80 percent of the federally-determined Area Median Income (AMI), with an average tenant making 60 percent of the AMI. For a hypothetical family of three in 2024, that would translate to an income range of $31,400 to $83,592.

Alders agreed to allow LMXD to pay taxes based on the building’s current assessed value of $1.7 million for two years. Starting in the third year, the city would apply a 15-year tax break to the development: the building’s owners would owe $400 per housing unit in taxes that year, and would increase that amount by 3 percent each year until the tax agreement ends.

Alder Carmen Rodriguez, who chairs the Community Development committee and whose ward in the Hill includes the Liberty Street development, spoke out in support of the tax abatement as necessary for the creation of 150 affordable new units.

She introduced a successful amendment to the agreement explicitly reiterating that the developers have to comply with ordinances 12 ¼ and 12 ½, which mandate hiring targets for Black, Latino, and women-owned construction companies as well as Black, Latino, and women construction workers. 

All construction projects with city financing have to comply with those requirements, and Rodriguez said after the meeting that she aimed to ensure that local residents would have a fair chance at jobs affiliated with the Liberty Street project.

Also on Monday night, alders approved a zoning change for 48 Grant St., where local landlord Allen McCollum of Atlantic Capital Investments plans to transform another shuttered factory in the Hill into housing.

The city owns a small portion of the factory, which had already been zoned as an ​“RM‑2” residential lot.

But most of the building, which once housed the New Haven Chair Factory and is now owned by Atlantic Capital Investments, was classified under the ​“IL” industrial zone, which does not allow for housing. 

On Monday night, alders unanimously voted to reclassify the entire building as an RM‑2 lot, in line with the rest of the buildings on that block of Grant Street.

McCollum wrote in his application to alders that he plans to purchase the city-owned portion of the building and convert the three-story factory to a three-story residential building with up to 62 apartments. 

He wrote that between 5 and 20 percent of the apartments will be rented at a below-market rates, in compliance with the city’s Inclusionary Zoning law.

Alder Kampton Singh, whose ward includes the Grant Street property, advocated for the rezoning on Monday night.

“This is the only commercial building on the street,” Singh said. He added that the creation of more housing from an unused building would be ​“in line with our legislative agenda, due to our shortage [of housing.]”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the 10 Liberty St. project will involve demolition of the existing buildings.