Alders Approve 55-Year Union Station Deal

On the same day that President Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill targeted at improving the country’s transportation networks, the Board of Alder granted final approval to a three-part plan to redevelop Union Station to include 600 new parking spaces, an ​“intermodal center” for bus riders, and improved retail options.

That was the outcome of Monday night’s latest bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

The alders unanimously approved an amended three-part deal among the city, the state, and the city’s parking authority regarding the future of Union Station.

That deal includes:

• A lease, operating and funding agreement between the city and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) for the management and operation of New Haven Union Station, State Street Station, and associated parking garages and parking lots. The proposed agreement includes a base term of 35 years with two 10-year options for renewal, and a requirement for the city and parking authority to meet with the alders after 10 years and after 33 years to discuss how the partnership is going.

• A ​“Capital Partnership Agreement” that lays out the city’s and state’s goals for the redevelopment of the Union Station campus over the next five decades. That capital plan includes building 600 new parking garage spaces, an ​“intermodal center” for bus riders, and tripling the station’s retail footprint from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet.

• An agreement between the city and the New Haven Parking Authority that would have the parking authority continue to manage the day-to-day operations of the local transit hub. That parking authority agreement includes a base term of five years, with automatic five-year-term renewals thereafter.

While Monday’s approval does not commit any specific public dollars towards redeveloping the local transit hub, it does provide a 55-year roadmap for what the city and the state would like to see Union Station, State Street station, and their various parking lots and parking garages become.

“It’s not a document that provides funding,” Westville Alder and Finance Committee Vice Chair Adam Marchand said Monday night. ​“It’s more a vision of what we would raise funding for, of what is the new direction we want to take the station in.”

The various improvements outlined in Monday’s document would instead rely largely upon state and federal dollars to become reality.

That possibility got a significant boost thanks to a separate political development that happened to take place a few hours before Monday’s local vote—President Biden’s signing of a $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill. The bill includes $66 billion for Amtrak upgrades and improvements to the Northeast rail corridor between Washington D.C. and Boston. 

“We’re excited for the opportunity to go after these grants that are coming out,” city parking authority Executive Director Doug Hausladen said at a recent Development Commission meeting when asked about the potential impact of the federal infrastructure bill on the future of the local transit hub. ​“The State of Connecticut has a laser focus on Union Station and redeveloping the area around it.”

During Monday’s local legislative meeting, alders who spoke up on the matter heralded the Union Station deal as ushering in a new era of transit-oriented development, multimodal transit connections, and improved city-state relations regarding the century-old transportation hub.

“It’s been a long journey between the city and the state to have some coming together of vision for this very important facility, this very important hub in our community,” Marchand said.

Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison praised the amended agreement for including a section that calls on the city, state and parking authority to prioritize providing apprenticeships for New Haveners and minority and female workers interested in working in the transportation sector. ​“This will really help our community grow overall,” she said about the deal.

East Rock Alder Anna Festa noted how four million people per year come through Union Station. ​“I am confident that once, and I pray for this, that high-speed trains become a reality, this will allow for additional train ridership and boost New Haven’s economy.”

And Downtown Alder Abby Roth lauded the deal giving some much-needed attention to building out shopping and dining options at the Beaux Arts train station.

“While Union Station is a beautiful gem, it is completely underutilized in terms of retail,” she said. These plans to expand and bring in new retail options could make New Haven’s Union Station a bit more like Washington D.C.‘s Union Station, which, Roth said, is visited regularly not just by travelers passing through, but also by people who live nearby.