Thomas Breen photo
Union Station: Details released for 55-year deal.
A proposed new 55-year deal between the city and state would see New Haven stay in control of Union Station for the next half century — along with the development of 600 new parking spaces, an “intermodal center” for bus riders, and improved retail options at the local transit hub, all depending on the availability of state, federal and private funds.
Those details are laid out in three separate documents that the city submitted to the Board of Alders as a communication on Thursday.
The tripartite proposed order 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.
• 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.
• 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.
At Thursday night’s in-person Board of Alders meeting.
The local legislative submission marks the most substantive and detailed proposal yet to emerge after city and state leaders first signed a “letter of intent” back in September 2020 about the future operations of Union Station.
That celebratory announcement 12 months ago in turn capped years of acrimonious debate among the city, state and local transportation advocates, planners and environmentalists about who should manage the state-owned transit hub, how much new parking should be built there, and where the money would come from to fund a suite of proposed improvements.
“The City and CTDOT have been working to expand economic opportunities and customer amenities within Union Station; develop additional appropriately sized parking facilities for the Campus; and to more fully develop transit-oriented development around Union Station all in a manner consistent with the Hill to Downtown Community Plan and various state level transportation plans,” city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli wrote to the alders in a cover letter attached to the legislative submission.
He described the proposed 55-year deal between the city and the state as cementing “a new partnership to deliver best-in-class development along the Northeast Corridor.”
Notably, the proposed agreement does not include any specific dollar amount committed by the city, state, or federal governments towards the funding of the substantial redevelopment envisioned for Union Station.
Rather, the proposed improvements are largely contingent upon state bonding, federal grants, and private partnerships yet to be determined.
“The operation of the Campus is a not-for-profit venture,” reads a so-called fiscal impact statement submitted by the city to the alders alongside the various agreement documents. “Revenues for the operation and redevelopment of the Campus will be collected from parking garage revenue, retail lease revenue, other Campus sources, and other special funding that may become available, such as state/federal grants or state bond funds. All revenues will be maintained by the City in restricted, special accounts for the purposes articulated in the Agreement and pursuant to guidance established by the City Controller.”
Click here, here, here, here, and here to read the proposed lease agreement and associated documents.
The proposed order now advances to a Board of Alders committee for a public hearing and review before returning to the full board later this year for further deliberations and a potential final vote.
Operating Agreement
Inside Union Station during September 2020’s centenary celebration.
The proposed lease, operating and funding agreement between the city and state lays out many of the key terms governing how and by whom Union Station would be managed over the coming decades. Those terms include:
• The city’s lease from the state of Union Station, State Street Station, the six-story 876-space parking garage at 40 Union Ave., the 254-space surface parking lot at 30 Union Ave., the 52 – 940 square-foot “west lot” next door to Union Station, and other buildings and parking facilities built over the course of the deal.
• The base term of the lease would be 35 years, with two 10-year options for renewal. The start date for the new lease would be July 1, 2022.
• The city and state will jointly oversee the operations of the Union Station campus through their participate in two newly created governance bodies: the Executive Oversight Panel and the Operations Committee.
• The Executive Oversight Panel shall consist of the CTDOT commissioner and the mayor. Its primary responsibilities will include the final approval of the campus’s annual budget, final decision-marking regarding the pursuit of capital and redevelopment projects at Union Station, and final approval of capital expenditures that cost $500,000 or more.
• The Operations Committee will consist of two CTDOT employees appointed by the state commissioner, two city employees appointed by the mayor, and two nonvoting representatives — one from the city, one from CTDOT, neither of whom have to be public employees.
• The city will collect annual rent from parking garages, retail outlets, and other revenue-generating operations at the campus, and then set aside that money into a restricted accounts for funding capital and operation expenses at the transit hubs.
Capital Plan
Mayor Elicker and state DOT Commissioner Giulietti signing a “letter of intent” in September 2020.
The four-page proposed capital partnership agreement, meanwhile, includes a more detailed look at how the city and state would like to redevelop Union Station in the coming decades.
That redevelopment, however, is contingent upon the availability of state bonding, federal grants, and private partnerships.
Some of the capital improvement goals laid out in that agreement include:
• Improving the basement, first and second floors of Union Station to allow for and attract new retail options.
• Improving vertical access (stairs, elevators and escalators) to enable future adaptive reuse of Union Station’s upper floors.
• Improving public restrooms throughout the campus.
• Providing for potential new connections to a “mixed use intermodal center on West surface lot.”
• Pursuing public-private partnership opportunities for transit oriented development on the east and/or west lots of Union Station. Those developments should include:
— Increased access for CTtransit buses, intercity buses, shuttle buses.
— Accommodations for taxi and ridesharing access.
— 600 additional commuter parking spaces.
— Improved passenger pick-up and drop-off.
• Planning to improve access from Long Wharf and the Hill to Union Station.
• Reconnecting and rebuilding Columbus Avenue from Church Street South to Union Avenue.
• Enhancing the streetscape and wayfinding experiences connecting existing and planned parking and transportation capacity with Union Station and State Street Stations.
The potential funding for these improvements, meanwhile, could come from:
• The Union Station capital improvement account as established in the operating agreement.
• Federal 2021 earmarks, infrastructure funding, or other federal discretionary funding.
• Federal Railway Administration financing.
• Federal Transit Administration financing.
• Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement finding.
• Other transportation or infrastructure related funding.
• State capital bonding and other/or other revenue bonding provided by campus assets.