Price's rendering of repurposed Walt's Cleaners building.
Jason Price at Dixwell community meeting.
Walt’s Cleaners on Dixwell Avenue is long gone, but Black-owned business doesn’t have to be.
NXTHVN co-founder Jason Price made that pitch to Dixwell neighbors for the first of many community input meetings aimed at discussing what the neighborhood wants to see the untended site become.
Price proposed a rough draft of an expansion plan of NXTHVN’s 45,000 square-foot facility currently housed around the corner at 169 Henry St.
The city bought the former Walt’s Cleaners building in March 2020 as part of a broader effort to revitalize the corridor with neighborhood-owned small business. It was part of an effort to breathe new life into what was once the commercial heart of Black New Haven. Walt’s was a longtime anchor, across the street from the famous Monterey Cafe and down the block from Unique Boutique.
The draft Price presented at Tuesday night’s online community meeting envisions a repurposed multi-functional rendering of a facility that would offer space for affordable housing, programming, and entrepreneurial dreams.
The rendering was originally for repurposing a seven-unit apartment complex at 161 Henry street that NXTHVN also owns. That original plan, which included relocating the Elephant in the Room Boxing Gym, fell through, Price said.
Now Price plans to transfer the multi-functional plan to the 310 Dixwell Ave. site.
The proposed facility would include affordable housing units, community gathering space, and a retail home for local business ventures.
“We want to be genuine and sincere about how we approach these neighborhoods. We come from neighborhoods like this,” Price said. “We understand what happens in neighborhoods like this, and quite honestly we want to change the game and be a magnet for new capital that we can redistribute.”
An estimate of the number of affordable apartments or their prices has not yet been determined at the early stages of the planning process, Price said.
The proposed plan’s retail space would be called “Central” and house Black-owned start-up businesses. Harlem-based Fredrick Benjamin Grooming (FB), which sells hair care products for Black men, is one business Price plans to bring into the space.
The proposed co-working space would aim to “help entrepreneurs outgrow the space” and incubate starting businesses.
Price said parking plans have been yet to be worked out, which is a priority.
David Brown: Keep it Black.
While heading to the grocery store Wednesday morning, retired firefighter and musician David R. Brown, 65, said he wasn’t sure what the old cleaner spot should become. All he knows is that it “should maintain the historically Black infrastructure African Americans created on Dixwell” he said.
Brown, who grew up in New Haven, recalled Walt’s Cleaners being a “real safe spot” in the ’70s.
Three buildings over from the cleaners, a trio standing outside Dope N Delicious Seafood on Dixwell Avenue offered suggestions for Walt’s redevelopment: a community center, an indoor open-gym facility for year around basketball, and a free public parking lot. (The trio declined to take a photo or give their names.)
During Tuesday night’s Zoom meeting, neighbor Laura Dan suggested the space include exercise programs that would improve and interest the community, like hip-hop aerobics and African dance classes.
Dixwell neighbor Lillie Chambers offered praise for the drafted plans. But she raised concerns about adding another NXTHVN facility to the neighborhood; she said she and neighbors don’t feel welcomed at the current Henry Street site.
When Chambers took a tour at the Henry Street NXTHVN facility during its grand opening, she said, she and her neighbors “felt like we were in the wrong place.”
“It’s a great concept. It’s a great idea. But my concern is that we’re being gentrified out,” Chambers said. “It sounds great, but I still want to see us, Black and Brown, on this project.”
Price asked Chambers to give NXTHVN a second chance to show that the facility is for the benefit of Dixwell.
“The design of this place is in this community on purpose,” Price said. “We think that this particular neighborhood deserves to have the highest level art.”
He added that NXTHVN plans to host block parties in the near future to welcome the neighborhood into the space.
Multiple neighbors thanked Price for starting his planning process with neighborhood feedback.
“I want to thank Jason for coming to community first and foremost. Others don’t do that,” Chambers said.
Dixwell Community Management Team Chair Crystal Gooding raised concerns that the space isn’t big enough for all of Price’s ideas. She also suggested Price ask the community about what it would like in the building’s proposed retail space.
“Growing up in Dixwell, I want to be able to support Dixwell,” Gooding said.
Tuesday's community meeting.
City government’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) carried out the purchase of the Walt’s property. Director Arlevia Samuel said next the city plans to continue its conversation with Price about the acquisition of 310 – 312 Dixwell Ave. and 777 Orchard St. for his proposed plans.
As planning continues, Price emphasized that his team will working in an “intentional manner.”
“We just know that we have to control capital and be in position to be able to act on these properties,” Price said.
NXTHVN also plans at its Henry Street location to launch a co-working space for neighbors to develop entrepreneurial ideas, a cafe, and a 100-person theatre and performance space that “hearkens back to what it [community] once was,” Price said.