Michele Whelley is looking beyond downtown in her bid to boost business.
Whelley came to town from Baltimore close to six months ago to open the not-for-profit Economic Development Corporation of New Haven (EDC). Mayor John DeStefano formed the quasi-public group with Yale money to focus on retaining and growing the city’s business base.
So far she has devoted her time to setting up the agency’s office on the 14th floor of the NewAlliance Bank building, hiring staff, meeting business leaders and surveying the manufacturing sector in town. She has also found time to have EDC begin working directly with two neighborhood commercial districts, the Whalley Avenue Special Services District (WASSD) and the Grand Avenue Village Association (GAVA).
Her group has already started working with the Whalley association on a “near, mid and long-term” plan for developing the corridor, Whelley said in a conversation Tuesday in the still half-empty ECD suite. ECD’s role is to offer technical assistance and advice. Earlier this month EDC co-hosted with WASSD a grand opening party for Mama Mary’s soul food restaurant.
Whalley has hit hard times. (Click here to read about hopes for one key abandoned lot.) Whelley said she hopes a combination of streetscape improvements (sidewalks, pedestrian lighting, planters, maybe some benches) and facade upgrades make it look more inviting to “people driving down from Woodbridge and Hamden” so they may choose to “stop and go to” shops and restaurants. Sort of like Westville Village.
EDC has also forged a working relationship with GAVA, comprised of merchants and property owners along Fair Haven’s bustling, immigrant-fueled Grand Avenue commercial corridor.
Unlike Whalley, Grand doesn’t have a special services district, in which property owners pay a special levy to support, say, clean-up crews, lighting, or a staff member for an organization to promote the area. A plan to start one is brewing. GAVA Executive Director Gabriela Campos began building support for forming a special services district this spring. (Click here to read about that.)
Whelley said her group wants to help. She knows that convincing taxpayers to start ponying up an extra levy can be a challenge in these times. Her pitch: GAVA has done a good job finding grant money and other one-time outside sources to pay for a “clean time,” a new district sign, sidewalk flowers, special family events, Campos’s salary. People have come to appreciate the importance of these efforts. Forming a special services district — rather than hoping to find new one-time donations every year — ensures that they’ll continue. Whelley said the goal is to have a special services district in place by July 1.