Yale Expands On Broadway With $7M Buys

Yale spent $7 million purchasing two more commercial properties on Broadway, further solidifying its ownership of the university-adjacent stretch of storefronts.

According to the city’s land records database, on Nov. 17, Yale University paid a combined $7 million across two different transactions to a private real estate investment outfit called Yale Mall Partnership in order to purchase 51 and 57 Broadway.

The adjacent commercial buildings — which the city most recently appraised for tax purposes as worth a total of $4,551,100 — currently include such shops as Campus Customs, Broadway Kitchen, Blue Jay Cleaners, Broadway Salon, and One Good for Another consignment. The campus-facing back half of one of the properties includes the vacant former home of Newman Architects. 

Some of 51 and 57 Broadway’s previous tenants included York Square Cinemas and Educated Burgher.

These latest real estate deals now mean that Yale owns eight of the nine odd-numbered properties on the northern end of Broadway, including 1, 15, 23, 29, 51, 57, 65, and 77 Broadway. The last non-university-owned storefront on that stretch is 21 Broadway, which is owned by a holding company called 1055X Properties LLC.

“These properties are in the heart of the Broadway shopping district which Yale has invested in for decades,” Yale Associate Vice President and Director of New Haven Affairs Lauren Zucker said in an email comment about the university’s recent acquisition of 51 and 57 Broadway.

“The university attracts both international and local retailers in this area and will continue to support a vibrant downtown New Haven with this acquisition. Yale will honor all existing leases with tenants. The rear part of this property exits only onto Yale-owned property and is currently vacant. The use has not been determined yet, but, to the extent any part of the property is deemed for academic use in the future, we will follow the terms of our partnership agreement with the city.” 

That agreement, approved by the Board of Alders in April 2022, states that, for any properties that Yale converts to a tax-exempt use over the course of the six-year city-Yale deal, the university will pay the city over the subsequent 12 years a declining portion of the taxes that would otherwise be owed.

According to the city’s tax collector website, this fiscal year’s local real estate tax bill for 51 Broadway is $52,244.06, and the local tax bill for 57 Broadway is $65,225.