Senior-Housing Builder Seeks 5 More Years

A Maryland-based developer has requested a five-year extension for plans to build 124 senior apartments in West Hills — a project, and an underlying property, that he now hopes to sell to some other builder who may have better luck getting it done.

That requested extension was discussed via the Zoom videoconferencing app during the City Plan Commission’s latest regular monthly meeting.

The project in question is a 124-unit, market-rate apartment complex for elderly residents slated to be built at 1155 Whalley Ave., in the shadow of West Rock on the West River.

According to a Sept. 8 letter sent to the City Plan Commission by attorney Joseph Williams, the project’s developer, West Rock Views LLC, would like to receive a five-year extension for a site plan originally approved by commissioners on April 20, 2016. That site plan approval is set to expire on April 20, 2021.

“We know of no material change in circumstances preventing the requested extension,” Williams wrote to the commission. ​“In fact, by letter dated January 4, 2019, Mike Piscitelli confirmed that the site plans for this project are in conformance with CPC 1480-05, subject to submission of the bond and updated SESC plans once a contractor is chosen.”

The commissioners ultimately decided to table the item until next month, when they hope to speak to the developer himself and assess his reasons for requesting five more years to get the currently envisioned project built.

During a Tuesday morning phone interview with the Independent, developer Larry Waldorf said that his company is seeking the five-year extension because the Covid-19 pandemic impeded his attempts to show the property to prospective buyers.

“We want to sell the property and the plans and the approvals to somebody who can come in and do a proper job,” he said. ​“I’m not interested in just dropping the property” in the lap of a developer who can’t follow through on building the actual complex.

Waldorf said he hasn’t been able to get up to New Haven to show the property to prospective buyers since March. He said he spent the first two or three years after receiving site plan approval from the commission working to clear the 20-plus conditions associated with that approval. ​“Then you’ve got a year here where you haven’t been able to do anything because of the pandemic,” he said. ​“We haven’t had much of an opportunity to make a sales pitch.”

Waldorf said that the first section of the proposed building, on the far east side of the property, will require a fair amount of excavating in order to get the complex built. Otherwise, ​“the lot looks more difficult than it actually is if you make a survey of the lot,” he said. ​“It looks like a daunting task to build anything on that lot. But if you look at it from the right perspective, it’s actually a pretty easy lot to build on, except for that first section.”

The project site sits on a steep strip of land off of Whalley Avenue, in between Emerson Street and East Ramsdell Street, that runs down to the West River.

The Maryland-based developer said he has spoken to a few interested potential buyers of the site and project. He said a five-year extension for the site plan approval would make the project that much more attractive to potential buyers actually capable of building the complex.

Two Decades Later, Still No Apartments

The 1155 Whalley Ave. development has a tumultuous history, as far as site plan approvals go. Originally given site plan approval in 1999, the project stalled when Waldorf let his permission to build expire. He brought the project back to the City Plan Commission in 2013 but couldn’t get it approved because of flooding concerns and regulations that had changed since his original approval had expired. After multiple site plan denials, Waldorf sued the commission. A judge subsequently ruled that Waldorf and the commission had to work out some resolution for the property owner’s plans to build on the site.

After another two years of wrangling between the city and Waldorf, the City Plan Commission approved the project with conditions in April 2016. In June 2018, a representative for the planned development told the Westville/West Hills Community Management Team that the project — then in the works for 19 years — was back on track for construction.

During last week’s City Plan Commission meeting, Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand suggested that there might be some merits to denying the five-year extension request and requiring the property owner to come back with another site plan for review.

“I just would observe that you could contemplate a scenario where material conditions on the ground change during the course of time, especially if you have a river that travels through a wide channel,” he said about the project, which is set to be built along the West River.

“I could see a legitimate interest in revisiting a site plan given that environmental conditions that the site may make the development as approved less tenable than before.”

City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison criticized the project as currently envisioned — but advocated for his colleagues to support tabling the item so that the developer or the developer’s attorney could have a chance to explain to the commission the rationale behind the extension.

“This seems to be an awfully long time, and I hated the project before,” he said. ​“I’m not eager to go through that experience again. But it seems a little unfair to say no without hearing from somebody. They ought to have an opportunity to come forward and convince us. Maybe we’ll believe them, and maybe we won’t.”

According to the city land records database, on May 28 Waldorf issued a $372,571 purchase money mortgage loan to West Rock Views LLC for the properties at 1102 Whalley Ave., 1105 Whalley Ave., 1155 Whalley Ave., and 206 Valley St. On that same day, Waldorf’s business partner, Christine Rogers, also issued a $665,158 purchase money mortgage loan to West Rock Views LLC for the properties at 1102 Whalley Ave. and 1105 Whalley Ave.