Elks Club Sold; Plaza Plan Proceeds

The Elks Club, an anchor institution in the African-American community, is looking for a new home after selling its 87 Webster St. location as part of a broader rebuilding effort in the Dixwell neighborhood.

The Elks’ East Rock Lodge #141 sold the building this week for $900,000 to a limited liability partnership controlled by ConnCORP, a neighborhood-based entity that’s in the process of buying up the surrounding Dixwell Plaza to transform it into a new mixed-used development.

The one-story brick building, constructed in 1969, is appraised at $582,000, according to the city assessor database.

ConnCORP is allowing the Elks to stay in the building until next Sept. 15 if necessary, according to William Kilpatrick, who chairs the lodge’s trustee board.

“We need to find another location, which we will do. We have some ideas. We’re up to the task,” Kilpatrick said.

“It’s bittersweet. I’m a third-generation Elk. My grandfather is on the wall downstairs,” said lodge Exalted Ruler Gary Hogan. With a greying membership —- average age in the 70s —- it became challenging to afford capital improvements. The number of dues-paying members has declined from a highet of over 450 to under 30.

The lodge will continue to do all its ​“wonderful stuff,” just at a new location, Hogan said, who called the lodge New Haven’s ​“oldest black-owned business.”

“We have every intention of relocating in the Dixwell area,” Hogan added.

ConnCORP is a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology (ConnCAT), which runs cultural and job-training programs at Science Park). ConnCORP has been negotiating with Dixwell Plaza’s nine separate condo owners for close to two years; it has closed on some parts of the plaza, while others remain under negotiation.

Meanwhile, ConnCORP officials have been working with City Hall on plans for a mixed-use makeover for what was once a vital commercial artery in the neighborhood. (Read more about that here.) One of the Plaza’s main tenants, Stetson Branch Library, will be moving into the soon-to-be-rebuilt Dixwell ​“Q” House across the street, along with the block’s Cornell Scott Hill Health Center outpost.

Livable City Initiative (LCI) chief Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, the point person in City Hall on the project, called the Elks closing ​“another step towards revitalizing the Dixwell commercial corridor.”

ConnCORP ​“has committed to preserving the historic integrity of the neighborhood through their mission-driven development plan. The Dixwell Plaza is the center of that plan and will complement the work underway at the Q House,” said Neal-Sanjurjo, who grew up behind Dixwell Plaza at the Florence Virtue Homes and has made reviving the Avenue a priority.

The general idea of the plaza makeover has enjoyed public support, though ConnCORP has been secretive about the details of the plan.

That will soon change, according to ConnCORP press spokesperson Mercy Quaye.

“The project is being worked as a ​‘built for us’ endeavor,” Quaye said Friday. ​“That means every step along the way ConnCORP is committed to engaging the community and making sure the neighborhood has a say in what happens in their backyards.

“We’re slated to announce the plans in January through a number of community conversations, and we’re working to ensure the lines of communication remain open and collaborative throughout the process.”