Christopher Bockstael/ Svigals + Partners
Architect’s design for the project across from Career High.
After lying fallow for decades, a megablock razed in the name of urban renewal will rise again — despite the opposition of one lawmaker and the reservations of another.
The megablock is the area bound by MLK Boulevard and Legion Avenue to the north and south and Dwight and Orchard streets to the east and west. The 5.39 acres there, now a surface parking lot, is slated to become the home of a new $50 million office and retail complex, under a land disposition agreement approved Wednesday night by the Board of Alders.
The development is part of a larger plan to fill 16.2 acres between MLK and Legion, dubbed “Rt. 34 West.” Government bullodozers leveled all the buildings in the area a half-century ago to make way for a highway that was never built.
Centerplan, a Middletown developer, will buy the 5.39 acres from the city for $2.65 million. Centerplan has said it will spend $50 million to put up a new home for the Continuum of Care mental health agency, a pharmacy, a restaurant, a parking garage, and a medical building or hotel.
The plan has met with some controversy. Supporters say it’s a way to bring new life to a long vacant area, along with jobs and tax revenue. Detractors call it a car-centric suburban-style business park that won’t help the area’s pollution problems.
On Wednesday evening, Dwight Alder Frank Douglass (pictured), chair of the Community Development Committee, offered his colleagues a rundown of the project’s benefits.
It will allow Continuum of Care, which has been in New Haven for 50 years, to grow, adding 300 employees in three years, Douglass said. It will allow the city to collect “millions” in taxes in the coming years. A new Rite Aid pharmacy will be a source of jobs and a benefit to the neighborhood. And the city will get a payment of over $2.5 million for the land.
New Downtown/East Rock Alder Abigail Roth (pictured) rose to express “concern” about the project. Development at the site offers a “once in a lifetime chance” to remake the area, she said. She objected to the fact that Centerplan was offered the deal without a public bidding process. And she said the plan doesn’t have good infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians.
That said, it will create jobs and bring in taxes, and the neighborhood’s alders support it, Roth noted. She said she would vote for the plan, but encouraged the city to have open bidding processes in the future.
“I’m going to vote against this,” said Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Michael Stratton. “This was the heart of New Haven in the ‘30s and ‘40s,” he said. It’s still the heart, but it “looks like a moonscape now.” The city doesn’t need more non-profits like Continuum of Care, Stratton said. He said that area could support “high-end” housing.
Stratton’s was the only vote against the approval of the land disposition agreement.