Allan Appel Photo
Entrance to the prime commercial space at Grand and Hamilton.
The first two buildings of the redeveloped Farnam Courts public housing development on Grand Avenue — remonikered as Mill River Crossing — are now nearly filled up. And the public-housing complex has a new name: “Mill River Crossing.”
The new name dovetails with the also recently monikered and re-signed “Mill River District” between Fair Haven and Wooster Square, along both sides of the river.
The complex started out as 244 low-income housing units beginning back in the 1940s. More than 138 families were recently relocated — some permanently — to new apartments at the former Cott soda factory in Fair Haven and Eastview Terrace in the Heights. That allowed for the demolition of about 120 of the units at the front of the complex facing Grand Avenue to make way for the 94 new apartments, 86 of which are affordable and eight are market rate.
Those apartments make up the two buildings of the first phase of the redevelopment. The first phase also includes 5,900 square feet of commercial and community space on the first floor.
Housing authority officials, who cut a ribbon in July, have now rented all 86 of the affordable units in the new buildings of the first phase, which front Grand Avenue.
In total only 52 families remain in the old townhouses behind. They are poised for relocation so demolition can start on phase two in the coming months.
Johansen with Quinnipiac East Management Team co-chair Donald Spencer.
Mill River Crossing Resident Services Manager Kim Johansen offered that update at Tuesday night’s regular meeting of the Quinnipiac East Management team held at the St. James Church on East Grand Avenue.
In recent years the 70-year-old development had become run down and a magnet for lots of police calls.
The Glendower Group, the development arm of the Housing Authority of New Haven, is hoping to transform what had been a troubled and isolated public housing complex into one with some mixed-income occupants, retail on the street, and more mellifluous connections with both Wooster Square and downtown.
The two finished buildings, looking east on Grand.
More than 138 families were relocated — some permanently — to new apartments at the former Cott soda factory in Fair Haven and Eastview Terrace in the Heights.
That allowed for the demolition of about 120 of the units at the front of the complex facing Grand Avenue. Johansen called the apartments “quite impressive,” citing, for example generous storage space, such as “three closets when you walk in,” that she remembered from her tour of the new buildings.
Johansen also serves as the resident services manager for Eastview Terrace and the Chatham Street development, the site of the old soda factory.
The eight remaining apartments in the two new buildings are being offered at market rate and are not yet leased.
The centerpiece of the 5,900 square feet of community and commercial space in the first phase is on the eastern corner at Grand and Hamilton Street.
The empty lot and remaining townhouses over which the second phase’s buildings are slated to rise.
Officials are still looking for a tenant for that commercial space, one that would be useful for the residents, like a coffee shop, Johansen said.
Glendower Group Senior Vice President Shenae Draughn said there are currently prospects for the commercial space.
The first phase consists of the two five-story building whose total apartment mix is 31 one-bedrooms, 53 two-bedrooms, eight three-bedrooms, and three four-bedrooms. The project’s first phase has come in at a cost of approximately $25 million.
Draughn said the second phase of construction will take place in 2019 and consist of 111 rental units.