Downtown’s Next Concert Venue?

The city is looking for a new tenant for a nearly 10,000 square-foot, publicly owned commercial space on College Street, with an eye toward bringing in a new performance venue sized between the College Street Music Hall and clubs like Café Nine.

One prospective applicant, a local historian with deep professional and familial roots on the block, would like to see that space occupied by a city museum and cultural center rather than by just another bar, restaurant or concert venue.

The New Haven Parking Authority (NHPA) released a Request for Proposal (RFP) last Thursday for the leasing of the commercial space located on the street level of the Crown Street parking garage at the corner of Crown Street and College Street. The 9,509-square-foot space occupies the addresses 215 Crown, 239 Crown, and 223 College.

Applications are due to the NHPA’s main office at 232 George St. by 3 p.m. on Thursday, June 7. Click here to view the full RFP.

For nearly 45 years, the city and the parking authority have leased the garage’s commercial spaces to a variety of downtown night clubs, including the popular oldies dance club Boppers in the 1980s and 1990s. In the late 1970s it was a popular jazz club called Clarence’s Court Jester.

For the past four years, the city has engaged in a dizzying array of lawsuits to evict the space’s current tenant Albert Farrah, who used to run the Alchemy night club out of that spot.

City Economic Development Administrator (EDA) Matthew Nemerson, NHPA Chair Norm Forrester, and NHPA Acting Executive Director Doug Hausladen all said that the city has ended its lease with Farrah and that the latest lawsuit is nearing its conclusion. Court records show that Farrah’s company, Hopkins Restaurant Corporation, filed for bankruptcy this March. Nemerson, Forrester and Hausladen anticipate an imminent return of the Crown Street Garage retail property to the city and the parking authority.

Now that the city and the parking authority will have this large commercial space available again, Forrester said, they would like to bring in a new tenant to help bring new patrons downtown and stimulate the economic development of the city’s core.

“We’re looking for any type of venue that will continue the development and vibrancy of downtown New Haven,” he said.

Nemerson said that a previous analysis conducted by consultants hired by the city recommended that the space would be best put to use as a mid-sized, 500-person performance venue; something smaller than the nearby Shubert Theatre and College Street Music Hall, but larger than Café Nine or Stella Blues.

Nemerson referred to College Street as ​“Connecticut Street,” representative of the best academic and entertainment and culinary amenities the state has to offer. ​“This block has such a density of eating places already,” he said. He said he would like to see a tenant that brings more potential customers to the block.

The RFP itself does not specify exactly what type of commercial enterprise the city is looking for. It calls only for a redeveloper who will propose to adapt and renovate the property for a use that ​“complements nearby retail, restaurant, residential, entertainment/recreational, and other uses in the surrounding Downtown commercial district.”

Hausladen said this is a rare opportunity to reimagine and transform a keystone location downtown that has for years been an ​“opaque, closed-off building.” ​“I’d love to see what the business community and the private sector come up with,” he said.

The RFP states that the initial lease terms should begin at $6 per square foot triple net, meaning that the tenant is responsible for building insurance, real estate taxes, and maintenance. The RFP also states than each proposal should include an additional one-time payment of at least $60,000 at the time of the signing of the lease.

The RFP cites as criteria for the location’s prospective tenant a use that adds to the city’s brand as fun, exciting, and unique; that provides additional patrons for downtown restaurants and retail establishments; and that expands New Haven’s tax base or strengthens its existing tax base.

It also says that the initial lease will not be longer than 10 years, with options for the city to end the lease within one year’s notice or two year’s notice depending on the duration of the tenant.

A seven-member selection committee chaired by Nemerson will review all applications and forward at least three to the NHPA for final review and signing.

“We’re looking for the best and brightest idea to come out of an open process,” Hausladen said. ​“We’re excited to see what the new energy in New Haven has to offer.”

Nemerson said the city has already received several applications for the newly available location. Hausladen said all applications will be made public on Thursday, June 7 at 3 p.m. at the NHPA’s Crown Street office.

A New New Haven Cultural Center?

Local artist and historian Robert S. Greenberg has not yet submitted an application for the Crown Street Garage commercial space, but he is considering it, and he definitely has a vision for how he would like to see that space put to use.

“The history of this city needs to be told,” Greenberg said from a studio and warehouse space he rents on Grand Avenue just east of the Mill River. ​“Because the history of New Haven is the history of the United States.”

For decades, Greenberg, a New Haven native, has been collecting thousands upon thousands of artifacts and memorabilia that help tell the city’s history, particularly its history as an epicenter of manufacturing and industrial invention in the 19th and 20th centuries. He has original cigar rolling tables from F.D. Grave’s, an original keg from the old Hull’s Brewing Company, and even a slice of the 103-year-old Lincoln Oak that toppled in 2013 to reveal a time capsule buried under its base.

For years, Greenberg housed his massive collection of New Haven-alia on the third and fourth stories of his family’s ACME Furniture building at 33 Crown St. until his father decided to sell the building in late 2016.

Since then, Greenberg has been building a new space on Grand Avenue for restoring and displaying the 5,000 New Haven-made objects he has collected over the years. He said he has invested his life savings in the project, and hopes to open the new self-made museum to the public in October 2018.

But Greenberg sees his Grand Avenue space, which he rents from Reclamation Lumber, as best used for restoration and tinkering. He thinks that a place with greater foot traffic and proximity to the city center would be a better fit for the type of historical and cultural center he envisions.

And so when he heard about the city’s RFP for the College Street Garage commercial space, his eyes lit up.

“There’s something mystical about that ancient grid,” Greenberg said about the Ninth Square neighborhood, which is anchored by Crown Street. He said he would love to relocate his collection to the Crown Street Garage space considering its accessibility by foot, its ample parking capacity, and its proximity to such New Haven landmarks as the Green, City Hall, and Yale University.

“Instead of a music venue,” he said, ​“instead of a bar or another adult-orientated venue, put in a mixed-use space that encompasses the magnificence of New Haven.”

He said he would like to tear out the commercial space’s existing orange siding and replace it with glass, all the better to display to the street the diversity of his collection. In addition to the museum, he said he envisions a gift store that sells only New Haven-made art and other goods. He said a wine bar or some other kind of locally managed event space could occupy the back half of the building. And he said the space could serve as a launching off point for existing bike and walking tours led by the likes of his fellow local historian Colin Caplan.

“If you put enough of [these objects] together,” he said, ​“you create a cabinet of curiosities. A history bomb.”

He said he is desperate to get his collection of New Haven artifacts used by the city’s youth and students in particular to help inspire a love of New Haven history that he developed early on as a student at Beecher School, Richard C. Lee High School, and the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA).

The one catch, he said, is that he doesn’t have the money to fund this project himself. In fact, he said, he would like the city to donate the space to him and pay him to curate his collection.

“If I’m going to promote the city,” he said, ​“the city should pay for it.”

If the city can’t afford to give him the space outright, he said, then he hopes to raise money himself.

“There’s a lot of wealthy people in New Haven,” he said. ​“They need to buck up some money to do this.” He said that anyone interested in supporting his endeavor to set up a New Haven historical and cultural center centered around his collection can reach him at rsgreenberg@earthlink.net.

“I’m sick of restaurants coming and going,” he said about downtown’s commercial landscape. ​“Why do you want a rotating door? Build something that celebrates you.”

Hausladen said that Greenberg, and any other prospective tenants for the Crown Street Garage space, should make sure to submit their applications before June 7.

“The only ideas that I’ll have comments on are ones that are submitted before the public bid process is closed,” he said. But, he said, applicants should feel free to submit questions to the NHPA about, for example, whether or not they have to rent the entire space or just part of it.