Thomas MacMIllan Photo
Right now, the warehouse is home to rats and piles of forgotten restaurant equipment. But in just a couple months, Giuliana Maravalle promises to transform a “white elephant” into a white diamond.
Maravalle will be moving Keys To The City, a successful downtown lounge, into an abandoned industrial property on Sargent Drive. She plans to open in April.
Maravalle is one of two entrepreneurs setting up shop in abandoned industrial buildings in New Haven.
The other is Eric O’Brien, who will be opening a gym at 1175 State St. His enterprise will occupy just a small piece of that vacant building, at the corner of State and James Streets. James Segaloff, attorney for the property owner, said more is planned for the empty industrial building.
O’Brien and Maravalle occupied neighboring slots on the agenda at last week’s City Plan Commission meeting. Commissioners voted unanimously to give both of them the OK to revitalize the buildings.
In addition to moving her piano bar to Sargent Drive, Maravalle will be moving her burgeoning gelato business from its current base of operations in Wallingford. The Gelato Giuliana factory will move in upstairs from Keys To The City.
On Friday, Maravalle gave a tour of the new location. The nondescript building is tucked next to Hummel hotdogs, alongside the various meat and grocery distribution facilities comprising Food Terminal Plaza. Despite the presence of Long Wharf Theater in the same plaza, the location is not an obvious one for a piano bar.
“The only thing that lives here is rats,” she said.
The location didn’t immediately appeal to Maravalle when the property owner showed it to her, she said. Danny Ciocca, of L&C International wholesale groceries, came to her for advice about what to do with the place. She told him she didn’t see potential for anything but self-storage units. “Danny, you got yourself a white elephant there,” she told him.
Then it dawned on her that she faced an opportunity to bring together her two businesses: Gelato Giuliana and Keys To The City. Ever since she started the gelato business five years ago, she’s had to run back and forth between Wallingford and downtown New Haven.
Maravalle acknowledged she will be giving up a prime location in the heart of downtown. But less than 10 percent of her clientele comes from New Haven anyway, she said. “That’s the only reason we can pull it off,” she said. “It’s absolutely a destination.”
The new location is right by the highway, allowing easy access for the suburbanites who she hopes will fill up her bar on weekend evenings.
When they arrive from Danbury and Cheshire in April, bargoers won’t find the grimy warehouse that sits there now. Maravalle plans to put some $200,000 into refurbishing the site. She’ll be knocking down walls and putting up new ones, respraying the exposed iron i-beams on the ceiling, and putting in a stage and a bar.
“I’m going to keep it very industrial-looking,” she said.
Plus, she’ll benefit from a facade grant from the city, Maravalle said. She unfurled her plans for the new front. The current windows will come out, creating two balconies lined by flowerboxes, she said. The whole front of the building will be painted white, with lots of lights. “I want this to be a diamond in the middle of all this raw,” she said, pointing at the rough industrial landscape around the site. “It’s going to look like a great big general electric bulb.”
When Keys To The City patrons pull up to the shining diamond, valets will be waiting to park their cars, Maravalle said.
Maravalle, who turns 60 this year, is a longtime entrepreneur. For 27 years, she ran a hairdressing academy. When she gave that up several years ago, other businesses bloomed. “I retired,” she said. “That’s when everything started happening.” She started the Bottega Giuliana and then the Bottega Lounge, both of which she has now sold. Then came Gelato Giuliana and Keys To The City.
The move to Sargent Drive will be her final venture, Maravalle promised. “This will be my last hurrah.”
Industrial Revolution Continues
Across town, on the corner of James and State Streets, another old industrial building awaits revitalization. The big brick building at 1175 State St. is draped with yellow banners advertising space available for lease. The first tenant, Eric O’Brien, has already spoken for 5,000 square feet of the building. He plans to open a gym for personal and group fitness training.
Meanwhile, calls are coming in from other entrepreneurs, said Attorney Jim Segaloff, who represents the property owner. Segaloff said the New York-based owner has no particular agenda for the building, and is simply responding to the types of interest that are coming in. So far, those include the gym, artist studios, architect offices, and possibly a restaurant. No manufacturers have expressed interest, Segaloff said.
Segaloff said he hopes to work with the City Plan department to facilitate new uses for the building. He said he is looking at models like the Erector Square complex on Peck Street, the old Marlin Firearms building at 85 Willow St., and the Seamco building at 1 Long Wharf Drive. These three “were big buildings that were able to be developed through the assistance of the City Plan Department,” Segaloff said.
He said he hopes to meet with members of that department this month.