Thomas Breen photos
English Building at 418 State. Below: Developers Josef and Jacob Feldman with architect Dwayne Dancy and attorney Gregory Muccilli.
The Feldman brothers developers won unanimous approval to convert the historic James E. English Building on State Street into 39 market-rate apartments as city planners applauded a nearly all-residential project that seeks to avoid the empty groundfloor storefront phenomenon.
Commissioners granted that approval Wednesday night during the regular monthly meeting of the commission in the groundfloor meeting space at the 200 Orange St. municipal office building.
They approved the site plan submitted by Jacob and Josef Feldman’s MOD Equities for 418 State St., the red-brick, four-story commercial-office building that was built circa-1865 and that currently sits vacant at the corner of State Street and Court Street downtown.
The site plan calls for the building’s conversion into 39 apartments, a mix of one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, as well as a ground-floor commercial space of roughly 844 square feet.
Commissioners also granted unanimous approval for the developers to receive a special permit allowing them to build out apartments on the building’s first floor. The underlying zone for the district does not allow first-floor residential use as of right.
Wednesday night’s City Plan Commission meeting.
“The proposed development will preserve the historic building while providing for a high-intensity use,” said local attorney Gregory Mucilli.
As for the apartments being added to the first floor, which used to house such commercial enterprises as The Regal Beagle and Adolf Viennese Couturier-Furs, Mucilli said, that part of the building will not have to stay residential forever.
“The first floor design is such that, if commercial use along the State Street corridor comes back, then the first floor could easily be restored to its commercial use.”
MOD formerly won site plan approval back in 2015 to build out 18 apartments in the building. The updated site plan doubles the allowable units, and makes the project nearly entirely residential.
“It’s pretty much an interior fit out,” said Jacob Feldman.
There will be recreation space, bicycle storage, and restrooms in the basement, an amenity space on the rooftop, and apartments in between. As for the small commercial space planned for the Court Street side of the building, he said MOD is looking to attract a coffee shop or some other “grab and go” food service operation, as opposed to full restaurant or bar.
“It’s a difficult street to have retail last,” he added, even though it’s right across the street from the State Street commuter train station.
Paul Wessel.
“This is the kind of development we want,” said East Rock resident Paul Wessel.
He said the developers have demonstrated respect for the neighborhood’s size and scale, its need for apartments, and the building’s historic character.
Westville Alder and City Plan Commission Adam Marchand agreed, and noted his own support for a nearly all residential project at this site.
He said that, for almost the entirety of his eight years on the commission, there has always been a big push for residential use on upper floors and commercial uses on the ground floor.
City Plan Commissioners Adam Marchand and Jonathan Wharton.
“A lot of those commercial spaces have gone vacant and we’re seeing a fundamental shift in the commercial landscape with the advent of other forms of commerce and shopping and whatnot.
“And so, although I think it would be most people’s preference everywhere, or in many, many places, especially downtown, I don’t think the market would support that.”
Better to have people living in those spaces, he said, then to have them reserved for businesses that never materialize.
“Great project,” City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison said.