City Looks To Scoop Up Dixwell Church

The city is prepared to pay $30,000 more than the appraised price for a storefront church building on the critical lower end of Dixwell Avenue.

Why?

The city already owns buildings on both sides of the property and wants to protect plans for a retail revival — from large landlord groups that might otherwise buy it.

That real estate tale emerged Wednesday night at the Board of Directors meeting of the city anti-blight and neighborhoods agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI).

The property in question is 308 Dixwell Ave., a 6,750 square-foot lot located between Henry Street and Munson Street that is currently owned by the New Growth Praise Center, a church headed by New Haven Rising co-founder Rev. Scott Marks.

LCI brought before the board a proposal to have the city buy the lot from the church for $190,000. After some questioning, the directors voted to approve the sale; the proposal now goes before the Board of Alders for a final vote.

The proposed sale fits into a larger city effort to review Dixwell’s commercial corridor.

Under pressure from local residents, officials recently withdrew a proposal to rezone Dixwell to promote small business development.

The purchase of 308 Dixwell fits with a second prong of that effort: a strategy of acquiring property on the lower Dixwell business corridor — in part to keep away large-scale real estate companies whose plans and records aren’t popular with neighbors.

The city has been in a race in recent months to get control of the area by acquiring property nearby, including the former Walt’s Cleaners next to 308 Dixwell. Other properties the city has purchased over the years include 252 Dixwell (bought by the city in 2003), 256 Dixwell (2003), 294 Dixwell (2004), 306 Dixwell (2018), and 316 Dixwell (2019). On the other side of the street, the city owns 321 Dixwell (2017) and 325 Dixwell (2015).

“We’re just trying to get site control over there,” LCI Deputy Director Frank D’Amore said at the November gathering of city’s Property Acquisition and Disposition (PAD) committee. ​“It’s all about getting site control now so that we can turn that block around.” PAD members gave a thumbs up to the purchase. The City Plan Department subsequently wrote a report approving the sale, which LCI staffer Evan Trachten distributed to the LCI directors before their own scheduled vote at Wednesday’s meeting .

Despite the PAD and City Plan recommendations for acquisition at $190,000, directors still had some questions.

LCI board Chair Tim Yolen asked why the city is paying $30,000 more than the appraised value.

“The church started out with asking for a lot more,” Trachten replied. ​“We did a substantial negotiation. And given the other properties we own, it’s a small premium to pay” to gain control of the area.

LCI Director Neal Currieh asked LCI Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjuro for an update on rezoning plans in the works for Dixwell given the withdrawal of the avenue from the city’s proposed recent plan.

“We’ve agreed to continue talks” with residents, she replied. ​“We don’t see the zoning getting any higher. We don’t see the community wanting to do high density [projects]. Our concern with this building is to revitalize the corridor. We’re in the process of getting some renderings. There’s been opposition to larger densities. That’s why it’s important to acquire [this church property and others],” she said. (Click here to read about a recent neighborhood meeting with Ocean Management about plans for another Dixwell property, the former Monterey Cafe.)

Director Seth Poole asked whether the building has any brownfield issues. Neal-Sanjuro assured him that is not the case, although the interior needs a lot of work.

“This piece is important,” Trachten said. ​“It’s in the middle of the block. This gives us a continuous chunk of land.”

The directors did not need significant convincing. LCI Director Pat Brett termed the prospect of ownership and reuse ​“beautiful.”