Thomas Breen photos
Developers and their attorneys on Wednesday night: Adam Haston; Carolyn Kone; Jim Segaloff; Michael Massimino.
New Haven’s market-rate apartment boom kept chugging Wednesday night as seven different developers looking to build over 200 new apartments won key city sign-offs
They won the approvals at a four-hour-plus City Hall meeting of the City Plan Commission.
And there was more.
The 238 new apartments that the commission cleared for projects in Dwight, Downtown, Wooster Square, West Rock, Cedar Hill, and Dixwell account only for developments that need no further administrative approvals.
Commissioners also gave the thumbs up to two developments that would bring 175 new market-rate apartments to the Ninth Square as well as to a new four family-house development planned for Newhallville.
A full house at Wednesday night’s meeting.
As the public board that conducts site plan reviews of apartment layouts, parking designs, stormwater management systems, and other technical matters for all new buildings with three or more residential units, the City Plan Commission and its monthly agenda represent one barometer for understanding which developers are interested in building what and where in the Elm City.
Wednesday night’s meeting provided yet another confirmation of what New Haveners have seen plenty of over the past few years: Local and regional developers looking to build projects ranging from three-family houses to 100-unit-plus apartment complexes, with the densest new construction planned for downtown and adjacent neighborhoods, atop surface parking lots and in converted vacant buildings.
A vast majority of Wednesday night’s approvals were for projects containing studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Nearly every one of those new residences is slated to be rented at market rates.
City Plan commissioners and staff on Wednesday night.
Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand asked after nearly every presentation if the development would have affordable units.
When the answer was almost invariably no, Marchand and fellow commissioners and city staff would remind themselves that, as of this moment, there are no zoning rules on the city books that would compel developers to include below-market-rate apartments in new buildings.
As local attorney Carolyn Kone said with a chuckle as she described a new six-story apartment complex that will replace the gas station at Crown Street and Howe Street, her client plans to build 44 new apartments in town — “Which is what everybody does in New Haven.”
The Latest 238
Plans for 129 York St.
The largest planned development to earn unanimous commissioner approval Wednesday night is a six-story, mixed-use, 132-unit building planned for 129 York St. at the corner of Crown Street.
The developer is Crown Court Apartments LLC, a holding company of New Haven Towers, which owns two other residential buildings housing nearly 250 apartments on that very block.
Local attorney Jim Segaloff and developer representative Sholom Andrusier explained that the new apartment tower will replace the parking deck that currently sits at the southwestern corner of Crown Street and York Street. The project is just the latest manifestation of a development mini-boom on that three-block stretch of Crown Street, which has also seen the recent construction of Randy Salvatore’s Blake Hotel, the Metro Star apartments, and the College & Crown apartments.
The new complex will contain 60 studio apartments, 60 one-bedroom apartments, and 12 two-bedroom apartments.
City Plan Commissioner Leslie Radcliffe and Chair Ed Mattison.
City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison lauded the developers for replacing the sprawling, 90-space parking deck with new housing and a below-ground, 42-space parking garage.
“It has slown down the growth of that area,” he said about the parking deck, because of how inappropriate it is for the otherwise dense, mixed-use developments that line the block.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Commissioner Jonathan Wharton agreed. “It could be a very vibrant block. This [129 York St. project] would be ideal.”
Commissioners also gave unanimous site plan approval to a six-story, 44-unit apartment complex planned for the Power Gas Station site at 49 Howe St., 23 new apartments planned for the three vacant former St. Michael’s School buildings in Wooster Square at 234, 240, and 250 Greene St., and a three-story, 10-unit addition to 48 – 50 Whitney Ave near the Audubon Arts District.
Architect Ken Boroson with plans for the new 49 Howe St.
The Howe Street development is being undertaken by S&S Enterprises Inc., a holding company owned by Sadiq Ali Chandrani and Murad “Mike” Charania, who currently own the soon-to-be-replaced gas station.
Kone said that the complex will consist of 10 “micro” units, 28 one-bedrooms, and six two-bedrooms. The micros, ranging between 430 square feet to 527 square feet, will rent for around $1,200 per month. The one-bedrooms will rent for around $1,500. And the two-bedrooms at around $1,800.
While the project is technically market-rate, she said, the planned rents for the micro units are still over $100 less expensive per month than a unit reserved for a single person earning 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), which shakes out to a salary of around around $52,000 per year.
The Wooster Square apartments, meanwhile, are being buit by Greene Street Holdings LLC, a holding company owned by Lisa Amato and Michael Massimino. The planned conversion of the vacant former St. Michael’s School buildings will see the creation of 23 one-bedroom and two-bedroom units slated to rent in the $1,600 to $2,200 range.
Architect Robert Mangino with a model design for the addition to 48-50 Whitney Ave.
And the Whitney Avenue addition, undertaken by Antonio Colasanto of Toto LLC, will see the construction of 10 new apartments atop a two-story building that houses a Subway sandwich shop on the ground floor and two currently occupied apartments upstairs.
“We’ere here to development apartments for students in the area,” Guilford-based architect Robert Mangino said as he presented 2D plans and a 3D model for the proposed addition.
Wednesday night’s City Plan Commission signs offs weren’t just for downtown and downtown-adjacent developments.
Haston presents development plans for 25 Springside Ave.
Adam Haston won site plan approval to build 12 new apartments atop the two existing buildings he recently purchased at 25 Springside Ave. in West Rock.
Shawn Mohovich got site plan approval to build a new three-family house atop a vacant lot at 215 Winchester Ave. in Dixwell.
And Shmuel Aizenberg’s Ocean Management LLC got site plan approval to build 14 new apartments at 1455 State St. in Cedar Hill.
179 More To Come
Paul Denz, attorney Steve Mednick, and city economic development deputy Steve Fontana.
Outside of site plan reviews for projects that no longer need any other administrative approvals besides standard building permits, commissioners also recommended approval of a four-family house in Newhallville and 175 planned apartments for Chapel Street between Church Street and Orange Street.
The planned four-family house planned for 511 Dixwell Ave. by Bryant Thomas came to the commission in the form of a parking special exception referral from the Board of Zoning Appeals. Commissioners unanimously voted to recommend that the BZA grant Thomas a special exception to allow for 0 off-street parking spaces where four are required so that he can put together a site plan for the new construction of a four-family house on the site of a currently vacant lot.
The 175 apartments planned for vacant lots on Chapel Street by Mid Block Development LLC, a holding company owned by Paul Denz of Northside Development, came to the commission in the form of an Board of Alders referral for a proposed Development and Land Disposition Agreement (DLDA). Denz has already received site plan approval for the two mixed-use apartment complexes from the City Plan Commission.
Deputy Economic Development Administrator Steve Fontana explained that Denz and local attorney Steve Mednick were back before the commission, with the city’s support, in order to enter into the DLDA that would allow the developer to purchase small vacant city-owned lots at 848 Chapel St., 812 Chapel St., and 108 Orange St.
Acquiring those properties will allow Denz to invest millions of dollars into the construction of a 129-unit complex and another 46-unit complex on the block.
After hiring two appraisers and negotiating with the developer, Fontana said, the city has agreed to sell Denz the three parcels for a combined sum of $1.05 million. While all of the apartments in the two complexes will be market rate, Denz said, a portion of the sale price that comes with the DLDA will go into a city-managed fund to subsidize affordable housing.
“They’re going to lock a significant amount of investment from Mr. Denz,” Fontana said about the proposed sale of the city-owned properties, which the commissioners recommended that the alders approve. And not just investment, he said, but more jobs, retail activity, and more property tax revenue to fill up city coffers.