Elm St. Hotel Gets Final OK

Another hotel is coming to Downtown New Haven to transform the vacant corner of Elm and Orange streets.

The City Plan Commission voted unanimously Wednesday during its monthly meeting at City Hall in favor of a site plan that effectively clears the way to demolish the former Webster Bank building at 80 Elm St. A 132-room Hilton Garden Inn will replace that building … much to the consternation of some historic preservationists who had hoped to save the building with a use that wouldn’t require demolition.

It was the final approval the developers needed. Now they can proceed with plans for demolition and construction. Construction is expected to begin in July and be complete by September 2020.

Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners purchased the 1948-era, late Art Deco or ​“art moderne” structure building.The company has partnered with Olympia Companies to develop the hotel.

During Wednesday’s meeting, it laid out the site plan for a six-story building, which also includes a basement.

The ground floor will be home to a lobby, lounge area, restaurant, meeting rooms, and the valet parking station. The second floor will have 24 guest rooms and a fitness center, while the third through sixth floors will each have 27 rooms. The new hotel will also have a 31-space valet-operated parking lot for which access will be provided from Elm Street. Cars will exit the lot directly onto Orange Street. The developers said though the hotel restaurant and bar will be a venture will be an in-house operation, instead of an independent or nationally recognized chain restaurant, it will be open to the public.

The new hotel is just the latest of four investments it’s making in New Haven totaling an estimated quarter-billion dollars in new development. The company ahs also become the lead partner in efforts to build on the old New Haven Coliseum site.

“The design activates that corner around Elm Street,” project architect Bob Tierney said of the hotel plan.

Commission Chair Ed Mattison said his concern for the block has been the ​“flatness” of it, referring to the lack of activity on the corner.

“In its current condition, there’s very little life,” he said. ​“This seems like it will be an improvement over what it is now.”

But Mattison did raise concerns that people who are not staying at the hotel might not recognize that it is something that is open to the public.

Tierney said the first-floor design includes a lot of glass. He said the back bar will be lit up so that people can see it from the street ​“inviting folks to come in.”

Alternate Commissioner Jonathan Wharton said his biggest concern was the increased amount of traffic the hotel could add to an already busy road. The entrance to the hotel parking lot is not far from the entrance and exit of the parking garage behind the195 Church St. building and the Wells Fargo surface lot across the street where drivers are jockeying to enter Elm Street. Additionally, a bike lane runs down the hotel side of Elm Street.

“It’s already busy as it is,” Wharton pointed out.

Mike Zimmerman of Olympia Companies said in addition to making the hotel’s parking lot one way in from Elm Street and one way out on Orange, the new building will be about 15 feet from the lot line which he said improves sight lines for those entering the hotel garage and exiting the adjacent garage. City Engineer Giovanni Zinn agreed with that assessment.

“Right now it’s limited visibility,” he said.

A Case For History

At least one person Wednesday night argued that the city could do better than demolishing a building and putting in a chain hotel: The Urban Design League’s Anstress Farwell.

Though the site plan wasn’t up for a hearing where the public could testify Wednesday evening, Farwell petitioned the commission to be allowed to speak as an intervenor in the matter under state law. She was granted an opportunity to address the commission.

Developers have already met with a group of folks interested in preserving the building, appeared before the city’s Historic District Commission, hired New Haven native and architectural historian Colin Caplan to evaluate what elements of the building might be saved, and struck an agreement with the New Haven Preservation Trust to allow people inside to document significant features of the building.

Farwell argued that there still wasn’t enough time allowed to find another use for the building that could save it.

She also claimed that the developers had gone back on their word to allow people inside to better assess the building to the end of possibly saving it, which the developers disputed. Additionally, she said, no one has seen a report from consultant Caplan.

Farwell urged commissioners to hold off on voting and allow for a public hearing and to allow the developers to present before the Downtown/Wooster Square Management Team. She said the community should get an opportunity to weigh in on the project again, considering it involves ​“a building this important.”

Spinnaker’s Frank Caico said the developers have been working to get on the management team’s agenda and is in communication with Downtown Alder Abby Roth. He pushed back against Farwell’s claims, saying ​“her assertions flatly didn’t happen.”

Farwell wrote in her petition that 80 Elm is on the city’s Historic Resources Inventory and has been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

But Jim Perito, an attorney for the development, told commissioners that the building is not currently listed on the historical register and is not in consideration to be listed, nor is it in a designated historic district. He said that should disqualify Farwell’s petition for intervention.

Commissioner Leslie Radcliffe said it appeared to her that the developers had done their due diligence and should be approved pointing out that Farwell didn’t present an alternative use that was feasible.

Chairman Mattison echoed Radcliffe’s sentiments.

“I don’t think we have the authority to decide to deny an application based on the idea that someday somebody will come up with another use,” he said.