Register Pitches The Hill On Retail

You won’t get a factory. You might get a supermarket.

So two of the top dogs at the New Haven Register told 30 concerned Hill neighbors of the paper’s soon-to-be-vacated Long Wharf plant.

Register Publisher Tom Wiley and corporate parent Executive Vice President Joe Miller delivered the message at a meeting of the neighborhood management team at the Hill South police station Wednesday night. (Click here to read minutes from the meeting.)

The pair came to inform neighbors of plans for selling the building. And they came to make a pitch: They’d like neighbors to support the company’s bid to get New Haven to change the zoning at the property at Sargent Drive to a general business designation. That way the Register can sell the property to a retail store. Right now the land is zoned for light industrial use — i.e., for a factory.

Neighbors said they want a factory, with factory jobs. The problem is, after nine months of marketing the property, the Register can’t find any factory owners or developers ready to bite at its 220,000 square-foot building or its 13.1 acres. The property is too big for any potential purchasers, said Miller, who handles real estate out of New York for Digital First, the company that runs the Register and 74 other daily papers. Too much industrial property is already on the market nearby; some has sat vacant for as long as five years. Plus, the Register building is ​“highly retrofitted” for the specific demands of a newspaper printing operation; any new occupant would need to reconfigure it.

The company has had potential interest from retailers, Miller said. He didn’t name them.

Miller and Wiley encountered some skeptical questions and novel suggestions from neighbors.

Retired city custodian Paul Larrivee, who came to meeting dressed in a Disney High School Musical T‑shirt, suggested the Register take advantage of state film tax credits and lure a studio to build sets for movies or TV shows.

“There’s plenty of sitcoms [already] in this city,” Larrivee quipped.

Like others, he suggested factory work would pay better than retail jobs for New Haveners who won’t get work requiring advanced degrees. ​“We have a lot of workforce here that isn’t very educated. But they can swing a hammer. They can paint a scene,” he said.

Retired daycare provider Angela Hatley (pictured) suggested the company spend the money to retrofit the building and consider breaking the property into smaller lots for industrial users, even if that takes a lot more time and money.

“You do what is economically based for your company. But we live here,” Hatley said.

“You’re right. We’re trying to move quickly,” publisher Wiley responded.

Then he and Miller made a case for why that’s in not just the Register’s interest, but New Haven’s.

The Register wants to sell the building so it can move its 230 remaining employees into smaller quarters downtown, where it can ​“engage the community” better in a storefront with a cafe and access to the paper’s archives. (Click here to read about that plan and background on the move.)

Miller led the room through a PowerPoint presentation that claimed that a retail store at the Long Wharf property would create 225 to 400 new jobs, of which 20 to 30 percent would be full-time. The company estimates that the move would create 500 temporary construction jobs on Long Wharf and another 25 for redoing a downtown building for the new Register offices. (The Register eliminated its printing operation and began outsourcing it to the Hartford Courant as part of a shift to a ​“digital first” strategy. The announcement caused confusion, leading some people to believe, inaccurately, that the Register was planning to eliminate its print edition.)

In the past, some Long Wharf area property owners have sought quick zoning fixes to sell. IKEA got a ​“planned development district” designation allowing a specific retail use for its property. 1 Long Wharf got a variance to allow it turn the old Seamless Rubber factory into offices. City officials told the Register they’d prefer the company go through the more drawn-out process for getting a zoning change for the property, because that is a more thoughtful planning process for the district.

Some neighbors, like landlord Kampton Singh, offered to support the Register’s request before the zoning board — but only after they know which retail tenant is coming.

“We show up [at hearings] — for or against!” Hatley called out.

Miller said no definite purchaser has emerged.

“We’re talking to supermarkets” among others, Miller said.

“We want a Stew Leonard’s!” responded neighbor Thomasina Shaw.

It was difficult to gauge where the group would stand as a whole, based on the statements of just several neighbors. Management Team Chair Johnny Dye echoed the company’s position when he offered the final pronouncement on the subject: ​“We need that building occupied.”

“There’s not much industry out there,” Hill Alderwoman Dolores Colon said after the meeting. ​“I think they [the Register] will be OK” in terms of community support.

That was as much because of words they didn’t say as it was words spoken, Colon said. The company didn’t mention ​“social services.” ​“They’re really leery of getting burned by drug programs” and other not-for-profit social services, she said of her constituents. They also feared an X‑rated use of the building. The company already publicly ruled out that possibility.

Another reason Colon predicted success for the company: The fact that its officials showed up in the first place. They’d already met with Hill aldermen to discuss their plans. ​“As long as they continue to be open and up front with the community,” she predicted, ​“they’ll get support.”