Fair Haven bound: Actor, director and studio head Michael Jai White (above), brewer Rob Leonard (below).
New England Brewing Company, outgrowing its space in Woodbridge, is negotiating to move to Fair Haven and set up production and taproom and event facilities with a scenic view of the Quinnipiac River.
Down River Street, the up-and-coming media production company Jaigantic Studios is also in negotiations to buy city land to set up headquarters.
The potential result: a“one-two” jobs and tourism revival punch for the long-struggling River Street Municipal Development district.
Those two plans were the subjects of presentations at the most recent monthly meeting of the Fair Haven Community Management team, which drew 40 neighbors and presenters over Zoom this past Thursday night.
City economic officials Steve Fontana and Kathy Krolak announced that after a year of talks with Doug Gray of Eclipse Development and his clients, Rob Leonard and Marty Juliano of the New England Brewing Company, an agreement has been reached for the Woodbridge-based 20-year-old business to move the keg production and the brewski events down by the waters of Fair Haven.
The location is the 8.5‑acre former location, at River and Lloyd streets, of Hess Corporation oil tanks.
Hess remediated the long-vacant brownfield site, said Krolak, enabling New Haven Brewing Company, with its signature Sea Hag IPA, to plant its headquarters there.
“We’re going to move them over there from Woodbridge and quadruple their size with the ability to expand more as they look to increase their production to cover all of Connecticut and then New England,” said Gray. “We’re excited to bring investment and jobs to this community, helping turn it around.”
For more than a decade city economic development officials have been trying to lure companies down to River Street while struggling to keep historic brick structures from collapsing.
Plans were also announced recently for the arrival of Massachusetts based Patriot Marine at 90 River St., and for New Haven’s Concrete Creations to build a warehouse at 24/36 River St. on the site of the former Seaboard Oil Company. The two newest projects could jolt this strip of long-suffering, historic riverine Fair Haven into a destination for craft beer tourists and others.
Fontana termed it a “one-two punch,” a knockout to dereliction and a victory for River Street’s revival.
From Sea To River Hag
Owner Rob Leonard began his career putting “bottles on a conveyor belt” 30 years ago at the now-defunct New Haven Brewing Company on Grand Avenue. He told neighbors he is excited to return to Fair Haven.
“We’re a great brand, and we’ll bring a lot of people and jobs to the area. It’s on the water, and what a cool destination spot,” he said.
“Sea Hag is such a strong brand, the number-one selling IPA, and we can never make enough beer to supply the market,” said Juliano.
“And we’re only in Connecticut. Our goal is to double our volume size just to be able to provide enough beer for the state and to create a great customer experience with a taproom, patio, water access, so people can paddle up in canoes and kayaks and enjoy. We also want to host events, so we’ll have significant space for weddings, festivals, trade shows, indoors and outdoors, with music during the summer months.”
Anticipating participants’ questions, Juliano added, “We are not a late-running business. The latest we close is 10 p.m. on Friday and other nights 9 p.m. so there are no noise issues.
“It’s really all about creating a destination place, being close to both 95 and 91. We already have such recognition as a brand, and tourism in the brewing industry is extremely popular. This will drive people to New Haven to stay in town, at hotels. Our goal is to create a great environment and have a great customer experience.”
Management Team Co-Chair Lee Cruz asked about local job opportunities. Juliano replied the company, currently in Woodbridge, has 30 employees but expects at full running for the River Street facility to have 60 to 70 jobs.
They have already been in touch with the New Haven Works job-placement agency and are committed to posting the jobs first with that group before going to the larger public, Juliano reported.
Cruz elicited a commitment for pre-public jobs announcements also to be sent to the management team and other local Fair Haven networks.
Two other queries were directed not only to the developers but to the city: Cruz asked if the long-discussed “green” walkway linking Criscuolo Park along the water to the Ferry Street Bridge and linking up with the Quinnipiac River promenade is being protected in the development agreement.
“We’ll landscape” the brewery’s section of the walkway, replied Gray, of Eclipse Development, and will maintain portions constructed by the city.
Connecticut Fund For the Environment/Save the Sound’s Nicole Davis asked about “infiltration” to deal with run-off at the proposed site featuring approaches to get the water back into the ground.
While there will be some infiltration, and plans are still preliminary, there is not likely to be a lot, Gray responded. “Infiltration is not recommended because of what was on the site. So the development serves as a completion of remediation.”
Jaigantic Move
Thomas Breen Photo
City’s Steve Fontana: River Street’s on the real rebound.
In a second, briefer update, Fontana announced that Michael Jai White’s Jaigantic Studios will also be relocating its headquarters just a few doors away at 46/56 River, with a parking lot at the city-owned surface lot at 112 Chapel St.
For more entertainment industry details on the company, click here for an article in Variety.
White’s work as actor, director and writer includes Arrow, The Dark Knight, Spawn and Mortal Kombat: Legacy.
According to the Variety article, White envisions the River Street facility to house “… sound stages, production offices, post-production and support facilities … [and] solidify New Haven as a primary entertainment market by combining Connecticut’s favorable film and TV tax incentives with the tri-state area’s talent pool, innovative technology and turnkey production facilities.”
Although this project is not as far along, Fontana said, the principals “fell in love with New Haven and this site. [White] grew up in Bridgeport, went to Southern, and wants to hire local people, artists,” and give high school kids opportunities to learn camera and tech skills.
Fontana said the two sides are working on a property-sale agreement similar to the one with New England Brewing. “Michael and his team envision creating hundreds of jobs, but obviously for people who have technical skills. We’ll have more details on that next month,” Fontana said.
Between the two projects Fontana concluded, “We’ve got a real one-two punch on River Street.”
The last hot job-creating prospect for the broad, riverine site was Colony Hardware. After a long wooing, in 2012 the deal fell apart, and Colony moved its operations to Orange.
Both projects need to win approvals from the Board of Zoning Appeals, City Plan Commission, and, because sale of city land is involved, the Board of Alders.