New Haven Independent

After quelling previous complaints about construction workers taking Blake Street residents’ parking spots and the “earth-shattering” effects of compression, Mulcahey addressed a new set of fears that residents had. To deal with traffic issues, they will be adding a left turn lane, and both an acceleration and deceleration lane to the Blake Street entrance of the complex.
In response to the frightening scenario that eight Southern students will attempt to cram into the one and two bedroom units, Mulcahey said “legally, there are lots of ways I can prevent that from occurring.” His incentive to keep them out? “Students tend to be harder on the units,” Mulcahey said. He also assured residents that there would be “professional management who will check on the renters very closely.”
And even if Mulcahey couldn’t stop determined undergrads, the high prices might. Prices will range from $1,400 to $2,300 per month for one to two-bedroom luxury apartments, 750 to 1350 square feet in size. Not within the grasp of the average student’s financial reach.
Intended to target professionals in the education, bio-technical, pharmaceutical, and medical sectors, the apartments “will bring in people, which will be the greatest thing for Westville,” said Jimmy Malone, whose podiatry office sits at 508 Blake St.. A ten-year resident of the West Village area, Gar Waterman, agreed that if Mulcahey “hit the target audience, which is fairly high end, it will be great for Westville.”
Wary of the sky-high prices of the apartments, new Westville storeowner Alan Jackson, who opened The Bridge, an “underground supplies shop,” wishes the apartments “were a little more affordable, since it’s not a prime location” but was hopeful that it would “bring more business to the retail stores in the area.”
Other concerns voiced by the community included flooding of the river, people leaving abandoned cars in the garages below the new apartments, groundkeeping, and the visibility of cars in the complex. The “greatest fear of all is that the apartments will be too expensive and he will not get the people he’s looking for to move in,” Waterman said.
The project will be completed by April 2007, when the first apartments will see renters. Mulcahy hopes all the units will be filled by November of that year.