New Haven Independent

The city plans to sign a five-year lease agreement with Consiglio for the property, with an option to buy. The deal was unanimously approved at Thursday night’s aldermanic community development committee meeting and sent on with recommendation for immediate approval by the full board.

The building, a red brick structure built in 1883 and last occupied by the Abcon Company, whose black lettering still is visible on the façade, will be rehabilitated by Consiglio, with its historic integrity retained. It will in turn will be leased by him to the Evax Company, a maker of alarm systems, now housed on Chestnut Street.

Evax, which moved from Milford to New Haven in 1999, has grown its employee workforce from nine to 23 in that time and expects to double in size within a few years. Consiglio will also demolish a number of adjacent structures behind the building, all of relatively recent vintage, running down to the Quinnipiac River.

By terms of the lease agreement, he will be eligible to develop the 15,000 square-foot site down to the river, but only after a full environmental clean-up is achieved. The cost of that clean-up “” guesstimated at this point at half a million dollars “” is expensive because more than a century of oil, lead, and other contaminants lie in the ground. The area, and in particular the Bigelow Boiler Building, which 142 River St. faces, across Lloyd, was the mighty “” now polluted “” heart of New Haven’s industrial miracle from the Civil War through World War Two.

And there’s the rub, or rather the chance Consiglio is taking. “We expect the state,” said Helen Rosenberg of the City’s Economic Development Office (on the right with Deputy Economic Development Administrator Chrissy Bonanno) “to come through with the clean-up funds well before the lease runs out. They’ve committed to giving us $8.1 million [of the total $23 million dollar project], and already came through with the first amount, $2.5 [million] at the end of 2006. We’re fairly certain the request for clean-up will come through as well, and this arrangement will be a real spur.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Consiglio was asked by committee chair Ed Mattison.

“Listen, I hope the city and state will do their part. If they don’t, and I have to look at doing the environmental clean-up myself, whew, that’s probably prohibitively expensive. Then, if that’s the case and I can’t develop, I just take it on the chin and move on. But look, maybe someone should give me the name of good psychiatrist for doing this, but I love this area, I think it’s important, and has big promise, and I’m willing to take the chance.”

Consiglio, whose other business interests include New Haven Stone on James Street, has a record of successfully developing other sites in the area, including the complex of small stores at the corner of Ferry and Chapel streets. His past work, reputation, and the importance of this project for the area were enthusiastically endorsed by Alderpersons Andrea Jackson-Brooks and Roland Lemar. Lemar added that this kind of arrangement was precisely what the Municipal River Street Development Project needed, and that Consiglio’s arrangement would improve the likelihood, already good, that the half-million dollar clean up fund would be provided by the state.

Alderwoman Jacqueline James wanted to know if the city would open itself to liabilities leasing contaminated land, and why, if the option to buy is exercised, Consiglio, by terms of the agreement, could buy land attractively located near the river, after the clean-up, for only a dollar.

Rosenberg and Bonanno assured her the legalities had been vetted by city attorneys. As to the sale price, due to the extensive contamination of the land, as well as expensive additional foundation reconstruction required for development near the river, the appraised property value for the entire site was $250,000. It will cost Consiglio far more to rehab the building for immediate re-use by Evax, demolish unwanted structures, and then prepare the site for development. “In the meantime,” said Rosenberg, “the city has a property back on the tax roll, it helps leverage the balancing of funding from the state, and keeps the momentum of investment in the area going.”

The importance of new business neighbors was attested to by the testimony of Vincent Capasso, Louisa Capasso, and Lyn Mathis (left to right), who endorsed the project. The Capasso family, owners of G & L Restoration, on Oxford Street, recently struck a similar deal with the City for 34 Lloyd St., just up the block from 142 River. “Just the other night,” said Vincent Capasso, “we had a break-in. Our chain was cut and people got into our oil tank, and copper piping was stolen. We need new neighbors down here.”

Lynn Mathis, whose family owns the Phoenix Press at River at James Streets and who is head of the River-James-Chapel Street business blockwatch, added: “The area remains blighted in so many ways, it’s so important to have people like Andrew take the risk to come in and to develop.”

Because Evax needs the 142 River St. space as soon as possible in order to fulfill expected new orders, Consiglio’s arrangement was forwarded to the full board for immediate action so that his rehabilitation of the building can begin immediately, with a move-in date for Evax as early as May.

This is also good news for historic preservationists. Spurred by these developments, Rosenberg said the City is issuing an RFP (request for proposal) to repoint some of the brickwork on the Bigelow Boiler Building and in general to stabilize it in expectation that something as nice can happen to it as is occurring with 142 River St. “You’ve got to see the old beams in the attic,” Consiglio said to a departing reporter. “They are so beautiful.”