New Haven Independent

Eva Goldman, one of the principals of Michael’s Development Company of New Jersey, HANH’s prime developer, was on hand at the meeting. She showed a model of the ten structures to rise on a to-be-created road, near where the nearly 300 abandoned residential structures of Brookside await demoliton.

She was also there to make a point as to why this phase of the West Rock Development Plan comes first: “It’s to make a statement that here, where no home ownership opportunities exist, they will be coming, and soon.”

Because the project is a planned development unit (PDU), by law the BZA, after listening approvingly, referred the project to the City Plan Commission (CPC) for non-binding advice. Then, with that advice in hand, the proposal returns to the BZA for final approval. And then(!) it’s back to the CPC for full site plan review.

Despite the round-about process, Eva Goldman was hopeful that shovels could be in the ground by next spring.

Goldman, whose 40-year old company is one of the largest creators of affordable housing in the nation, said the homes would sell for perhaps $250,000. The families displaced from the Rockview and Brookside developments would have first shot at ownership. “We figure the families, with down payment and mortgage, might be able to afford the first $50,000, and HANH and the developer, that is, us, we’d leverage the rest.”

The Hope VI project calls for HANH to invest $36 million of fits own money to replace the Brookside and Rockview projects, and the developer to leverage the rest of the total $144 million to create 475 units, mixing single family homes individually owned, to rentals to a senior complex.

Recently HANH acquired property on Wilmot Avenue for the future senior apartments, and, it is hoped, for stores to serve the formerly isolated section of the city.