Allan Appel Photo
Green-minded Shelly and Gary Cozine took the keys to apartment 714 — and ushered in a new era of downtown living.
The Cozines (at left and right in photo above) were the very first tenants to move into the new 360 State Street apartment tower Saturday morning. Lead concierge Jay Fitzgerald-Hicks (at center) and the staff welcomed the couple with coffee, discount coupons to area restaurants and the keys to their new apartment on the seventh of the $190 million, 500-unit tower’s 32 floors.
The Cozines were to be followed by some 50 people expected to occupy 30 apartments in a move-in schedule going on all week at the New Haven’s newest — and second-tallest — tower. The building has 500 apartments, of which 50 will be “affordable” housing units, and has been under construction for 21 months.
The Cozines’ apartment is 750 square feet and rents for $1,700 plus $100 for the garage. It’s a bit of an adjustment to live in 750 square feet compared to the 2,000 square foot townhouse the couple left behind (temporarily) in St. Paul. It’s likely they’ll return to it, or another assignment, when the year is up.
Both nurse-anesthetists who are taking one-year assignments at Yale-New Haven Hospital, empty-nesters, and avid exercisers and practitioners of the good green life style, the Cozines are precisely the type of renters whom developer Bruce Becker expected to attract to his fuel-cell powered tower by the train station.
“Very exciting,” Gary Cozine pronounced the occasion.
“We chose it because we wanted to walk to work, and we have only one car. [It’s] such a green building, the fuel cell appeals, [and it’s] so new,” he added.
The couple hails from St. Paul, Minnesota. They drove from there to New Haven Thursday night. They’ve been staying at the La Quinta Inn & Suites on Sergeant Drive. They arrived at 360 State with their utility vehicle and first load of stuff at approximately 8:30 Saturday morning.
No trumpets trilled a formal welcome. But lots of people like Fitzgerald-Hicks and Julio Jimenez of the building staff helped move in the first tenants.
The first load included snow shoes. “We’re snow-shoers, bikers, and exercisers,” Shelly Cozine said. The bicycles were over at the motel and were coming with the next load; a truck with other stuff is expected to arrive from St. Paul some time later in the week.
Wanting to blend in as quickly as possible, Gary Cozine said they had already chosen Frank Pepe’s over Sallys. But he had a further inquiry:
People like themselves from St. Paul were St. Paulites, he said. And those hailing from the adjoining city were Minneapolitans. “If you’re from New Haven, what are you?” he asked.
Since Thursday, the couple had already biked and hiked up to East Rock, had dinner at Pepe’s and Zinc, and were planning to celebrate Shelly’s 52nd birthday Saturday night with their daughter Sarah at Union League.
“We are going to try every restaurant in New Haven. We’re going to be good customers [for the city],” she said.
What also very much appealed was the proximity to their daughter, who just took a job for Price Waterhouse in New York. “We’re only a $14 train trip away,” she said. They hadn’t seen Sarah in seven months.
As the Cozines moved in, various other 360 staffers pitched in to welcome and to help. Jennifer Harrison of the Bozzuto Management Company, which is in charge of rentals, showed them about, and offered a welcome basket of green items.
The basket included baking soda, vinegar, and stuff people might forget or not have on that first night.
Namely, toilet paper.
When Shelly Cozine opened it up (graciously complying with a reporter’s request), she found a slight failing with the green offering: the paper was not from recycled materials. Using his science background, Gary analyzed it and pronounced it “quilted Great Northern.”
Little else about the building or the Elm City disappointed. The couple liked the HVAC panel, which building staffer Dion Smith explained had a unit that could slide out and be immediately replaced for repair avoiding interruption of the pleasures of air conditioning or heat.
They liked the ventless piggyback washer and dryer, the cute sprayer attachment to the sink, with water-conserving flow control, and especially 360’s convenient offering of a guest apartment. There Shelly Cozine’s parents will stay when they come out to see them.
The seventh-floor one bedroom also looks out on what will be evolving into the green roof. Gary eyed the now empty rectangle that will become the pool where he expects to swim laps.
“It’ll be grassed in with trees, sunning deck, tables. You’ll be able to order in from any restaurant in town,” he said.
A slight disappointment was the lack of a grocery store set up yet in the building, or anywhere nearby. “In the Twin Cities, there’s a grocery store every mile.”
They’re looking forward to the co-op evolving, but that will be some time.
Another not unsurprising (to New Haveners) was the biking. The couple rode up to East Rock on Friday and in the process dealt with more traffic than they expected. “In the Twin Cities I could bike anywhere in designated lanes” or on paths off the trafficked streets,” Shelly said.
“They could do something to improve that,” Gary added.
Although they had never been to New Haven before, Gary has a cousin who’s a law school graduate and told him about Elm City culture.
He was looking forward to, among other things, checking out the Gutenberg Bible at the Beinecke.
The couple thoroughly researched 360 State Street including Google- mapping it.
“Hey, you want to walk to work,” Gary said, recalling how he had done the virtual walk from 360 to Yale-New Haven. The reality seemed to match up.
Next challenge after moving in. Shelly needed to find the right hair and nail salon.
According to Bozzuto Management’s Lauren Lennox, 108 apartments have been reserved for rental, and they gradually become formally signed and leased.
Eight or nine move-ins were scheduled for Saturday and for Sunday, all at the main entrance on State Street, where New Haven Police Officer Ron Ferrante, on extra duty, was prepared to direct the moving vans.
I hope the items gifted to the first tenants from the management company were all from locally-owned businesses. I wish that coffee they were given was from one of the several nearby mom 'n pop coffeeshops, say one of the 5 or so within a 1/2 mile of 360 State Street.