The key to sustaining the New Haven region’s current building boom? Expand Tweed New Haven Airport to make it easier for more people to get in and out of the area with ease.
That’s according to Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Garrett Sheehan.
Sheehan was the guest on the latest episode of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities’ “The Municipal Voice” program on WNHH Raadio.
For him, the region’s economic growth functions on a sort of virtuous cycle.
He pointed out that developers are currently being bullish in the greater New Haven area, as evidenced by the recent building boom. That economic growth will increase demand, for jobs, for housing, for transportation infrastructure and arts and culture and places to eat and drink. It’s up to the chamber and the local governments to make sure that that promise is fulfilled, he said, “to leverage that growth.”
Much of that growth is centered on areas like biotech, life sciences, and distribution, he said.
The first two examples are heavily related to the benefit of having a world class university and hospital system in New Haven. Companies like Alexion made a huge investment in New Haven, and despite moving its headquarters out of the city after receiving millions in government breaks, they’ve come full circle to adding jobs to their 100 College St. offices.
The distribution reference is to none other than Amazon, which has recently come online 100 percent in North Haven.
“If you look at the Amazon facility,” Sheehan said, “they’ll tell you that this is their most technologically advanced plant because it’s the most recent.”
That plant is in North Haven, which is why Sheehan was quick to talk about New Haven as a region, rather than New Haven alone despite it being the hub of all of this growth.
“All of our cities have challenges,” he said. “We don’t want it to be just gentrification, it has to be inclusive growth.”
The biggest concern for the chamber, and a topic that came up multiple times during the interview, was the development and expansion of Tweed New Haven Airport. “If we can just unlock Tweed,” he said, “we will see a lot of growth.”
“Location is one of our great assets,” he continued. “You need to be able to get in and out very quickly.”
After winning a major battle to extend the runway, there is still the possibility that the Attorney General might move the fight to the United States Supreme Court, which Sheehan believes only would only delay economic development.
As part of the larger story he said that if the state is not doing well, then “the New Haven region cannot survive.” Successes like those in New Britain with their data center are important because “we’re all better off” if a company lands or stays in Connecticut.
Because a rising tide lifts all boats, Sheehan looks from the local municipalities in his region, to the Greater New Haven area as a whole; working with other chambers to the state. “We’re on a good pathway, and we need to keep moving in that direction,” he said.
The groups that stand to see the greatest gain with Tweed adding a few flights are the homeowners in Morris Cove, and hospitality industry workers.
With thousands of new jobs coming to the city, which is a fairly conservative estimate of the impact of a few additional flights, demand for single family homes would greatly outstrip supply and home values on the East Shore would double within a few years. Look at the tiny, run down homes that practically sit at the end of the runway in East Boston, Queens, and Alexandria. They now sell for millions of dollars, because those cities have added so many jobs. New Haven could easily add a similar proportion if it had a couple more flights, since the area would suddenly become an option for corporations to locate.
Also, currently, none of the industries that are already here (like med offices, Yale) can host any real events in New Haven, or they do so relatively infrequently. Hosting a national event in New Haven just isn't usually an option given that there's only one flight to get here in any reasonable amount of time at rush hour. The daily event calendars would get booked up right away if we had a few flights to Chicago and/or Atlanta and people who work in events/hospitality would see a huge increase in business due to the number of national events and trainings that would be booked here.
Currently, the national companies that are located in New Haven have to host even their small board meetings in NYC and Boston. Their Board members can't get here in a reasonable amount of time. In downtown NYC, Boston, DC, etc, the airport is a 10-20 minute drive away; Bradley can be 90 minutes or more at rush hour.