Delayed Dwight Gardens Rescue Set To Resume

From the street, the rescue of Dwight Gardens appears as stalled as ever. Inside New Haven’s Building Department, it has the green light, finally, to restart.

“He’s fine to come in and pull the permits,” city Building Official Jim Turcio said.

Turcio gave the go-ahead to Justin Goldberg, the Fairfield builder whom the city enlisted in late 2013 to take over the crumbling 80 townhouses at 99 Edgewood Ave. from a failed developer and invest over $8 million to renovate them in two phases over two years.

Goldberg got started demolishing part of the complex, after an unanticipated delay due to a discrepancy between local and federal asbestos-removal rules. He found temporary quarters for the tenants in apartments scheduled to be redone in phase 2.

But a bureaucratic mixed message about an inch of rainwater delayed for months the process of obtaining permits needed to rebuild. At first city officials instructed him to replace the existing catch basins with dry wells so the property could absorb an inch of rain over 24 hours so that it won’t run into the storm system out to the harbor. He did. Then it turned out that, because some the rainwater at Dwight Gardens runs into combined sewage-stormwater pipes, he had to meet new, different standards set by the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA). Before he could obtain final permits from the city, Godlberg’s team had to go back and design and install a new system of half-round, porous plastic structures atop stone beds underground next to the catch basins, to keep little more than two inches of stormwater over six hours out of the sewers.

That delayed the project through the entire winter and spring. The only sound emanating from the work site has been the occasional rustling in the wind of the Tyvex HomeWrap protecting the stripped-down townhouses’ wooden frames from the elements.

Finally, Goldberg’s plans have just received their final sign-offs from all needed city agencies. His general contractor, Paragon Construction, has to put together a permit to submit to Turcio’s office for the entire $8.5 million two-phase restoration job. Once Turcio signs off, work can begin.

“They’ll be pulling” the permit ​“imminently,” Goldberg said. ​“It’s very possible work can start in the next few weeks.”

Goldberg delivered that message in a Wednesday morning meeting at City Hall with Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, director of New Haven’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), which oversees the Dwight Gardens project.

That was welcome news to Neal-Sanjurjo, who had been hearing from tenants about why after all these years, and after the arrival of a second savior-developer, the project remained stalled.

“We’re getting the hit [from the public] for this at this point,” Neal-Sanjurjo said. ​“My understanding is they’re in a place to move forward.”

Familiar Tune

LCI is getting the hit because of what happened with the previous developer it brought in to rescue Dwight Gardens.

The families at Dwight Gardens are used to waiting, and used to disappointment.

For decades the property (across from the old Dwight School, now Amistad Academy) was known as the Dwight Co-ops. Families moved into it with the help of the federal government, which offered a mortgage that would end, after 40 years, with the families owning the complex outright. The families succeeded for decades. Then, as at other similar New Haven co-ops from the era, board infighting, mismanagement, and debts led to the project’s failure, and a foreclosure in the 39th year of a 40-year mortgage. Neal-Sanjurjo’s predecessor brought in a developer who promised to fix up the place — then spent years doing nothing.

That was when the city arranged for Goldberg, the South African-born scion of a Fairfield County real-estate business called Navarino Capital Development, to buy the property and carry out the renovations.

A Goldberg-formed company bought the property for $893,267.79, according to city records. At a community meeting in January 2014, Goldberg promised to make immediate repairs for families contending with broken furnaces and leaking ceilings; and to pump millions more into remaking the entire complex into a colorful, landscaped community in just a year’s time. He signed a deal to guarantee affordable rents for low-income and working households for 25 years. He promised to keep everyone in place while renovations take place.

Goldberg this spring obtained a $5.5 million mortgage from the M&T Bank of New York to fund the beginning of the work, according to city land records. He said he’s also applying for $3.5 million state CHAMP (Competitive Housing Assistance for Multifamily Properties) grant to finance part of the work.

Twenty-three families remain in the complex. They are living in townhouses on the western end of the property, while the gutted other townhouses await Goldberg’s repairs. They’ll move into the homes completed in the first phase, at which point Goldberg plans to rebuild the rest.

Previous coverage of the Dwight Co-Ops/Dwight Gardens Saga (in chronological order):

• On Verge Of A Dream, Co-op Faces Foreclosure
• City Finds Potential Buyer For Dwight Co-Op Homes
• City’s Co-op Savior Has Troubled Track Record
• Dwight Coop Rescue Advances
• Dwight Co-op Deal Squeaks Through
• Housing Authority Quits Dwight Co-Op Deal
• Dwight Co-Op Makeover In Limbo
• Day Laborers Move The “Mountain”
• City Turns Up Heat On Dwight Co-Op Landlord
• City Seeks New Buyer For Dwight Co-Ops
• 6 Vie To Buy Failed Housing Co-op
• Dwight Gardens Rescue Effort Takes New Turn
• Not So Fast! Auction’s Off
• Dwight Gardens Rescue Plan Advances
• Fed Shutdown Stalls Dwight Gardens Rescue
• Erik Johnson Races The Clock
• Dwight Gardens Shivers
• Dwight Gardens Rescue Deal Reached
• Inch Of Water Changes Builder’s Plans