If You Click, Will They Come?

“Quinnipiac River Village” has been born — as a web site. Phase two in making it a viable new New Haven neighborhood also got underway as neighbors like Stewart Hutchings (pictured) gathered Monday night.

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“It’s designed to look not like a mixed use real estate development, but as if it’s been here forever.” So developer Joel Schiavone described Quinnipiac River Village, the name he and partners such as David Holmes, have given to the residential and business properties they are restoring in the Quinnipiac River area. He was speaking to 50 local people who had gathered Monday evening at Stillwater, the bistro restaurant on the banks of the river, to hear both a progress report on the development and also to celebrate the unveiling of QuinnipiacRiverVillage.com. The web site, funded by Schiavone and designed by Ian and Carolyn Christmann of Catalyst Studios, went on line an hour before wine was poured at Stillwater. According to Schiavone (in photo), the site celebrates the historic and maritime area, seeks to create ​“connection” among residents and businesses and also, unabashedly, is designed as a vehicle to sell Schiavone apartments and business opportunities. ​“It’s of course not entirely altruistic,” said Schiavone. ​“When you click on ​‘Would you like to live here?’ what comes up is my apartments!” Having helped to restore New Haven’s downtown in the 1980s and 1990s, Joel Schiavone and his family have invested mightily in the historic area whose center is Quinnipiac and Grand avenues. They have purchased 17 buildings in the neighborhood since 1999 (according to the new website), and are now poised to move into what they call phase two. This, the heart of the village restoration, is the planned complex of 12 luxury condominiums, retail space, grocery store and two restaurants, and park area running down to the river’s banks off Grand Avenue near the bridge. It will be the village’s ​“downtown.” Part of Schiavone’s update was that it’s been far easier to establish a virtual site than a real one, and that crunch time is at hand. ​“The big problem we’re having is with the city, as always. They want a mall with 30-foot streets,” he said, ​“so two fire engines can easily pass each other, and I’m fighting them so they grasp the idea that this is a village, it’s for the people. Not mall stores, local stores. Not cars, but people walking and kids playing.” The web site, which promotes the sense of ​“village” identity (but nowhere will there be a sign indicating this name; it is name on the web only), will have features for local businesses, local art works, and local events. For Ian (pictured with Lee Cruz) and Carolyn Christmann, who designed the virtual village but live in the actual one, on Quinnipiac Avenue, ​“this has been completely a labor of love.” The Christmanns met doing volunteer work on a hospital ship off the African coast. They fell in love not only with each other but, later, with the Quinnipiac area when they purchased their house several years ago. They believe that ​“vehicles of communication, such as the website, can really be a force for positive change in the community.” For Schiavone also, it’s not just business but also, if not love, then a palpable conviction, born of his roots here, that the area is one of the finest historic and maritime villages in the country. Part of his a job —” a big part —” is to convince officials at City Hall, he says. ​“Part of our motivation for establishing the website,” he said, ​“was that we got tired of telling people we live in Fair Haven, which is not quite right. And we also don’t live in Fair Haven Heights. Right along the river here, where these avenues intersect at the river, is a river village. There is nothing like it.” The plan, he says, is poised to pass its final hurdle with the city’s Historic Commission at a meeting at the end of the week. If that happens, restoration can begin in June, with completion a year from now, in summer 2007. ​“When we start to work in June,” he said, I’m going away on vacation. And if we are not successful with the city and you don’t see me for a while, I’ll be hanging from a tree.” If the enthusiasm in the room was any measure, that won’t happen. Joan Mazurek (pictured), who has been renting out her home on Chatham Street in Fair Haven for 25 years while residing in North Haven, was impressed by Schiavone’s presentation. ​“I’m ready to move right back now, it’s so beautiful,” she said. ​“I told Joel that he’s done a lot of great things in New Haven, but this is the best.” ​“How much will the apartments cost?” Lee Cruz finally asked the great unasked question. Cruz (pictured), also a Quinnipiac Avenue resident and an officer with the Greater New Haven Community Foundation, who is working with the foundation and local families to stabilize the area around Chatham Square Park, didn’t flinch at the answer: ​“We’re looking to get $250 per square foot for the residential, which translates into the 12 waterfront condos costing between $300,000 and $400,000.” ​“And the retail will be $12 per square foot,” added David Holmes. ​“It’s all going to be beautiful, with the condos having French doors opening onto decks that look out over the river.” Schiavone was most proud of the park area built into the plan. ​“What developer,” he asked, ​“in the history of developing would set aside 300 to 400 feet of river front for a public park! But I’m determined to create a village.” Ever the salesmen, he then asked the assembled boosters if they happened to know a pub owner or a grocer who’d like to relocate to the village. ​“We really need a grocer. And we need a pub. And the pub will have a softball team — ¬¶” Schiavone stopped before naming the team to enjoy the congratulations of the audience, many of whom have been with him and contending with him on the project over the last four years. Stewart Hutchings, a resident of Front Street on the other side of the river, a businessman in his own right (owner of Bubble and Squeak Laundromats), and, due to his English roots, an ale expert, said he was already working as an unpaid consultant on Joel Schiavone’s Quinnipiac River Village pub. ​“I’m going to advise him on the kinds of beers to be sold,” said Hutchings. ​“Beer,” he reminded a reporter, ​“is related to real estate. You only rent it, because it runs through you.” As he turned to look toward the future site of the development, Hutchings was insistent to a reporter that his true sentiment was this: ​“The area around here is an absolute treasure, and Joel is really putting it on the map. A lot of people are going to be impressed, surprised, and very pleased.”