Spinnaker/Fieber Group
Take a look at this picture.
Now look at this one.
You have now seen almost everything new Downtown and Hill South neighbors learned on Thursday evening about the mini-city planned for the former Coliseum site.
The two neighborhoods’ management teams and alders organized a video call with developers in the hope of facilitating neighbor feedback on the development before it goes through the next round of city approvals.
They were disappointed in what they saw — and what they didn’t see.
They got a glimpse of what the plans might look like in the form of the two above drawings. (The top one shows the view from Orange and George.) But not much detail, and not much else new.
“This is the welcome spot to our city for someone coming from the train station. Tonight we got no visuals, no color renderings of what it will look like,” said Downtown Alder Abigail Roth.
Years In The Making
Paul Bass Photo
The Coliseum site, currently a city-owned parking lot.
Developers Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and the Fieber Group took over the project to redevelop the site of the demolished former New Haven Coliseum in the summer of 2019, after a previous Montreal-based developer pulled out. The vision remained largely the one in the 2013 agreement with the city — a mixture of apartments, stores and public space on what is currently a city-owned parking lot at the corner of Orange and George Street, without the commitment to a new hotel.
Norwalk-based Spinnaker has become a familiar face in New Haven’s real estate scene. The company is responsible for the new Audubon Square apartment complex on Orange Street as well as the pit of earth that used to be a Webster Bank at 80 Elm St.
While the hotel planned for 80 Elm might not materialize for some time, the Coliseum plans are on much firmer financial ground during the Covid-19 era, Spinnaker Vice President Frank Caico assured the neighbors Thursday night.
“We’re talking about two very different types of developments,” Caico said. “[The Elm Street project] got to a point where it could not move forward because capital markets were not comfortable with hospitality and hotels. I don’t think it takes much to figure out they have been very hard hit. When that market will come back, I don’t know.”
Apartment complexes and multifamily housing, on the other hand, have continued to be in high demand. The Audubon apartments are over 80 percent occupied, Caico said.
“There is still a lot of interest from the lending perspective for multifamily,” Caico said.
The Images
Spinnaker/Fieber Group
The developers and city staffers had a different impression of what Thursday night’s meeting would be about than the neighbors. Caico offered largely the same information as the development team had presented in June, with the idea that it was an update for neighbors who had last heard about the project last fall.
The major design changes that have happened in the year since then — a public plaza and driveway of shops cutting through the block — were already responses to neighbor feedback, Caico said.
After alders and neighborhood leaders conveyed their disappointment in the lack of new information, Caico and Gregory Fieber of the Fieber Group pulled up a PDF of more detailed images. As Caico flicked through the floor plans, he said that he was not trying to keep the public in the dark.
“This is not official. We have been reluctant to show these because we typically don’t like to make them public before we file the application,” Caico said. “These drawings are very technical. We wanted to put our best foot forward when we’re ready with color renderings.”
The developers plan to file a site plan application with the City Plan Commission on Aug. 20 for the commission’s September meeting. If the commission approves the application, the developers plan to break ground on the first phase of the project in the spring of 2021.
The first phase would include only one of several buildings planned for the block as well as a public plaza.
The developers are applying to start construction on Phase 1A in the spring.
The first building would rise seven stories tall at the corner of Orange and George Street. It would wrap a ground floor of shops and apartment amenities around a courtyard and underground parking. The higher levels are blocked out for 200 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.
At least 20 percent of the residential units in the complex have to be affordable to households making between 50 percent and 120 percent of area median income (AMI), according to the Development and Land Disposition Agreement (DLDA) that allows the investors to purchase the property from the city.
A two-bedroom apartment set aside for families making 60 percent of AMI would cost around $1,100 a month, Fieber said. A family making 80 percent of the area income would spend around $1,485 a month.
Where the rents will fall within the 50 – 120 percent range is not settled yet and depends on what funding is available to make the rents cheaper, Caico said.
Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo asked the developers to exceed the minimums for affordable units set in the DLDA. She said that despite her union job, her family would not be able to afford a studio at Spinnaker’s Audubon property, much less the number of rooms they would need.
An upper floor plan for Phase 1A.
Community members shared similar concerns about ensuring that the investment in New Haven that the developers promised would mean New Haven jobs.
“We find that our residents who are qualified get overlooked,” said Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez. “We talked about a hiring blast so we get folks that are qualified that could actually walk down from the Hill.”
The DLDA requires the developers to host two job fairs before they finish the first phase of the project and to negotiate an agreement with New Haven Works on getting New Haveners permanent jobs. Fieber said that the team has already met with New Haven Works as part of that process.
The team would also like to bring local entrepreneurs and startups into the shops and commercial spaces in the project. Caico asked listeners to send him names of entrepreneurs who might be interested.
The first floor plans.
“We will even provide assistance with business plans and financing. We are truly invested in the community and will do everything we can to encourage permanent jobs,” Fieber said.
Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team President Caroline Smith wrapped up the meeting after two hours. She suggested that Caico and Fieber consider delaying their application until they can get the community more images and other information. Or the City Plan Commission could include a public hearing in their meeting, to ensure neighbors can offer feedback on the block’s transformation before it moves forward.
(Sound like of an eraser flying through the air and hitting the table).
BTW given the actual plan orientation of the site (true north is at the upper right hand corner of the site plan) the shadows shown in the perspectives are completely wrong. Given that and the height of the horseshoe, an actual durational shadow study done by someone who knows what they're doing will probably show you little daylight on the amenity roof deck. Have they thought about this? Probably not.