Historic Temple-Crown Building To Get Upstairs Apartments

A historic building that was the original home to United Illuminating could soon be some future downtowner’s actual new home.

The City Plan Commission gave unanimous approval Wednesday to a site plan that would convert a three-story building at the corner of Temple and Crown streets from mixed commercial use with a restaurant/bar on the first floor and office space on the upper floor to a mixed commercial residential use. That would enable the owner to proceed with plans to convert the top two floors to 10 new apartments.

Neil DeLuca, of Westchester Electrical Systems Corp. told commissioners that the building, which is located at 124 – 132 Temple St. and currently owned by the First Bank of Greenwich, started its life as the home to UI in 1903. The building got its third floor in 1907.

The first floor bar/restaurant has seen many tenants, including Black Bear Saloon and Tavern New Haven. Today the first floor is home to Olives & Oil, an Italian tapas restaurant that is the brainchild of the owners of Elm City Social around the corner.

“I’m not sure what that is,” DeLuca said of Italian tapas, which drew a chuckle from commissioners. ​“But it looks pretty nice.”

It wasn’t so nice when the bank first took it over, he said. ​“Let’s just say when the bank gave us the key, the restaurant was in disarray and the second and third floor were much worse.”

First Bank of Greenwich took over the building a year ago before foreclosure and has since decided to convert the upper floors into residential units, DeLuca said. Because the building is on the National Historic Register, DeLuca said there will be no changes to the exterior, other than repairing three terra cotta steps outside the main entrance. Those steps will be restored to historic preservation standards as soon as the weather allows.

The plan calls for adding five residential units on each floor. There will be four studio apartments, four one-bedroom, one one-bedroom with a lofted study area and one two-bedroom. Some demolition began in November, but once a full permit is granted, the rest of the construction is expected to take about six months to finish.

“Since we’ve been involved we’ve done a lot of the demo,” DeLuca said. ​“We submitted a plan for the demo including asbestos removal to the building department. We’re just about at the point where we have to stop demo now to get the asbestos guys in.”

DeLuca also told commissioners that all of the mechanical and electrical components including the elevator will be completely redone except for the restaurant, which has long had its own system.

Kevin Molnar, who presented the floor plan to commissioners, said that because of the historic nature of the building, his team was able to obtain a waiver on accessibility for those with disability. That means getting into the building could be tough for someone who uses a wheelchair, but once that person is in the building, it will be otherwise fully accessible.

Commissioner Adam Marchand asked whether the new apartments will provide parking for the residents. Molnar said the site plan doesn’t include parking because of the building’s proximity to the Temple Street and Crown Street municipal garages.

City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg also said that no parking is required for residential uses in business district zones for structures that existed before 1964 and are converted to no more than 24 housing units.