nothin Rebuilding Plans Set For Orphan Block | New Haven Independent

Rebuilding Plans Set For Orphan Block

Paul Bass Photos

New vs. old: Science Park Building 25 (left), 235 Winchester.

Kelley: Caught between two hovels.

From his seat on the front porch he has called home for 34 years, Sam Kelley has watched the world change across the street and one block over in either direction. Meanwhile, the abandoned properties on each side of his home have remained frozen in a state of purgatory.

Permits are now in place or on the way to start bringing that change closer to Kelley’s door.

On the lot immediately to the north of Kelley’s property stands — barely — a three-story, 18-unit apartment building at 235 Winchester Ave. That house has stood vacant and crumbling, walls ripped and opened to the elements, for more than a decade after a local developer named Kenny Hill and the city government hit a stalemate in a dispute over use of a lead-abatement grant. Hill charged that the city forced him to use a contractor (now dead) who never did the work right but took the money. He said he has lost millions of dollars in taxes, professional fees, and lost potential rents since then, and has been stalled in his plans to rebuild the structure. (Read more about that saga here and here.) Now he’s ready to try again to get the job done.

The house on the property immediately to the south of Kelley’s property at 215 Winchester has been deteriorating for just as long in an overgrown lot. It has stood vacant since a congregation called the Upper Room Prayer Mission moved out and never resold it. Until now.

From Haunted House” To Jewel”

215 Winchester.

One July 7, according to land records, the church sold the property to a local developer named Shawn Mohovich. Mohovich in turn obtained a $300,000 mortgage and has begun discussing with City Building Official Jim Turcio plans for a renovation.

Mohovich, an architect and contractor, told the Independent Friday that he plans to do a major gut rehab” on the three-story building and create two or three apartments to rent out, as he has done with two other rehabs in buildings he bought a block away.

The first floor, where the congregation once held prayer services, is in decent shape, he said. Not so the upper floors, which are currently uninhabitable. Well, at least for humans.

There are raccoons and squirrels living on the third floor,” Mohovich said. There’s a hole in the roof that’s been unattended to for a long time.” Turcio said Mohovich restores about one property a year in New Haven.

Mohovich said he had eyed the property for years while doing other work in the neighborhood. Finally this summer he tracked down the owner and made the purchase. He noted how dramatically the rest of the area had improved over the past six years, while that one side of one block at Winchester and Tilton has remained blighted. You walk down the street and you get to 215 Winchester — it’s like a haunted house on the hill. It’s overgrown. You feel like you’re in a bad neighborhood.” He promised to produce a real jewel” that will change the whole perception of the neighborhood.”

Kenny Hill Tries Again

Kenny Hill.

Especially if Kenny Hill can do the same. Turcio this month approved a permit for Hill — a former Yale football standout and New York Giants safety who returned to his college town to buy and fix up properties — finally to begin work restoring 235 Winchester.

The 235 Winchester facade.

Hill told the Independent he plans to build 12 new market-rate apartments there. His permit allows him to get started on that work by install[ing] structural support” to the front, which he hopes to preserve and restore; demolishing the rear, and installing a new foundation. Hill said he plans to follow a site plan already approved years ago by the City Plan Commission.

That block has been a nightmare for many, many years. It is a major impact on everything that goes on in” that stretch of the Dixwell neighborhood, said Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, executive director of the city government’s neighborhood anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI). She said she has a meeting scheduled with Hill next week. She plans to pitch him on including affordable” apartments in his plan in return for financial help under a government housing program.

Kenny’s been through a long haul with the city with the project,” she said. Everybody deserves a chance to finish what they started.”

When he and a partner originally purchased already the bombed-out 235 Winchester property for $420,000 in 2003, Hill looked into the future and saw a neighborhood revival. His prediction came true. Across the street, Science Park Building 25 got redone and filled up with tenants. Science Park, the rest of which sprawls on the other side of Henry Street, thrived too.

A city-spawned tech company called Higher One converted two of the factory buildings there into a $46 million new 140,000-square-foot headquarters (though that company has since stumbled and been purchased). A Brooklyn developer has converted one of the old factory buildings into luxury lofts renting for as high as $3,000 a month. Local developer Juan Salas-Romer purchased a problem bar and abandoned church property at the juncture of Munson and Henry, where he has since opened a mid-scale apartment complex called Ashmun Flats. A pedestrian/bike trail opened along the old Farmington Canal.

Hill’s under-restoration burnt-out building a block away.

Heading south from Hill and Kelley’s block heading toward Ingalls Rink and two under-construction new Yale residential colleges, Winchester Avenue is lined with well-kept single and two-and-three-family homes. Hill himself contributed to that look when he renovated a grand 12-unit apartment building, but then it erupted in flames in 2012. He has been renovating it and said he expects to begin renting apartments there again in January. The McCabe Manor condo development has also stabilized that stretch of Winchester.

Hill said investors approached him to buy his vacant hulk at 235 Winchester. But he held on — he wanted to finish the job himself. Even if it took longer than he wished. More than a decade later, he still hasn’t given up.

Safer, Less Parking

Back on Kelley’s porch, the retired 79-year-old carpenter said he welcomes all that change in his neighborhood. So did Johnny Howard, who also lives in the two-family house Kelley has owned since 1982. Howard enjoys using the bike trail. He appreciates the upgrading of housing stock. New security cameras are helping to keep the block quiet, he said.

He offered one complaint: Nobody can park out here anymore. Yale took over the streets; they come out and park in front of people’s houses. The people that live out here got nowhere to park.”

At least,” Kelley interjected, they’re fixing it up. It’s a nice neighborhood. Quiet. They did a nice job. Beautiful.”

Now that final wave will wash up on his own block. Kelley’s house, too, could use some new paint and some repairs as well. I started fixing it up,” he said. Then I caught cancer, twice, so I had to stop for a while.”

He’s feeling better now, he said. He might not have to stop for much longer.

Tags:

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for 1644

Avatar for THREEFIFTHS

Avatar for RhyminTyman

Avatar for THREEFIFTHS

Avatar for 1644

Avatar for THREEFIFTHS