Kenneth Boroson Architects, LLC
Two new residential developments at Lafayette Street and Congress Avenue.
A 30-year plan to redevelop an 11.6‑acre “ghost town” of mostly parking lots and vacant buildings between the Hill and Downtown took another step forward on Wednesday night when city planners approved site plans for two residential developments that are scheduled to begin construction this fall.
At the City Plan Commission’s regular monthly meeting on the second floor of City Hall, the commissioners unanimously approved proposals for two six-story residential developments at 216 Congress Ave. and 222, 234 and 246 Lafayette St.
The proposed apartment buildings constitute the second phase of Stamford developer Randy Salvatore’s three-phase project to transform an area of the city that is mostly empty lots into a dense, mixed-use neighborhood of apartments, stores, research space and offices between Congress Avenue and Church Street South.
The city has been working with a range of developers since the late 1980s to try to develop this centrally located land that falls right between Union Station, the Hill neighborhood and Downtown.
Thomas Breen photo
Attorney Carolyn Kone presents the latest projects in the Hill to Downtown redevelopment project.
Attorney Carolyn Kone, who represents Salvatore’s RMS development company on this project, told the commissioners that the first approved phase of the project is well underway. She said that a planned 110-unit, mixed-use development at Gold Street is currently under construction and should be finished by the end of 2018. She said that RMS received “Just In Time” state funding to make 30 percent of the residential units at the Gold Street project affordable.
She also said that a second approved mixed-use development project, designed to bring 30 more apartments to Prince Street, should be underway once RMS gets approved for state subsidies for 30 percent affordable housing for that site.
For the phase two projects, Kone said, the 21,700 square-foot Lafayette Street building will be six stories tall, It will have 104 residential units: 85 one-bedroom apartments, 14 two-bedroom apartments, and five three-bedroom apartments, as well gyms, studies, lounges, a roof garden, and 52 parking spaces.
The 22,500 square-foot Congress Avenue building will similarly be six stories tall. It will have 90 residential units: 70 one-bedroom apartments, 15 two-bedroom apartments, and five three-bedroom apartments. The building will also have a lobby, a mailroom, a fitness center, a study, 45 parking spaces and a 3,200 square-foot dog park.
Kone said the developer plans on purchasing the two parcels from the city for $1.5 million before the the current fiscal year ends in June.
New Haven architect Kenneth Boroson.
“As an architect, you don’t often get a chance to take two parking lots and create a dense urban setting,” said Kenneth Boroson, whose firm designed these two buildings.
He said that the two buildings’ street-side facades, including the ground floor parking garages, are fronted with glass instead of mesh or screens. He said that this glass fronting provides more of a storefront look than an industrial look, and will allow for the parking garage space to be converted into a commercial space if there is ever enough density and demand.
Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand praised the two proposals as furthering the city’s mission to create a denser urban development in an underused stretch between the Hill and Downtown.
“I think it was a really good project that resulted in a really compelling vision for this part of town,” he said, “which has been kind of a ‘ghost town’ in certain respects, and major reason for the tremendous disconnect between that neighborhood and Downtown. The vision of filling it in with a more activated urban environment was really appealing to us on the board. … We’ve done the planning. We’ve done the zoning. And now we’ve got a project that’s going to be built.”
City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison.
City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison agreed, and singled out the convertible spaces that could be either parking or retail as a creative solution to the problems that recent developments like the Novella have faced in attracting ground-floor retailerse.
“We always want to see more retail, and it’s a very good idea,” he said, “but we also have a fair number of empty retail spaces and we don’t want create some more. Doing it this way seems very creative.”
Kone said that the developer plans to start construction on these two projects in Fall 2018, and hopes to have them finished by September 2019.
She said that RMS received "Just In Time" state funding to make 30 percent of the residential units at the Gold Street project affordable.
Again Snake-Oil and Three Card Monte being sold Affordable for who?.