Paul Bass Photos
Audubon Square Construction crew at work.
Bitsie Clark spent decades chasing a dream. On Thursday morning she grabbed a shovel to help celebrate the dream coming true.
Bitsie Clark, at center, with dignitaries at “groundbreaking.”
The celebration was a ceremonial groundbreaking on the “super-block” (stitched together from a bunch of no-longer-existing mini-blocks) bordered by State, Grove, Orange, and Audubon streets.
It was “ceremonial” because work already began months ago in building 269 apartments, up to 5,000 square feet of stores, and a 716-space garage (hidden in the middle of the complex) on what’s now a surface parking lot. That’s phase one of a bigger mini-city that Spinnaker Real Estate is building on that block. The company has dubbed the project “Audubon Square.”
The new project, the latest in a string of market-rate apartment complexes popping up in and around downtown with no public subsidy, extends east of the arts district that runs along Audubon Street from Whitney Avenue to Orange.
As the former head of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Clark led the charge to build a community of condominiums and storefronts blended in with major arts institutions (Educational Center for the Arts, Creative Arts Workshop, Neighborhood Music School, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven) on that stretch, which also includes the McQueeney Towers public-housing apartments. It grew amid the ashes of recession in the 1980s and 1990s, with the hope that it would continue spawning a vibrant urban mix of culture, retail, and residents and visitors of all walks of life.
Until now, that district ended abruptly at the super-block parking lot where the New Haven Register plant once stood. Enter Audubon Square.
Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson.
“This has been waiting to happen for 45 years,” city Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson remarked to the crowd at Thursday’s event.
Or as the irrepressible Bitsie Clark, who has finally retired at 86 years old, proclaimed before grabbing her shovel, “I’ve just been praying for something to happen in this terrible parking lot!”
Mayor Toni Harp addresses gathering.
Mayor Toni Harp called the seven-story building arising behind her “another downtown pillar to support growth, opportunity, and vitality in New Haven.”
“New Haven is becoming a self-contained urban oasis for thousands of new residents, who want easy access to all these opportunities – within walking distance of their homes or mass transit,” Harp said.
Developer Clay Fowler.
Spinnaker CEO Clay Fowler said one-bedroom apartments will rent monthly for “slightly under $2,000.” Two-bedrooms will go for “$2,000 up,” three-bedrooms around $3,000. He called those rates “what everybody else is getting around here” at market-rate complexes like State Street’s Corsair. The costs of buying the land and building a garage also figure into the rental prices, he noted.
Fowler predicted some apartments would be ready to rent as early as next year. Phase two will include another 150 apartments on the super block and 60 – 80 townhouses across Audubon Street.
The Corsair came up several times in Fowler’s remarks as an example of not just his competition, but a new trend in urban rentals: People paying not just for apartments but extensive “amenities” like a swimming pool, common gathering spaces.
South Norwalk-based Spinnaker is betting big on New Haven. It currently has projects in the works at four sites in town. Fowler estimated that Spinnaker is investing a quarter-billion dollars in the four combined projects.
Besides Audubon Square and a project Fowler declined to identify the other two are:
• A boutique hotel on the former Webster Bank site at Elm and Orange. Spinnaker is currently preparing a report to complete the process of obtaining permission to raze the bank and build afresh. Fowler said work could start in nine months.
• A mixed luxury apartment-retail complex at the old Comcast building at Chapel and Olive streets. A lawsuit from a competing developer across the street, Philadelphia-based PMC Property Group, has tied that project up in court for three and a half years, as PMC keeps appealing rulings against it. Fowler accused PMC of conduct unbecoming a developer — tying up another developer’s project — and predicted Spinnaker will prevail soon in court at the final stage of appeals.
Plans for Audubon Square, on the other hand, raced from a November 2016 unveiling to public approvals to construction.
Lien-ing In
Thomas Breen Photo
Audubon Square’s new garage.
Last week a construction company working on the new 269-unit apartment complex on Orange Street placed a $1 million lien on the site for the alleged nonpayment of services by the South Norwalk-based developer.
According to city land records, the North Branford-based Cherry Hill Construction company filed a mechanic’s lien on July 11 against 367 Orange Street LLC, a holding company owned by Spinnaker .
The mechanic’s lien alleges that Spinnaker owed Cherry Hill $1,045,509.90 on a $2,399,277.30 contract for work done on the new Audubon Square development.
The mechanic’s lien, signed by Cherry Hill President Robert Sachs, claims that Cherry Hill furnished materials and rendered services for construction and site development at 335 and 367 Orange St. between Feb. 23 and June 28.
“The undersigned claims a lien on said premises and the buildings and structures thereon,” the lien reads, “as security for the payment in full of the aforesaid amount with interest.”
Cherry Hill officials did not responds to requests for comment.
After Thursday’s ceremony, Spinnaker CEO Fowler reported that the two sides have settled the complaint. He said that the construction company ended up having to “yank out” a piece of a foundation that the developer hadn’t known was there. He claimed the filing lien is a routine tactic subcontractors use to make sure they get paid.
$60K For Pedestrian Improvements
Spinnaker
Sketch of planned Audubon Square as seen from State Street.
The Audubon Square development will also net the city $60,000 for pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of Audubon Street and Orange Street.
During Wednesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission on the second floor of City Hall, city planners voted unanimously to recommend that alders authorize the city to accept $60,000 from the Spinnaker holding company 335 Orange Street, LLC as part of the Audubon Square development.
City Plan staffer Stacey Davis said the city’s Engineering Department and the Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TTP) Department negotiated the one-time contribution of $60,000 from Spinnaker to help improve pedestrian safety at an intersection that is bound to increase in car, bike and foot traffic with the addition of 269 new apartments.
Late last year, TTP Director Doug Hausladen and City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said the Spinnaker contribution will help fund a raised “speed table” at Audubon and Orange.
“I think its marvelous that this arrangement has been made,” Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand said in support of the city planners’ recommendation for the city to accept the money.
I'm sure the issue of affordability will come up (I'm surprised 3/5ths hasn't commented already). But the gap between market rates and what low-income people can afford is huge, and I don't know who can fill this gap. A single person working full-time at a minimum-wage job can afford a rent of a bit more than $500, using the 30% of income rule. I'm sure Spinnaker and the other developers will make profits on their developments. I very much doubt this profit is nearly $1,500 per month on a one-bedroom apartment. I would favor increased state and federal support for affordable housing, but I don't see this happening in the foreseeable future.