Beinfield Architecture
Rendering of the project.
Farwell: What about the road?
One of New Haven’s last downtown holes is about to be filled by yet another 269 market-rate apartments, a project that drew kudos and some traffic and parking questions when the developer unveiled it Monday night.
The developer, Spinnaker Real Estates of South Norwalk, plans to build the seven-story apartment building — plus 4,000 square feet of stores, a 715-car garage, and a pool and rooftop deck — on 285,000 square feet on the northwest corner of the block bordered by Audubon, State, Grove, and Orange streets. The company aims to break ground in 2017 on the development, called Audubon Square.
The project drew some initial kudos at a Downtown/Wooster Square Community Management Team meeting Monday night for taking what some consider to be an under-utilized surface parking lot for Frontier Communications employees and injecting a sense of community into the mixed-use development. (The block used to house the New Haven Register before the paper moved to Long Wharf in the mid-1980s.)
Spinnaker CEO Clayton Fowler and a team presented plans for the mixed-use development, in which residential and retail space of varying heights wrap around the core parking garage, to the management team at its meeting at City Hall.
“We felt this was a critical place to enlarge downtown and create a much more energetic community,” city Economic Development Administrator Nemerson said, citing Spinnaker’s track record with developments that fit contextually onto the street and “activate first floors.”
Michelle Liu Photo
Nemerson and Fowler at briefing.
Nemerson pointed out that the four-acre lot, as is, generates little tax revenue. “We got very lucky.”
Two phases of construction totaling 18 to 20 months would bring the number of apartments up to 500 and cost up to $160 million, according to a news release from the city. Spinnaker is not seeking any aid from the city for the project. While it does not need zoning relief, it does need building plan approval from the City Plan Commission.
Most or all of the apartments in phase one are expected to charge market-rate rents, according to Nemerson. He observed a dearth of market-rate units currently in the area, adding that the development would create an income-integrated neighborhood. A high-rise public-housing complex for seniors and the disabled, McQueeney Towers, is right across the street from the Spinnaker block at 358 Orange St..
View down Orange Street.
The project will extend the busy Audubon arts district. It continues the torrid pace of new apartment construction in and around downtown — including a 232-apartment “Lofts at Wooster Square” project Spinnaker plans to begin building in 2017 on Chapel Street between Union Avenue and Olive Street.
A city news release describes the Audubon project’s design as having “the look and feel of renovated factory site” with “lower, set-back and present more of a town-house feel along the narrow and picturesque Audubon front. The design will seek to create some public plazas that can be enjoyed by the community as well as offering private spaces for residents.”
“When completed this new complex could bring well over 500 new units of housing and create a retail corridor on Orange Street that has not been seen in over 50 years – when the next-door Arena was torn down,” the release quoted Mayor Toni Harp as saying.
Fowler Monday night said Spinnaker agreed to let Frontier employees to park free at the garage during the day as part of its purchase of the property from the phone company. He said his tenants will have ample parking space in the evenings.
Fowler points to amenity space in the proposed Audubon Square development.
Former Downtown Alder Abigail Roth, who used to live a block up Audubon Street from the planned development, voiced skepticism at Fowler’s explanation for the day/night parking set-up. She said many of those she knew who lived in the area were either retired or walked or biked to work — meaning that they might be fighting Frontier employees for parking spaces during the day.
Fowler explained that Frontier requires only 525 of the 715 spaces set to be constructed (“They sold the land; they drove the boat,” he told the Independent of the number of spaces.) The remaining spaces can easily accommodate residents of the planned 269 units, he said.
New Haven Urban Design League President Anstress Farwell (pictured) asked for more details: What about the private road Fowler had mentioned that would cut through the site?
The two-way street would be publicly accessible, as would plaza areas stemming of the road, Fowler stressed. There is already an accompanying traffic study Spinnaker will submit to the city this week.
Farwell pressed further: What kinds of traffic signals would the street entail?
“I don’t know. I have not read the traffic study yet,” Fowler said.
He anticipated that after the garage is built first, it will be functional even as the wrap-around units and retail are constructed. Fowler added that Spinnaker has already communicated with neighbors such as the Trinity Baptist Church on the corner of State and Grove Streets, the only part of the block Spinnaker does not own.
“It’s still well thought out, and will be thought out in the future,” management team chair Peter Webster said of the plan.
Sounds wonderful. I can't wait.