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Rell Pledges $5.5M For Winchester Redo

by Melissa Bailey | Dec 8, 2010 8:49 am

(6) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Business/Labor/ Economic Development, Newhallville

Melissa Bailey Photo Workers will start tearing out lead and asbestos from New Haven’s historic gun factory in the next couple of months, if the state comes through with a pledge to help a fast-growing hometown financial services company move to a new home.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell (at center in photo) has pledged $5.5 million in state aid towards rehabbing Tract A of Science Park, the iconic abandoned Winchester Repeating Arms Company building at the corner of Munson Street and Winchester Avenue.

The support will help transform the old factory building into a new headquarters for New Haven’s own Higher One, a financial services company started by three Yale undergraduates 10 years ago. Higher One handles financial services for students at 650 colleges and universities. It employs 170 people across the street at 25 Science Park and plans to move into the new space to accommodate a growing workforce. (Click here, here and here for related stories.)

At a chilly press conference Tuesday in the factory’s “bombed-out” inner courtyard, Rell hailed Higher One a “success story” for New Haven and the state. She said she expects the state Bond Commission to approve a $2 million grant Friday to pay for site construction. The state will pay another $3.5 million for environmental cleanup, state officials said. The $5.5 million will be part of a larger package including $1 million in sales and use tax exemptions and up to $18.5 million in tax credits in the next 10 years. Those tax credits are contingent on how many jobs Higher One creates.

The company plans to add 200 new positions in New Haven by January 2015.

Standing next to a large dirt pile, Chief Operations Officer Miles Lasater (at right in photo above) showed Rell and Mayor John DeStefano (at left in photo) where he would put them: In two large buildings with broken windows revealing the debris of bygone industry.

Higher One plans to spend $46 million on the rehab, Lasater said. It comes at a time of great expansion for the company—after turning 10 years old, the company made $36 million by going public on the New York Stock Exchange in June. He said he looks forward to finding a new use for the historic building. He called the new spot a “cost-effective” and convenient place to grow.

After years of producing the Gun That Won The West, the building comes with significant environmental cleanup. Fifteen neighbors from Dixwell and Newhallville are being trained in environmental remediation to get the job done.

If all goes well, they’ll start clearing out lead and asbestos from rooms like these (pictured) in the next couple of months, according to Abe Naparstek of Forest City Enterprises. Forest City, a large national developer, is joining forces with New Haven-savvy Winstanley Enterprises to develop the site.

The duo plans to draw up a design next year to add 200 apartments to the same complex where the Higher One offices will be, Naparstek said.

Building Higher One’s new offices should take 12 months, Naparstek said. Plans (pictured) include a rooftop terrace, lots of offices, and a second-floor cafeteria inside a 140,000-square-foot space.

Svigals + Partners

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posted by: Ben on December 8, 2010  1:20am

Awesome for New Haven, The State and Higher One.
Nice photo Miles!

posted by: lance on December 8, 2010  2:52am

once again the taxpayer takes it on the chin for the economic benefit of a total stranger.

posted by: Edgehood on December 8, 2010  9:34am

Getting a $5.5 million dollar package from a lame duck governor when the state is cutting back everywhere could not have been easy. ‘Good job’ to all concerned…!!
It looks like they really built those old buildings strong. I bet that those heavy wooden floors are still sound, even after all the years of neglect.
I’d like to see a more ‘green’ (living) roofs included. They reduce utility costs and help to eliminate the ‘urban heat island effect’ that can make the area around such a place pretty hellish during a hot summer. Living roof technology and materials have become standardized in the last decade. More ‘green roof’ info here…
http://www.buildings.com/Magazine/ArticleDetails/tabid/3413/ArticleID/8620/Default.aspx

posted by: Dex on December 8, 2010  2:46pm

Another politically popular misuse of funds. Why is the state spending capital on a project that could using private risktakers’ funds instead of using those funds to repair the crumbling infrastructure around the state?

We have freight rail lines in this state that were laid in the 1800 and are about 40+ years beyond their useful life but where does the money go? It goes to a Springfield-New Haven commuter line that no one will use. Why? b/c infrastructure is not exciting and politicians need excitement to further their campaigns, their egos and their legacies. 

I cannot get over how this state continues to spend money on paint for a burning house.

posted by: The Ville on December 8, 2010  11:42pm

why wont they invest any money in anything on the other side of division st? is it because Yale students don’t go there? i guess all the cries for help in the inner parts of the city doesn’t matter to our leaders.

posted by: streever on December 9, 2010  8:16am

This is great: at a time when CT is shedding jobs, New Haven is managing to keep one of it’s large employers (and add 200 jobs in the process), while also cleaning up a derelict eyesore that was abandoned long ago.

No developer would touch 5.5 million in environmental remediation with a stick. Without the State cleaning up the mess, that spot could be vacant for another 50 years.

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