Melissa Bailey Photo
Shykwon Warren knows just what he’d do with the abandoned garage the state just put up for sale in his neighborhood — bring in some bowling alleys, go-carts, and laser tag.
Shykwon (pictured), who’s 15, offered that vision as he walked by 470 James St. Wednesday afternoon on his way to the laundromat.
“Kids don’t have a place to go and have fun anymore,” he reasoned.
Meanwhile, the state is accepting proposals from developers with other visions to fix up the place. The state-owned property, designated as a “brownfield” in need of environmental cleanup, most recently served as a bus garage for CT Transit. As part of a jobs bill approved by the state legislature last October, the state agreed to choose five state-owned brownfields, pay for environmental cleanup, and put them up for sale to private companies. New Haven’s pick made the cut: The state on June 6 issued a request for proposals seeking developers to buy five brownfields, including the James Street site.
Proposals are due back Aug. 31.
The 7‑acre lot sits right off of Exit 6 on I‑91. It features a 195,000-square-foot brick building, including two stories of offices in the front and garage bays stretching out towards the rear. City appraisers pegged the fair market value at $5.6 million in last year’s revaluation.
The building used to house the local division offices for CT Transit, according to Philip Fry, CT Transit’s assistant general manager for planning and marketing. Over 100 buses were maintained and stored there. About 190 bus drivers would report to work there, pick up their buses, and head out to their routes, he said. The site also housed administrative offices.
The building was built in 1950 as a garage for the Connecticut Company, a private bus company that used to provide regional bus service, according to Fry. In 1976, as private bus companies across the nation were going bankrupt and getting bought out by government entities, the State of Connecticut bought the company and changed the name to CT Transit, Fry said. The state bought the James Street lot that year, too.
The lot has been abandoned since September 2010, when CT Transit moved its New Haven operations to a new facility in Hamden, Fry said. CT Transit still keeps some older buses on James Street in case of emergency, he said. Known toxins at the James Street site that need to be cleaned up include hydrocarbons in soil, asbestos and lead, according to Maya Loewenberg, the permit ombudsman for the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
The only activity on the site Wednesday was the occasional arrival of trucks from Rizzo Electrical Construction, which is using a corner of the lot as a staging area.
News of the proposed sale met a warm welcome on James Street, where weeds are already growing chest-high on the sidewalk outside the garage.
“It looks abandoned, like nobody cares anymore,” observed Shykwon, who used to walk by regularly on the way to school. On Wednesday, he and his brother were walking from their Cedar Hill home to the Express laundromat to get their laundry done.
Across the street, a manager at Lumber Liquidators welcomed the chance for more activity in the area.
“I would love to have something there,” said Jeremy Beamer. “Anything to bring traffic to the street.”
Businesses in that area have been suffering from the years-long closure of State Street as the state fixes the State Street Bridge. The road closed in October 2010; the bridge is marching towards a 2013 opening date.
To be chosen for revival, the CT Transit lot had to meet various criteria outlined by the jobs bill, including being near transportation and sitting in a city with a higher-than-average unemployment rate. The Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) agreed to match “up to five” brownfields with private buyers and sell the “pre-permitted, cleaned sites” to those companies. The state left open the option of cleaning up one of the five brownfields even without identifying a buyer.
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney said the idea behind the jobs bill was to turn abandoned state properties into jobs creators and put them back on the tax rolls. He called the CT Transit lot a good fit because of its size and its “extraordinarily good highway access.” Exit 6 of I‑91 spits out right at the property.
“It would be a good location for manufacturing, because there would be access to the highway to move products,” Looney observed.
The state will review the RFPs and pick a developer who has a “predetermined end use” in mind, and who can bring “the most economic development potential,” DECD’s Loewenberg said.
So far, the state “has not received any interest” in the property, she wrote in an email. “I believe that the city had some inquires about the site.”
City Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy said no developers have approached her yet about the property. She noted that it lies in the boundaries of the Mill River district, which the city is trying to develop as a growing hub for home improvement businesses and food manufacturers.
Loewenberg said if a bidder steps forward, the state will work closely with New Haven to “ensure that a proposed end use is aligned with the municipality’s ongoing planning efforts in the Mill River district.”
The state plans to pick developers within 30 days of the Aug. 31 deadline for the RFPs.
Even if the bus lot does not become a laser tag arena, it turns out Shykwon’s dream may come true anyway.
Across the street from the CT Transit lot, the abandoned Robby Len swimsuit factory is quickly gaining tenants. Named “Trolley Square” after its original purpose as a garage for trolleys, the building has been reborn as a workout mecca. Besides fitness studios such as Crossfit, other tenants include an antique shop, artist studios, a craft store, a digital marketing company.
Downstairs, two college-aged entrepreneurs, Bobby Arel and Anthony Reckarp, are turning an 8,000-square-foot space into a combination laser tag arena, arcade and haunted house. The Decimation Scream Park is set to open at the end of September, according to Arel.
That Crossfit gym commissioned a graffiti mural on the side of their building, you should run a story on that. It's on the side facing the elevated road, at the back of the lot. Go check it out.