nothin Vote Put Off On Strong School Developer | New Haven Independent

Vote Put Off On Strong School Developer

Herb Newman Architects

Rendering of Lazarus’s plan.

Instead of winning a preliminary vote to buy and renovate the vacant Strong School building into new apartments, a Litchfield-based developer ended up being grilled over whether his plan can work in the real world of real estate.

The grilling of developer Ted Lazarus took place at an hours-long preliminary meeting of the Strong School Select Committee Tuesday night set to start the multi-step process of selling the city-owned structure, which has been vacant since 2010.

Allan Appel Photo

Developer Lazarus with architect Peter Newman at Tuesday’s meeting.

Lazarus was the lone respondent to a city request for proposals to resurrect the circa 1915 school at 69 Grand Ave. His proposal came after six years of the city trying to find someone to revive the 33,000 square-foot three-story former school, and after the city rejected a proposal from a coalition of Chatham Square neighbors who had come up with a plan to transform the school into a performing arts center. (Read more about the plan here.) The school is in the Chatham Square section of Fair Haven.

Lazarus has proposed spending $16.7 million converting the fine pile of bricks into 37 apartments, seven of which will be affordable housing” and managed by the Housing Authority of New Haven, and the rest market-rate with a projected monthly rent of $1,500 per unit. Lazarus also promises a shared space for the future tenants and the community, details to be determined in conversation with Fair Haveners. The proposal calls for a historic renovation of the building using historic preservation tax credits.

Alder Reveiz and Steinhardt.

But first the sale has to go through a long public process that dragged along Tuesday night with a meeting of a Select Committee for the Strong School, which will eventually negotiate with a developer and vote on whether to sell the school. After hours of procedural and conceptual debate, the meeting ended with a decision not to approve Lazarus as developer, as the city sought; but merely to schedule another future meeting to receive public input on the qualifications of Lazarus as a developer.

But still skepticism in the neighborhood — which has existed since Lazarus first entered the picture and had tesne interactions with neighbors (click here for a story about a fiery previous encounter)— surfaced Tuesday night at the meeting, which took place at City Hall.

The Select Committee for the Strong School is chaired by city Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson and includes Fair Haven Alders Jose Crespo, Kenneth Reviez, and Rose Santana, as well as neighbors and local Fair Haven businessman David Steinhardt.

Steinhard and another neighbor Anthony Pellegrino were added at the end of last year after the city rejected the Chatham neighbors’ proposal and in response to an outcry of lack of grass roots representation.

Steinhardt, who operates the D.S. Sewing Company in Fair Haven and also chairs the Fair Haven Management team, led off with the questioning of Lazarus after the developer’s presentation.

He queried Lazarus and the architects, Peter Newman and Paul Santos, on the size of the auditorium/gymnasium space on the first floor of the school off the patio that is being considered for use as a space for community and other events, for example a green market.

About 3,500” square feet, Newman replied.

Room for not many [green market] stalls,” replied Steinhardt.

Steinhardt and others pursued other questions, for example, on the small size of the proposed apartments, the smallest unit being 370 square feet, according to Newman/ Nemerson was at pains to point out that technically the meeting should not focus on details like number of potential green market stalls, but on the larger concept Lazarus has brought to the table and primarily on his worthiness” as a developer.

This is a competition to select a developer. Here we look at a concept, and decide to enter a conversation,” he said. This is a conceptual competition, even though there’s only one [competitor].”

So Steinhardt, a businessman, shifted to the financial viability of the plan as presented. He pointed out that on the revenue side Lazarus is projecting only one apartment vacant per month in the first year of operation. He asked if that’s too ambitious.

It’s early to have that conversation,” Lazarus replied.

Nemerson consults with committee member Jane Coppock of Fair haven.

Nemerson said Steinhardt was right to raise questions about New Haven’s rental market, which is in the midst of change.

Fair Haven’s market” is different from the one downtown and in other parts of the city, Steinhardt continued. At minimum $1,500 monthly rentals, they might have more vacancies” than accounted for in the projections.

They might have to borrow less” and alter materials or plans for the apartments, after studying the market further, Nemerson concurred. We have one applicant. They either borrow up to attain [rent]stabilization or borrow down.”

Nemerson regularly reminded committee members that more detailed inquiries — and adjustments to Lazarus’s proposal — could, according to the process, be made after the committee anoints him officially as a developer. Then the public would have plenty of time to push for changes during more meetings and the long process of submission to City Plan and the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Before the committee Tuesday night were only two choices: either to select Lazarus as the developer that evening in order to save time. Or, hewing more closely to the guidelines of the process, have a vote on a place and time for a public meeting where the only subject on the agenda would be, as at Tuesday night’s meeting, the financial and other qualifications of Lazarus to be chosen by the city.

Ward 13 Alder Santana said other aspects of community benefits” could be discussed with Lazarus after he is selected.

Need For Speed?

Newman Architects

A conceptual apartment design.

Nemerson advocated for a vote selecting Lazarus that night and short-cutting the process somewhat.

The reason: The city is paying $80,000 to 100,000 a year simply for light and heat at the Strong School and cannot afford to continue doing that. He also said the $500,000 Lazarus is offering for the building is fair, and the city needs the cash.

The city is not going to maintain this building much longer and the city is trying to monetize assets,” he said.

I understand there’s urgency. There is also urgency from the neighborhood that the conversation be robust,” responded Ward 14 Alder Reviez.

That sentiment carried the day. Without a formal vote, the committee decided not to vote on Lazarus yet but to seek that input from the community. The next meeting will be either on July 26 or 27, most likely in Fair Haven.

Although the meeting was for committee members only and the public was not allowed to speak, several members attended in a kind of silence witness.

One of them, Clinton Avenue resident Sarah Miller, who had been part of the rejected proposal from the Chatham neighbors, had this to say to a reporter: The community deserves the right to weigh in on whether the applicant is qualified, which, by the way, he’s not. He’s never done a project like this. He’s never completed renovation of a historic building of this size and complexity.”

Stay tuned.

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