Will Downtown Grow To Ten Squares?

Watch out, Ninth Square. Your long-lost brother, the ​“Tenth Square” (pictured, in hypothetical form), might be coming back to town soon.

Or so announced Deputy Economic Development Director Tony Bialecki at a special meeting of the Development Commission held Monday to brief members and the public on progress to the Gateway Downtown Development project. The project covers the blocks of George Street, including in front of the Knights of Columbus over to State, across from where the new Gateway Community College is being built.

The city, Bialecki said, has narrowed down possible developers of the former Coliseum site from six to four. In an interview afterwards, he hinted that the top contenders may soon only number three.

At this stage, Bialecki (pictured below) and other members of the Review Committee established to vet and question the developers interested in building on the site of the former Coliseum are, in his words, ​“raising lots of questions.” The questions geared toward assessing the firms’ track records and access to sufficient capital. They are not, he emphasized, probing too deeply on design.

That may prove easier said than done. Three of the remaining developers, after all, have linked up with some of the nation’s most venerable architects: Robert AM Stern; Herbert S. Newman and Cesar Pelli.

And it is hard to ignore the fact that one of the proposals — that of Northland Investment Corporation, which works with Stern — calls for the return of New Haven’s so-called ​“Tenth Square.”

In its proposal, Northland draws on the following quote from the city’s Town Plan: ​“The activity of Colonial New Haven focused on the ​‘tenth square’, a group of streets plotted to the southeast between the harbor and the original Market Place. The ​‘square’ held the active mercantile quarter. The Long Wharf, which stretched in to the harbor from the tenth square, housed an extensive shipping industry which controlled New Haven’s economy in the early Federal period.”

In addition to Northland, developers still in the running are: The Richman Group, which proposes 60 units of affordable housing out of nearly 300 in all, an ice-skating rink and a health club; Archstone, which would like to leave an impression on visitors who emerge from the train station with a rich array of retail space and green fields; and Heyman Properties LLC, whose proposal centers primarily on a first-class Marriot hotel and leaves the rest of the development open-ended.

All the designs incorporate the soon-to-be new location of the Long Wharf Theatre. In his office after the meeting, Bialecki noted that the city was lucky to receive proposals from some ​“great” firms and architects — well, make that three ​“great” options. He pointed to Northland, The Richman Group and Archstone, but not Heyman Properties.

Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark (pictured), a member of the Development Commission, offered an idea of where she stands. She said that above all, if not exclusively, she and her colleagues would like to recommend the developer who is most likely to see the project through to its completion with as few subsidies as possible.

She showed a special interest in the Tenth Square proposal, speaking of its origins with zeal. It remains to be seen whether the interest it inspires will be enough for Northland.

“It’s different than the others,” she said. ​“I’m not sure it’s that good. But it’s different!”

For Melissa Bailey’s May breakdown of all the bids the city received in response to its Request for Qualification (RFQ), click here. The developers no longer in the running are Avalon Bay, which the Review Committee chose not to interview for its lack of interest in retail, and The Related Companies, which withdrew from the bidding process on its own accord.

Over the next week or two, the Review Committee will continue to pose questions to the remaining bidders, meeting toward the end of the month to take further action. If torn, it could, perhaps, ask two firms for a more-detailed Request for Proposal, although that route would prove costly. It could also request follow-up interviews and conduct more research itself until the most-qualified developer, in the committee’s view at least, becomes clear.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy have the final say; the Board of Aldermen has already granted the mayor the authority to choose a developer provided it meets certain conditions and the project’s scope and purpose is not radically changed.

Bialecki said the process is likely to wrap up by the end of the summer, at which point more detailed plans will be drawn and, soon after, bids will be requested for the construction. As Monday night’s raucous thunderstorm pounded down onto City Hall — illuminating its chambers every so often with a sudden flash of lightening — the deputy economic development chair said he envisions the site operational by 2012.