Rendering of planned apartment complex situated next to St. Luke's.
St. Luke's — and Papa John's — hanging out together on Friday morning.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church received a final OK to demolish Papa John’s pizza to bring 55 new affordable apartments to the holy gateway of Whalley Avenue.
City Plan Commissioners unanimously approved that plan during their latest meeting Wednesday night, welcoming the mixed-used project as the first major development to take place in the city’s only commercial gateway district.
“It’s a way for the congregation to put its money where its mouth is and live out its mission in the world,” said Commissioner and Westville Alder Adam Marchand.
The commission voted in support of a site plan put forward by St. Luke’s Development Corporation, which pursues development opportunities near the church, to construct a six-story apartment building with ground floor commercial space across 117 and 129 Whalley Ave., 12 Dickerman St., and 34 and 36 Sperry St. The corporation is working in tandem with the Glendower Group, the housing authority’s development arm, to redevelop the properties.
The project’s developers last earned zoning relief for the project from the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals back in 2016, at which point they had already spent five years struggling to find financing to move the project forward. Architect Paul Bailey told commissioners that he has worked on the plan for more than 10 years, but that “it has a very good chance to come to fruition now.”
The developers’ application to the commission states that they have yet to close on financing for the project, but that if all goes as planned construction will start in Fall of 2023 and wrap up within a year.
Bailey said his architectural goal was “to stay as far away from the church as possible to give us some breathing room” and to choose “a simple shape for the new structure that would not overwhelm the church.” St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, an example of Gothic Revival architecture, has been located at 111 Whalley Ave. since the early 1900s.
The new project entails knocking down commercial buildings located at 117 through 125 and 129 Whalley Ave., which includes Soul Food restaurant “Greens ‘N’ Thangs” and pizza chain Papa John’s. The developers said they will invite any affected businesses back into the 3,800 square feet retail space they intend to build, but that the new site may not be large enough to accommodate them.
The approved site plan.
Each of the top five floors of the building will feature 11 apartments and 44 of the total 55 will be priced at 50 percent Area Median Income or below. In 2022, a New Haven one-bedroom apartment priced at 50 percent AMI would come to $1,056 per month.
A total of 20 one-bedrooms, 25 two-bedrooms and 10 three-bedrooms are anticipated. 10 through 12 Dickerman St. and 34 through 36 Sperry St. will be converted into surface parking lots to accommodate incoming tenants and shoppers alongside the establishment of 48 spaces for bicycle parking.
“This affordable, mixed-income project will contribute to the promotion of healthy lives, a strong community, and robust economy. Residents of the Whalley Avenue building will have easy access to area amenities providing them the opportunity to participate in social activities and services available in their community. The pedestrian-friendly layout of the project will offer increased traffic to new and existing businesses on Whalley Avenue and in the neighborhood, and the new building will improve curb appeal as it becomes the gateway to one of New Haven’s most active commercial districts,” the site plan application reads.
City Planner Esther Rose-Wilen described the project as the “first major development” proposed in the Whalley Avenue “Commercial Gateway District.” That refers to new zoning standards passed in 2020 aiming to spur dense, walkable and environmentally sustainable development along a stretch of Whalley Avenue currently dominated by surface parking lots, fast food restaurants, and other single-story commercial venues.
The first development to move forward since that new district was introduced was six apartments above the shuttered Mexican restaurant El Amigo Felix.
St. Luke’s project was largely conceptualized and designed before the commercial gateway district was even created. But it will be the first dense housing project to come to Whalley Avenue since.
A report on the development written by Rose-Wilen states that “Planning Staff see the project as being well-aligned with the goals of the CGD based on the density of residential units, active commercial first-floor, quality resident amenity and open space, and affordability component.”
“As far as the city is concerned, we need more housing and we certainly need more opportunities for affordable housing,” Marchand said Wednesday.
“I really commend St. Luke’s for their spirit of adventure and their sense of mission.”
Hopefully similar projects start to populate Whalley. It's a fine line to run between "gentrification" and "improvement" but bringing more residential frontage to Whalley itself will help to clean up that area a bit, and make it more walkable. I especially like the direct-on-the-sidewalk frontage that this project shows, not set back behind some parking. Since Whalley is a gateway to downtown, it would only make sense to extend the walkability/livability from downtown further up Whalley.