Former-Street Sale Eyed For 16 Apts.

The city plans to sell off a portion of a highway-obliterated former street to make way for a proposed new 16-unit apartment building on Upper State Street.

Those plans are detailed in a proposed order recently submitted as a communication to the Board of Alders.

The order calls on the city to approve the discontinuance of a remaining portion of the former Pulaski Street. It also proposes that the city sign off on a Development and Land Disposition Agreement (DLDA) for the adjacent lot at 793 State St.

Up until this summer, that privately owned 0.08-acre property held a blighted two-story office and apartment building. City building permit records show that the landlord, Alpha Acquisitions LLC, demolished the vacant structure in July.

Now that that ​“persistent source of blight and complaints to many City departments” has been removed, city Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli wrote in a cover letter for the proposed street discontinuance and DLDA, the landlord plans to build ​“a new mixed-use development comprised of sixteen residential units with dedicated retail/commercial space on the first floor.”

But first, the city must formally discontinue the remaining stretch of Pulaski Street that sits between 793 State St. to the north and the publicly owned Park New Haven parking lot at 781 State St. to the south.

“This portion of the Pulaski Street serves no purpose as a thoroughfare or (due to the construction of Interstate 91) a potential thoroughfare,” Piscitelli wrote, ​“and, accordingly, the City of New Haven’s interest to discontinue it and return it to the tax rolls.”

If and when the city discontinues that section of the former street, the discontinued stretch is split evenly between the abutters.

Alpha Acquisitions — which is a holding company controlled by Madison-based landlord Alex Opuszynski — has asked the city to transfer to them its half of the former street to allow the private development to go forward.

According to the proposed DLDA, the city plans to sell its remaining portion of the former Pulaski Street to Alpha Acquisitions for $11,000.

“Given the fact that 793 State Street was perhaps the most blighted property in the entire Upper State Street District and one that had been vacant for many years making it an attractive nuisance for illegal dumping, trespassing and other issues which affect the quality of life for the entire neighborhood,” Piscitelli wrote, ​“we believe it is in the public interest to move forward with the Proposed Project.

“The property’s redevelopment as a mixed-use building will reactivate this portion of State Street and ameliorate most of the problems associated with the property as it exists now, while adding new revenue to the City’s tax rolls.”

He said that Alpha Acquisitions will also be an owner occupant of the new building. It will base its business operations out of one of the ground floor commercial spaces.

The landlord has also committed to restricting two of the 16 apartments to rents for tenants earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). That affordability requirement, per the proposed DLDA, would have to stay in place for 10 years from ​“the date of first occupancy by an income compliant tenant.”

Click here, here, here, and here to read documents related to the proposed street discontinuance and DLDA.

The proposals now advance to the City Plan Commission and to an aldermanic committee for various reviews before returning to the full Board of Alders in the next few months for a final debate and vote.