SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC file photo
So long, linen. Hello, housing? New England Linen workers inside the plant in 2015.
An Avon-based housing developer won a key approval to clean up the blighted remains of a former West River laundry service — and to convert that no-longer commercial space into 64 new below-market-rent apartments.
Local land-use commissioners signed off on that plan Wednesday night during the latest regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission, which was held online via Zoom.
The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the site plan and a related special permit by Monarch Apartment Homes, LLC to build 64 apartments at 149 and 169 Derby Ave.
That’s the site of the abandoned linen and uniform supply store known as New England Linen. Built in 1900, it was previously known as Monarch Cleaners — thus its new name as new housing, Monarch Apartment Homes.
Planned new apartments for ...
... 149 Derby Ave., once home to the now abandoned New England Linen facility.
Lewis Brown.
The developer, an Avon-based group called Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, plans to reserve all 64 residential units for families making no more than 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), which currently translates to $89,400 per year for a family of four.
“There are 100 percent affordable homes here in this development,” Lewis Brown, the agent representing the developer, told the commissioners on Wednesday night.
The complex will include 21 one-bedroom apartments, 13 of which will be available to those earning 50 percent AMI or below and 8 of which will target those with incomes of 60 percent AMI or below.
It will also include 23 two-bedroom apartments, all of which will be reserved for renters making 60 percent AMI or below.
And it will include 20 three-bedroom apartments, 17 of which will be reserved at 60 percent AMI or below and three of which will be at 80 percent AMI.
The proposed building's site plan.
Brown said the exact pricing for those rentals will be determined through the low-income housing tax credit program. “A resident will be required to income qualify in their first year of residency,” he explained, but “the reason the program is unique is that after their first year of residency they are able to earn up to 140 percent of the AMI.”
He said that rule will allow tenants “to improve their economic standing and not be displaced from their home for not increasing their financial wherewithal.”
Landscape architect Joe McDonnell added that the site will feature 66 parking spots and aim to “repopulate and reinvigorate the street” while establishing a frontward facing greenery and “the row house” image “where each door has a front stoop” in order to adhere to a “traditional urban fabric.”
The project would also involve remediating the ground underlying 169 Derby Ave., on which filler materials including the chemical tetrachloroethylene were reportedly dumped in the past.
Lewis said his team has submitted an application to the state to receive money to remediate the brownfield and that they expect a response concerning potential funding in December. Another financial application to the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority should yield a response in January. And Lewis estimated that once construction begins, the apartments should take about 15 to 18 months to build.
The site is surrounded by multi-family homes, senior housing, a school and a church.
The only public input heard Wednesday was from Stacy Spell, the vice president of the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation.
Spell said his organization is in favor of the project, but that they wished to have received a presentation by the developers to their board of directors.
“We wish to see affordable projects built in our neighborhood, but we have some concerns,” Spell said.
The fact that the site is in a coastal zone, he said, prompted concerns about sewer overflow. And, he added, “we are trying to grow a peaceful, green, caring community… and we are trying to do that mostly through homeownership.” He said “transient housing” could make community building tougher.
Brown said he had reached out to the community multiple times via email to grow engagement, but that regardless of any miscommunications he and his team “will make ourselves available to you.”
“I think this is gonna be a wonderful added use,” Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe declared. She said dense affordable housing featuring family-size apartments is rarely pitched in New Haven.
The complex will be named The Monarch, after the laundry and dry cleaning service that previously operated out of the building on 149 Derby Ave., which was, according to the developers’ application, built in 1900.
“I’m curious… is it referencing the butterfly?” Commissioner Adam Marchand inquired of the building’s title.
Yes, Lewis said. “The monarch is a butterfly, and the idea of metamorphosis and changing this dirty, contaminated site with shuttered buildings into what we think is quite attractive, contextually appropriate affordable housing is pretty powerful,” he poeticized.
“Perhaps you will be able to use butterfly imagery in your stationery,” Marchard imagined. That’s “not a condition of the project, but just a little suggestion,” he clarified.
“It’s more than just a good looking building,” Radcliffe pitched in. “It’ll provide housing — and affordable housing.”
“I look forward to seeing you do more work in the city of New Haven,” she added, “if this is going to be your model.”
More tax-free property? More rentals? Why isn't the city pushing for home ownership?