Maya McFadden photo
Adult Ed to remain on Ella T. Grasso for now.
The Board of Education has approved an amended five-year lease renewal for the New Haven Adult Education Center’s current location in the Hill.
The newly approved lease — which now heads to the Board of Alders for a final review and vote — would require the public school district to pay rent for a minimum of 1.5 years, instead of two years, before backing out at no further cost.
The unanimous vote, which occurred at Monday’s regular Board of Education meeting at John C. Daniels School, follows a prior school board meeting in March where members voted to table the initial lease agreement for 580 Ella T. Grasso Blvd. at the request of Mayor Justin Elicker.
At the time, Elicker said he wanted to hold off on the vote because he hoped to have more conversations with the landlord, SP Ella LLC — a holding company controlled by landlord Sim Levenhartz.
The newly approved five-year lease would begin on July 1, 2025.
The school district is planning to relocate Adult Ed to a city-owned, to-be-renovated former state welfare building at 188 Bassett St. in Newhallville by June 2026.
The initial proposed lease agreement allowed for a “termination provision after the second year, (July 1, 2027),” meaning that the district would have had to pay a year of rent at 580 Ella T. Grasso even after Adult Ed’s relocation to Newhallvillle before the lease could be terminated.
Now, after subsequent negotiations with the landlord, the Board of Education discussed and voted to approve an amended version of the agreement for a five-year lease extension. The new lease must next be approved by the Board of Alders.
Click here to read the full draft of the agreement.
Like the first proposal, the agreement proposes a 3 percent annual increase to Adult Ed’s rent. That’s the same annual escalation as the district’s current lease, which extends through June 30, 2025. The district is currently paying around $60,000 in monthly rent at the Ella T. Grasso Boulevard building. That number would increase to a monthly rent of almost $62,000 starting July 1, 2025, until June 30, 2026. Starting July 1, 2026, monthly rent would increase to $63,733 until June 30, 2027.
The lease approved Monday included language that granted New Haven Public Schools the right to terminate the lease after 1.5 years, rather than two years, with a 90-day notice.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Elicker explained that the initial two-year minimum for maintaining the lease was longer than the district expects to stay at the space. He noted that the Bassett Street construction project is on track to break ground soon and is a city priority.
“Clearly we do not want to pay rent in a building we’re not in, and the landlord very much wanted the minimum two years, but the board was concerned about that and pushed back,” he said.
He said that the reduction will potentially save the school district money while also providing Adult Ed with the necessary space to continue its programming.
City rendering of Adult Ed's new Bassett Street building.
