Builder, City Try To Get To 30%

City officials and a developer are exploring where to find the public dough to make 30 percent of the housing ​“affordable” in a planned new project for the Hill neighborhood.

Where they find the dough will help determine how ​“affordable” that housing is — whether it will be rented by poor people, working-to-middle-class families, or a combination.

That’s the latest on an on-again off-again plan by Randy Salvatore to build on a long-undeveloped stretch of the Hill near downtown.

Salvatore is looking to pay the city $1.25 million for two of ten pieces of property there (and then a to-be-determined ​“fair market value” worth millions more) in order to build 140 apartments, 7,000 square feet of stores, 120,000 square feet of research space, and 50,000 square feet of offices on 20 acres bounded by Church Street South, Amistad Street, Cedar Street, Congress Avenue, College Street, and South Frontage Road.

He struck a deal with the city, which called for making 10 percent of that housing ​“affordable.” Alders held up the deal and tossed it back to a ​“Hill-to-Downtown Committee” to get more neighborhood input. That committee recommended upping the amount of affordable housing to 30 percent.

Salvatore, who had considered backing out of the deal after the alders delayed it, said Thursday he’s up for making it work — if he and the city can find the money to subsidize the affordable housing portion.

He and city officials scheduled discussions this week to discuss where to find that money.

“We have to figure out a way to fill the gap between market-rate and affordable housing” so that Salvatore can afford to build the new apartments, said Livable City Initiative Director Serena Neal-Sanjuro. She said the city’s looking at both state and federal subsidized-housing programs. Some of the programs call for housing families who earn as low as 50 percent of the Area Median Income, while others support tenants earning 80 to 120 percent of that amount.

That makes a world of difference — from families earning under $30,000 a year to those earning $80,000.

One pot of potential money could come from the federal government, which has made available site-based subsidies (tied to properties, not tenants) for 301 low-income families because of the pending clearing-out of the nearby Church Street South subsidized housing complex.

But those subsidies may not pay the full cost of building and maintaining the new apartments, Salvatore and Neal-Sanjurjo said. So the hunt is on for other programs that might fill that gap, or else fully support construction or rents.

Until officials decide on a pot of money to pursue, it’s unknown which level of ​“affordable” rents will be supported.

“As long as the economics can work, I’m totally fine with” lower-income housing, Salvatore said. ​“It’s all about plugging the gap. … This not typically the business that we’re in . So we don’t have all the sources for this kind of thing. They’re looking around for all the programs that we think will be applicable.”

He said a conversation with officials on Thursday did not ​“resolve” the matter. ​“But I think the city reps have some good ideas and potential options for funding.”

City Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson predicted the process will benefit from the fact that state Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez, a former Hill alder, chaired the Hill-to-Downtown Committee that made the recommendations and resuscitated the project.

“Having Jorge involved — with the contacts he has on the CHFA [Connecticut Housing Finance Administration]” and at other agencies might help ​“start the conversation for us to get money,” Nemerson said.

“I don’t work for the [state] Department of Housing or CHFA,” Perez said. ​“I’m not making any promises. I’m not making any commitments to anything I have no authority over. … I’m not representing anyone in the state. I’m a citizen of the city of New Haven. I’ve been asked by the Board of Alders to help bring people together.”

Like others interviewed, Perez said it’s too early to tell whether the 30 percent of ​“affordable” housing will end up as low-income housing or ​“workforce” housing.