Chapel Lots Sold; 166 Apts En Route

When will New Haven get designs that add to the architectural legacy instead of more rectangles that say "any where, USA:?

There should be more "diverse" buildings Downtown because most of the new developments all look nearly identical. Can there be more developments like 360 State?

Quinnchionn, a number of highly unusual factors led to 360 State Street's construction. It is highly unlikely they will recur. Virtually no new housing had been built for a decade before the building went up and there was a great deal of pent-up demand. The city was desperate for development and sold the site for $1 and postponed payment of the building fees until just now. The initial developer was able to line up a number of public subsidies. And he found a major investor (a pension fund) that was interested in a long-term cash flow rather than a quick profit.

Patricia, the rectangles are ubiquitous, in the same way and for the same reason that tract homes were ubiquitous in the mid-20th century when I was a kid. They are/were the most economically efficient way of meeting housing demand. The city could adopt design review under its zoning legislation (current state law, CGS Sec. 8-2m, already allows this). The results might be more aesthetically pleasing. But this would inevitably extend the development process, which would increase the cost of housing.

Happy that lot will finally get a building.
One wish I have for all new development is that the city could require slightly wider sidewalks in front of all new development, especially on streets that have heavy pedestrian usage. Exceptions could be made as needed.

Wide sidewalks make for a beautiful city as they are less claustrophobic, allow for trees or other plantings, bus stops, and in some cases outdoor seating or dining.

As examples, I think the new buildings on Chapel St between the train tracks and Olive St are too close to the street (sidewalks are too narrow). Same thing on Crown between High and York. Both high pedestrian areas. They feel claustrophobic to me.
In contrast, I love how 87 Union St (the side that's facing Union St) is set back a little further from the street.

I realize old buildings may already be leaving narrow sidewalks but I don't think it would look bad if newer buildings were set back, even a few feet, to provide a little more breathing room.

Maybe not needed here but its something I hope they will think about with larger developments like the coliseum site.. wide sidewalks are so much nicer.

It is long past time for New haven to institute design review for new projects. Norwalk already has (and has had for many years) design standards and design review. The result is that, with the same developers and same architects, Norwalk tends to get aesthetically more pleasing projects. Given that New Haven's City Plan Commission and Corporation Counsel prohibit public comment, spoken or written, if there is no Public Hearing, and limit Public Hearings to only a very narrow class of projects, it is high time to create a formal public oversite and approval process for large developments.

Opin1, wider sidewalks would be nice. Existing sidewalks are typically within the right of way of the street. The city could require developers of empty lots to expand them by increasing setback requirements. This would, however, increase rents unless zoning restrictions were modified. Alternatively, in some cases, the city could widen sidewalks by narrowing the street. It could do this by dropping or narrowing travel lanes or eliminating parking. But I don’t think this would work on that stretch of Chapel.

The re-design of State Street in Ninth Square will involve the reconstruction of its sidewalks. The new sidewalks will have to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In some areas, this will mean wider sidewalks.

Alternate headline: Savvy local developer senses downturn in downtown rental market and cashes out.

happy to see the lot being developed but looking at the third photo down at the diversity of buildings that exist on the block makes the new render look a lot less interesting than it's surrounding buildings. :/

It will be interesting to see what happens to the bus stop. There are legitimate reasons for increasing the spacing between stops. Generally, New Haven’s stops are so close to each other that an old guy riding a bike goes faster than the buses. Increasing spacing would increase bus speed and potentially increase bus frequency.

But this stop could be removed for illegitimate reasons. I suspect there will be a substantial difference between the demographics of the residents of the new buildings and those of bus riders.

How do we change the paradigm from granting development approvals, waiting for promises to materialize, watching the project be sold to another entity, and then hearing the rhetoric that there is no room in the budget for quality development or affordable housing.

We are giving away our city over and over again to middle men and corporations (universities). When will city hall learn?

Design review increases the cost of urban housing, thereby speeding climate change, increasing traffic, decreasing tax revenue and shifting political power to the suburbs.

If you want a greater variety of building types, you need to alter building codes. Google "single stair construction reform'" for example.

Dateline-(New Haven) Another out of town developer proposes high-end overpriced apartments in downtown New Haven with an eye toward Yale. The same as all other housing ideas being promulgated in every nook and cranny in the center of town. Creating a greater need for affordable housing for working class New Haven residents. How do they sleep at night and justify this type of over development?

@sbrad4510 There is a logical reason for meeting housing demand at the highest level possible. Yale and the tech businesses in New Haven will attract people who have high income or asset levels and want to live in a city, not a suburb. If there isn't enough supply to meet that demand, it increases demand at lower levels. If one can afford a $3000/mo apartment but there are none available, one will rent a $2500/mo, except that the cost will increase because of the increase in demand. If the demand for $2500/mo apartments can't be met, it increases demand for $2000/mo apartments except that the cost of those will also increase because of the increased demand. An empty lot produces little property tax revenue. The greater the value of the building that's built on that property, the more tax revenue that empty lot will generate. That, theoretically, will provide more funding for affordable housing and everything else the city needs to do.

This type of undistinguished architectural econobox is being built all over the country, even in cities with design review . There's no hope for it. They are the architectural Avocado appliances of the 21st Century.

The new building will look a lot nicer than the empty lot. It’ll provide housing. It will continue the line of the other buildings that define Chapel Street. It will not attract undue architectural attention to itself. I hope it will have shops along the ground floor to help create a lively street for pedestrians. Too often in the past, architects designed buildings which didn’t respect the city, that didn’t help define the city block. Too often architects turned their buildings off the the street grid and moved their buildings back from the street, and that created areas which aren’t pedestrian friendly. The area south of Route 34, Yale Medicine Dermatology, and Towers 1 and 2 don’t contribute to a walkable urban city. A city can only handle a limited number of “architecturally distinguished” buildings. A city of architectural adventures such as the Yale School of Architecture AKA The Rudolf Building would not make for a city united by it’s buildings. If each building is making an architectural statement, they won’t add up to a livable city. It’s good that most buildings respect the street, and the city but don’t draw attention.

Ooooh! "Construction to begin"! So exciting!

Can't wait for another gigantic hole to be dug in the ground, and then that gaping hole left to rot when the developer cries, "whoops! market conditions just changed! We're gonna hold onto that giant hole in the ground and let it fester (for years) until the market changes again and we can sell the parcel to another owner. Sorry, New Haven! See ya!"

See, for reference, the corner of Elm Street and Orange Street.

I’m glad the empty lots will be built on with housing, and hopefully street level retail, restaurants, cafes, and businesses providing services or other attractions for residents and visitors. The facades should look similar or complimentary to the surrounding older buildings in materials and style and character. The bus stop should be reinstated after construction is done, and the sidewalks could use some trees as long as there is sufficient room to allow for ADA mobility device requirements.
This part of Ninth Square has long been neglected, but could once again become part of the bustling city center it once was.
With units being no larger than 2 bedrooms, I hope there is a decent percentage of them in the buildings, as there are students and also YNHH and biotech workers and retirees and empty nesters who want to downsize to the city who would want roommates or who have family members staying with them, and who don’t want to live in a tiny studio when the city’s new builds are flooded with a multitude of studios, one bedrooms and micro units. We shouldn’t just be gearing the new units in the city to wealthy students or yuppies, and should be also considering the wave of Baby Boomer retirees and empty nest Generation Xers looking to downsize and live in the city to reduce their dependence on cars and to have all the attractions and amenities of city living just outside their front doors.
This is why we also need a full service large chain brand name carrying grocery store in or within walking distance of downtown, with all of the departments of a suburban grocery store and lots of prepared foods in small households sized servings. With an emphasis on walkability and mass transit, and less parking, these residents need a walkable grocery store in the area.

Heritage, under state law site plan review can only address the specific requirements of a zoning ordinance. A requirement that a building be attractive or at least not boring is unenforceable. And who would set specific requirements? The tastes of architects generally differ from those of the public at large (and a couple of my best friends are architects 🤓). And rents in Norwalk are even higher than here, for a variety of reasons.

Paul, I think rising interest rates will slow development everywhere. But the inclusionary zoning ordinance encourages the construction of downtown projects approved before its passage but not yet built. (The ones on Crown as well as Chapel streets.) These older projects have a built-in cost advantage relative to newer developments. A post IZ development downtown would an income about 5% less than an identical post IZ development. The IZ does provide zoning incentives, but these are less salient downtown than elsewhere in town.

Sbrad4510, an alternative version of Curator’s response is that the developers are businesspeople doing what makes business sense under current law.

Regular joe, you’re right. And I have little doubt that avocado will soon be a hip color for appliances. God help us.

I agree that even a generic building is much preferable to an empty lot. They can't all be like The Audubon project, which I find to be about as good as it gets with modern apartment building.

I also may be the minority here, but I wouldn't mind the first floor having no retail, and instead a gym and common spaces. Putting ground floor retail on every single project dilutes the retail market to a point that might not be sustainable. The exception would be if the space could fill a livable city need, like a supermarket, Trader Joe's, or something like a Target. These are too small for a supermarket or Target, but perhaps one could house a Trader Joe's?

@opin1 Sidewalk width requirements are contained in Section 403 of the 2010 ADA design standards. If you know of violations, they have to be fixed and it would be good to compile a list for Ms. Knauff and the Commission on Disabilities to review. The relevant width is the "clear width," If there are cracks, rusted grates, loose broken sections, sections lifted more than 1/2" by tree roots, etc., that part of the sidewalk is not 'clear.'

“Creating a greater need for affordable housing for working class New Haven residents. How do they sleep at night and justify this type of over development?”

Because the new housing does exactly the opposite of what you wrote. New housing actually reduces the need for affordable housing among working class New Haven residents, because the tens of thousands of middle-class people (nurses, postdoctoral students, etc.) who need housing in New Haven just as much as anyone else does can rent in these brand-new apartments instead of being forced to rent in the city’s existing housing stock, which drives up the prices and pushes out whoever lives there now.

Building new housing like this is literally the only realistic way to keep rents from spiraling out of control even more than they already have.

Robert Menefee: Your definition of a walkable city seems to be claustrophobic. When I lived downtown, I used to walk to the train station past Tower I and Tower 2, and I marveled at the gem that was Lee High School before Yale hemmed it in. Yale's central campus is very walkable in part because the colleges are set back from the street, and moats are filled with flowering trees, shrubs, and there is room for large street trees. In contrast, the newly filled in sections of Route 34 by YNHH are a nightmare to walk. Maturing trees were removed to build right up to the lot line, the sidewalks are narrow, pedestrians are trapped between the buildings and heavy traffic, and there is no room for any tree but a sapling. Light and air and street trees require decent setbacks, either Yale college style, or for greater density, "towers in the park".

Excellent News! Steve Fontana, who should be a booster given his job description, makes 9th Square sound desperate and desolate. These days it’s quite opposite with all of the retail spaces on Orange filled. Yes, there is a homeless population and more people would benefit the retail, but Yale properties has significantly more vacancy. Steve’s office could do more to promote the district as a vibrant boutique retail alternative to the chains of Broadway.

Stylo, agreed but I think the city should encourage flexibility in ground floor design. There is currently a limited market for retail space. But eventually that will change. It would help if the residential spaces could be converted to retail when that happens. And I would love to see a larger grocery downtown. But an average Trader Joes is about four times the size of the typical available NH storefront.

Immutable, developers sometimes misgauge the market or get caught by economic downturns. But the recent housing developments are close to fully occupied, which is why more are going up. And while the hotel at Elm and Orange is on hold, the Blake, Graduate, Marcel, and Cambria hotels have opened in the past three years. The latter, on Dwight Street, was a hole in the ground a year or so ago.

Curator, the ADA does not require the city to fix the sidewalks. It requires that when they are fixed or new sidewalks are built, they comply with the Section 403 standards. The same thing is true for the building code. Most housing in New Haven was erected before the State Building Code was adopted. The housing is not required to meet the code’s accessibility standards unless/until it is substantially rehabilitated.

Regarding ground floor retail, lots of New Haven buildings originally were 100% residential but later had the ground floor converted to retail. Much of Whalley Ave consists of formally 100% residential which now has ground floor retail. The Wooster Square coffee shop that had such a hard time meeting the Historic District's whim is an obvious tack-on, and the Wall Street buildings that housed Naples Pizza, Phil's Barber Shop, and Blue State/Common Grounds were built as single family homes. Buildings are modified as demand changes.

Paul W., one more data point. The apartment building at 441 Chapel just sold for $5.2 million, a bit more than $2 million above its appraised value. Clearly, some folks with way more money than either of us thinks the New Haven housing market is still hot.

To expand on 1644’s comment from yesterday, neighborhoods as well as buildings change over time. Wooster Square was once redlined. For many years, Dwight was the city’s richest neighborhood. Ten years ago, I would not have believed that hundreds of apartments would be built in Hill and that their owners would get $2,000/month for a small one bedroom.