Demolition Stirs Hopes, Fears On Davenport

Dina and Angeley Guadalupe aren’t opposed to a California-based developer knocking down their Davenport Avenue home and replacing the block with 194 mostly high-end apartments.

But they are worried about rushing to find a new place to live where they can afford to pay the rent.

The Guadalupe sisters offered that take Monday morning when interviewed on their front porch about a potentially neighborhood-altering development plan heading straight towards their stretch of the Hill.

That plan, if it comes to fruition, would see a real estate development company called Catalina Buffalo Holdings knock down a handful of industrial and residential buildings on Congress and Davenport Avenues and construct in their stead a new 194-unit mostly luxury apartment complex with market-rate one-bedroom units expected to rent at $2,000 and up. (Per the terms of the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, 5 percent of those new apartments — or 10 units in total — would be reserved at below-market rents.)

While most of the buildings slated to be demolished as part of this proposal are vacant or underused garages and other commercial properties, two of the buildings are occupied and residential.

Those include the four-family house at 348 Davenport Ave. and the adjacent three-family house at 326 Davenport.

Which is where Angeley and Dina Guadalupe and their mom currently call home.

In the wake of a heated recent community meeting about the development plan and in the runup to a City Plan Commission site plan review of the project scheduled for Oct. 19, the Independent headed down to Congress and Davenport Monday to talk with residents about the prospect of losing their homes to make way for many more apartments to come. (The other properties that the developer plans to purchase, demolish, and build up for this project include 859, 865, and 879 Congress Ave. and 354, 370, 380, and 384 Davenport Ave.)

Several residents of the to-be-demolished houses, like the Guadalupe sisters, greeted the proposed development with ambivalence.

On the one hand, they welcomed the prospect of a new, large, clean, occupied, safe, well-used and well-maintained residential complex in a section of the Hill replete with older, underused, and neglected buildings and vacant lots.

On the other hand, they worried about finding a new affordable place to live if and when this project forces them out of their homes. And they were skeptical that they’d be able to afford the rents at the to-be-built new complex, even if the developer follows through on promises to give displaced residents an opportunity to move back in once the project is constructed. 

In a set of email comments provided to the Independent for this article, Catalina Buffalo Holdings Director of Investments and Operations John Lockhart reiterated promises to help relocate tenants and offer them affordable apartments in the newly built complex if they choose to return. He also said his company would give all current tenants six months’ notice after Catalina Buffalo Holdings purchases the Davenport-Congress properties in question. (See more below for the developer’s comments in full.)

Renters: "Everything Is So Expensive"

“We were thinking of moving out anyway,” said Angeley about the second-floor apartment at 326 Davenport that she, her sister, and her mom have lived in for the past five years. 

The only problem is, she and Dina said, that this demolition-and-development plan means that they’ll likely have to start looking for a new apartment sooner than they had previously planned.

“They should at least give us more time,” Dina said about having to move out of their house by April to make way for its demolition. 

Angeley and Dina, who work as nail and lash technicians, said they’ve looked around a little bit for a new apartment to move to. They’ve ultimately stayed put on Davenport Avenue because of just how expensive rents have become elsewhere in the city. 

“Everything is so expensive,” Angeley said. Having only recently learned about the demolition and development plan, she and her sister said they felt as if they now have to ​“rush” to find somewhere new and affordable to live.

Luis Manuel, Ivan Cortes, and Yamilex Cortes agreed on at least two key points in a separate interview with the Independent outside of the to-be-demolished Davenport homes: New Haven rents keep rising and rising, and finding an affordable place to live after these homes are knocked down will be a challenge.

Manuel and his family have lived in an apartment at 348 Davenport Ave. for eight years. Yamilex said that, while she doesn’t live in that same house, her mom does, and she regularly visits.

Asked for their thoughts on the proposed high-end apartment complex, all three said that a change is needed in the neighborhood, and this project could be that change.

“It’s so random. It’s strange… but it’s sorta cool” that this brand new apartment complex is slated to be built in this stretch of the Hill,” Manuel said.

“I say yeah,” bring on the new development, ​“it’s pretty shitty” in these Davenport Avenue houses as they currently are, Yamilex said. ​“Excuse my language. But something new would be nice.” And she welcomed the prospect of a brand new residential development going up in a part of New Haven other than downtown.

“Change is always good,” added Ivan from the driver’s seat.

The problem is, he continued, this particular change will almost certainly bring much higher rents. And that will mean trouble for his family and friends and people who currently live at 324 and 348 Davenport.

“They’re shooting up the rent,” Ivan said. ​“If you don’t have Section 8” subsidies, it’s almost impossible to afford to rent in a new building like this one. Few people can afford $2,000-plus for a one-bedroom apartment, he said. ​“How you gonna live” in a place so expensive. ​“They want you to put every penny you’ve got into” rent. And even then, most people can’t make it.

Back outside of 326 Davenport Ave., Mikey Rosario said that he too is looking to move out of the neighborhood, and hopefully into a house he and his family can buy and own.

He said he’s been living at 326 Davenport for only a few weeks after recently getting out of prison. He said he already has two kids, and he and his wife just had their first daughter. 

He said he doesn’t mind the idea that a developer is going to knock down these two houses and build 194 apartments in their stead, even as he worries about finding a new affordable place to live in time once he has to move out.

Asked if he’d like to move back into the new apartment complex once it’s built, he said he’d consider living in the first or second floor — but he wouldn’t want to live any higher in the proposed five-story complex.

The two residential houses on Davenport Avenue aren’t the only occupied properties slated to be demolished as part of this development plan.

Also on the chopping block is the three-story office building at 370 Davenport Ave.

Michael Delgado said that his church, Iglesia Pentecostal Oasis en Medio del Desierto, has rented space out of that Hill office building for the past six years.

Speaking in Spanish, Delgado described the development plan as a ​“good idea.”

The question occupying most of his attention right now when he thinks about this project, though, concerns his church being displaced. ​“Where would we move?” he asked.

Developer: "We Will Strive To Be A Good Neighbor"

Reached by email for comment for this story, John Lockhart of Catalina Buffalo Holdings emphasized that his company will work hard to make sure that the current tenants of the to-be-demolished residential buildings will end up in a place they can afford to live in.

He also wrote that his company looks forward to ​“making a long term and significant investment in New Haven and the Hill neighborhood, and will strive to be a good neighbor.” 

So. Just to confirm. Will the developer let the displaced tenants come back to live in apartments in the newly built complex?

“According to how the new inclusionary zoning ordinance operates, we as the Landlord will have the ability to administer the Tenant selection process,” Lockhart responded. ​“This will allow us to offer the 50% AMI affordable units back to the current residents of 326 and 348 Davenport whose household incomes fall beneath that threshold.”

What exactly will his company do to help the current residents find a new place to live?

“We will conduct interviews with the tenants to determine their household space needs and determine where they would like to go,” Lockhart wrote. ​“We intend to assist them with locating a new residence, application costs, moving costs, and we can assist with deposit money.”

And if his company wins site plan approval from the City Plan Commission on Oct. 19, when do they plan to knock down the existing residential and commercial buildings on Congress and Davenport to make way for the new development?

“We plan on giving all current Tenants 6 months’ notice post-closing on the property, so I would estimate that demolition will begin in late Spring- early summer next year,” Lockhart wrote.