John McFadyen
Design with planned new building at bottom right.
A little triangular orphan lot across the street from the successful Corsair complex on State Street might become the site of another 60 units of spiffy apartments.
The proposed new project would incorporate an old existing building, add on to it on an adjoining surface parking lot, and toss “affordable” units in the mix.
John McFadyen, of Post Road Residential, the Fairfield-based developer responsible for the Corsair project, gave those brief sketches of the beginnings of a work-in-progress Monday night to the East Rock Community management team.
The existing building and lot.
The regular meeting of the group drew 25 attendees via the Zoom teleconferencing app .
McFadyen said that he is in the beginning stages of discussion about the site, 1041 State Street, which he hopes to develop along with furniture dealer Brian Smallman, who owns it.
He showed to the gathering an aerial view of the site and a sketch that is part of an initial “density” study.
“This is a starting point,” he said.
That starting point includes contemplation of approximately 60 to 70 units, he said, with a possible maximum of 78.
McFadyen said he and his partner are thinking of units on the smaller side, with a stepped massing. Taller buildings, perhaps up to five stories, would front the nearby I‑91 highway. The lower buildings would face the State Street side.
McFadyen reprised summaries of initial conversations both with neighborhood Alder Charles Decker and Director of Preservation Services Elizabeth Holt of the New Haven Preservation Trust. Decker’s concern was in part affordability of the units.
Details of the city’s evolving inclusionary zoning ordinance are not yet finished. City Plan staff guesstimated that a building of the size Post Road Residential envisions might require 5 percent of the units be affordable, at up to 50 percent of area median income, McFadyen reported being told.
There would be retail on State Street, perhaps townhouses incorporated into the existing building, which dates from around 1900, and space for parking. At this stage of the thinking, the builders are considering a configuration with a half parking space for each unit, he added.
“We’re here to take initial questions,” he said.
The first of those came from Kevin McCarthy. “Parking is always an issue,” began McCarthy, who is vice chair of the group. He went on to ask how utilized is the parking garage at Corsair.
Corsair’s apartments are 96 percent leased, and the garage’s spaces are 80 percent utilized although that number fluctuates with the seasons, McFadyen answered.
“We want to encourage non-car ownership,” he said. Among the target populations would be younger people interested in “co-living,” that is in apartment sharing or roommates.
McCarthy also wrote in the chat function of the Zoom meeting that 50 percent of AMI would be about $50,000 for a four-person household. That would be better described as “moderate” rather than low income, he said.
Another questioner, unidentified in the gallery view, asked McFadyen to keep his eye on the affordability issue. “This is an important part of the project.”
That is when he responded that a “co-living” concept might work for the building. Meaning roommates sharing the rent.
The initial pre-Corsair site, a laundry, paid $50,000 in taxes. Now the annual Corsair property tax contribution to city coffers is more than $1million, he said.
That’s the city revenue potential for converting an old building and a surface parking lot into attractive dwelling units, he said. The new customers the project will bring would also be a boon for local restaurants and store owners all along the walkable blocks of upper State Street, he added.
Even though the conversation is highly preliminary, MdFadyen characterized the end result, as the conversation continues, as “marrying this building with Corsair.”
I like the thought of incorporating the existing building with the new build and having the taller buildings facing the highway and the shorter buildings with retail (or restaurants or businesses) on the street level on State St. Plus having units costing $50,000 would be affordable for many front line/essential workers with a CHFA/FHA/DAP loan. Units planned for roommates or cohousing with 2 or more bedrooms means the units will enable lower income purchasers to rent a bedroom or two to help pay their mortgage and taxes and insurance. If you had 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom units with an en suite master bath and a shared hallway access bathroom or 2 master suites with each having their own bath, you could be very comfortable with a roommate or two. This area is in very short supply for on and off street parking, but perhaps the no man's land between East St and State St that runs besides the Mill River under the highway overpass could be converted into a narrow parking lot with an entrance on East and exit on State. This might help the parking for residents and would eliminate the homeless encampments that are sometimes there. With proper lighting and security cameras it should be safe.