Elks Club Eyes New Home On County Street

The Elks Club is one step closer to finding — and eventually building — a new Dixwell home, as city planners OK’d the historic African American institution’s bid to purchase two vacant city-owned lots on County Street.

That vote came Wednesday night during the latest regular monthly City Plan Commission meeting, which was held online via Zoom.

Local-land use commissioners unanimously endorsed a proposal by the city’s Property Acquisition and Disposition (PAD) Committee to sell the 12,971-square-foot combined lots at 71 and 75 County St. to the Elks’ East Rock Lodge, No. 141 for a total of $36,000.

A city-hired third party recently appraised the properties as worth a combined $70,000, and the city negotiated the final proposed purchase price up from the Elks’ initial offer of $12,000.

At Wednesday night’s meeting, LCI Acquisition and Disposition Coordinator Evan Trachten said that Wednesday’s PAD referral is ​“teeing this up” for a future land disposition agreement (LDA) for the site. That land deal would ultimately have to be heard and approved by the Board of Alders.

Trachten and Elks Exalted Ruler Gary Hogan explained on Wednesday that the Elks, a landmark African American social and cultural institution in the Dixwell community for the last 114 years, recently sold its former home at 87 Webster St. for $900,000 to ConnCORP.

That’s the local redevelopment team planning to knock down and rebuild the crumbling mid-century Dixwell Plaza into an estimated $200 million mixed-use project that will include a grocery store, 150-plus apartments, an office tower, a performing arts venue, and more. Buying up the old Elks Club building was a key piece in ConnCORP’s Dixwell Plaza redevelopment puzzle.

“This is part of the bigger Dixwell Avenue redo,” Trachten said.

While the city initially looked to find a new home for the Elks on Dixwell Avenue, he continued, the city and the Elks ultimately settled on these County Street lots, which are across the street from Bethel AME Church and next door to the Armory and the Whalley Avenue jail.

Hogan said the Elks very much plan on continuing to serve the Dixwell neighborhood by hosting weddings, funerals, fundraisers, youth programs, and other community activities. They also plan on launching a new mentoring program so that Elks can connect with people incarcerated at the jail right across the street from the proposed new site.

“Our membership is looking forward to developing, constructing, and opening a new facility,” Hogan said. ​“I am a third-generation Elk. My grandfather was a member. My father was a member.” This new site should allow a new generation of Elks to flourish.

City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe praised the Elks Club for its century-plus of service to the neighborhood.

“The Elks have served the Dixwell community, the City of New Haven, and beyond for longer than I’ve been alive,” she said. It’s been more than just a social club. The Elks are ​“a stakeholder in the community.”

What kind of community outreach have the Elks done so far to talk to neighbors about the prospective purchase and redevelopment of the County Street lots? asked Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand.

Hogan said that the Elks are talking with Bethel AME Church about if and how they will be able to share parking on a Bethel-owned lot nearby. Hogan said that the Elks have done some door-knocking, but ​“we have not done an extensive plan” yet.

He promised to step up the community outreach efforts as the proposed land deal makes its way through the city process.

According to the minutes from PAD’s May 19 meeting, during which the committee unanimously endorsed the proposed city land sale to the Elks, city economic development staffer Clay Williams raised a question that did not come up Wednesday night during the City Plan Commission’s focus on the relatively narrow issue of the proposed County Street lot sale.

“Clay Williams asked if the Elks have a plan and the money to develop this site,” the meeting minutes read. ​“Evan [Trachten] told the committee that based on the sale of 87 Webster St they have the finances to develop this site.” The minutes state that, when the Elks build, ​“they will likely refinance and have additional cash” on top of the money raised in the Webster Street sale.

Those meeting minutes also indicate the money raised from the Webster Street sale helped pay down back taxes owed by the Elks Lodge to the city.

And the minutes state that the city has set aside a few thousand dollars to help with architectural drawings for a new Elks site.