Ocean Lands $10M Mortgage For Stalled Lehman Factory-Condo Development

A local megalandlord’s long-delayed plans to convert a former Goatville printing factory into 30 new condos and townhouse units got a shot in the arm, in the form of a $10 million mortgage loan from Goldman Sachs.

According to the city land records database, on Dec. 1, the Ocean Management-affiliated 191 Foster Street NH LLC received a $10,063,000 mortgage loan from Goldman Sachs Bank USA for the three contiguous properties at 191, 197, and 199 Foster St.

That 1.04-acre plot of land bounded by Willow, Foster, Canner, and Nicoll Streets in the Goatville section of East Rock was once home to the Lehman Brothers Inc. printing factory, which closed its doors in 2008.

For the past few years, the fenced in and blighted property has been home to little more than overgrown weeds and a derelict and boarded-up husk of a former factory building.

Ocean-affiliated project manager Melissa Saint told the Independent by email Monday morning that the new mortgage from Goldman Sachs is a construction loan for the ​“191 Foster Condominium Project.”

“The funds are allocated to the complete build,” she wrote. 

She said she expects Ocean to be able to pull a building permit for the project this week and, once that permit is received, ​“we will start the long awaited 30 unit condo ground up build.”

She said the project should take roughly 10 to 12 months to construct.

The construction loan marks the first move forward for a derelict former industrial site that has languished in the middle of a residential neighborhood for years.

The Ocean Management affiliate bought the former industrial property for $720,000 in 2017. 

In October of that year, Ocean representatives pitched neighbors at the East Rock Community Management Team on the condo conversion plan.

In July 2018, the landlord won approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals for a special exception for a planned development unit (PDU) for 30 residential dwelling units on a 45,260 square-foot lot in an RM‑2 District.

And in August 2018, Ocean won site plan approval from the City Plan Commission to convert a portion of the existing two-story commercial building into a four-story condominium complex with 24 two-bedroom residential units, to construct a new three-story building consisting of six two- and three-bedroom townhouse units, and to provide 30 on-site parking spaces.

Then the project ground to a halt, as Ocean focused its local real estate dollars on buying up more rental properties and beginning development of a planned new 129-unit apartment complex at the former 500 Blake Street Cafe site in Westville.

In February 2020, frustrated East Rock neighbors gathered to vent about the the graffiti, piles of dirt, and general state of disrepair of the stalled development. At the time, Saint told neighbors that construction delays were due in part to the need to quantify and remove contaminated soil and asbestos from the site.

And in May 2021, Saint told New Haven Register reporter Meghan Friedmann that the developer aimed to submit a building permit application the following month and planned to begin grading the site over the summer, with the goal of having the condos constructed in October 2022. She told Friedmann that environmental cleanup took longer than anticipated, and had wrapped up last spring.

Soon after receiving the $10 million-plus mortgage from Goldman Sachs, the Ocean affiliate filed a few other documents on the city land records indicating that they have paid off various debts associated with the Foster Street property.

One of those newly filed documents was a release of an $82,000 mechanic’s lien that LGE Services LLC had put on the Foster Street property back in 2019. Another was a release of a $149,150 mechanic’s lien that Domenico Calandro PE LLC had placed on the property in June. City land records show that yet another company, A&G Contracting INC, put a mechanic’s lien worth over $325,000 on the property in April.