Thomas Breen photo
Vacant Grant St. factory building: Future home of 140 apts?
Thomas Breen file photo
McCollum (right): Looking to "reposition" derelict industrial property.
The city plans to sell the publicly owned portion of a vacant Grant Street factory building to a local developer who is looking to build up to 140 new apartments, mostly for renters over the age of 50.
Local land-use commissioners heard those plans last Thursday night during a special meeting of the City Plan Commission, which was held online via Zoom.
The commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of the Elicker Administration’s plan to sell 48 Grant St. Unit #2, 239 Ella T. Grasso Blvd., 0 Plymouth St., and 39 Grant St. to 48 Grant Street Commons LLC for a combined sum of $350,000.
The prospective buyer is a holding company controlled by Allen McCollum, a local landlord and Hamden resident who also runs the Whalley Avenue Special Services District (WASSD).
As city Acquisition & Disposition Coordinator Evan Trachten explained at Thursday’s meeting, the properties in question consist of a portion of the former New Haven Chair Factory building at 48 Grant St. as well as several nearby vacant lots. That Grant Street factory building is also the former home home of the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center’s Grant Street Partnership substance abuse rehab clinic.
McCollum told the Independent by email on Wednesday that, if he succeeds in purchasing the publicly owned properties in question, he hopes to build 140 new apartments in total: 40 as part of a first phase of development, and then an additional 100 as part of a second phase.
48 Grant St.
The boarded up former factory building at the end of Grant Street is technically set up as two different commercial condos, Trachten told the commissioners on Thursday.
The ground-floor commercial condo is owned by the city and makes up 22 percent of the building. The other commercial condo makes up the remaining 78 percent of the building and is already owned by a separate holding company controlled by McCollum.
“We’re proposing a negotiated sale” of the city-owned properties, Trachten told the local land-use commissioners. He said that McCollum is planning an “adaptive reuse of the beautiful brick mill building,” and that whatever future development is built at this site would, depending on its size, be subject to the city’s recently adopted inclusionary zoning (IZ) ordinance.
“This is really a site control acquisition,” Trachten continued. “The plans are somewhat developed. They haven’t been finalized.” He said that selling the property to McCollum’s company would mean that “this vacant mill building” can be turned into a “productive building in the community to provide some level of affordable housing to our residents.”
McCollum told the commissioners that he has been talking with city officials for roughly five years about trying to buy the publicly owned portion of this factory building.
He said he intends to build apartments that are mostly reserved for tenants over 50 years old. “I don’t want to call it senior housing,” McCollum said with a smile, as he himself is over 50 and doesn’t think of himself as a senior quite yet.
“I’m very familiar with the area,” McCollum added during Thursday’s meeting. “I’ve owned property in the area. My daughter was born over in that area some 40 years ago. We thought it would be a great idea to just reposition that particular property.”
Thursday's City Plan Commission meeting.
City Plan Department staffer Esther Rose-Wilen noted that, as a condition of the city’s potential sale of this factory building to McCollum’s company, the city would place a so-called “preservation easement” on the property. That would mean that “the building has to be preserved. It can’t be demolished,” Rose-Wilen said. And if the potential future developer does decide to demolish a portion of the existing building, she said, the city’s 90-day demolition delay and notice requirement would likely apply.
Rose-Wilen and City Plan Director Laura Brown added that the 48 Grant St. building is listed in Preservation Connecticut’s Mill Inventory. It’s also a candidate for state historic register listing.
City Plan Commission Vice-Chair Ernest Pagan asked McCollum if this property’s status on a historic inventory changes his development plans at all.
“It may change the plans as to how the development proceeds,” McCollum replied. “But it doesn’t change the plans as to whether or not we will develop” the property into a new residential use.
City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe thanked McCollum for his interest in developing the derelict property into new places to live. “Housing is something that’s very much needed’ in the neighborhood and citywide, she said.
With that, all of the commissioners present voted in support of favorably recommending the public-property sale.
Now the proposal advances to the Livable City Initiative (LCI) Board of Directors before heading to the full Board of Alders for further debate and a final vote.
Entrance to the now-closed former Hill Health Grant Street Partnership site.
The City Plan Commission’s favorable vote on Thursday came roughly two months after LCI’s Property Acquisition and Disposition (PAD) committee also voted unanimously in support of the city’s Grant Street property sale to McCollum’s company.
Minutes from that Aug. 17 PAD committee meeting state that, in addition to selling the properties for a combined sum of $350,000, the city is also looking to “release liens on the [Grant Street] building that total $113,690. The liens on the building predate the applicant’s ownership of this site.”
“The applicant will redevelop this site with residential units and the inclusionary zoning ordinance will apply to this project,” the meeting minutes continue. “There are some initial conceptual drawings and planned phases to this project.”
The meeting minutes state that McCollum told the PAD committee that “he plans to rehabilitate the existing structure as senior housing for the most part. The project will be done in phases. In phase one the existing structure will be rehabilitated. He is hoping to make this a ‘green’ project and that will be a great asset to the community. The project will make this area more residential and less industrial. In future phases, new construction is proposed and there are several options for further development.”
During that PAD meeting, East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked about the level of affordability of the planned new apartments. “Allen said it will be between 5% affordable and 20% affordable,” the meeting minutes read.
The whole conversation about this project should be about the sustainability adjustments that will be built into the building and property - a property that has a complete solar system for heat and hot water, for insulation and air filtration, etc.
This is not rocket science because many developed nations (not ours) like Germany have figured this all out. But, of course, the U.S. has a powerful force - the capitalists that insist that they get their money even if they pollute the world and make it unlivable.
There are no CT or Federal laws on the books that even touch this issue and that is that NO building should be constructed/developed w/o a 100% sustainable plan.
If we have to change laws to understand and make developers/capitalists make their buildings 100% sustainable, it would take 100 years to accomplish that!
Why is it in the United States that is fast becoming bankrupt, cannot and refuses to insist that everything we do needs to have the environment considered first? Is it stupid or GREED.
Novel idea isn't it?
Well, my impression is that with developers it's all about making money before the other capitalist competition gets in there and buys the property and develops it.
GREED.
Pure and simple. GREED.
I feel sorry for the kids growing up today. They have to live in a non-livable world that they did not create.