Maya McFadden Photo
Valerie F. Boyd: "Is $2,000 a month affordable for a child to get started?"
Catalina Buffalo Holdings image
New apartment design rendering, as seen from Davenport.
A California-based developer plans to knock down six industrial buildings and two houses on Congress and Davenport Avenues and build a 194-unit luxury apartment complex in their stead — prompting pushback from Hill residents concerned about rising rents.
Dozens of Hill residents filled John C. Daniels School cafeteria for a community meeting Wednesday evening to hear details about those building plans, and to slam the developer for not offering more affordable housing as part of the project.
The California-based developer — a company called Catalina Buffalo Holdings — plans to purchase eight contiguous properties at 859, 865, and 879 Congress Ave. and 326, 354, 370, 380, 384, and 348 Davenport Ave.
It then plans to consolidate those properties into a single parcel and construct in their place a new five-story, 194-unit apartment building.
The currently standing six industrial buildings and two multifamily houses would be demolished for the project.
Thanks to the city’s inclusionary zoning (IZ) ordinance, 5 percent of those new apartments — or 10 units in total — will be reserved at below-market rents for low-income tenants making no more than 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), which calculates to $56,300 for a family of four.
The rest of the units will be rented out at market rents. One-bedroom apartments at the planned new complex are expected to rent for $2,000 to $2,300 a month.
In response to concerns raised about the project causing neighborhood gentrification, developer John Lockhart told neighbors, “We don’t believe that this property is going to in any meaningful way kick off that process.”
The neighbors who filled the Congress Avenue school’s auditorium were skeptical of that assertion. They raised concerns again and again about rising rents, a dearth of affordable housing, and allegations of poor communication about this project by both the developer and city government.
Lockhart’s company has already submitted a site plan application for the project to the City Plan Commission, which tabled its review of the project during its most recent monthly meeting. Lockhart said he hopes to present the site plan for the project to the City Plan Commission during its Oct. 19 meeting.
John Lockhart and architect Jermey Jamilkowski at Wednesday's meeting.
Lockhart, who is the director of investments and operations at Catalina Buffalo Holdings, told residents that his company is a family-owned business looking to expand and contribute to the Hill neighborhood in a positive way.
Lockhart was joined by members of the project team including architect Jeremy Jamilkowski of Amenta Emma Architects.
The Wednesday meeting was hosted by the Hill North and South Community Management Teams (CMT) and Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez. A panel of community representatives included Hill North Management Team Chair Howard Boyd, CMT Co-Chair Pamela Monk Kelley, and neighborhood business owner and resident Miguel Pittman.
The proposed new development as seen on Congress Ave. from the south and (below) the north.
Catalina Buffalo Holdings owns properties in California, South Dakota, and Connecticut. The company was founded by Lockhart’s father in the late 1970’s.
Lockhart said he grew familiar with the derelict properties along Congress and Davenport through his previous work with Northeast Private Client Group.
After seeing that the properties hadn’t been sold over the past year, Lockhart said he began reaching out to the few remaining property owners to see who would be willing to sell, and found that they were all looking to downsize or retire.
He said the tenants who currently live at 326 and 348 Davenport Ave. will get assistance from the developer’s team to relocate and will be given the option to move into the planned new apartment building.
Lockhart described the project as having a podium-style multifamily design. He added that the plan includes a rooftop deck, full service gym, courtyard, and 137 parking spaces.
Lockhart said the project would help to clean up the area that currently sees daily litter. He said the building’s security cameras will also make the area safer.
“Our plan is to do a lot of work on the streetscape,” he said.
The building would be staffed by five to six employees daily, Lockhart said.
Jamilkowski, the project architect, said the ground floor will offer a transparent design for “eyes on the street” and interaction with the community. The building’s courtyard and rooftop garden would be available for community use, he added.
More lighting will be added to the streets and most apartments will face Davenport Avenue, Jamilkowski said.
In a site plan application submitted to the City Plan Commission, the developer describes the site as currently consisting of “six old industrial buildings that are not appropriate for modern manufacturing and/or warehouse use and two multifamily houses. All of these structures will be demolished as part of the Project.”
The new apartment building to be constructed on the site, the application continues, “will be 188,150 [square feet] and five stories high. The Building has been designed to reduce its massing by breaking the Building into two sections with a one story connection on Congress Avenue. There is also a three-story connection on Davenport Avenue. The pedestrian entrance to the Building will be located on Congress Avenue. On the first floor of the Building, there will be amenity spaces such as a fitness center, a lounge, a yoga/flex space as well as a lobby, a bike storage room, a leasing office, and a mail/package store room.” The development will also have an 11,000 square-foot interior courtyard.
And it will house 73 studio apartments, 88 one-bedroom apartments, 25 two-bedroom apartments, and eight three-bedroom apartments.
"Families Displaced Due To Gentrification"
Pamela Monk Kelley.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Pamela Monk Kelley recalled her family being forced to relocate from their Hill home in 1978 due to the property being sold to Yale. She said her family was misled about the redevelopment plans and blindsided by the sale.
“We are holding the meeting here tonight at John Daniels school where families were displaced to build it. And we are displacing more residents. Here we go again, families being displaced due to gentrification,” she said.
She requested that more time be given to the community to understand the impact of the development on the neighborhood.
Miguel Pittman.
Miguel Pittman, owner of Sandra’s Soul Food Restaurant, recalled his family’s history in the Hill for the past 52 years.
His father at one point owned 27 properties in the Hill, Pittman said. He said he would join him to collect rent.
“Even though he was a businessman, he made his decision based upon the welfare of the community,” Pittman said.
He asked why the developers won’t offer more affordable units in their plan.
If the project increased the number of affordable units, Pittman said, the project could “be an anchor apartment for our community.”
The 10 affordable units will include four studio apartments, four one-bedroom apartments, and two 2 or 3 bedroom apartments. There will also be 20 accessible units in the building.
Click here to view the plan.
In response to the many requests from residents for the plans to include more affordable apartments, Lockhart said, “I can see if we can squeeze anything in. The financials of the development are already very tight.”
Joe Fekieta.
Joe Fekieta, who has lived in the Hill for 36 years, asked Lockhart how the plan can’t afford to include more affordable units if the rents range from $2,000 to $3,500.
Lockhart said the project will cost $64 to $65 million dollars and it will take at least 21 months for the company to break even.
Hill native Valerie F. Boyd spoke up at at Wednesday’s meeting about her four children. Her 23-year-old daughter recently moved out to a Hallock Avenue apartment and is paying $850 a month. “She lives in a slum house,” she said. “Do you feel that $2,000 a month is affordable for a child to get started?”
Boyd said her daughter works seven days a week at $17 an hour and has to commute to Milford while also doing additional work with Instacart and DoorDash.
Boyd said the proposed plan area is nearby a tent city where New Haveners dealing with homelessness live.
“I’m a single parent,” she said. “Think about the parents, the households that have the younger children that live there.”
Others agreed and raised concerns that the plan’s proposal for mostly studio and one bedroom apartments isn’t family friendly.
One resident questioned when the project work would start if approved. Lockhart said the goal is to break ground on the site in Spring of 2023.
Another resident asked if the project, if approved, would be tax exempt.
Lockhart said the complex would pay about $800,000 in local property taxes annually.
When asked if the complex will be accessible to the community and if plans will give back to the neighborhood youth and seniors, Lockhart said the building’s courtyard will be open to the public and community programing will be hosted on the roof top deck.
He added that all new residents moving into the complex will be given gift cards to local businesses to shop locally.
He said he is open to making one of the building’s amenity spaces into a game room that can host gaming tournaments for youth.
Chris Ozyck.
Urban Resources Initiative Associate Chris Ozyck suggested that the developers redesign the project to make it more environmentally friendly and safer for the neighborhood.
Ozyck called on the building to avoid parking lot “screening” to have more eyes on the street. “If you’re walking by those spaces, there’s nobody to look out for you. You’re taking away some of the eyes on the street for the neighborhood people and business owners,” he said.
On Davenport Avenue, Ozyck said, the five-story-high building will prevent the sun from reaching the sidewalks during the winter, which could leading to an icy and unsafe walking path. He added that it will also be hard to grow trees in that area.
Jamilkowski said on Davenport Avenue the building’s five stories will be at the end of the building, causing the majority of the building to “step down” to three stories along the block.
However, the building cannot achieve the desired apartment count if limited to two or three stories, Jamilkowski said in response to a question asking if they would consider resdesigning the plans to create a three-story building more “in-tune with the neighborhood.”
Elmer Rivera Bello.
Casa Otonal Housing Corporation President Elmer Rivera Bello said the waitlist for his housing program extends out more than a year.
“I am pro development,” he said. “I think the solution is development, but smart development.”
Rivera Bello echoed others’ concerns about the lack of three-bedroom family apartments.
He requested that Lockhart’s team go back to the drawing board.
Lockhart said he expects the development to provide housing to the growing demand for health care workers.
He said he’ll follow up with the community in two weeks to share any changes and improvements to the plan.
“For these next few days I’ll be looking at the financial modeling and working closely with feedback we got tonight,” he said after the Wednesday meeting.
He said his biggest goal will be to accommodate more affordable units in the plan as a result of the community’s input. He said making changes to the building designs will be harder to make and a lot more costly.
“We’re tying our faith to this neighborhood,” Lockhart said.
Seems like a good project. We need more housing for people, not derelict industrial buildings. If the city can get developers to build new buildings like this one, families that can afford them will move in here, instead of renting the existing houses in the Hill (the lack of new housing is what is pushing people out).
The only problem with this plan is that it isn't dense enough. These new buildings should be 6-10 stories high, to maximize the number of new homes that are available to residents.