Thomas Breen photo
The former factory building at 433 Chapel St.
Peter Chapman received a one-year extension to begin work converting a long-vacant former factory building into 25 apartments, several weeks after the city launched three new lawsuits against him seeking to foreclose on the property because of over $44,000 in unpaid taxes.
Chapman received that construction-start extension this past Tuesday night during the regular monthly Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting on the ground floor of 200 Orange St.
Commissioners unanimously voted in support of granting Chapman’s holding company, La Saraghina LLC, another year to begin acting on a variance he received last February related to his planned conversion of the building at 433 Chapel St. and 56 Wallace St. into 25 apartments.
Attendees at Tuesday’s BZA hearing.
That variance permits the residential conversion of an existing building with a gross floor area of 30,500 square feet where a minimum existing size of 50,000 square feet of gross floor area is required.
City zoning staffer Nate Hougrand explained that zoning relief applicants are allowed one one-year extension per variance application. That means that Chapman has another year before he must start pulling building permits or otherwise diligently pursuing construction on the project. If he fails to meet those benchmarks, then the zoning relief will become null and void and he must return to the BZA to request zoning relief anew.
Meanwhile, on Jan. 9, the city with the help of an outside attorney from the North Haven-based Dechello Law Firm filed three lawsuits in state court against Chapman’s company.
Those suits allege that the landlord has failed to pay a total of $44,366.86 in property taxes due on the three addresses that make up the Wooster Square/Mill River parcel: 433 Chapel St., 56 Wallace St., and 64 Wallace St. Click here, here, and here to read those three legal complaints.
Peter Chapman at a recent aldermanic hearing.
Chapman has owned the former M. Armstrong & Co. carriage manufacturing building at the corner of Chapel Street and Wallace Street since 2002, when he bought it from the city for a total of $152,000 — just $5 per square foot.
After years of development delays and political troubles stymied his first attempts to rehab and sell the building to a new developer, Chapman recently testified before an aldermanic committee that the city officials have “stonewalled” and “obstructed” his planned factory conversion.
City officials countered that Chapman had left his property derelict for years and accused him of negotiating in public after reneging on a sweetheart deal.
Chapman did not respond to an email request for comment by the publication time of this article.
OK ... let me get this straight. Last month the City of New Haven hired a North Haven law firm to file suit against Mr. Chapman for unpaid taxes on 3 properties ... 433 Chapel St., 56 Wallace St., and 64 Wallace St ... which he purchased from the city in 2002 ... 18 years ago. Then yesterday the BZA of City of New Haven granted Mr. Chapman another 1 year extension to begin construction on the properties he purchased from the City 18 years ago and has failed to pay the taxes on.
The city sold the property to Chapman on Jan. 4, 2002 for $152,000. That's $5 per square foot. Chapman agreed to fix it up within 18 months. The March 2003 deadline to complete construction is laid out in a land disposition agreement approved by aldermen in 2001 and attached to the deed. Chapman broke the terms of his agreement when he neglected to tell the city when he changed ownership of the property from his name into a limited liability corporation he owns, LA SARAGHINA, LLC. He failed to renovate the upper stories into apartments within the required timeline. Chapman rented out apartments to tenants even though he had no certificate of occupancy. LCI visited the site and kicked out the tenant.
What did this gentleman present to BZA that would make the case to give him an extension to do something he has not done in 18 years?