Contributed design rendering
Congress/Davenport apartment plan, slated to replace to-be-demolished properties like 326 and 348 Davenport (below).
Thomas Breen photo
A California-based developer has purchased nine Hill properties for a combined $4.35 million — advancing plans to construct 194 new apartments on Congress and Davenport Avenues.
Those were among the latest property deals recorded on New Haven’s online land records database. (See below for a full roundup.)
Across five different transactions with four different sellers on Feb. 14 and Feb. 15, Catalina Buffalo Holdings 3 LLC purchased 326, 348, 354, 370, 380, and 384 Davenport Ave. and 859, 865, and 879 Congress Ave. for a total of $4.35 million.
Those properties — which include half-empty warehouses, an office building, and a service garage, as well as an occupied three-family house and an occupied four-family house — were last appraised by the city as worth a total of $2,910,700 for tax purposes. The sellers included Herbert Mandelker and Robert Rawden, Clark-Son Company, Paragon Construction Company, and Adam Scheps.
The new owner of all nine properties is an affiliate of a company called Catalina Buffalo Holdings, a family-run real estate business with properties in California, South Dakota, and Connecticut.
The sale took place roughly four months after the developer won site plan approval from the City Plan Commission to knock down all of the existing buildings on these nine properties and build up in their stead a new five-story, 194-unit apartment complex at the address of 354 Davenport Ave.
Thanks to the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, 5 percent of those apartments — or 10 units in total — will be set aside at below-market rents. The remaining units will rent out at market rates, with the developer estimating last year that one-bedroom apartments could cost around $2,000 to $2,300 per month.
Catalina's John Lockhart and architect Jermey Jamilkowski at October community meeting.
“Catalina Buffalo Holdings Co is pleased to announce that it has closed on the purchase of the
land parcels which will contain its future multifamily development,” Catalina Director of Investments and Operations John Lockhart said in a Wednesday email press release.
In a follow-up phone interview with the Independent, Lockhart said that the next immediate step for his company is to “go to all to the tenants” of the existing commercial and residential properties, “give everybody notice, and figure out where they want to go, if they want to stay in New Haven or move elsewhere.”
As promised, he said, his company will help the six or seven remaining residential households at these properties find new places to live. He said Catalina will be “helping with security deposits and moving expenses. We’re kind of just going with what’s needed.” Catalina is also going to help relocate an existing autobody shop and another current commercial tenant at one of the Congress-Davenport properties.
“I’m hoping that we get everybody moved out in four to six months’ time,” Lockhart continued. Then his company will apply for the necessary demolition permits and “hopefully demolish the buildings by the end of the fall.”
370 Davenport and 384 Davenport (below), to be knocked down as part of apt plan.
Lockhart confirmed that his company will stick with the plans already approved by the City Plan Commission last October.
Has the housing market changed significantly between then and now? How might that affect these building plans?
“It’s definitely a lot different than it was a year ago in terms of the financing. Interest rates have gone way, way up,” Lockhart said. He said his company remains confident that there is enough demand in New Haven to fill these 194 new apartments with renters. “Our residences are not going to be priced anywhere near” what the newer housing developments downtown cost, he said.
Roundup: Future Self-Storage Site Sold For $1.75M
Design for self-storage site at 129 Amity: Property now purchased by Mequity Companies.
Other recent local property sales included:
• On Jan. 11, a holding company affiliated with the self-storage real estate development firm Mequity Companies purchased a vacant parkway-adjacent property at 129 Amity Rd. for $1.75 million from a holding company controlled by Glen Greenberg. That property last sold for $800,000 in 2018, and the city last appraised it as worth $642,000 for tax purposes. Back in August 2021, the City Plan Commission granted approval for the construction of a new 64,000 square-foot, four-story self-storage facility with an office, 481 storage units, and 10 parking spaces at that property.
• On Jan. 12, a holding company controlled by William Roach, Mercilla Roach, and Latanya Barnes purchased the four-unit retail-office building at 9 Atwater St. for from a holding company controlled by Filemon Coronel. That property last sold for $465,000 in 2021, and the city last appraised it as worth $399,400.
• On Oct. 14, a holding company controlled by Shneor Edelkopf bought the three-family house at 78 Shelton Ave. for $285,000, and then flipped it on Jan. 4 for $360,000 — or at a $75,000 markup — to a holding company controlled by Raphael and Karmit Badouch. The city last appraised that property as worth $167,600.
• On Oct. 3, an affiliate of the megalandlord Mandy Management purchased the single-family house at 1634 Ella T. Grasso Blvd. for $161,250. And on Dec. 8, another Mandy affiliated purchased the three-family house at 132 Derby Ave. for $278,000.
See below for a full list of recent local property transactions.
$2,000-$2,300 per month for a one bedroom on Davenport Ave. Good luck!