Chapel West’s Anthony Giano, developer Nick Falker, Mayor Justin Elicker, and city economic development deputy Steve Fontana at Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting.
Thomas Breen photos
The Elm at 104 Howe St.
Looking to spend between $1,595 and $4,995 per month on a shiny new apartment in Dwight?
The electric-powered, luxury-priced, parking-lot-destroying “The Elm” has you covered.
Mayor Justin Elicker, Cambridge Realty Principal Nicholas Falker, local realtor Carol Horsford, and a host of other city officials and local development boosters cut the ribbon on that new apartment complex at 104 Howe St. Wednesday afternoon.
The six-story, 44-unit, market-rate apartment complex stands on the site of a former surface parking lot on an otherwise bustling block on the western edge of Yale’s campus. The new apartment building includes 22 on-site parking spaces.
Falker and Fontana at Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting.
Falker, whose locally based real estate company built The Elm during the pandemic, noted that this is the first time in roughly a century that 104 Howe St. will house people, not cars.
The new building should bring “density, vibrancy and walkability to an urban location,” he said about his hopes for the newly built apartment complex.
Falker’s company bought 104 Howe St., the adjacent six-story apartment building at 100 Howe St., and a handful of other nearby properties in 2019 for $15 million.
100 Howe and 104 Howe, both owned by Falker’s Cambridge Realty.
Elicker thanked Falker for investing in New Haven, lamented that the property included no dedicated affordable rentals — and then offered his hopes that the build build build approach to urban planning will ultimately benefit everyone in the city, not just those who can afford The Elm’s rents.
“I’m excited to have new units online,” the mayor said. “I always like to see affordable units, but the fact that we have market-rate units here at this site, I think it puts more pressure on the market to provide more options to people and get those costs down.”
Elicker and Falker outside The Elm.
City Deputy Economic Development Administrator Steve Fontana agreed. This “used to be a parking lot,” he emphasized. Now it has 44 new apartments. And this isn’t an anomaly in New Haven.
The city has seen a flurry of new construction atop former surface parking lots in recent years. “New Haven is a growing city.”
Taking a tour of a sixth-floor two-bedroom apartment.
So, just how much does it cost to live in The Elm?
Short answer: A lot.
Longer answer: Horsford and Falker said that the 44-unit building contains a range of apartment sizes, from studios to four-bedrooms.
The studios range from $1,595 to $1,795 per month depending on the floor, Horsford said.
The two-bedrooms range from $2,395 to $2995 per month.
The four-bedrooms rent for $4,995 per month.
Will anyone actually pay those prices?
Indeed they will, Horsford said. The building is already roughly half rented, she said, with some pre-leases already in place for tenants looking to move in in January. The first tenants started moving in to apartments on the second and third floors on Sept. 1.
“The second and third floors filled up very quickly,” she said. Those floors are “fully leased.” The fourth floor is pre-leased, she said, but tenants were move-in dates were delayed because of problems with the building’s elevator. (Those elevator issues have subsequently been addressed, she said.)
On the roof deck, with Horsford and Clapp.
Horsford and Farnam Realty marketing staffer Olivia Clapp gave this reporter a tour of some of the upper-story units in the new building.
The apartments have central air and in-unit washers and dryers. A two-bedroom unit on the sixth-floor offered a view of downtown.
Those views got even more panoramic up on the roof, which is filled with furniture, hanging lights, and an over-sized Connect 4 game.
Looking towards downtown from a sixth-floor apartment.
Up on the roof, the building’s architects, Dylan Christopher and Eric O’Brien of UrbaneNew Haven, explained that the whole building is electric powered.
That’s thanks to a “heat pump,” Christopher said. It takes in ambient air, condenses whatever heat is in that air, and then pumps that heat through a series of pipes to each of the 44 units in the building.
The building has “high efficiency,” he said, which means that not only is it more environmentally sustainable, but it should also cut down on renters’ utility costs.
Angela Bennett: “I don’t mind it.”
Sitting on the front porch of her Howe Street apartment right across the street from The Elm, Angela Bennett called the new apartment building across the way a welcome addition to the block.
“It’s an upscale apartment building, so it’s quiet,” she said. “I don’t mind it.”
Bennett said she has lived on Howe Street for a year and a half. She likes the neighborhood a lot.
What’s the best part?
“It’s quiet,” she said. She expects the Elm across the way won’t do much to affect that. “I think it brings something to the neighborhood,” she said.
Two by four framing with plywood sheathing and fake decal bricks. Is this really the best we cab do?