Tech Philanthropist Buys Union League Building

Alexander Clark should be commended for investing in downtown New Haven!
Hopefully, he'll purchase, renovate and reimagine some of the many downtown properties that are empty or underutilized. In recent years, there has been a decline in quality retail offerings, with an overabundance of "smoke shops" and other less than desirable establishments.

Perhaps Yale's Art Gallery and Center for British Art, could create satellite locations around the downtown area. Perhaps some storefronts reimagined as artist studios and galleries, or places to exhibit private collections and hold small-scale concerts.

New Haven's downtown has such great potential, and someone like Alexander Clark could set in motion what is needed to reach it.

Concernd4NewHaven's positive comment with good ideas is refreshing.

Just wondering about the nature of the planned multimillion dollar renovations. A fireman's pole from the second floor may speed service but is hardly in keeping with historic nature of the property. Likewise, a DJ booth might sound like a good idea but needs to be re-thought. Though the basement speakeasy concept is a no-brainer.

Renovation concept: Rent a crane to put a giant new sign on the top of the building. The sign says the building's name in the most boring font & color combination possible, except -- and here's the really fun and subversive part of this concept -- one of the letters is ~in italics~.

P.S. Honestly shocked that Yale actually sold something downtown! Is this the mark of a changing Properties strategy, or is there just some secret multiple of internally appraised market value that they're willing to sell at?

I'll repeat a slogan I've been trying to get adopted for the last 30 years.
"New Haven, Connecticut's only Full Time City"

Some parts of Downtown should be revitalized and done over to make the area appear nicer and better looking for residents, visitors, people who works here in the city, etc..

I agree that Downtown indeed has tons of potential, but I also believe there is quite a gap between how great Downtown could be and where it basically is currently..

The city needs to have an actual vision and a well thought-out plan for the way it wants to be for the next 40 to 50 years at least..

Maybe this guy can possibly be the start of that.....

It sounds like Alexander Clark might be the Robinhood that New Haven needs. The art community is struggling many places have folded. Maybe that will be his next venture I hope. Art activates a community it breathes life into it.

Thank You to Mr. and Mrs. Clark. And Good Luck with all your endeavors.

This article is impressive. What I liked most is Clarks investment into New Haven, but in a good way. Also on his tech site he has jobs available! 70k-over 100k opportunities! That is amazing.

Definitely a great project for the rich, White people!

I have think this is great!

I also think the city would be better off if Yale reduced its commercial real estate footprint. I understand why Yale would not want a smoke shop moving to Hlllhouse Avenue. And I am not suggesting a fire sale. Yale is not going to sell properties unless it gets a good price, as it has in this case. But Yale is an 800-pound gorilla. Its commercial properties routinely sit empty for years at a time. This is not helping the city.

Finally, Tom, Paul Bass, and I have repeatedly noted that the sales prices of commercial property often significantly exceed their appraised values for tax purposes. This is another example. Revaluation was a couple of years ago and property values have increased. But in this case the sales price is more than double the appraised value. I am not suggesting any form of misconduct. But this is a real problem.

Heather C. You pointed out the class nature of this project so perfectly!

You said that people of color can work in the kitchen as you congratulate the rich, White people for spending millions to serve only people of their class.

Union Yes!

The Union League Cafe, if it is not already unionized, would be a great place for a union because now we have an idea of how much money is behind this project - sort of. We'll never know the scope of their wealth because this class is really good at hiding their wealth in financial structures they have created for themselves. Clever!

Is there already a union or will there be a UNION of the staff at the Union League Cafe?

Is it possible that a dining establishment that calls themselves the "Union League Cafe" not have a unionized work force?

If there isn't a union of the staff who do the work of cooking, cleaning and waiting on customers why not start one at the UNION League Cafe?

Perfect!!!!!

We need more people like this, making meaningful investments within the city.

Small steps like this inspire others and future generations.

All the philanthropic involvement, reminds me of the Sackler family. Thank you! 😶🌫

NHPS Teacher I'm with you on that one.

Last summer I read the history of the Sackler family (that's a family - a bunch of killers is more like it) called, "Empire of Pain", The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty written by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Philanthopists in general are mostly rich White people who can use and play the system of capitalism to amass extreme wealth and then, instead of paying their fair share in taxes, pretend that they're doing "good" as in this case by buying an exclusive dining establishment in downtown New Haven!

The truth about the Sackler's generosity of "donations" to dodge paying taxes on their wealth might be the extreme case of bastardizing the word and meaning of "philanthropy" because as the author of "Tower of Pain" points out (and we all know this) they knew they were killing people with their extreme drugs and yet these wonderful "philanthropists" were nothing but drug dealers/pushers.

I think from having read the book that one of the Sackler grandaughters understood what was going on and demonstrated against them from time to time.

With the owners of this restaurant, they're not doing anything to help New Haven! They bought this restaurant to wine and dine their own, the rich White people who are related to Yale somehow.

This isn't going to benefit me at all, nor is it going to benefit the working class New Havener. I've been to this restaurant 2x in my life and it wasn't for the food that I consider to be pretend "French" cuisine (I lived in Paris for 10 years) it was because I was a guest of others.

What I felt when I was there was that I was not "one of them" and it's a very uncomfortable feeling for me to be in the company of rich White people (not my class) knowing their distain working class people.

Interestingly, the White rich people know exactly what THEIR class is and they let you know it. But, the working class, unless their in a union, mostly don't.

I'll skip this "historic" restaurant.

The Union League Cafe. The "Watering Hole" of my youth. Elbowing up to the bar and dancing on the weekends. The 80's were a fun time at the U.L.