Elm City Industrial Properties, Inc.
What the warehouses would look like from South Wallace Street.
The now-empty site of a factory by the Mill River that sent products to Home Depot could host warehouses for the delivery side of Home Depot, or another delivery-focused company like Amazon, by the summer of 2021.
Real estate lawer James J. Perito of Halloran Sage.
The plan to build two warehouses at 50 Ives Pl. is heading to the City Plan Commission for consideration on Wednesday night.
Each building would have enough space to load 20 delivery trucks at once. The South Wallace Street side would host offices for each building. It’s an as-of-right site plan use that does not require any changes to the light industrial zoning rules on the property.
The lawyer for the project, James J. Perito of Halloran Sage, briefed the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team on Tuesday evening on the plans.
“There is a real need here for distribution centers that are closer to the city. Most are not near here,” Perito said.
The 4.4‑acre property has been vacant since 2009, when the H.B. Ives manufacturing plant closed and was demolished.
Property owner Richard Cuomo, a fan of the Humphrey Street mural.
Richard Cuomo of the North Haven-based Elm City Industrial Properties, Inc. bought the property in May. He was looking at it before Covid-19 hit, Perito said, and the pandemic just confirmed how important the delivery economy has become.
Delivery drivers would have easy access to nearby highways without having to go through residential neighborhoods. The industrial site would return to the city tax rolls.
And there is a mural in the works for the Chapel Street sides of the future buildings, inspired by Cuomo’s admiration for the Humphrey Street mural and conversations with the city’s planning department. The city’s arts department would chose local artists and the developer would provide the canvas. Areas not covered by murals would have trellises of plants decorating the walls.
“We really thought it would be a nice addition. It would bring lot of color and activism to the wall face that’s there,” Perito said. “It’s a good opportunity for the city. It would liven up that area a little bit again.”
Each building could load a maximum of 10 trucks.
Neighbors were largely receptive to the warehouse plans. They just wanted to make sure the truck traffic would not affect them. A neighbor listed as Tony on the Zoom meeting said that trucks would need to avoid residential Wooster Square streets like Franklin.
“That’s a nightmare traffic scenario as it is right now. I see a potential problem with bringing 70-foot rigs up to that intersection,” Tony said.
Perito assured him that while locals drive that way in cars, it is not a logical choice for a truck. The truck entrance would be on East Street. Ives Place connects directly to I‑91 and East Street connects to U.S. Route 1. He said that the developer would work with tenants when they are finalized to figure out the fastest routes, which would not logically include traffic-heavy local streets like Chapel.
Neighbor Anstress Farwell pushed Perito to set guidelines even before Cuomo sets the companies that will use the warehouses.
“I think we need to negotiate with the owner and make part of the lease general guidelines about impacts on the host neighborhood,” Farwell said.
Farwell also asked whether a green roof would be a possibility to cut down on erosion into the Mill River. Perito said that decision would come down to cost but solar panels might be in the buildings’ future.
From the corner of South Wallace and Chapel streets.
It was neighbor Ian Dunn who said he had heard the warehouses would host products for a company like Amazon before they are delivered the last mile to area homes. Perito confirmed that Cuomo is thinking of companies like Amazon and Home Depot.
Dunn asked for another conversation when that tenant was certain. He said that the neighbors have good ideas because they all live around the property and know it well.
“This is not a particularly sexy project. We could easily lose this revenue to Orange or one of the surrounding towns. It’s really great able to get this into New Haven,” Dunn said. “All in all, it’s better to be here than in the suburbs.”
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