101 College Parking Agreement Advances; Garage Occupancy Plummets With Pandemic

The city’s parking authority unanimously voted in support of a proposed deal that would grant the developer of a planned new downtown biosciences tower between 400 and 550 monthly parking permits at two publicly-owned garages for upwards of 80 years.

The vote, and the meeting, took place via teleconference in what one of the authority’s attorneys predicted might be ​“the new normal for a while” — public meetings rendered virtual to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At just after 5:30 p.m. Monday, three Park New Haven commissioners, two of the authority’s attorneys, and its executive director, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and lead engineer kicked off their regular monthly meeting — not in person at the authority’s 232 George St. headquarters, but on a telephone conference call.

“This is obviously an extreme moment,” Park New Haven Executive Director Doug Hausladen said at the top of the call.

The meeting took place the same night that the Board of Alders held its regular bimonthly full board meeting at City Hall with no members of the public present. They broadcast a video recording of their meeting on Facebook Live and Zoom.

Hausladen said the parking authority meeting likely would have been cancelled had the authority not had a time-sensitive issue to discuss and vote on: a proposed parking arrangement between the city and Winstanley Enterprises, the developer of a prospective new 200,000-plus square-foot biosciences lab and office tower at 101 College St.

The commissioners also discussed how the pandemic has affected the number of parkers visiting city-owned garages (see more below).

The parking agreement would be incorportated into a larger Development and Land Disposition Agreement (DLDA) between Winstanley and the city that ultimately has to be approved by the Board of Alders.

Attorneys Joe Rini and Cliff Merin explained that the proposed parking agreement would provide WE 101 LLC, a holding company controlled by Winstanley, a minimum of 400 and a maximum of 550 monthly parking permits spread across the publicly-owned Temple Street Garage and Temple Medical Garage.

Winstanley would have to pay ​“the adopted monthly rate” for those permits, which is the market rate set by the parking authority each year. Currently, that rate is $145 per month per permit.

The proposed agreement has an initial term of 20 years and three renewal terms, also of 20 years each, bringing the total potential length of the agreement to 80 years.

Merin pointed out that the proposed agreement would not begin until the first year of 101 College St.‘s occupancy, which the city and the parking authority and the developer anticipate will be 2023.

“With what’s going on now, who knows…,” he added, in reference to the massive public health and economic and social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“A lot of this is virus-dependent, to be completely serious,” said Hausladen.

“The timing really does work out well with the construction of the St. Raphael garage system,” he added. Yale New Haven Hospital plans to build roughly 1,000 new spaces of parking as part of its $838 million new neuroscience center and St. Raphael hospital campus expansion. 

Hausladen said that new parking garage capacity a few blocks away in the Dwight/West River neighborhood should free up parking space at Temple Medical and Temple Street Garage currently occupied by the hospital.

Park New Haven Chief Financial Officer Brian Seholm said that the agreement would place a limit of 250 permits granted for the Temple Medical Garage, with the balance going to Temple Street. He said the replacement of YNHH parking tenants with 101 College parking tenants should be roughly one-to-one.

“Does this decrease the need for structured parking at the new development?” asked commissioner Andy Orefice.

That’s exactly right, said Hausladen. He said Winstanley plans to build around 110 or 120 parking spaces at 101 College. All of those spaces would be below ground. The roofdeck of the parking structure would be a public plaza, he said.

Hausladen said 101 College might also have a pedestrian bridge connecting the new tower to Temple Medical Garage.

He said those details will be included in the DLDA package to be submitted to the Board of Alders soon.

“Unprecedented Human-Scale Event”

The COVID-19 pandemic made itself felt during Monday’s Park New Haven meeting in more ways than just pushing the meeting onto a telephone conference call. ​“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have to get used to this new normal for a while,” Merin said about not being able to meet in person.

After the parking authority commissioners voted in support of the 101 College proposed deal, the authority’s staff detailed how the coronavirus has resulted in everything from fewer parkers at city garages to concerns about staffing to delayed capital improvement projects.

Park New Haven COO Sammy Parry said that the Union Station garage had 445 cars park at that space two weeks ago, on March 2. On Monday, that number had dropped to 85.

“This is true across the board,” he said. Air Rights Garage usually sees 1,200 parked cars per day, he said. Today, that number was 786.

Parry said that the authority cannot and will not close the Union Station or Air Rights Garages because of the critical roles they play in serving train riders and medical personnel and patients, respectively.

He said the authority might consider pulling staff from Temple Medical, since there are so few transient visitors there on a daily basis and the monthly permit holders can get in with a keycard whenever they’d like. He said the authority might also shut the Granite Square garage to transient parkers, depending on staff needs.

“As of now, it’s business as normal under the guidelines of the CDC recommendations,” he said. The authority is making sure that booths and office areas are well stocked with hand sanitizer and gloves. He said the authority is working on developing an employee policy about how best to exercise precaution when interacting with the public.

“Our biggest concerns as a manager of people is being overwhelmed by callouts from people being sick,” Hausladen said. That’s not the case right now. ​“But this situation is more than fluid. It’s a gas, so rapidly changing.”

Hausladen said the authority employs 120 workers — from security to maintenance to office workers to cashiers.

Seholm said that the authority has so many long-term parking agreements that it can continue at the current pace of significantly reduced transient parkers for about six months without really feeling the financial hit. But if these low parking rates continue beyond six months, he said, ​“we’ll see the need for some staffing impact.”

Hausladen added that the city’s downtown garages rely heavily on parkers who come to visit restaurants, theaters, and concert halls. All of those venues are now closed, following Gov. Ned Lamont’s order on Monday.

Chief Engineer Jim Staniewicz added that the coronavirus pandemic has affected his work as well. The authority had planned on putting out for bid a capital improvement project for the Air Rights Garage. ​“We have delayed that bid” because of all of the social and economic and labor disturbances caused by the pandemic.

“I think this is an unprecedented human-scale event that we haven’t seen since the Great War and the Spanish Flu overlapping,” Hausladen said. ​“We’re going to be bracing for a very long summer.” The waves and ripples of this pandemic throughout the city’s economy will be felt for a long time to come, he said.