Clearing out a key Grand Avenue property after 25 years of blight, Angelo Reyes stumbled upon more work than he expected — not to mention a mysterious pig.
Reyes, who after a youthful jail stint rose to become a successful Fair Haven developer, has been transforming the area’s commercial corridor one building at a time. (Click here for a previous story detailing his vision).
His latest project: Bringing life back to a crumbling, century-old Grand Avenue storefront that he said has been vacant for 25 years. The building sits on the block of Grand between Poplar and Fillmore, where he has been working to get rid of loitering and drug deals and create a Latino version of Wooster Street. He now owns eight properties on the block.
Reyes shared his plans while diverting pedestrian traffic from falling bricks on a recent sunny afternoon. He paid $25,000 to buy 258 Grand Ave. from the city, which has owned the boarded-up structure since 2003. The building has an assessed value of $145,740.
Reyes said he got the deal by agreeing to also fix up the building next door: A four-story commercial/residential mix that, according to Reyes, has long plagued the block with drug problems. He said he wrestled the adjacent building, 254 Grand Ave., out of the hands of a New York “slumlord.” The combined projects will amount to a $2 million project for the developer, who buys properties in his own name and stays on as a long-term landlord.
His crew set to work on 258 Grand Ave. after sealing the deal with the city a month and a half ago. Clearing out years of neglect has come with a few surprises.
“We walked in, and there was an old boar’s head looking at you at the front door,” Reyes said. He described the pig’s head as “down to the gritty bone.”
“It’s black magic,” he surmised — a sign that someone didn’t want him on the property.
Reyes said the building was structurally sound, with heavy trusses firmly planted. But he soon found the walls and floors were crumbling. The front fa√ßade didn’t look so stable either. So he ripped them out and started anew.
Friday, workers were prying off the remains of the brick fa√ßade, releasing the occasional load onto the street below. Reyes cordoned off the area and made sure pedestrians stayed away, taking one little boy’s hand as he directed him to safety.
Upstairs, red graffiti still marked the walls. Downstairs, however, lay a smooth new floor of poured cement. In the back, the wall had already been knocked out and replaced with fresh concrete. Reyes kept the old bricks so he could put them up again outside the structural inner wall.
“It’s a beautiful building,” he explained, “I didn’t want it to lose its character.”
Looking up at the freshly torn gap in the streetscape, Reyes said he didn’t quite expect to have to remove the walls in the process. But he still had faith in his vision of what could fill that hole.
He already has one tenant lined up, Hispanic Vision, an eye doctor’s office. Next to the eye doctor, Reyes imagines a local breakfast joint — with good coffee, not Dunkin’ Donuts. Upstairs, perhaps a dance floor.
He aims to have the eye clinic open by June 1.
In the adjacent structure, which looms two stories higher, Reyes hopes to create what he calls luxury housing. The building, 254 Grand Ave., has six apartments above a couple storefronts. People used to hang out the window there, up to no good, and sell drugs inside, he said. The SWAT team had to respond one time.
Reyes said he evicted all the tenants when he bought the building about a year ago. In the rear, where a dead body was once found, Reyes plans to build a daycare center, run by a local woman.
The developer pointed across the street to a new Turkish cell phone store, and down the street to where a brand new Columbus School is rising. Down near the Quinnipiac River, developer Fereshteh Behkrad is taking on an ambitious condo project.
“I think we’re doing a great job at revitalizing Fair Haven, especially in a recession,” Reyes said. “There’s an opportunity for growth and we’re taking advantage of it.”
Angelo Reyes sounds like the best thing that could happen to Grand Avenue. Only someone who is willing to buy up most of a block like this is going to be able to transform it, otherwise the neighboring properties will drag you down. It is great that he wants to keep the diverse, ethnic "local" character of the neighborhood -- it is much easier to simply rent to a Dunkin Donuts and a Subway.