Two years ago, Yul Watley watched from his home as the Brookside and Rockview projects fell apart. He said his dream was that one day a minority contractor would rebuild them.
That minority contractor has turned out to be Yul Watley.
At a meeting of the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) earlier this week, Watley, now the proud owner of Advanced Construction Technology (ACT), was awarded a contract worth $7.5 million. Watley showed up to the meeting wearing his company’s snazzy, monogrammed polo shirt.
His assignment: to build the first 20 home ownership units in the extensive $455 million West Rock Development Project.
Jimmy Miller, (pictured) former executive director of HANH and now its deputy director for special projects, said “Yul has come a long way in a very short period of time.”
His company, ACT, now employs 15 people, 80 percent of whom, like him, are residents of New Haven public housing and many low income. “And we’re growing.”
Watley got his start doing painting and then gradually more rehabbing of damaged apartments in Westville Manor, where he lived for many years.
The turning point for Watley, according to Karen DuBois-Walton, HANH’s executive director, was his association with Crystal Property Management, a long-standing contractor for HANH. “Yul has had smaller contracts in the $150,000 range, but this is definitely different, a real success story.”
When the vote was approved by the commissioners, HANH chairman Bob Solomon said to Watley, “We continue to hear great things about your work. Congratulations.”
A monthly HANH meetings, Watley kept a regular presence, staying on the authority’s radar and exchanging pleasantries with Chairman Solomon (middle, with commissioners Louise Pearsall and Lee Cruz) while providing updates on the progress of his jobs.
Watley said that he’d done some informal research and that this contract was, he thought, a national first. “No other housing authority has awarded a resident owned business a contract like this. This magnitude. Maybe Philadelphia.”
DuBois-Walton couldn’t confirm Watley’s contention, but noted that it was indeed a big deal. “Yul’s going to have to get construction loans and find financing,” she said, “for the 20 units.”
His association, which she termed a kind of mentorship, with Crystal Property Management, will help him in that regard, she said.
The authority, she added, was contributing $2.5 million to underwrite construction. The 20 houses, which, she estimated, will cost close to $300,000 each to build, may ultimately be sold for close to that amount, if the market revives, she suggested.
“Even now,” she said, “houses across the city line in Hamden sell for $200,000. We expect the first houses to be completed to sell for prices around $160,000.”
Watley was chosen, technically, as the co-developer of the 20 units to work with the Michaels Development Company of New Jersey, the overall developer of the 475-unit mixed use West Rock development.
ACT was selected as one of two finalists from a field of six. His company beat out Carabetta Management, the huge developer that runs Bella Vista, among other developments.
In the formal scoring of bidders that is part and parcel of all HANH contract awards, Watley said, “We scored higher in all areas except for the financial. But they checked us out, and we scored high in finishing our jobs on time, things like that.”
ACT had some definite advantages in terms of the scoring. “He’s a minority,” said DuBois-Walton, “he’s a Section 3 business,” meaning that he employs at least 30 percent low income people as workers, and, most significantly perhaps, ACT is a resident-owned business.
That was of particular significance to the West Rock Implementation Committee (WRIC) WRIC is an outspoken group of residents (with HANH officials on board as well) who formed when work at West Rock got started. Their aim was to assure that local residents benefited from the multimillion dollar redevelopment of West Rock.
“The WRIC members,” said DuBois-Walton, “particularly like Yul’s commitment to the community, and that he is of the community.”
DuBois-Walton said the ACT is HANH’s only resident-owned business, with the exception of a fledgling cleaning service.
She and her staff had found the single greatest impediment to the development of more resident-owned businesses is what she called lack of the back-office capacity to deal with the formidable paper, legal, and financial hurdles involved in working with HANH.
At the Tuesday afternoon meeting, the commissioners took some steps to change that. One of the new initiatives in HANH’s annual master plan, known as Moving To Work (MTW), also approved at the meeting, is to fund a business service for residents. “We’re going to target, with training and with loans, people who are residents who could provide services that we use a lot of.”
She cited landscaping, recycling work, and moving and storage.
After the meeting was over, Watley said he was going to present some of his company shirts to the commissioners.
Congrats Mr. Watley:
I love when folks not only preach at the powers that be--and Yul will preach--but when they work to put themselves in a position to capitalize on opportunities. My advice: Be sure to put trustworthy, competent people in place to worry about the paperwork while you take care of the bricks and mortars. Inefficieny in either aspect will lead to the quick demise of your business. Good luck to you and those who will get the opportunity to earn a living.