Newest Big Employer Opens Doors

This is fantastic! What is next for the corridor?

My only concern is for the health and safety of Alexion's workers, as they try to cross MLK Blvd, (North Frontage) to downtown, or South Frontage to the Medical Center. The traffic still screams by at speeds of up 40-60mph, and if nothing changes it's only a matter of time before we suffer another tragedy.

SPEED KILLS!

Kudos to all involved!

Why is more not being made of Winstanley selling 300 George to Yale after Alexion pushed them out of the new building. That sale takes almost 20 million off the tax roles and makes this new building meaningless for the city.

Just a Reality Check Notes:

@ILH

Understood 300 was still privately owned and paying taxes, as is this new addition to the grand list at 100 College:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biomed-realty-invests-in-life-science-research-facilities-leased-to-yale-university-yale-new-haven-hospital-and-alexion-pharmaceuticals-254163151.html

The city also values the 100 College address higher than 300 George, so it would not exactly be a zero-sum gain if 300 had become tax shielded.

@ ILH -- Where do you get that 300 George is being transferred to Yale? That is not something I've heard of until now, and something I haven't seen anywhere in the papers, nor been able to find via Google.

ILiveHere, the tax status of a property depends on how it is used, not who owns it. Yale pays property tax on the commercial properties it owns, as it should.. Unless 300 George is used for a tax-exempt purpose, it will remain on the tax rolls.

Noteworthy, last year 100 College was under construction, which accounts for its tax bill.

http://www.nhregister.com/business/20160216/alexion-expands-to-all-of-100-college-st-so-yale-buys-350-george

Sorry 350 geroge

All I see here is a row of 0ne-percenters. I hope the Independent follows their hiring of locals. I am dubious

Fact clarification:

Carter Winstanley - who brilliantly developed 300 George Street as the city's leading multi-tenant bio-tech building and then championed and conceived of 100 College Street as a newer version of 300 George before landing Alexion to take all 12 floors of an even larger version of what he first conceived for the air-rights over route 34 (both buildings enabled by Yale's willingness to master lease significant portions until the buildings leased up with private tenants on their own) - has apparently sold the western "building" half of the 340/350 George Street complex (an old SNET switching station on the corner of George and York coupled with a parking garage which Winstanley is NOT selling) to Yale after Winstanley had recently purchased it from the latest successor firm to SNET, Frontier Communications.

So...300 George is still taxable. 100 College is still very taxable (as is the new garage attached to it).

350 George Street was worth about $5m when it was owned by Frontier. Now that Yale owns it they will probably invest about $35m to bring it up to a similar finish as the inside of the Alexion building. Since the state pays the City a PILOT for Yale's academic buildings at about 1/3 what we would receive for a private building we will end up with a building worth about $12m to us which will be worth about $360,000 a year in taxes, with no phase-in.

That's more than we are getting now, but less than Winstanley would have paid if they had owned the building and leased it to Yale all fixed up. Let's assume Carter spends a bit less on the fit-up than Yale and puts $30m in. That would be about $900,000 in taxes...

But Carter would qualify for a 5 year phase-in of his taxes from what the building pays now - about $230,000. So, over a seven year period (assuming two years for construction) the city will collect fewer dollars from a Yale Medical School Building than a Winstanley leased tech center used by Yale.

How much less?

Not as much as you might think - but still a lot.

Carter and Yale would both pay the building permit fees - Carter less since he will invest less in our scenario, about $810,000 versus about $1m for Yale.

Add it all up and I come up with a seven-year total payment of $4,430,000 that we would collect from a private 350 George versus about $3,230,000 from a Yale building. A difference on average of about $170,000 a year. (This assumes that Yale would not have to pay personal property taxes even in a private building...otherwise the gap does grow).

Bottom line - we collect about $2.4m a year from 300 George, should collect eventually between $5m and $8m from from Alexion at 100 College and even 350 George ought to pay close to $500,000 a year with Yale ownership.

That's pretty good from two old SNET structures that we once thought would be boarded up and empty (300 George sold for just $500,000 in 1996!) and a stretch of Route 34 that was nothing more than a dangerous exit ramp up to York Street four years ago.

Bio-tech and medical research are paying off for New Haven - and that's before we even talk about the housing and retail lining College and George Streets waiting to collect the several thousand people who work in these buildings.

@ MattNemerson, Oh come on Matt. So we break even for a few years and then we get1/3 of the taxes. You can really expect to spin that as a good thing. Winstanley flipped this building for a few million dollars and it got dumped from the tax roles. Its a huge problem for a city with 60% of its property that is non-taxable and failing schools, no rainy day fund, and underfunded pensions. We are in a lot of trouble people and Yale buying up our most expensive land per acer is going to crush us.

The federal infrastructure money to which Rosa DeLauro refers was a TIGER grant. This grant was a blatant example of pork barrel "discretionary" federal spending, misappropriation of federal funds—and crony capitalism: "the TIGER Grants have always been political… winning projects were the same politically oriented, local boondoggles as in past rounds… Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood touted the grants ability to put, 'people back to work across the country [and provide] a stronger economic future for the nation.'
There is little evidence the grants accomplish either of those goals…First, applicants do not bother to conduct quality analysis because they believe politics or other factors are at play. Second, applicants do not have the technical know-how to create quality analysis… the grants fund far more local priorities than national needs.
The federal government's purpose in transportation is to fund and coordinate national projects… While these may be excellent projects, if states and localities want them then states and localities should fund these projects." http://reason.org/news/show/problems-with-the-governments-trans

@MattNemerson:

That's pretty good from two old SNET structures that we once thought would be boarded up and empty (300 George sold for just $500,000 in 1996!)


300 George was a crooked, crooked, inside deal. You must remember that?

None of the jobs listed would apply to a new haven resident...only those commuters that live OUT of new haven...

@Christoper Schaefer:

With respect to the purpose of TIGER funds, please see the following resource:
https://www.transportation.gov/tiger

Frankly there are too many "needs" for the federal government to support and no fully objective criteria to judge need vs. want. Moreover, as inefficient as it is to flow transfer payments to the federal level, back to states, back to municipalities, some consideration needs to be given to whether that process unlocks additional private capital expenditure investment, as downtown crossing has. Would disagree that this is a misappropriation if a sufficient number of private dollars of cap ex are resultant, though admittedly a clear definition of "sufficient number of private dollars" is hard to pin down.

Full agreement that the institutions and mechanisms to prioritize, entitle, approve and construct projects are weak, and should be improved. But so to ought all of our collective attitudes towards development in general, both private and (sometimes) public.

At the risk of speaking for all who service the build environment locally, think most would agree this particular use of TIGER funds enabled a bridge to somewhere.