Bender Stays, Expands

Mayor Toni Harp, Economic Development Officer Matthew Nemerson and other city officials gathered Thursday afternoon for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of Bender New Haven’s 21,000 square foot showroom at 335 East St. in the Mill River district.

Featuring decorative plumbing, kitchen and bath cabinetry, lighting and tile selections, Bender now claims to have the largest showroom in the Northeast.

With the opening of the showroom, the City’s 2013 Mill River District plan to develop a home improvement marketplace and industrial village is now officially under execution, according to city Small Business Development Officer Clay Williams. In a push to increase the tax base and create new jobs, the city government provided around $500,000 for Bender’s to build a showroom, William said.

The new showroom is down the street from the former spot at 550 Grand.

“We’ve gathered to celebrate the new showroom of Bender Supply: 21,000 square feet of state-of-the-art displays featuring decorative plumbing, kitchen and bath cabinetry, lighting and tile and stone selections,” Harp said. ​“It’s like a Disney World for those looking to decorate their house! We are proud to say that my administration worked cooperatively with Bender to expand its operation. We’re so excited to now be able to look back on all that’s been accomplished, and all policy objectives met.”

Emphasizing that Bender has been a ​“crucial anchor business” in New Haven for the past decades, Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg said ​“it was wonderful to see such collaboration between the business and the city officials.”

Since former Mayor John DeStefano’s time in office, the city has been developing a strategy to ​“enhance the distinctive role that the Mill River serves in the overall economic health of the city,” according to the New Haven Mill River District Plan Overview and Re-zoning Efforts Report published in October 2013. (Read more about that plan here.)

In an interview with the Independent, Williams said the owners of Bender considered leaving New Haven a few years ago to find an area with bigger traffic. With $99,000 from the city’s Façade Grant Program and other government programs, city officials convinced Bender to stay in New Haven, Williams said. Still, Williams noted that with the total cost of the expansion edging $10 million, the city’s investment took only a small portion of the investment that went into the showroom.

Bender renovated the showroom by creating a hole on the roof and creating an atrium. The building – previously used as a printing house for the New Haven Register and as a horse feed factory – was too small to display the lighting and tile selections, according to Bender Strategic Accounts Manager Tony Debrizzi. The owners of the business said ​“Go big or go home,” and decided to create a destination showroom for New England, Debrizzi said.

The business had 28 employees at the New Haven site prior to its expansion. It will now be hiring as many as 56 workers, with a pledge to have at least 20 percent of them as city residents, Harp said.

All of the jobs were subject to the city’s utilization goals, including 25 percent New Haven residents, 25 minority and 6.9 percent women workforce utilization, Harp noted.

At the ceremony, Nina Bender, one of the fourth-generation owners of the business, spoke of a commitment to working with New Haven residents.

“Whenever I see ​‘I love New Haven’ bumper stickers, I’m like, ​‘Me too; let’s be friends!’” Bender said. ​“New Haven is truly a sanctuary in every sense of the word because of the trickle-down effect from the local government and the trickle-up effect from the residents.”