A plan to turn an old gun factory building into apartments and commercial space got its first airing before Dixwell neighbors.
Forest City Enterprises, a $10 billion publicly traded nationwide real estate company, was recently chosen by Science Park Development Corporation to develop a 7.35-acre site at 275 Winchester Ave. (Click here for a background story). It lies at the edge of Science Park, the series of old factory buildings that once housed more than 15,000 workers a day making Winchester rifles.
A new Winchester Arms apartment complex would complement a flurry of previously unannounced activity in Science Park that was also hinted at Thursday.
Young reps from Forest City introduced the project Thursday night to about 15 neighbors at the Dixwell Enterprise Community/Management Team.
“It’s exciting to take something old and deteriorating and bring it back to life,” said Brian Oos (pictured above), a development manager with Forest City. On the lot sit 17 buildings with 700,000 square feet of floor space. The buildings used to boom with the sounds of gun production and shots from an indoor firing range. Since Winchester stopped production and left town, the space has been abandoned, becoming “something you don’t want to walk by.”
Plans for renewal are nebulous at this point. The project would be “predominantly residential,” with some commercial and retail space, said Abe Naparstek, also of Forest City. The housing would be rental units, not condos, aimed towards a mix of graduate students, young professionals and people who live nearby, he said. He expected his company to invest “almost $100 million” in the project.
Forest City intends to own and operate the building after its construction.
“We’re going to be here for a long time,” Naparstek told neighbors. “In 20 years, we’ll still be part of the community.” The land would be leased from the Science Park Development Corporation, a non-profit group that formed as a partnership between the city, Yale University and the gun manufacturer’s parent company, Olin, to revitalize the 80-acre industrial ghost town.
“What perks are you expecting from the taxpayers?” Dickerman Street’s Ruth Henderson (pictured) wanted to know.
“We’re not expecting anything,” said Naparstek. The project would be privately financed, supplemented by federal and state tax credits for historic rehab, he said.
Would there be affordable units included? Neighborhood activist Lisa Hopkins asked. “There are plenty of luxury apartments around town,” she said — how about some for people from the neighborhood?
Forest City hadn’t analyzed the market yet to determine the price or number of apartments, Naparstek replied. He pledged to come back to the management team for an update in June.
Forest City team brought posters of similar project they’re working on in Haverhill, Mass., where a mill is being reborn as an residential and commercial complex.
The Winchester factory has similar issues of big windows and big environmental clean-up, developers said. Luckily for Forest City, the Olin company has committed to cleaning up the buildings to a commercial standard. The firm would be seeking state clean-up funds to help with the rest of the contamination from lead and other toxins.
More Science Park Renewal Afoot
Naparstek said his firm hadn’t heard of some recent developments in that area when it decided to go for the project.
In September, Winstanley Enterprises LLC of Massachusetts bought 25 Science Park, the building kitty-corner to Tract A, for $14.5 million from BioMed Realty Trust. The building’s vacancies may soon fill up: Yale University has plans to lease a sizable amount of office space there, confirmed Lisa Grossman (pictured), whose group Capstan has been consulting for Science Park. (A Yale spokesman couldn’t be reached Thursday night.)
“Seeing Yale make that commitment” to lease office space nearby increases the area’s appeal, Naparstek said. He was also pleased to hear of big plans across the street, which is mostly occupied by a three-acre surface parking lot.
Winstanley plans to tear down a factory relic at 276 Winchester Ave. and build a structured parking garage, Grossman said. The garage could hold as many as 1,200 spaces, possibly with street-level retail, she said.
Naparstek said he’s “excited” about all the activity in the strip, though his firm didn’t know about it when it zeroed in on the parcel. The Cleveland, Ohio-based company just saw “a great adaptive reuse.”
The Forest City team will present ideas before Newhallville’s management team next week, presenting at the police substation 596 Winchester Ave. on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
This is great news. It makes me very happy that a non-downtown area of new haven is getting major attention from several players, and also that the Winchester project is going to be undertaken without city subsidies.