nothin Here Come The Hyundais | New Haven Independent

Here Come The Hyundais

Allan Appel Photo

For the past 20 years city officials have wielded golden shovels to break ground welcoming new groceries, markets, restaurants, and apartment towers.

But never a new car dealership.

In what they hope will be sign of the new times, Mayor John DeStefano and state Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (pictured) broke that drought on a rainy but optimistic Friday afternoon.

The scene was the official groundbreaking for Quality Hyundai, a successful car dealership that will be opening for business at the end of August – the first in town in more than two decades.

As several dozen officials and construction folks gathered inside the site of the former United States Postal Service facility at 115 Peat Meadow Rd. just off I‑95 at Townsend Avenue, there was an unmistakeable touch of gloating: Not only for a new car dealership but for one that is relocating here from Branford.

It’s a big deal because a business is leaving Branford and coming to New Haven. It’s usually the other way around,” said city spokesperson Anna Mariotti.

Blichfield said he is trying to make the 28,000-square-foot structure “as green a building as possible” and quiet for the neighbors.

Joseph Blichfield III said his family businesses are underwriting a full gut-rehab interior renovation.

(Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the article to read some of Blichfield’s testimony about the project) before the City Plan Commission in February.

He said city officials have been very helpful. Why shouldn’t they be? The city is going to get a lot of taxes,” he said. (The figure’s around $60,000, according to Mariotti.)

At Friday’s event, Blichfield said the former tenant, the United States Post Office, had done a good job of securing the marshy land beneath the foundation by using heavy pilings.

Still a major environmental clean-up, plus the creation of a family-friendly dealership with space to change your baby’s diaper while your Hyundai’s spark plugs get changed, costs a lot: $3 million, Blichfield estimated. It made the former Marine and Milford area developer, sweat to utter the figure, he said.

Apart from extensive facilitation, the city has provided a $90,000 façade renovation grant.

“Like in life, business is about personal relationships. We’re getting not just a car dealership but a family relationship,” DeStefano said.

DeStefano and Looney both praised the re-use of a long-vacant property, the appropriate clustering with nearby CarMax (which is just over the East Haven town line), and, finally the property’s return on the tax rolls.

Looney said 100 jobs have been created during the construction. When the place is finished, 40 Branford employees will now be New Haven employees, with perhaps six to eight more added, according to the city’s press materials.

Part of the deal was the retention of the large pylon signs visible high above I‑95 to some of the 97,000 drivers who daily cruise by, said Blichfield.

Looney helped negotiate a new curb cut from Route One, so entering customers will not disturb the residential quality on Peat Meadow Drive.

The construction should be complete and the dealership open for business on Aug. 31.

At which time officials will return, but this time with golden scissors, not shovels, to cut the ribbon.

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