“Graduate New Haven” Gets Its Spots

People used to get loaded inside the Hotel Duncan. In the future they’ll be able to load — and unload — outside thanks to a ruling of the Traffic Authority of New Haven.

The authority (whose members double as the Board of Police Commissioners) approved two new street parking spots in front of the old Duncan Hotel as a loading zone for the Duncan’s under-construction successor, a high-end short stay boutique hotel to be known as ​“Graduate New Haven,” according to local attorney Carolyn Kone.

That’s the provisional name being used for the hotel-in-the-making at Chapel Street near York, which in recent decades had been one of the last surviving single room occupancy residences in downtown.

Kone was in attendance at the regular meeting of the Traffic Authority Tuesday night at 1 Union Ave. representing the hotel’s owner Chicago-based Ben Weprin and his AJ Capital Partners.

City Transportation, Traffic & Parking Department’s Bruce Fischer explained that the proposal is to create two additional parking spots in front of the new hotel to be dedicated to picking up and dropping off for users of the future hotel.

Commissioner Greg Smith questioned the total footage in the formal proposal. Would it be 60 feet or more?

Fischer said it could be 60 and perhaps 70 feet and would be ​“signed” as ​“no parking” and for use by the hotel, identical to what is in front of ​“Graduate New Haven’s” competitor The Study down the block.

Smith wanted to make sure that the space taken up by the new proposed loading zone would not be excessive. Can we say not more than 70 feet? he asked.

Fischer concurred, but added, ​“Until you get out there and measure, thse numbers are approximate.”

The proposal was approved unanimously by the commissioners.

Kone said the Duncan has no more people living in it and extensive renovations are under way and will take time because of the condition of the building: ​“The floors slope. It’s a very old building. But it’s going to be beautiful.”

She said the hope is for the ​“Graduate New Haven” to open in the spring, not next year, but in 2020.

Its demise as an SRO [single-room-occupancy] or boarding house for low-income renters was at the center of a recent heated municipal debate on affordable housing versus luxury housing in the downtown neighborhood.