The city has asked developers to submit ideas for how to build new offices, stores and apartments right at the train station. Meanwhile, a new dispute is holding up state construction of a long-delayed parking garage there that would anchor the whole project.
The parking authority last week began advertising for a “consultant team” to put together a plan to build the major new development by the Union Station tracks.
According to the advertised request, the city wants a consultant to do a feasibility study about the idea of building the “transit-oriented development.” Taking a page from Stamford, the city hopes to have jobs people can commute to right at the station. The request calls for building on what’s now a surface parking lot next to the train station parking garage. The project site would be bordered by Route 34, Union Avenue, the garage, and the railroad platform and tracks. It would cover about 1.5 acres.
The request portrays the project as part of a larger vision of building up the area from the train station over to the medical school. It is a stretch dappled with surface parking lots crying out, in planners’ view, for taller buildings filled with people and producing tax revenue.
“From the City’s perspective, the expansion of the medical district and downtown toward Union Station creates a synergy of economic and transportation activity,” the request reads. “The initial concept plan envisions over $500 million in private investment resulting in 1.1 million s.f. of new development and 620 new residential units.”
The request asks the bidders to consider an additional alternative plan to the one filling the surface lot by the station. This second plan would be bigger — it would include the 1.35 acres across the street where the police station currently stands. Under this alternative, the city would tear down the police station, put part of the new development there; and “integrate” a new police station into a second, new parking garage that’s supposed to be built at the train station.
If it ever gets built.
Another Tussle With The State
The state and city have been talking about building that second garage for a decade. And talking. And arguing. And talking.
And getting nowhere.
Any new development at the train station would be wrapped around that new garage. It’s a garage that everyone agrees desperately needs to be built.
Right now, Union Station has a one garage. Its 1,170 spaces fill up by 8 o’clock most mornings. Hundreds of more commuters must then park downtown at the Temple Street garage and wait for a shuttle to take them to a train station. The situation has been a major disincentive to people commuting by train — even though both the city and the state have been trying to convince people to ride trains instead of driving on highways.
The state owns the land where the second garage would go. The city leases the land. The city was originally going to build the new 1,100-space garage. Then the state decided to build it instead. Both sides finally appeared ready to move ahead with the plan in December. (Click here for a story about that.)
Since then, however, a new dispute has arisen. It has taken both sides months just to exchange memos about how to resolve it.
Parking authority chief William Kilpatrick (pictured) said the dispute centers on whether the state will enter into a contract with a private company to manage the garage.
Kilpatrick’s parking authority currently leases that land. It leases and manages the existing garage as well as Union Station itself, with its stores and offices. It’s a profitable lease.
So the city wants the state to buy it out of the lease if the state wants to turn to a private developer to manage the new garage. The lease runs through 2017.
“The state has never shown up with a viable” offer to buy out the lease, said City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg, who has been involved in talks about a new garage since the mid-1990s. She expressed frustration that the state Department of Transportation has yet to budget money to build a garage or buy out the lease.
Mayor John DeStefano expressed frustration, too. He said he’s worked with four different state transportation commissioners on the project, to no avail.
“The state does not have any plans to build a garage at all,” he said. “It’s incredibly frustrating for riders. It’s adding extra stress to the Milford and Branford stations. And it’s harming economic development along the rail corridor.”
“We’d be willing to give up control [of the parking] if we’re bought out of the lease, but we expect to be fairly compensated,” DeStefano said. “At this point, frankly, the city just wants the state to build the garage. They should just build their garage — either buy us out of the lease, or build their own garage and operate it right next to ours.”
“We’re trying to negotiate with the city on how best to move forward. We’re not in a position today to say we’re ready to move forward or not move forward,” said state Department of Transportation spokesman Judd Everhart. He noted that the DOT has put together initial drawings for the garage.
“We certainly share the mayor’s frustration that this hasn’t been resolved,” Everhart continued. He said the state is confident that “good-faith negotiations” will resolve the issue.
He noted that another state agency, public works, has encountered similar problems with New Haven’s economic development office in moving forward another major project, the new Gateway Community College. The public works commissioner last week wrote the mayor a letter last week pleading with him to intervene with the office. (Click here for that story.) Meanwhile, a communications problem between development chief Kelly Murphy and New Haven’s state legislators involving parking at the Connecticut Mental Health Center has thrown a wrench into already delayed plans to build a new cancer center at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a new biotech complex by Route 34. Click here and here to read Mary O’Leary’s stories on the subject in the Register.
Melissa Bailey contributed reporting to this story.
Amazingly arrogant stuff from Judd Everhart since the reason the original deal fell apart (where the city would build the garage) is that the deal makers from the state DOT got prosecuted and sentenced on unrelated matters involving their administration of improvements at the New Haven train station. New administrators at DOT reopened all contracts and have not been able to make a deal since. Hard to believe that such a thing happened or that Everhart would blame the City despite the arrest (and eventual imprisonment) of state employees?
<a href="http://newhaven.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2006/nh121306a.htm" rel="nofollow">http://newhaven.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2006/nh121306a.htm</a>
Who writes Judd's press releases? Karl Rove? Our guys got indicted ... I know, let's say it's the city's fault the garage has not been built. Maybe Judd should read the FBI's press releases before he writes his own.