Thomas MacMillan Photo
A developer is seeking city permission to install 145 apartments in a long-vacant downtown landmark without creating a single new parking space.
The downtown landmark is the Union and New Haven Trust Building, at the corner of Church and Elm streets.
Cooper Square Realty, a New York company, recently bought the building for $13.5 million. To reach its goal of converting the 11-story office building into an apartment tower, Cooper Square is requesting city permission to have fewer parking spaces and less open space than zoning regulations require.
Representatives of Cooper Square brought their request Tuesday evening to the Board of Zoning Appeals. The BZA did not vote on the matter, referring it to the City Plan Commission for a recommendation before taking a vote next month. No one opposed the project during Tuesday’s public hearing.
Instead of the required 145 parking spaces, Cooper Square proposes to have 100. The spaces already exist in three lots downtown; they would be made available to tenants through an agreement with the New Haven Parking Authority. The developer presented a map showing that all the parking spaces would be more than 300 feet from the building — and some nearly 1,000 feet away — as the crow flies.
Instead of the required 250 square feet of open space per apartment, the building would have 36 square feet per unit.
David Kuperberg (at left in photo), a principal in Cooper Church, told BZA members that his company manages over 70,000 housing units. He said he wants to bring “new life to a New Haven landmark,” to “restore it to its old glory.”
He said the building would comprise 145 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments for rent at market rates.
The 175,000-square-foot building, built around 1928, has been vacant since 2009, apart from the Wells Fargo bank on the ground floor. Tony Bialecki, deputy development director for the city, said a developer bought the building several years ago with hopes of making it into a hotel. The developer did some work to stabilize the then-crumbling building, but “the hotel idea didn’t work,” Bialecki said.
A number of developers have come through over the years looking to make something of the building; they’ve all sought some kind of financial help from the city, Bialecki said. But not Cooper Church, he said. “This is really probably the best development we’re going to see for this location,” Bialecki (pictured) told the BZA.
Attorney Jim Segaloff laid out the case for the two types of zoning relief the developer is looking for.
“We can’t possibly satisfy the usual open space requirements,” he said. The building would have 2,500 square feet of open space on the roof, plus sundry balconies and terraces, and the New Haven Green is right out the front door, he said.
As for parking, Segaloff (pictured) said the developer has secured an agreement from the parking authority to guarantee a total of 100 parking spaces in lots at 40 Elm St., 10 Wall St. and 999 Grand Ave., which is a strip of land between State Street and the train tracks near the corner of Grand Avenue.
The building would include parking for 45 bikes, which is more than the 15 spots originally planned, thanks to a recommendation from the City Plan Department, Segaloff said.
Bialecki said that only 60 percent of downtown residents own cars, and many who do don’t use them every day. He said the parking authority agreement would be good for at least 10 years.
Kuperberg said he’d eventually like to build a parking structure next to the building on Elm Street, with retail space on the bottom level.
Later, outside the hearing room, Kuperberg raved about 205 Church St. “It’s a phenomenal building,” he said. The architecture is “gorgeous” and the “location is a 10 out of 10 on an eight-point scale.”
Kuperberg said the financing is all in place for the project. Renovating the building will take 15 months, he said, once he secures zoning permission.
This is the kind of development we should approve and quickly. No financial needs like the ever needy McCormack Baron Salazar boondoggle a/k/a Ninth Square. No tax abatements. For all practical purposes, we are a fully developed city - repurposing existing structures should be allowed and the requirements for parking and open space waived. It is in the developer's best interest to provide what they can but to mandate anything from the city side is not needed.