55-Year Union Station Deal Advances

Alders unanimously advanced a proposed new city-state accord that would provide a 55-year roadmap for the operation and redevelopment of Union Station.

That was the outcome of Thursday night’s Board of Alders Finance Committee meeting, which took place online via Zoom and YouTube Live.

The committee alders unanimously endorsed a three-part proposed order related to the century-old transit hub. The order now advances to the full Board of Alders for further discussion and a final vote.

That proposed order includes:

• A lease, operating and funding agreement between the city and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) for the management and operation of New Haven Union Station, State Street Station, and associated parking garages and parking lots. The proposed agreement includes a base term of 35 years with two 10-year options for renewal.

• A ​“Capital Partnership Agreement” that lays out the city’s and state’s goals for the redevelopment of the Union Station campus over the next five decades. That includes building 600 new parking garage spaces, an ​“intermodal center” for bus riders, and improved retail options at the station itself.

• An agreement between the city and the New Haven Parking Authority that would have the parking authority continue to manage the day-to-day operations of the local transit hub. That parking authority agreement includes a base term of five years, with automatic five-year-term renewals thereafter.

“This is a big deal,” city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said about the proposed decades-spanning agreement. The station is currently a “$6.5 million-a-year operation,” he said, that is serviced by three passenger rail lines and a host of local and regional buses. Before the pandemic, the Beaux Arts transit hub saw around four million people a year come through its doors.

City Plan Director Aicha Woods agreed. ​“This is really re-shifting a center of gravity around Union Station,” with a focus on keeping the transit hub in the middle of new connections and developments going up around downtown, the Hill, and Long Wharf.

“We are very committed and look forward to this 35-year relationship,” said state DOT Rail Administrator Rich Jankovich, ​“and the opportunity for folks coming into New Haven via train as well as departing New Haven to all points of the Northeast region.”

Click here and here for previous articles about the proposed new Union Station agreement.

Click here, here, here, here, here , here, here, and here for documents submitted by the city to the Board of Alders about this proposed new city-state deal.

Capital Plan: ​“Very Much A Guiding Document”

Piscitelli and city parking authority Executive Director Doug Hausladen talked the alders through many of the details included in the lease and operating agreement and capital plan Thursday night.

Hausladen described the redevelopment plans as ​“an opportunity to showcase Union Station.”

Some of the key goals laid out in the capital plan include redeveloping both surface parking lots that currently sit to the east and west of the train station.

Hausladen said that the parking authority, the city, the state, and the newly formed Union Station operations committee and executive committee will be ​“working with the development community to provide 600 new structured parking spaces, removing the existing lots, and providing a multi-modal transfer and bus hub on the west end for CTtransit, Peter Pan, and other regional buses.”

The city-state partnership will also be looking for federal grants and private investment to build out a new transit-oriented development — whether that be new housing or commercial space — atop one of the surface lots or in front of a newly built parking garage.

Is the capital plan included in this agreement a guiding document? Finance Committee Vice-Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand asked. Or is it a bind document? That is, do the city and state have to follow through on every single one of the goals detailed therein, or is there some flexibility?

“It is very much a guiding document,” Piscitelli said. It’s in no way a mandate.

The current city lease of Union Station from the state expires in June 2022, Piscitelli said. Thus the city’s interest in getting a new operating agreement and capital plan approved in the short term. Mid- to long-term, it’s a ​“very uncertain market,” and the city is just not prepared to absolutely commit to the development of, say, a new ​“intermodal center” before all of the funding is actually lined up.

So what exactly are the main differences between this new proposed agreement with the state, and the agreement that the city and the parking authority signed with the state back in 1982 to help revive and reopen a then-moribund Union Station?

Piscitelli said that the 1982 agreement focused largely on ​“the first five years of renovating the state [and] building the parking garage.” Plans for the long-term operations and development of the station, which is owned by the state but leased by the city, were a secondary priority — and have resulted in years of sparring between the city and state about what Union Station should be.

“There was a disconnect in how best to bring Union Station to the next level.”

This agreement marks a renewed commitment and cooperation between the city and state for the long-term stewardship of the station.

The agreement keeps all the money generated at Union Station in special fund accounts reserved for station operations and capital improvements, Piscitelli said, which is a change from the previous agreement’s allowance for the state to pull revenue generated at Union Station for other statewide uses.

It also details a ​“high level of accountability on standards” — regarding everything from frequently cleaned bathrooms to functioning elevators — that the parking authority has to abide by. While the main city-state lease is 35 years with two 10-year options to renew, ​“the parking authority is in for five years” to start, Piscitelli said. ​“That’s renewable based on performance.”

Cash Flow Clarified

And what about cash flow? Marchand asked. Will the city be providing operational subsidies for Union Station? And where exactly will the money generated at the station go?

There are no city subsidies for the station included in this deal, Piscitelli and Hausladen said.

“Consider it as restricted funds,” Piscitelli said. ​“Revenues at Union Station will go into a restricted fund, then go out to the parking authority budget.” There will be restricted funds for both operations and capital improvements.

A so-called ​“New Haven Union Station Campus Cash Flow Procedure” document included in the aldermanic submission lays out the following process:

• The city will receive all funds generated from operating deposits, rental income, grants, etc… for the Union Station campus.
• The city will then advance operating funds to the parking authority on a monthly basis pursuant to the budget approved by the station’s operations committee.
• The city will also advance capital funds to the parking authority based on that same operations committee-approved budget.
• The parking authority will be responsible for paying and documenting expenses and producing reports related to running Union Station.
• All funds received by the parking authority for operations and construction will be held in parking authority restricted accounts.
• All money received by the authority from operations shall be deposited into a city restricted operating account.

As for planned capital improvements, all construction projects will be designed, bid, monitored and paid for by the parking authority with funds advanced by the city to the authority in the full amount of a contract once that contract is approved.

Making Union Station An ​“Anchor” For Visitors, Residents Alike

If the city isn’t going to get some direct annual payment or revenue share from Union Station thanks to this agreement, East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked, what are the benefits to the city from this proposed new accord?

“The indirect benefits associated with these sorts of assets are very, very significant,” Piscitelli said. ​“It is creating an inbound move to New Haven which generates economic activity.”

Redeveloping Union Station to include new and better retail options, a multi-modal transit hub, and potentially new housing or commercial space will grow passenger rail service, take cars off the road, and make Union Station an ​“anchor” for visitors and city residents alike.

“Any time we can truly invest in our transportation system,” Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers said in support of the proposed deal, ​“I think it can only help our city.”