Melissa Bailey File Photo
Wood rose in March on the first 101 apartments at Brookside.
Yale-New Haven Hospital has abandoned plans to build an outpost clinic in West Rock, and the city housing authority is looking for other tenants to serve hundreds of families at the reborn Brookside development.
Yale-New Haven came close to signing an agreement with the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) to open a facility to provide dental, pediatric, and geriatric services at a new commercial space at 120 – 122 Wilmot Rd., a complement to the Brookside housing complex that’s rising in West Rock on the grave of demolished projects.
Yale-New Haven has decided not to proceed with the clinic because of government fiscal concerns, hospital spokesman Vin Petrini said in an interview last week.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the state and the federal budget right now,” he said. “We’ve had to reconsider some of the initiatives” the hospital had planned.
Yale-New Haven stands to lose $17 million in funding, according to the latest state budget, Petrini said. “It puts a little more of a strain” on the system.
Petrini said while the hospital will not create a new facility in West Rock, it has capacity at its existing clinics for the 1,000 families who’ll be moving back to Brookside starting next February. “We’re still one of the largest providers of dental and primary care services for children and adults,” he said. West Rock residents will be welcome at YNHH’s new dental facility in Hamden, which has room for more clients, he said.
Petrini said the hospital’s withdrawal is no reflection on the development.
“We think it’s a great project,” he said, and Yale-New Haven wishes it success.
The hospital had been negotiating to lease 50 percent of a commercial space that aims to complement the 425 new apartments and homes currently being built nearby.
The housing authority plans to replace an abandoned strip mall and three former churches at 122 Wilmot Rd. with 9,000 square feet of retail space, as well as 47 units of housing for seniors and people with disabilities. Work is set to start in October, according to Jimmy Miller, HANH’s deputy executive director.
Allan Appel File Photo
Miller (pictured) said Friday he was “hopeful” that Yale-New Haven would take the space. He said he doesn’t want just any tenant for the space: “We want tenants who ware going to provide a service that’s going to be beneficial to the community.” When he presented the idea to aldermen in April, he called the hospital an ideal tenant.
Miller said he is close to signing a deal with another tenant that seeks to build a laundromat and mini-mart in 50 percent of the retail space. He will now offer that tenant the full retail space, he said.
The commercial space is being put together by The Glendower Group, the housing authority’s development arm. Miller said Glendower had held off on negotiating with other interested parties because Yale-New Haven was the preferred tenant for the space.
“We’ve delayed our outreach because we were trying to consummate the deal with Yale-New Haven,” Miller said. However, he said, “We never had our eggs in one basket.”
“Now that that deal has fallen through, we will accelerate our discussions” with other interested tenants. He said the housing authority will be issuing a Request for Proposals for a broker to help in leasing the building.
“I don’t have any emotion about it at this moment,” he replied. “They decided that it wasn’t in their best interest. Our goal is to go to the next step.”
His goal is to have tenants under contract by the time the agency breaks ground on 122 Wilmot Rd. in October.
“We are confident that we will find the two or three firms needed to lease the space,” he said.
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