by THOMAS BREEN The new haven independent
The city’s public housing authority has reached an agreement with the Massachusetts-based owners of the former Church Street South site to purchase the vacant expanse across from Union Station and build it up into a new mixed-income housing complex.
Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven President Karen DuBois-Walton, Northland Investment Corp. Founder and Chairman Lawrence Gottesdiener, and Mayor Justin Elicker each confirmed that the housing authority will buy the privately-owned portions of the 12-acre Hill property from the developer. (Roughly 3.61 acres of that property are owned by the city, and will remain publicly owned; the remaining 8.28 acres are what’s being bought by the housing authority from Northland.)
A privately-owned, government-rent-subsidized 301-unit apartment complex at that same site was demolished in 2018 after years of neglected maintenance destroyed roofs and walls and poisoned kids with asthma.
It has sat vacant ever since as talks stalled between Northland and the city over how to close the funding gap for Northland’s redevelopment plan, which included constructing 1,000 new apartments, 300 at affordable rents.
Thanks to this latest property deal, the housing authority will have a chance to turn the empty eyesore, one of New Haven’s prime development parcels, into a place for people to live again.
DuBois-Walton told the Independent that the public housing authority’s board voted on Oct. 30 to purchase Northland’s privately-owned properties on the ex-Church Street South site for a total of $21 million. She said the housing authority’s board held another state statute-required public meeting on the matter on Monday.
She said the housing authority will now embark upon a public planning process, funded by a recently received $500,000 federal Choice Neighborhoods grant, to figure out what to build there next. A public meeting will take place on this very subject on Monday, Nov. 27, at 5:30 p.m. at High School in the Community at 175 Water St.
DuBois-Walton said the planning process will include envisioning a brighter future for the adjacent 92-unit Robert T. Wolfe public housing complex located at 49 Union Ave. She called that combined stretch of housing-authority and city-owned properties “Union Square.”
“This is a true planning process,” DuBois-Walton said about next steps. “We’re not committed to the previous plans” for the site, referencing Northland’s stated intention to build 1,000 new apartments, 300 of which would be set aside at affordable rents. But, she said, that 1,000-unit Northland plan “gives us a sort of starting point” for what the housing authority and its development wing, Glendower, might build there next, perhaps in conjunction with another development partner.
Whatever gets built, she said, will definitely include both affordable and market-rate rentals. The planning process will determine whether or not the new development should also include space for retail and businesses and other uses. She added that the new development “certainly is going to be a denser use than what was there previously.”
In an email comment sent to the Independent Monday, Gottesdiener confirmed the sale agreement that his company has reached with the housing authority.
“Northland is pleased that we were able to come to terms on the sale of the Church Street South site to the Housing Authority of New Haven,” he said. “We have a strong working relationship with HANH, believe in their leadership, and honor their desire to fulfill the goal of creating desperately needed affordable housing in New Haven.”
In a separate comment provided to the Independent on Monday, Mayor Elicker heralded the deal as a breakthrough for this long-empty site. “We are very excited about the Housing Authority’s acquisition of the site,” he said. “This site has been inactive for years with an owner who hasn’t been able to activate the property. Now with the Housing Authority acquisition we can work collaboratively to ensure the site is developed in a way that is responsive to the needs of our city and ensures this incredible parcel reaches its full potential.”
The deal comes more than two and a half years after Northland settled a class action lawsuit worth $18.75 million with over 1,100 former tenants over harm caused by conditions at the complex.
It also comes at the same time that the housing authority is pursuing plans to purchase the vacant former New Haven Clock Company building on Hamilton Street and convert it into 100 mixed-income, mostly-affordable apartments, and is taking a lead role with St. Luke’s church’s development team in building up 55 new mostly-affordable apartments on Whalley Avenue.
With Union Station (right) and Robert. T Wolfe apartments in the background.