Image courtesy of Beinfeld Architecture
Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and its co-developers now own most of downtown New Haven’s last, undeveloped block and plan to break ground on the first in a new series of buildings Nov. 10.
The site next to the Knights of Columbus tower and the Route 34 highway stub was once host to the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum. It will now be known as Square 10, developers say, a reference to Colonial-era New Haven’s original nine squares.
“The transfer of the Coliseum site to LWLP New Haven LLC marks a major milestone in the Downtown Crossing infrastructure and development project that took patience, perseverance, and the right partner to reach,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement announcing the land transfer Friday. “With this closing, the City of New Haven can begin to fulfill an important piece of our Downtown Crossing initiative, a transformative project that is reconnecting neighborhoods long cut off by failed, so-called “urban renewal” efforts of the past and creating a new neighborhood within walking distance of Union Station and the Medical District. The redevelopment of the Coliseum site will provide an assortment of new commercial, residential, office, and educational spaces that will enable new local economic growth, create new jobs, unlock new business opportunities, and provide new market and affordable housing options for New Haven residents.”
The block-sized development is being broken up into four phases: Phases 1A through 1C, the first of which will break ground next month and which total 3.5 acres on the over 4-acre site, and Phase 2, which has yet to be permitted.
“We are thrilled at last to be moving forward with construction on this site, and to be a partner in a project that is transforming New Haven,” Clay Fowler, founding partner of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and a principal of LWLP New Haven LLC, said in a statement released alongside Elicker’s. “Spinnaker specializes in development opportunities that integrate the uniqueness and sense of place found in existing communities. We are constantly exploring neighborhoods that possess authenticity, connectedness, and the potential for livability. We appreciate all of the hard work by the city and community stakeholders, and we’re very excited to be moving forward and getting shovels in the ground.”
Phase 1A will hold a 200-unit apartment building with 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a 25,000-square-foot public plaza and “retail laneway.” Of those apartments, 20 will be set aside for households earning 50 percent to 60 percent of area median income, and another 20 for renters earning between 61 percent and 100 percent of area median income. This phase, worth $76 million, is being financed by $50 million in debt from Webster Bank, which coupled with private equity from MSquared.
As that building completes, Spinnaker and partners the Fieber Group and KDP will start on Phase 1B, a 650-spot parking garage and between 75 and 100 apartments partially wrapping the garage, 20 percent of which will be reserved as affordable housing.
The third permitted phase, Phase 1C, will see a 200,000-square-foot medical/lab building rise next to the first two structures. This phase will be developed by Durham, North Carolina-based life sciences developer Ancora L&G and designed by international architecture firm Pelli Clarke & Partners following criticisms from some residents that the Coliseum development’s original designs were not unique enough for a “gateway” parcel. Both the 1B and 1C buildings still need their designs approved by the New Haven City Plan Commission.
The project will also be boosted by the under-construction Downtown Crossing road project, which will turn the remainder of the Route 34 highway corridor into an urban boulevard while creating new development parcels nearby. The project creates simpler and safer pedestrian and bicycle connections between the site and both New Haven’s MetroNorth and Amtrak station and the Yale School of Medicine, a driving force in the city’s biotech boom. Other projects tied to the Downtown Crossing work include Winstanley Partners’ in-progress biotech tower at 101 College St.
“The building planned by Ancora L&G for Square 10 will further establish New Haven as a regional hub for bioscience and biotechnology research and innovation, improving economic outcomes for the City and residents with good-paying jobs,” Ginny Kozlowski, CEO of the New Haven Economic Development Corporation New Haven, said in a statement.
The remaining 1 acre of the site, termed “Phase 2” and containing two building sites, will remain city-owned but will be leased to Spinnaker and its partners until they bring a development plan for the site forward.
