New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
$185M ConnCAT Place project gets approval
NEW HAVEN — The Dixwell Plaza shopping center has been languishing — largely empty — right in the center of the city’s Dixwell neighborhood for so long that some people may not notice its condition anymore.
But it’s hoped that people will notice what’s slated to replace it.
And that — the potentially transformative, $185 million ConnCAT Place development project anchored by a seven-story, mixed-use building with 184 apartments, a 259-space underground parking garage, a two-story performing arts center, a public plaza, a retail building, 13 townhouses and a five-story mixed use building — suddenly is a lot closer to happening.
The developers, ConnCorp. and YvesGeorges Joseph, now have a solid tool they need to line up the rest of the funding to take the “for us, by us” idea — proposed by prominent members of the AfricanAmerican community as a new anchor for one of New Haven’s most storied Black neighborhoods — from the drafting board to construction.
The City Plan Commission unanimously approved the project this week, granting separate approvals for its site plan, a special permit for a parking facility with more than 200 spaces, and for 13 townhouses to be built within what primarily is a commercial zone.
Commission Chairwoman Leslie Radcliffe said there were many ways the project could be a gamechanger both for Dixwell and the city.
“Six hundred permanent jobs and 400 construction jobs,” Radcliffe said, nodding her head in appreciation on the Zoom call where the commission currently conducts its meetings. “One hundred eighty-four units and 13 townhomes ...”
“Arts and culture,” she continued, pointing out that until now “the most we’ve had” in Dixwell — once a storied strip of Blackowned restaurants, shops and jazz clubs — “is the Stetson Library ... and the Elks Club.”
She also noted the development, which also would include a new home for ConnCAT — currently located in Science Park — would return a grocery store to Dixwell for the first time in many years.
Meanwhile, some the negative things that currently “go on on that block won’t go on, because of what it will become,” Radcliffe said.
“This is something that we in the community will be able to look at and say, ‘We did this,’” Radcliffe said. “I don’t think that there’s a project that has come through New Haven that has engaged the community the way that this one has.”
The unanimous approval followed a presentation by ConnCorp’s management and design teams, led by attorney Carolyn Cone, and some spirited discussion from neighbors, several of them affiliated with nearby churches, which in some cases would stand to lose parking in Dixwell Plaza that they have relied on for decades.
“While many saw the old Dixwell Plaza site as an eyesore ... our vision for the 71⁄2 acre site ... is deeply rooted in its past,” to when Dixwell was “a street lined with jazz clubs and stores and shops,” said Carlton Highsmith, chairman of ConnCorp’s board of directors.
“We are thrilled to partner with the city of New Haven in this unique public and private initiative” that many believe “feels like a national model,” he said.
ConnCorp CEO Erik Clemons said before the developers pushed the plan forward, “we wanted to hear what the community wanted and needed — and more importantly, what they yearned for.”
That included previous community forums at both the Stetson Library and the Elks Club.
Among what they heard were jobs, housing, a revival of arts and culture, healthful food options and safety, Clemons said.
During the public comment portion of the hearing, Clifton Graves Jr., moderator for Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ, located across Dixwell, pointed out that two church members — Highsmith and Paul McCraven — are on the development team, and said, “We see this as a renaissance ... within our community.
“This project is one that’s worthy of support,” Graves said.
Edgewood Avenue resident Melissa Singleton said the plan “sounds amazing. It sounds like some of the issues that have been brought up in previous meetings have been taken care of.”
Rita Worthy, a Mt. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church trustee who now lives in Hamden, said the church existed for 74 years and
“one of the conditions of our building was that we’ve got to have parking and we don’t have a parking lot.”
The church long has had an an arrangement with the Elks Lodge, she said.
Worthy was one of several neighbors who complained about notice for the meeting, saying the church only got notice of it a couple of days earlier.
Crystal Gooding, of Woodland Street, said that Dixwell — and especially Dixwell Plaza — “is deeply in need of revitalization,” although she thought the plan had too much parking for the area.
Lillie Chambers, of West Division Street, said, “I appreciate the fact that you actually listened to the community ... but I am still concerned. How will the townhouses look? I just want to know, how will this project financially benefit the Dixwell community?” Chambers asked.
Carla Chapel of Ashmun Street asked, given the way prices have increased lately, how the working-class neighborhood will support what the developer builds. “My concern is, how do we sustain this?” she asked, “How do we sustain what you’re all trying to build?”
ConnCAT — Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology — provides job-training programs intended to give unemployed and under-employed adults the skills needed to secure meaningful, well-paying jobs in the health sciences and culinary professions.
ConnCORP, which stands for Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program, is ConnCAT’s economic development arm, formed to advance ConnCAT’s mission to provide opportunities to New Haven’s underserved residents.
The Board of Alders in February approved a $750,000 deal to sell two key properties to ConnCORP, including the homes of the Stetson Branch Library at 200 Dixwell Ave. and the New Haven Police Department substation at 26 Charles St.
Dixwell Plaza is a commercial condominium and the developers already controlled most of the properties,including the nearby former Elks Club.