The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Lehman: State needs more housing options
David Lehman, Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner, called the Stamford and New Haven areas “economic powerhouses” Tuesday, but said for the rest of the state to follow suit, more communities need to offer a broader array of housing opportunities.
Lehman made his comments during the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce’s annual Regional Real Estate and Construction forecast event, which was held at WoodWinds in Branford. He said there are 100,000 job openings in the state right now and only 50,000 people looking for work.
“We need to focus on re-energizing the workforce,” Lehman said.
One way to do that, he said, is creating more housing at a variety of prices points, including homes that are affordable for people just starting their careers.
“If you look at (annual) new housing permits, we’ve been stuck at about 4,000 for a long time,” Lehman said. “We need to be doing 10,000 to 15,000 new housing permits per year if we want to be economically relevant 10 to 15 years from now. And the type of housing needs to be broad-based.”
Lehman said he favors “using a carrot, not a stick,” in order to achieve that level of new housing development. One thing he said that has proven to be successful in Hartford is offering developers lowinterest loans and other incentives to convert vacant offices into living space.
One developer who is already bullish on New Haven is Darren Seid, president and founder of Epimoni, a New York City development firm that is behind two housing project in the Elm City’s Wooster Square neighborhood.
The 299-unit Olive and Wooster Apartments, which also includes 8,000 square feet of retail, is already 40 percent leased. And Seid’s firm is currently designing a 185-unit complex at 20 Fair St., which is adjacent to the Olive and Wooster complex.
The Olive and Wooster Apartments complex includes luxury apartments as well as co-living spaces for Yale graduate students or young people starting their careers, according to Seid.
Construction of the 20 Fair St. complex is expected to start by the end of this year or during the first quarter of next year and completed in 2025, Seid said.
“The market is so robust right now,” Seid said. He said New Haven’s growing reputation as a biotechnology center, combined with the presence of Yale University, make the city an attractive place for people from outside the state to move into.
Seid said he’s researching the viability doing of other residential development projects in neighboring communities. One community Seid is especially interested in is Branford, he said.