New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Ex-West Haven school targeted for housing
WEST HAVEN — City officials are set on selling the former Thompson School building at 165 Richards St. to be developed into new units of housing.
The question is who the city will select to do the project.
To give an idea of the types of projects developers envision for the former school, the City Council this week heard from two developers, as well as some information about a third. If the developers get their way, after making it through city plan officials,
that vision would be market-rate housing.
The building was owned by the Board of Education before it was shuttered and sold to the city amid declining enrollment in 2010, according to Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro.
Plans to sell the vacant building, as well as the vacant Stiles School building at 575 Main St., to an Indiana-based developer for $852,000 fell through when federal tax credits were not realized and the developer found the cost of development would be excessive because of needed remediation efforts.
Subsequent councilapproved plans to sell the former schools to Litchfield-based Park Lane Group LLC for $450,000 also were stalled by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the expiration of the council’s approval when a 300-day
title sale deadline was not met.
Since then, the city received a grant of $180,000 from the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation Program to remediate toxins in three former school buildings — including Thompson — which Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan said would relieve some of the financial burden from potential developers who would need to pay that money for a study to assess the amount of remediation work needed.
Although the Thompson site was sold as a package deal with Stiles in 2019, Tiernan said the city will represent Thompson alone before the Planning and Zoning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals as they seek to earn the necessary approvals to develop the building, which is zoned as a school, into a residential building.
He said increased interest in the Stiles building, because of its proximity to the water, means there are
more options for what the city could do with that site.
Tiernan said Park Lane Group remains interested in developing Thompson School into 45 housing units, with “possible incubator space.” Tiernan told the Register in June that the plan would include a coworking space for professionals who do not have a permanent office. Tiernan said Park Lane Group’s developer could not make the meeting this week, but still was interested in the site.
However, there are now two more developers who have expressed interest: local developer Tyler Smith of Alpha Investments, who want to develop 50 units in the building, and Enclave Communities, which Tiernan said is looking at developing “high-end” apartments in a “similarly sized project.”
Tiernan noted Smith is “a young man with plenty of confidence, drive and ambition,” who has developed
12- and 15-unit projects before, which would make the Thompson project his largest yet.
Smith told the council he is a “go-big or go-home type of person” who would only develop the types of units in which he himself would like to live. Although Thompson would be the
biggest project of his career, he said his expertise is in turning around dilapidated properties quickly and efficiently.
Tiernan said Enclave Communities has developed in New York City and New Haven, and the developer likes the project’s proximity to a highway, the University of New Haven, Yale University and the beach.
Enclave principal Fernando Pastor said he would like to keep the interior of the school largely the same, preserving its large corridors and respecting wall placement. He said each classroom has the potential to be a housing unit that would go for about $1,600 to $1,800 per month.
He said he also would be interested in the potential to build a second building on the site.
Tiernan said all three developers are seeking a tax abatement once a zoning designation is approved.
The council unanimously approved the sale of the building, allowing the city to seek zoning approvals and for Mayor Nancy Rossi to negotiate the sale of the building with one of the three developers for a minimum sale amount of $200,000.