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Science Park Rescued - Again
Mass. firm chosen to redevelop New Haven facility
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Business New Haven
4/3/2000
By: Linda G. Mele
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If negotiations proceed as planned, Lyme Properties will oversee the further renovations to the financially troubled Science Park.
The board of directors of the Science Park Development Corporation voted late last month to enter into a non-binding agreement with the Cambridge, Mass.-based developer.
Lyme was selected over the Greenwich-based National Resources Inc. because of its national reputation for turning abandoned buildings into viable light industrial and office spaces, particularly for use by biotechnology firms, according to Science Park President Richard Grossi.
“Lyme has its own niche,” Grossi says. “It deliberately goes after older buildings, especially one with known environmental problems. “They've developed an expertise dealing with the environmental problems usually associated with older buildings.”
According to Grossi, the 900,000-square-foot U.S. Repeating Arms facility (also former sites of Olin Corp. and the Winchester gun factory) will be the major focus of the redevelopment project.
“It's been vacant a number of years,” Grossi notes, “and does have some environmental work that needs to be done per order of the DEP.” A second priority will be renovations to the 200,000-square-foot Building 25, which is almost entirely occupied, Grossi says.
Finally, the developer will attempt to salvage as much as possible of Tracts A, B, C, D and E of the sprawling complex which is located in the Newhallville section of the city.
“We don't know exactly how much of the original structures we'll be able to retain,” Grossi says, “but that will be included as part of the master plan developed by Lyme.”
Tract C has been identified, according to Grossi, as a parcel that will be developed for light industrial applications specifically as sources of jobs for those living in the Newhallville neighborhood - one of the original Science Park objectives that collided with the actual needs of Science Park companies.
Now, says Grossi, benefits to the neighborhood are again “a very important objective of this entire project.” He adds that neighborhood residents “have a strong presence” on the two sub-committees appointed to work on various aspects of the project.
“We've got one sub-committee that will work with the developer on the master plan and another that will work out, with the developer, the specific terms of the ground lease,” Grossi says.
The whole deal is “still in the very early stages,” Grossi emphasizes.
“What we have now is a letter of intent,” he says, “and we'll be working on the details of a formal ground lease over the next three or four months.”
Grossi says there are no plans at this time to sell the complex, which currently\ houses about 35 companies employing about 1,000 workers.
Science Park was initially designed as biotechnology “incubator” that would provide jobs in an area of high unemployment. In 1982, Science Park was proposed by state, city and Yale University planners. complex would replace the manufacturing facility that once provided 20,000 jobs.
Over the past 18 years, financial problems have halted progress and, at one point, after several large asbestos-removal payments in the early 1990s, the corporation's financial records showed losses as high as $500,000 a year.
The beleaguered corporation has received several shots in the arm over the past few years, including a pledge from Yale University of $250,000 per year for operating costs and a state appropriation of approximately $100 million for building around the Science Park area.
While $14 million of the appropriation was earmarked for construction costsassociated with renovations at Science Park, the remaining $86 million was allocated for community clean-up, according to officials.
Grossi says an important part of the project would be the development of housing around the complex. “That would be terrific,” he says.
Biotechnology is big business, but New Haven is lagging behind other states and
cities that want to get on the biotechnology bandwagon which, according to industry experts, generated about $97 billion in business in 1998.
“The process has just begun,” Grossi says.
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