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Family Matters
FOUNDERS AWARD
At the hub of a family business spanning three generations, C.A. White's Schaffer has learned that success is all in your mind
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Business New Haven
1/24/2000
By: Linda G. Mele
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It all started in 1922, with ladies' pajamas.
“My father came to Connecticut from New York and set up a factory to manufacture ladies' pajamas on the corner of Wooster and Wallace streets,” says David Schaffer.
It was a time when many garment manufacturers called the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven home.
“C.A. White was opened in 1948 to take care of his real estate investments,” Schaffer says.
The now 70-year-old Schaffer was a sophomore at the University of Bridgeport when he got married, left college and went to work in the pajama factory's New York sales office. In 1951, he returned to New Haven to work with his father, Theodore Schaffer, and started the brokerage and real estate-development arm of C.A. White Inc.
“In 1954, the pajama factory closed and my brothers Lawrence and Eugene came to work here, too,” Schaffer says.
Today, the company employs about 110 people in two divisions: C.A. White, which still handles real estate management and development in the New Haven area, and Schaffer Hotel Properties Inc., which manages
the company's three hotels: the Howard Johnson's on Whitney
Avenue in Hamden, the Quality Inn on Pond Lily Avenue in New Haven and the Holiday Inn Express on Frontage Road in East Haven.
Lawrence Schaffer still works for the firm, but Eugene Schaffer passed away almost four years ago, according to Schaffer.
Now, “My nephew Michael Schaffer is in charge of the hotel division and my nephew Anthony is the controller,” Schaffer explains.
Neither of Schaffer's two grown children are involved in the business. “My daughter worked here for about five years, but left to pursue her own interests,” Schaffer says.
C.A. White owns and manages a little more than one million square feet of commercial and residential property, Schaffer says.
Schaffer says commercial real estate development is “a very interesting profession, especially the development part.”
To paraphrase a line from a famous nursery rhyme, when it's good, it can be very, very good and when it's bad, it can be horrible.
“You take a raw product - which can be land or an empty building - and watch it grow into something to house people or businesses,” Schaffer says. “It's amazing.”
Back in the 1970s, the company bought and rehabilitated a number of buildings in New Haven, including the old Elm Street firehouse that became Fitzwilly's restaurant (now Xando Coffee & Bar), the old state/federal building at 640 Chapel Street, the former Lomas & Nettleton building at 171 Orange Street and the Lerner's Building on the corner of Church and Chapel streets.
The firm was also actually the original company chosen to commercially develop Long Wharf way back when. “For us, it never got off the ground because there were too many restrictions,” Schaffer recalls.
“We weren't allowed to solicit any tenants who were already in downtown,” he explains. “We did extensive marketing, and even set up a sales office in New York City because we saw some companies moving to Fairfield County and hoped to interest them in New Haven, but it was a time when businesses weren't expanding.”
According to Schaffer, the city administration then changed the ground rules, another developer took over and was successful. “It happens,” Schaffer shrugs.
“In the development and brokerage end of the business, you also get involved in a lot of projects that never come to fruition,” he says. “Only about one in 100 projects that starts out ever get finished, for one reason or another.”
Another project that never came to fruition for C.A. White was a deal in the mid-1960s that would have brought pre-manufactured homes to the city.
“At that time, the housing crunch in the region and in New Haven was still significant,” Schaffer recounts, “and we hooked up with a manufacturer in New Jersey. It took us 18 months to get the building department in the city to accept it as a means of construction for residential housing, but then the zoning department decided they wanted the first two stories of any manufactured home to be of
conventional construction. So the deal finally fell through.”
“You need a lot of patience,” Schaffer says, “and you sometimes find yourself holding the hands of those you're trying to help get a project off the ground, especially if it's their first project.
“It can be nerve-wracking, but the interesting part is that it changes all the time,” he says. “Every project is different and presents different challenges.
Schaffer says many significant challenges have faced the industry since 1985, it being an industry driven by, and at the mercy of, the economy.
The wild fluctuations in the industry over the last 15 years left their mark on the region and the state, according to Schaffer.
“They've been some interesting times,” Schaffer allows, “and many companies fell by the wayside or, like us, really felt the crunch. We're all still coming out of it.”
Schaffer says managing commercial property is much easier than residential property, though C.A. White handles both, and currently has four apartment complexes.
“From 1982 until 1984 we also managed Yale's commercial holdings as well as 400 of their residential units,” Schaffer says. “It's a lot easier dealing with several commercial tenants than with 400 residential tenants.”
The industry itself has also changed significantly in the past 40 years, he says - and not always for the better.
“Forty years ago, if you wanted to develop a commercial project and it was properly zoned and you didn't need any variances, you could go and get all the appropriate permits and approvals in the morning and be digging by the afternoon,” Schaffer recalls.
No more. Today it takes between one and three years to get all the necessary approvals and permits for any project, according to Schaffer, and requires a great deal more money.
“Many of today's zoning regulations are overly restrictive,” Schaffer says.
“On the other hand, they do try to protect other people's property values. Today, any kind of building affects many more people than it did 40 years ago, and the bureaucracy hampers many deals,” Schaffer says.
“If you're in this business, you have to be prepared for anything,” he says.
Although he never graduated from college, Schaffer did return in 1983 “to take advantage of Yale's program for retreads,” but bowed out after a year.
“I was one of 34 accepted into the program, but I found I had no life,” Schaffer says. “I was involved in too many things at the time, but the year I was there was a wonderful challenge.”
The lack of a college degree, however, didn't stop Schaffer from pursuing ever more challenging projects. “You can do anything you want, if you put your mind to it and believe in yourself,” Schaffer says. After all, he notes, he himself had no experience in real estate development or management when he started out.
“The opportunities are limitless, but you have to be prepared to take the bruises, too,” he says.
Bumps and bruises aside, David Schaffer is clear about the most valuable lesson he has learned during his first half-century in business. “As with anything in life, don't let anyone tell you you can't do something.
“As we mature, we tend to become more conservative, but the dream is really what motivates everything,” he says.
Schaffer says the recipe for success is simple:
“Bright young minds with enthusiasm and determination will succeed in any business.” BNH
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