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Smoothie’s Surprising Success
With little fanfare, high-end apartments at former Strouse, Adler virtually sold out
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Business New Haven
8/19/2002
By: Michael C. Bingham
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If you buy into the argument that downtown New Haven can support more high-end, market-rate and - above all - unsubsidized housing, then David Nyberg is your man.
Nyberg, co-principal (with Philadelphian Ron Caplan) of College Street, LLC, which successfully redeveloped the former Strouse, Adler Co. “Smoothie” foundation-garment factory on Olive Street into upscale apartments.
“Successfully” is no mere wishful thinking: Of the 146 apartments at the five-story, 170,000-square-foot complex, 140 had been leased by August 13.
Nyberg and Caplan also recently completed a renovation of the former RKO building on College Street into retail, office space and apartments. They are also partners in Chapel Square Development, LLC, which earlier this year purchased Chapel Square Mall and the adjoining 900 Chapel Street office tower.
The Strouse, Adler project is notable not only for its success, but also for the speed of that success. Construction on the Civil War era complex began only last September. Although the developers accepted their first apartment deposit in January, according to leasing agent Frances DeMaio of Vacancy Busters, “We didn't really marketing the units until April.” When they did, she says, “It was like an explosion.”
The units themselves are undeniably attractive: Many have hardwood floors, large windows, crown moldings, and some upper level units enjoy panoramas of New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound beyond.
Outside the front doors of their units residents can loiter in lush landscaped courtyards, lounge in a common billiard room/parlor or break a sweat in the well-appointed fitness center, open all hours of the day and night.
The complex' security system is telephone- and television-enabled; visitors must phone their hosts before being buzzed inside, and if the host resident doesn't recognized the caller's voice, she can turn to the security channel of the cable TV system for a live video-cam shot of the visitor.
So, who would pay from $750 up to as much as $2,850 a month for the privilege of living in an ancient factory that once made girdles and brassieres located right smack in downtown New Haven?
DeMaio says that quite a few Strouse, Adler residents are interns or residents at the Yale medical complex. (Geographic convenience certainly makes sense for people working up to 100 hours a week.) Some are well-off Yale graduate students, with a sprinkling of undergrads. Others are attorneys or educators, DeMaio says, including a number of empty-nesters whose children are grown and gone.
Whoever they are, a remarkable percentage of prospects, DeMaio says, came, saw - and wrote a check the same day.
A triumph of brilliant marketing? Not really, she says; much of the interest in the project flowed from simple word-of-mouth. Beyond that, the marketing of Strouse, Adler has been a fairly modest hodgepodge - a couple of Web sites (www.apartmentsinnewhaven.com is one), ads in apartment guides, mailings to the housing offices of area colleges, faxed flyers to some 140 separate departments at Yale University.
DeMaio acknowledges surprise at how rapidly Strouse, Adler has filled up, and attributes it to evolving attitudes about the Elm City - evolving for the better, that is.
“Definitely New Haven has changed since I started in real estate in 1985,” she says. The city is “definitely more desirable today than it was then. Now people want to be able to come to New Haven for shopping and restaurants.”
Asked what about New Haven has changed to fuel more positive perceptions, DeMaio pauses for a moment. “I think,” she says, “people feel safer here now.”
Rachael Overcash this month left her home in Raleigh, N.C. to move to a girdle factory. And she loves it.
In truth, grad student Overcash is in New Haven to study at Yale's School of Public Health. She says she discovered Strouse, Adler while apartment-hunting on the Internet. On August 10, she moved into a 1,500-square-foot, one-bedroom “townhouse” apartment on Strouse, Adler's second floor. “I think it's great,” she says.
Overcash chose Strouse, Adler because it had “a lot more character than other apartments near here. It's a really interesting use for an old factory.”
She adds that, “I think more cities should look into conversions like this to turn [non-productive] spaces into new uses.”
Strouse, Adler (the company) began construction of manufacturing space on the site in 1860, expanding bit by bit as the company grew into the 20th century. The company continued to produce dainties and unmentionables at the site until 1999 when Strouse, Adler's by-then parent company, the Sara Lee Corp., closed the facility for good in favor of cheaper labor markets in the South and Puerto Rico.
In 2000 Ansonia Acquisitions V, LLC of New York acquired the complex for $1.8 million, intending to turn it into residences. In August 2001, having apparently changed its mind, Ansonia instead sold Strouse, Adler to College Street, LLC, Nyberg's firm, for a reported $2.6 million.
Nyberg did not long let the grass grow beneath his feet, commencing construction the very next month.
Now comes the payoff.
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