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DeStefano on Downtown
Mayor hopes to build on city center's momentum
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Business New Haven
08/18/2003
By: BNH
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Campaigning for a seventh term as the city’s CEO, John DeStefano Jr. touts a host of accomplishments as reasons voters should return him to City Hall. Prominent among them is the renewed vigor of his city’s downtown, which is enjoying high demand for housing, bustling new (and not so new) restaurants and shops, and the likelihood that two key institutions — Gateway Community College and Long Wharf Theatre — may relocate downtown in the foreseeable future. The mayor discussed downtown’s prospects and challenges in an August 5 conversation with BNH.
What is the latest with the renovation of Chapel Square Mall?
The property has three components: Class B office space, first-class apartments, and retail space. They’ve filled up the apartments and the office space, and all they have are the existing tenants and one new tenant on Chapel Street. What it reflects is that the office market is holding, residential remains in high demand, and retail is weak right now. They’ve gutted the retail space and are going to be re-leasing to some of the national tenants they had. But we’ve encouraged [the developers] to be patient about leasing Chapel Square — to reach out to tenants who complement the existing [retail businesses] in downtown New Haven and who can sustain themselves over time. But clearly the retail marketplace in New Haven and Connecticut and America is weak right now. What they should not do is to make long-term mistakes for short-term benefits.
What exactly do the developers have in terms of actual commitments? Why are they having difficulty finding tenants?
The last time I talked to them they had two or three of the existing tenants that are nationals. They told me they had two or three new tenants; this was six or eight weeks ago.
The demand for downtown residential space is high. At some point, will absorption reach a critical mass where demand overtakes supply? Is downtown landlocked? Where might new housing go if we fill up the current space?
We have got 227 Church Street coming on line shortly. The Schaffer unit [the former Strawberries location at the intersection of Church and Chapel streets] is coming on line. The McCormick-Baron properties are going to be transferred to someone else — [David] Nyberg, perhaps. The former United Illuminating headquarters at 90 Temple Street, some part of that will become residential. I think the total is something like 600 more [housing] units coming on line in the next 12 to 18 months. Also, it is conceivable that if we do get [Veterans Memorial] Coliseum down in the next 12 to 16 months, the first component of that will [be] housing along George Street. The area opposite that along George Street between State and South Orange is a potential housing site. So I think there are lots of opportunities to in-fill housing downtown. Beyond that, you’ll see us looking on College Street between Crown and George, and I think you will ultimately see us looking down in the Long Wharf area in parcels that may become available over the next several years. So no, I don’t think we’re landlocked.
To a certain extent the public discussion about the Coliseum has crystallized into, ‘We had a Coliseum, and now the mayor has taken it away.’ Could you instead articulate your vision of what we hope to be gaining by redeveloping that part of downtown?
First of all, I am hopeful that when the [state] bond act is adopted probably next week that [it includes] a significant commitment to Gateway Community College [for a new downtown campus], and I think that is likely. If that does occur, the design will be authorized before this year is out to proceed. I think the consolidation of those two [Long Wharf and North Haven] campuses on those two blocks is a good thing and an important thing.
What about the Coliseum itself?
I think what we lose by not having a Coliseum is some civic pride in having a large civic facility, and some economic benefit. But the economic benefit [came] at a very high price in terms of the subsidy that [management company] SMG was asking us for, let alone the debt service, which is paid no matter what. What we gain [instead] is a large development site downtown — of which there are not too many left — that provides an opportunity through the development of housing, the relocation of Long Wharf Theatre and the ultimate goal of being able to locate a hotel and a reasonably sized meeting space there. The upside is hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in taxes. Also, more people living downtown, and more people attending the arts downtown.
Speaking of Long Wharf, are we still focused on arts and entertainment as the principal downtown lure? Plenty of other cities are poised to jump on this bandwagon, including most recently Meriden.
The Shubert and the Palace are rental [non-producing theater] houses, which could be located anywhere. A lot of cities have those things — Waterbury, Bridgeport, [Hartford’s] Bushnell is a rental house. What’s different about New Haven is that Long Wharf, Yale Rep and the School of Drama are producing houses. These are assets other communities can’t duplicate. The other thing that’s unique about New Haven are the [visual] arts, including the collections of the museums. So two things distinguish New Haven: One is that we produce [live theater] and have these assets; and the second is the cluster of them, which creates a dynamic that spins out things like Film Fest New Haven and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. I’ve visited lots of American cities over the past two years, and most of them have performing arts spaces. But very rarely outside of Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco do you see the cluster that we have.
With corporate headquarters moving or closing, downtown has fewer corporate stakeholders than at any time during our lifetimes. There’s no more SNET, maybe soon New Haven Savings and/or United Illuminating will be sold. How will this impact downtown?
It clearly has shifted. If you look at downtown leadership, those who could provide leadership by writing a check or throwing corporate weight, the defining characteristic of the last two decades has been the emergence of Yale and the submerging of the two big regulated utilities and the banks. That to me is a huge story. A lot of [the remedy] has to do with how people like me and the structures of the business community like the chamber respond to this. I think business leaders are there; I think of people like [Achillion Pharmaceuticals CEO] Bill Rice, who’s in charge of a growing company. Between World War II and the 1980s we had this very comfortable niche of banks and regulated utilities. Now that’s changed, and we have not necessarily found [their replacements]. But if we don’t identify new leadership we are going to have an increasingly small group of people who see themselves as leaders or are presented as leaders. If you look at the major corporate boards of this city, the common directorships are just incredible, and I don’t see how it could be considered healthy to have corporate CEOs serving as chairs of boards on the boards of their directors’ institutions as well. Also, for the reason of the substance and perception of independence [it is an unhealthy trend].
Can New Haven ever again attract larger companies a la Stamford, even if it’s for so-called back-office operations, or should we set our sights on smaller to mid-sized companies?
Stamford is different because of its location [proximity to Manhattan as well as] attractive suburban communities for CEOs and senior management to live in. With the university and hospital presence, the role of institutional non-profits is a strength and a defining characteristic of [New Haven]. That does not preclude [city cardboard manufacturer] Simkins, HBI and other manufacturers from remaining here. But they’re a small part of what is increasingly a service economy in the city. You’ll continue to see biotech and knowledge-based start-ups in the city; I think they will ebb and flow with the market. One hundred years ago, the largest employer was the railroad. It’s a different world we live in now.
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