Redevelopment of New Haven’s Route 34 Connector Gets Crucial Boost

The urban renewal movement of the 1950s and 1960s left its mark on cities across Connecticut, but perhaps one of the most painful examples is in New Haven.

The Route 34 connector was built only after the Oak Street neighborhood was demolished, forcing the relocation of 880 families and 350 businesses. Then, the highway was never completed, and the city was left with an expanse that separated the city’s downtown from its neighborhoods, Union Station and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The first phase of a redevelopment of the Route 34 Connector Spur will include the construction of an 11-story building. Photo Courtesy of the City of New Haven.

On Tuesday, a major step toward rejoining the areas came as Alexion Pharmaceuticals was named as an anchor tenant for the first building in a massive redevelopment of the 10.5-acre connector area that has been envisioned for more than a decade.

It is hoped the area — christened “Downtown Crossing” — will eventually encompass not only office space but housing and shops as well as pocket park Instead of the highway, the new access into the area from I-91 and I-95 would be along boulevards that would blend more successfully into the city.

The redevelopment could span as much as 20 years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private funds, but the project is no longer conceptual.

Work will begin in January on road, utility and other work that will lay the groundwork for the project. The $31 million price tag is being picked up by federal and state grants, plus matching funds from the city.

The 426,000-square-foot building which Alexion will anchor is expected to open in June 2015. The structure, to be located at 100 College St., also will have street-level retail and a parking garage of at least 600 spaces. The developer is Winstanley Enterprises, the city’s most active developer.

Kelly Murphy, the city’s economic development administrator, told me today this first phase of the redevelopment is crucial for building support for the project.

The Oak Street neighborhood in New Haven in the early 1950s. The neighborhood was demolished to make way for the Route 34 connector. Photo Courtesy of the City of New Haven.

“Once you do this first phase,” Murphy said, “and people see that it is real, you build momentum.”

Alexion plans to move more than 350 people now in Cheshire to the new 11-story structure and add between 200 and 300 employees by 2017. In exchange, it will be eligible for a state package worth up to $51 million in tax credits, a grant and a loan that will partially or fully forgivable, depending on how many workers are hired.

Developer Carter Winstanley told my colleague Mara Lee Tuesday that technically Winstanley is headquartered in Massachusetts. But the company’s largest office is in the 300 George St. building just across from the College Street site, where Carter Winstanley’s office is.

“We bought this building 14 years ago, and converted it to biotech,” Winstanley said, aiming for “small start-up companies spinning out of the medical school across the street.”

The Route 34 connector spur that ends in a parking lot “has been a terrible impediment to developing these biotech industries in town,” Winstanley said.

Once the below-grade highway is converted to a normal street and streets are reconnected, it will open up the 10.5 acres for redevelopment.

“What we’ll see is not just lab industry, this will enable all sorts of development to come in, potentially residential, office buildings,” Winstanley said. “New Haven is enjoying a rare opportunity to combine sites with demand and industry.”

I

On Monday, a major step toward rejoining the areas came as Alexion Pharmaceuticals was named as an anchor tenant in the first building