$230 million project to move Gateway, Long Wharf Theatre

Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor, 06/04/2004

Mayor John DeStefano, left, Gov. John G. Rowland, center, and Yale University President Richard C. Levin were all smiles at the ceremony to announce the biggest development in the city in 30 years. AP

NEW HAVEN — Gov. John G. Rowland came bearing gifts Thursday — a commitment of $180 million to underwrite the biggest development in the city in 30 years.

He shared the stage with representatives of Long Wharf Theatre and Gateway Community College, both of which will relocate downtown with state assistance to a two-block area from Church to State Street in phase one of a $230 million development.

It was the culmination of more than seven years of on-again, off-again planning to consolidate the college at one site and move the popular theater to the other side of the highway, closer to the city’s theater district.

Rowland received a standing ovation at a packed Stage II facility at Long Wharf and he in turn shared the honors for the project with the state’s delegation and Mayor John DeStefano Jr.

"If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here today," said Rowland, who has sunk hundreds of millions of state funds into improving higher education facilities in his almost decade in office.

"It’s easy to see with great leadership this partnership came together quite easily," Rowland said, although there had been several points in the last few months where a commitment from the state appeared shaky.

For his part, DeStefano thanked the governor for backing the project.

"I want to thank him for the respect he has shown the community of New Haven by supporting the things we all together thought were important," he said.

Phase two of the project, which would be privately funded, includes five apartment buildings with 280 units, 54,000 square feet of street-level retail space, a hotel and convention center for a total project cost of $230 million.

It is part of a concept designed by Herbert S. Newman and Partners that includes a great lawn, or European-style plaza, that could support a skating rink, as well as other public uses.

Funds for design of the college and theater would start to be released in September with a major bond allocation in fiscal 2006-07 and completion of phase one construction by 2008.

Dorsey L. Kendrick, Gateway president, said the development is part of a historical move that reinforces New Haven as "the cultural capital of Connecticut."

"The city is growing, the college is growing … together we can make an impact on the social and economic culture of our region," she said of the facility that serves 11,000 students and will combine its New Haven and North Haven campuses.

Dr. Jerry Meyer, chairman of the theater’s board of trustees, said arts can transform a city and that has happened in New Haven.

The relocated theater, which is one exit farther north off Interstate 95, will also be accessible to people without cars.

"For me, it’s as if the jewel is being placed in its perfect setting," Meyer said of the Long Wharf move, a theater where productions have won Pulitzer Prizes three times.

"The industries that made New Haven in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s were armaments. Now it’s the arts and education; that’s the city’s new industries," he said.

It was a day of respite for Rowland, as he shook hands with the grateful crowd of dignitaries, with no references made to his troubled status.

This will be the third community college to move to the center of a city, something that has been done successfully in Bridgeport and Hartford, and which Rowland touts as part of his urban agenda.

The $140 million, 360,000-square-foot college will be built on the former Macy’s and Malley’s sites on Church Street from North Frontage Road to Crown Street, with Long Wharf moving to a site near the New Haven Coliseum, which is slated to be torn down.

The $6 million demolition cost will be picked up by the city, but the state will pay to raze Macy’s at a cost of $5 million.

The state is pledging $30 million for the new theater, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

The theater’s trustees voted unanimously to move downtown at a special meeting last month and are committed to raising the $15 million to $30 million needed to complete the project.

The new theater will include two facilities, a 500-seat proscenium theater and a 300-seat theater.

The $180 million commitment from the state also includes $10 million for parking, with a garage planned for George and Church streets, and a second one mid-block at Crown, Center, Church and Orange streets for 800 spaces.

Henry Fernandez, who was credited with coordinating the project with state officials, said New Haven will provide 1,200 parking spaces for the college with the new garages, as well as by renovating 200 spaces on the ground floor of the Temple Street Garage.

Construction of the Union Station Garage with its 1,200 spaces and another mid-block garage off Elm Street is expected to free up some 400 more spaces at the Temple Street Garage, Fernandez said.

State Sen. Martin Looney, one of the earliest advocates of moving Gateway downtown, said the greatly enlarged college will bring $1.8 million in state payments in lieu of taxes to the city, as opposed to the $200,000 generated by the current facility.

Fernandez estimated the city will realize another $1.8 million in taxes from the private development in phase two for a total $3.6 million in revenue.

Aldermanic President Jorge Perez, D-5, put in a plug to get commitments for city residents for the 485 construction jobs and positions that come into New Haven with the proposed retail spaces.

"It’s great to see this Long Wharf community and Gateway Community College together here in this terrific space. I think that’s what being a city is about, bringing people together," a smiling DeStefano told the crowd.

The Gateway building on Long Wharf would become surplus state property, Fernandez, said, and the city would encourage it be sold to developers for commercial use, which would eventually bring more revenue to the city.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary E. O’Leary can be reached at moleary@nhregister.com, or 789-5731.