NewHavenBIZ

n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | J u l y / A u g u s t 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 45 8 pm August 15 to S eptember 1, 2019 Edgerton Park • New Haven Learn about sponsorship opportunities! Contact Barbara Schaffer elmshakespeare.org Thanks to our sponsors: Whitney Center Webster Bank Southern Connecticut State University NewAlliance Foundation Gateway Community College Babbidge Centerpointe Luxury Apts. Halsey Associates Marcum People's Bank Press/Cuozzo Shipman & Goodwin, LLP Suzio York Hill Technolutions UI/SCG Yale Yale New Haven Health SALES / LEASING • Retail • Office • Industrial • Investments PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • Apartments • Condominiums • Office • Shopping Centers • Industrial Parks • Residential Rentals 1768 Litchfield Turnpike, Woodbridge CT | www.LMMRE.com | (203) 389-5377 SALES / LEASING • Retail • Office • Industrial • Investments PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • Apartments • Condominiums • Office • Shopping Centers • Industrial Parks • Residential Rentals 1768 Litchfield Turnpike, Woodbridge CT www.LMMRE.com (203) 389-5377 88 FARWELL STREET, WEST HAVEN Flex space – 11,000 SF office, Lt. industrial, R & D. For sale @ $850,000 or lease @ $8/SF 2 THORN STREET, NEW HAVEN 40,000 SF industrial on 2.2 acres Close to I-95 & Yale. For sale @ $995,000 11 & 15 RESEARCH DRIVE, WOODBRIDGE Multi-Tenanted Office/Flex Investment Properties on Adjoining Lots. Buy one or both. Separate utilities and private entrances for each unit. Below market rents offer upside potential for long-term player. Minutes to Yale University & downtown New Haven. 7 RESEARCH DRIVE, WOODBRIDGE 4,625 SF of office space nicely laid out with perimeter offices, conference rooms, bullpen and receiving area with OH door. — and fetching a good price — was crucial to shoring up the church's ailing coffers, Proto explains. Proto, who represented both the church and GR Realty owner Lisa Amato, wasn't the first to list the properties. e parish had initially worked with another broker and came close to a sale in 2014. But a deal with New York developer Mod Equities fell apart aer their proposal failed to secure the needed zoning approvals to convert the buildings to apartments. Proto secured the listing in 2018 and placed it on the market that May for $1.5 million. He says he had "five or six" offers, but all were contingent on the city greenlighting a zoning change. He eventually found a devel- oper willing to buy the properties at a reduced price — without the zoning contingency. But by late fall it became clear that deal was unraveling, too, amid more neigh- borhood backlash over parking and skepticism about the developer's intentions for the property. In December, the buyer pulled out of the contract, citing the discovery of asbestos and under- ground oil tanks that needed re- mediation, says Proto. at's when Amato entered the picture. "She approached me right aer Christmas," recalls Proto. "She said, 'Listen, we're prepared to take some risk. If the church subdivides the properties we will take the risk of going to zoning and getting the zoning on our own.' Paul Connery, director of prop- erty and assets for the Archdiocese of Hartford, which includes New Haven County, has overseen the sale of some two dozen former Catholic church properties since 2017, most of them hitting the market when the archdiocese consolidated its 212 parishes into 127 in 2017. He says finding a buyer can be challenging since churches tend to be located in residential neighbor- hoods and their properties' uses restricted by zoning regulations. Still, the archdiocese has suc- cessfully sold $12 million worth of shuttered church properties since 2017, including nine former assets in greater New Haven, he says, with proceeds going to the selling parishes. Amato did not respond to mes- sages seeking comment for this sto- ry, but as of press time, she was pre- paring to submit site plans to New Haven's City Plan Commission to convert the Wooster Square prop- erties into 23 luxury apartments, according to Proto. (Proto also represented Amato in her $900,000 purchase this April of the former St. Elizabeth's Church on Burban Drive in Branford, where she is planning to put up single-family houses.) Proto says Amato has "done a substantial amount of homework" to come up with a plan that will sat- isfy neighbors and has already met with city officials informally. "She has the vision in mind to keep the integrity of the buildings in the neighborhood, the architec- ture is the same, and they're going to create high-end apartments for luxury living," he says. n Greene Street entrance to the former St. Michael's Convent.

• Cover