NewHavenBIZ

14 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a y 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m Yale alum Twining wants to breathe new life into New Haven's Science Park, surrounding neighborhood Bold Vision PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER I n its heyday, the former Winchester Repeating Arms factory was a bustling hub of economic activity for New Haven's Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods, at one time drawing some 25,000 people a day into the area to work for the legendary rifle maker. Now the site of the former factory houses Science Park at Yale and a scattered collection of other office and residential buildings, surrounded by parking lots, neglected old industrial buildings, and streets mostly void of pedestrians. It's a suburban office park of sorts, right in the middle of an urban center. But New York developer Alex Twining has big dreams of restoring the abandoned factory site and surrounding area to its former glory, making it a place where people will want to live, work, dine and shop. "We're trying to build back the density and scale and feel of the factory, because it did concentrate activity and make it a more vibrant place," said Twining, CEO of Twining Properties, one of three partners behind a joint venture known as Winchester Partners. "We want to bring it back to having a Main Street feel." In 2019 Twining teamed with New York-based L+M Development Partners Inc. and Goldman Sachs on a plan to breathe new life into Science Park and By Natalie Missakian the surrounding area, which it hopes to rebrand as Winchester Center as a nod to the former factory. Aer several years of inactivity at the site and the exit of a previous developer, the partners are now making headway on an ambitious $300 million plan to transform the area into a walkable mixed-use life sciences and technology campus. eir first move was spending $8 million to buy the 145,000-square-foot Class A office building at 115 Munson St., originally built in 2012 as the headquarters for now-defunct tech company Higher One, and converting it for life sciences tenants. Twining said the building, dubbed Winchester Works, is about half full and he expects it will take a year for it to be fully leased. Meanwhile, the group is moving forward on two additional phases of the project. e partners are preparing a site plan application for a new 300-unit apartment building facing Winchester Avenue, to be constructed on a parking lot between the Winchester Los luxury apartments and 5 Science Park. About 20% of the apartments will be reserved for low-to-moderate income tenants. If all goes as planned, construction could start next year and be completed by 2024. Simultaneously, they are seeking city approval to demolish a set of contaminated factory buildings on Munson and Mansfield streets and reproduce them with new construction — either apartments or office/lab space, depending on market demand. Twining initially hoped to save and restore the historic buildings, but said the site was too polluted. "As we build buildings on Winchester Developer Alex Twining has a long-term vision to transform the area around Science Park into a walkable hub of economic activity, with apartments, biotech lab and office space, restaurants and shops that will attract residents from surrounding neighborhoods. A rendering of the Winchester Center master plan, which will eventually include the redevelopment of empty parking lots and contaminated old industrial buildings at the site of the former Winchester Repeating Arms gun factory. RENDERING | CONTRIBUTED

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