NewHavenBIZ

16 n e w h a v e n B I Z | J u l y 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m Shiing Demand By Liese Klein L ike a grown-up Lego set, Alex Twining's scale model of New Haven's Science Park allows for quick alterations. He can pick up a miniature plastic lab building and flip it over to make it a resi- dential building, and vice versa. at kind of flexibility has been essential for developers working in Science Park, an 80-acre swath of former industrial land in the central Newhallville neighborhood. Evolving over the decades from factories to industrial wasteland to offices to labs and housing, the district may finally be reaching an inflection point. In May, New Haven's city planning commission approved "Winchester Green," a new 287-unit apartment building with a courtyard in the heart of the complex at 315 Winchester Ave., with street-level retail. Twining and his partners also got the OK to build two Science Park's latest evolution — a neighborhood new streets and a public plaza, trans- forming a parking lot into the nexus of a neighborhood. "e concept is kind of urban design 101," Twining said. "Let's get more people living here and working here." Blueprints are in progress and Twining said he plans to break ground on the project next year. Twining and his partners expect to spend about $300 million to develop the rest of Science Park over the coming years, depending on market conditions. Twining is currently seeking an an- chor tenant for a new laboratory build- ing planned for another parking lot, this time across the street from the for- mer Winchester complex on Munson Street. If a major biotech tenant doesn't sign on, he is prepared to construct a residential building — illustrated by flipping the model building over to reveal an alternate use. "Depending on the marketplace, we'll either put 400 or 500 apartments here, or we could put probably a half- million-square-foot flat building," Twining said. "Having worked on a lot of these long-term mixed-use projects, you need to have optionality because you want to get life happening as soon as you can." Evolving with the times "Optionality" was a guiding princi- ple for Sam Chauncey Jr., who formed the original Science Park Development Corp. in 1981. He and his successors have had to adapt to changing markets, shiing demand and economic ups and downs. Now 88 and retired, Chauncey con- tacted Twining early this summer aer hearing about Winchester Green, eager to see the site and hear about the project. "When I walked over the other day and I saw Alex's plans for the addition- al stuff he's doing, I came away a pretty happy guy," Chauncey said. "I think what's happened is wonderful." Chauncey has watched Science Park evolve over the decades into an embryonic form of what he originally envisioned — a bustling neighborhood where residents can live, work and shop. e sunny images from Winchester Green's proposal are a far cry from the derelict, rat-infested expanse that confronted Chauncey in the early 1980s, when ammunition maker Olin Corp., which succeeded Winchester Repeating Arms Co. at the site, offered to donate the land to Yale. At the time a top-ranking adminis- trator at the university, Chauncey took a look at the landscape of abandoned buildings and contaminated land and realized that Yale (relatively poor at the time) didn't have the money to trans- Alex Twining with a scale model of Science Park that illustrates the ambitious plans to transform the former Winchester Repeating Arms factory complex into a mixed-use neighborhood. PHOTO | LIESE KLEIN A rendering of plans for upcoming development in Science Park, with the Winchester Green rental complex marked as "next."

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