NewHavenBIZ

n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | J u l y 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 19 RENDERING | CONTRIBUTED A 200-unit apartment complex is planned at the former site of the New Haven Coliseum. Intense demand fuels New Haven rental boom By Liese Klein lklein@newhavenbiz.com T he prospective tenant from California had perfect credit, excellent references and more than enough income for the New Haven apartment. But as one of almost 30 applicants for the $2,400-a-month one-bedroom in the city's hot East Rock neighborhood, the Californian didn't stand a chance. e apartment went to someone else. "It's crazy," said Gena Ruocco-Lock- ery, broker/owner of GRL and Realtors at 520 Chapel St. "Anywhere in New Haven is just difficult. Inventory is still low and there are many applicants ap- plying. You have to be the cream of the crop to get chosen." Ruocco-Lockery represents tenants and said the current rental market is the tightest she's seen in her 25 years in the real estate industry. "If you asked me three years ago, I would have said it was the most diffi- cult, and now today, I'm going to tell you again, it's now the most difficult," she said. "It's not getting easier. It's getting harder." Despite the hundreds of new New Haven apartments coming online in recent months, the city's strong demand has driven up prices. Now apart- ment-seekers are settling for units well outside of the city to stay within their price range, said Ruocco-Lockery, who is also a board member of the New Ha- ven Middlesex Association of Realtors. "It's supply and demand, and there isn't a lot of inventory in affordable price ranges," Ruocco-Lockery said. Developers evolve with market Doing their best to meet that demand are developers like Clayton Fowler, principal of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners of Norwalk. In addition to sev- eral high-profile projects in Hartford, Spinnaker has two main developments in New Haven, the 400-unit Audubon New Haven and a 200-unit complex planned for the former site of the New Haven Coliseum. "It's been a fairly long time in putting it together," Fowler said of the Coli- seum site, which has been used as a parking lot since the arena was demol- ished in 2007. Ground has been broken for phase one of the project, consisting of the 200 apartments, 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a 30,000-square-foot public plaza. "We're financed. We're about to start and we hope to bring on relatively quickly and announce a second phase, which will be, I think, highly welcome in town," Fowler said. Fueling Fowler's optimism is Spin- naker's experience with the Audubon, fully leased for its first phase of 69 units, with a second phase of 135 units nearing completion and already 95% leased. Spinnaker went to city planners earlier this year to add more and larger townhouse units for a phase three and got a green light. "at's been very successful," Fowler said of the Audubon. "We love New Ha- ven; it's a superior town with superior underpinnings. A great location that feels like a city … highly walkable with parks and restaurants and all of the urban amenities that you might want." Developers are eager to build in the city, Fowler said, because employers like Yale, Yale New Haven Hospital and biotech companies continue to hire and draw employees who can pay market rents. Illustrating the ongoing rise in New Haven's rental prices was a recent announcement by Darren Seid, de- veloper of the sprawling Olive and Wooster complex adjacent to the city's pizza enclave, Wooster Square. Rents at the 299-unit complex start at $1,200 a month – for a single room inside a larger apartment. "Great units for the plug-and-play tenant, or a family in transition," said Seid of Epimoni Corp., which devel- oped Olive and Wooster with Adam America. Even with one-bedrooms in the project starting at $2,200, "units are disappearing faster than a New Haven pizza," he added. Ongoing interest in building With ribbon-cuttings on new build- ings happening on nearly a weekly basis in recent months, New Haven city officials like Deputy Director of Economic Development Steve Fontana are gratified to see continued demand from developers. Queries from those seeking to build continue to come in even as the city imposed new rules this year requiring more affordable housing under an inclusionary zoning law. "We're very pleased that we have such a robust, growing marketplace," Fontana said. "I think we all agree that we need more housing of all kinds and in all neighborhoods. So the interest is really heartening." About 600 new units are expected to come online in the city this year, Fontana said, up from an average of 300 to 400 a decade ago. If supply chain, labor and other issues allow for it, he expects to see 800 to 1,000 new apartments per year hitting the market in the near future. With land for building downtown becoming scarce, entrepreneurs are looking to more dis- tant neighborhoods in the city includ- ing Westville, where several projects are expected to progress in coming months. A long-derelict eyesore at Fitch Street and Whalley Avenue may soon make way for a 245-unit apartment complex under a proposal pitched to city plan- ners in mid-June. An ambitious plan to transform Science Park in Newhallville is also expected to advance this summer with the approval of a 287-unit apartment complex on Winchester Avenue planned for what is now a parking lot. Twining Properties and L&M Devel- opment Partners are expected to break ground on Winchester Green later this year, adding to a burgeoning neighbor- hood that includes the existing Win- chester Los and a complex planned for 201 Munson St. From the city's perspective, the key to sustaining strong growth in the rental market, as well as the economy as a whole, is to promote New Haven's quality of life, Fontana said. Active recruitment of nightlife venues and restaurants is key to that strategy, he added. "We want to leverage our assets and make it a very attractive place to live, work and visit," Fontana said. n New Haven snapshot GENERAL 2020 Population .............................. 134,023 2010 Population .............................. 129,779 Population change 2010-2020 ............ 4,244 Land area (sq. miles) ................................ 19 Median age............................................ 30.8 Median household income .............. $44,507 MAJOR EMPLOYERS • Yale University • Yale-New Haven Health • Assa Abloy Inc • Southern Connecticut State University GOVERNMENT Mill rate ................................................ 43.88 Grand List ............................ $6,600,438,670 HOUSING STOCK Median home value ....................... $199,000 Median gross rent ............................. $1,219 TOP EMPLOYMENT INDUSTRIES • Health Care & Social Assistance • Educational Services • Local Government Source: AdvanceCT; U.S. Census data PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Steve Fontana Developer Clayton Fowler is building hundreds of new apartment units in New Haven and Hartford. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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