Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

June 10, 2020

New update for Coliseum site plan

PHOTO | New Haven BIZ Former Veterans Memorial Coliseum site at Orange and George streets.
By Michael C. Bingham

It’s been 13 long years since Veterans Memorial Coliseum shuffled off this mortal coil in a cloud of dust from its ignominious implosion. Now hope springs eternal for the latest plan to redevelop the long fallow site at 275 South Orange Street.

At a Monday evening public-engagement session, Frank Caico of Spinnaker Real Estate of South Norwalk presented new plans to redevelop the 5.5-acre site into a more dynamic use than the surface parking lot it has been since the Coliseum went up in smoke.

A seven-story mixed-use development at the intersection of Orange and George streets would include up to 700 residential units (20% of those designated as “affordable”) as well as more than 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a similar amount of open public space and up to about 200,000 of “other commercial” uses. These could include office, laboratory or even hotel uses, depending on demand.

Construction of the project would take place in three phases beginning as soon as next spring and lasting between 18 and 24 months.

The first phase (“Phase 1A”) would involve construction of a 200-unit apartment building on the northwest corner of the lot, at South Orange and George streets. It would also include about 16,000 square feet of street-level retail, 43 surface parking spaces and an exterior public plaza.

Phases 1B and 2 would include construction of additional apartment units, a new parking garage, additional public spaces and new office towers and laboratory space.

Project developer Spinnaker and its financing partner, the investment firm the Fieber Group of New Canaan, took over the project a year ago after the previous preferred developer, the Montreal-based LiveWorkLearnPlay, failed to meet the terms of its 2013 development agreement with the city.

A Wednesday morning meeting of the New Haven Development Commission reviewed plans for the Coliseum site project as well as an update on the 500,000-square-foot bioscience development planned for 101 College St.

Economic development officer Kathleen Krolak, the city’s project manager on the Coliseum redevelopment, told the Development Commission that under the Development & Land Disposition Agreement (DLDA) with the city, the minimum project requirements include 30,000 square feet of retail, 30,000 square feet of public space, at least 500 residential units and 80,000 square feet of “other” commercial uses apart from retail.

“We can’t stress how important this opportunity is to have this site knit back” into the fabric of downtown and reconnect it to Union Station and the Hill neighborhood, Krolak said.

The project next goes to the City Planning Commission for site plan review later this summer.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF