Catalyst For Growth: Fusco’s Long Wharf apartments aim to transform New Haven’s waterfront

When talking about New Haven’s future, Lynn Fusco begins by looking back at its past.

“I’m the president of Fusco,” she said, addressing the city planning commission during a recent hearing. “The company was formed in 1923 by my grandfather who started out in Wooster Square; We have been in continuous operation for the past 97 years.”

Fusco then highlighted her company’s many completed projects around the area: The Audubon Court complex, Yale New Haven Hospital Clinical Laboratory, new Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden and Long Wharf’s Maritime Center.

Perhaps only Fusco, one of the most experienced developers in town, could take on its latest mission: An ambitious and potential cityscape-changing plan to build two residential towers on harbor frontage on Long Wharf Drive.

“This evening my esteemed team of architects and engineers are here to present to you a development that we are very excited about,” Fusco told the commission on Oct. 6. Her enthusiasm has since been echoed by city officials and neighborhood leaders looking to revamp the city’s waterfront.

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Lynn Fusco

Renderings of the as-yet-unnamed Fusco project catch the eye for both their scope and design, centered around a harbor-facing park with a huge red sculpture in the style of Alexander Calder placed facing the water. Two 10-story buildings would be built on the 3-acre waterfront parcel now home to the building that housed the defunct Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale, at 501-585 Long Wharf Drive.

“We are proposing up to 500 apartments and an exciting marketplace for small-scale retail that would include say a yoga studio, an open air market, performance space,” Fusco said. She and the project’s architects also described a waterfront green space that would be open to the public for events.

“At long last we will have a very well-landscaped park that will also allow for music performances,” Fusco said.

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MAP/contributed

Aerial view of the waterfront site of the proposed residential towers, along with land eyed for future development.

After two meetings’ worth of discussion, the city’s planning commission voted on Oct. 20 to approve changes to the zoning code that would explicitly allow residential development in the area and move Fusco’s Long Wharf proposal into the detailed design and engineering phase. The Board of Alders is expected to consider the project later this year.

City officials cite the potential of the Fusco project to unlock growth in the area, a strategy outlined in the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan adopted by the city in 2019. The document envisions a “New Long Wharf” full of walking paths, greenways and open spaces for the public to enjoy water views and sea air — in addition to 7.7 million square feet of new development including 4,600 units of new housing.

Although the 2019 plan had sketched in new piers for water taxis and ferries at the site of Fusco’s current proposal, the document also stressed the need for housing in the waterfront “Harbor District” of Long Wharf.

“The goal for the Harbor District is for a self-sufficient, walkable, mixed-use neighborhood,” reads the vision statement.

Coastal concerns

Whether it was crab cakes at the Rusty Scupper, linguine vongole at Leon’s or a lobster dinner at Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale, enjoying a seafood meal on the water at 501-585 Long Wharf had been a New Haven tradition for decades. (Lenny & Joe’s closed in 2020, citing the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.) Diners were willing to pay a bit more for the unparalleled views of New Haven Harbor — as long as you got a table angled away from the oil tanks and power plant.

But that up-close water view from the site has raised concerns about the Fusco project’s proximity to the shoreline and its potential exposure to storms, tidal surges and sea-level rise. Does moving hundreds of people to within feet of the coastline make sense in a world increasingly impacted by climate change?

Save the Sound, a New Haven-based environmental nonprofit, says no. That parcel is best suited for boating and other recreational uses to maximize public access, the group argued in statements to the planning commission. Most of all, climate change and its accompanying severe storms make new residential construction on or near the water risky and potentially financially unsustainable, the group said.

“Locating up to 500 apartments in an area of known flood hazard, that will very likely require residents to evacuate multiple times per year, will not simply impact the residents that choose to live there,” said David Anderson, land campaigns manager for the group. “With seas projected to rise 20 inches by 2050, along with the increased frequency and intensity of coastal storms, economic growth must be balanced with economic resilience.”

Flooding concerns have also been raised by the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), which did a preliminary analysis of the project in an advisory capacity to the city. The Long Wharf area was hard-hit by a hurricane in 1938, and also by Irene and Sandy in recent decades, and climate change increases the chance of catastrophic flooding, according to DEEP.

“Residential development in this already flood-prone area where such development is not currently allowed does not reflect sound coastal management objectives and should be prohibited, not encouraged,” said Brian Thompson, director of DEEP’s land and water resources division. The Board of Alders should block the development, he concluded.

“The moment in time calls for a different relationship with the coastline,” said Marjorie Shansky, a land-use attorney and commenter at the Oct. 20 public meeting on the project.

In defense of the project, Fusco’s attorney, Matthew Ranelli of Shipman & Goodwin, cited recent storms that caused only negligible flooding in the area. Fusco, which has had its headquarters in the neighboring Maritime Center on Long Wharf Drive since its construction in 1985, knows the waterfront well and has commissioned a project resistant to weather hazards, he added.

“You have a known entity, Fusco,” Ranelli said. “You have a built-in cheerleader for Long Wharf to succeed. It’s worth noting the success of the Maritime Center and its outstanding durability.”

DEEP has agreed to work with the developers to improve the proposal, Ranelli said.

City officials took the DEEP report in stride and said they were satisfied with Fusco’s plans in case of weather emergencies. Even in a relatively pro-developer period of New Haven’s history, the official support expressed for the proposed Fusco Long Wharf project has been notable.

“Our entire team is very supportive of this project,” said Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli. “We have over 5,000 jobs at Long Wharf and we are signaling here that there’s a real opportunity to thrive, even with some of the uncertainty around climate change.”

Catalyst for growth

New Haven's Long Wharf was named for the boat-mooring area extending into New Haven Harbor built by pioneering Black engineer William Lanson between 1810 and 1812. The actual wharf was demolished after World War II to make way for the junction of Interstates 91 and 95, when much of that section of the harbor was filled in to support the highways.

Until very recently, much of the Long Wharf district has been dominated by industrial uses and the Sports Haven complex with its vast, crumbling parking lot. Fusco’s residential project could play a key role in opening up the area to other redevelopment that would establish stronger links to the rest of the city, the developers and officials said.

Economic growth is on tap for Long Wharf, Piscitelli said, with recent development in the area including the new Canal Dock Boathouse and the boutique hotel now under construction inside the landmark Pirelli building. In-depth contingency plans to deal with storm and tidal impacts in recent years have set the city up to continue to grow its waterfront in the face of climate change, Piscitelli said, and Fusco’s highly engineered project illustrates that process.

“There is great economic value in this district, major infrastructure assets for our entire region,” Piscitelli said. “By implementing the plan we’re demonstrating that this district can thrive and over time build a level of confidence with the other property owners that there’s an investment value here, because there’s a strategy here to be resilient.”