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November 11, 2022 REAL ESTATE

Developers break ground on first phase of Coliseum site project

PHOTO | LIESE KLEIN Clay Fowler, center, and city and state officials break ground for the first phase of a development planned for the former New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum site on Orange Street.
By Liese Klein

It wasn’t the roars that once greeted acts like KISS and the Grateful Dead, but the start of new construction where the New Haven Coliseum once stood generated an enthusiastic round of applause on Thursday.

After years of pandemic-related and other delays, developer Clayton Fowler and city leaders broke ground on the first phase of what has been dubbed “Square 10,” a complex planned for the former New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum site at 275 South Orange St. Arising on the lot in the first phase will be 200 new apartments, 16,000 square feet of retail space and 25,000 square feet of public open space.

“It’s a different kind of rock-and-roll, but we’re rock-and-rolling today,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said, echoing the enthusiasm of city leaders who have sought to transform the coliseum site since the structure’s demolition in 2007.

Fowler, founding partner of Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and principal at LWLP New Haven LLC, said he saw the long-delayed project as part of New Haven’s recent economic boom. 

“We couldn’t be more pleased and more excited to be here,” Fowler said. “I just want to again say how pleased we are to be working in New Haven – it’s one of the great cities in the country. For sure it’s come a long way.”

Considered vital to the city’s Downtown Crossing redevelopment plans, the new project will occupy 3.5 acres of the former coliseum site, adjacent to Ninth Square, Wooster Square and Lower State Street. 

At the intersection of three neighborhoods, the new development and the larger Downtown Crossing project are expected to play a pivotal role in revitalizing a long-neglected part of the city, Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said. 

“The new and very thoughtful plan that’s coming together will be mixed-use, mixed-income... creating a real opportunity, a synergy between our economy and the rest of our neighborhood,” Piscitelli said. Many businesses in the Ninth Square have waited years for activity on the site, he added.

“It was good to walk by today and talk to many of these businesses who’ve been patient with us,” Piscitelli said. “What happens on the site is going to support them for many years forward.”

Alder Carmen Rodriguez echoed the enthusiasm around the new project and thanked Fowler and his partners for their efforts to involve her constituents in the planning process.  

“Everyone’s had history with the coliseum… but history is in the making today,” Rodriguez said. “We are going to see something new, beautiful – and it’s going to connect community.”

More housing is due to be built on the site in the second phase of the project, followed by a 200,000-square-foot medical lab building set to break ground in June. The $76 million first phase is estimated to be completed by 2025, with the rest of the project expected to be wrapped up by 2027.

Executives at North Carolina-based Ancora L&G are eager to break ground on the medical lab building as New Haven’s biotech cluster grows, said Peter Calkins, vice president of development. 

“We look forward to collaborating with Yale and with the other institutions that are in the area to figure out – How do we drive that program and bring it out of the academic world and into the rest of the community?” Calkins said of biotech startup activity. “We’re confident that we’re going to have a really terrific building.”

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.

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