Atwood development officially declared open in West Haven
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WEST HAVEN >> Some residents already had moved in to The Atwood, a 67-unit, four-story, mixed-use apartment and commercial building on Route 1 — the first completed component of The Acorn Group’s ambitious University Commons project — when officials gathered Thursday to cut a celebratory ribbon to declare it open.
They began moving in on Aug. 1.
Additional residents, all of them University of New Haven students, will move in next week to the spanking-new, 90,150-square-foot building on the former site of Carroll Cut-Rate Furniture. It is the anchor of a project that is expected to transform the center of the city’s Allingtown section, with two additional buildings of a similar scale in the pipeline.
“We’ve worked very hard with Acorn since I started” as mayor, said Mayor Ed O’Brien, who was joined by Acorn group President and CEO David Beckerman, Vice President Gary Letendre, city Commissioner of Planning and Development Joseph Riccio Jr. and a number of other local officials.
“We’re very excited that we’re bringing this new look to West Haven,” O’Brien said as the four of them, plus architect Svigals + Partners Managing Partner Jay Brotman and state Rep. Michael DiMassa, D-West Haven, lined up to cut the ribbon with oversized scissors.
“This is the vision that I’ve had” for West Haven, he said. “We have a city block” of “entirely new retail.”
O’Brien, who will face fellow Democrat Nancy Rossi in a primary Sept. 12, with the winner to face Republican Councilman David Riccio, R-At Large, in November, called the project “one example of how we are transforming West Haven through economic development.”
Other officials on hand included City Council Chairman Jim O’Brien, D-6, whose district includes the area, Councilwoman Robbin Watt Hamilton, D-5, West Haven Chamber of Commerce President Alan Olenick, Planning and Zoning Commission Vice Chairman Steven R. Mullins and Svigals architect Marissa Dionne Mead, who designed the project.
Jim O’Brien said it was “nice to have some positive news about Allingtown.”
Former Starter Corp. CEO Beckerman, who described himself as “just an investor” and credited Letendre and other members of his team with getting the project done, said, “I’m happy with my investment in Acorn and I’m happy that they looked to West Haven as a place to develop.”
The building, developed by Acorn affiliate Forest Manor LLC and built by A.P. Construction Co. of Stamford, is at 222 Boston Post Road between Taft Avenue and Atwood Place, just east of the intersection with Campbell Avenue and Forest Road.
Officials said the project, which includes two rear parking lots totaling 181 spaces, will generate $101,776 in property tax revenue for the city in its first year and $370,279 by its eighth year. The disparity is because of a property tax deferral phase-in the City Council previously approved.
Acorn’s plan is to build two similar buildings across the Post Road and Cellini Place. One, “The Park View,” would be on the site of what eons ago was the still-standing Park Theatre. The other, “The Forest,” would be at the Post Road and Forest Road on the former site of Allingtown’s once-beloved Forest Theater.
Brotman and Mead said The Park View, currently in design, is likely to go before the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in the fall.
In July, the City Council approved the sale of 9,024 square feet of the Louis Piantino Allingtown Branch Library’s parking lot, located at 1 Forest Road behind the former Park Theatre, to Acorn for $106,000.
Letendre said the entire residential portion of The Atwood and half of its 16,000 square feet of retail space have already been leased. Signed tenants include Torrington-based EbLens Clothing & Footwear and Dallas-based Mooyah Burgers, Fries and Shakes.
The latter, which has been rumored to be coming for a few months, signed its lease Wednesday, Letendre said. He said four retail spaces remain in the building.
Together, the three buildings — known collectively as University Commons — would add up to 240,000 total square feet of development, including 50,000 square feet of retail space and 179 apartments, with an estimated total of 300-400 new residents between them, according to Acorn’s website, local officials and University of New Haven officials.
According to the city news release, the Park View would be 85,000 square feet, with 50 market-rate apartments, covered parking and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The Forest will be 90,000 square feet and would offer 62 market-rate apartments with covered parking and 15,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
Officials said in the release that the entire University Commons project ultimately would generate more than $1 million in annual property tax revenue.
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