Sketch of two proposed Union Square buildings (left and right) with Union Station in the middle. Credit: Elm City Communities Phase 1 of Union Square redev. The housing authority didn’t receive a hoped-for $26 million federal grant this time around to help fund the construction of more than 500 apartments across from Union Station. The city’s public housing agency said it isn’t letting that get in the way of their plan to build a mixed-income, mixed-use “gateway” to the city on the former Church Street South property. It is moving ahead with the first phase of the development of what will be 2,490 apartments — while gearing up to apply for that federal money again. Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) President Shenae Draughn discussed those plans at the latest regular monthly meeting of the HANH Board of Commissioners, held at 360 Orange St. on Tuesday. The city and the housing authority applied for that $26 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) back in March. The goal was to use the money to help fund the first phase of Union Square, a planned 2,490-unit mixed-income housing development at the site of the former Church Street South apartments and current 93-unit Robert T. Wolfe apartment building. Phase 1 includes the construction of 541 apartments over three buildings, retail and commercial space, and 182 parking spaces. Two buildings will go up first, allowing for the relocation of Robert T. Wolfe’s existing tenants to the new units before Robert T. Wolfe is demolished and the third building, at 196 units, goes up. Displaced residents of the former privately owned, government-rent-subsidized 301-unit Church Street South complex — which was demolished in 2018 after years of neglected maintenance destroyed roofs and walls and poisoned kids with asthma — and Robert T. Wolfe residents will have the right to return to Union Square. The housing authority already received a $500,000 Choice Neighborhoods planning grant in the fall of 2023 for this same site. For the past few years, that grant has funded feasibility studies, the gathering of data and hosting of community charrettes, and the development of an architectural and neighborhood plan. Draughn estimated that more than 50 community meetings have been held regarding the project. But Draughn told the Independent on Tuesday that the housing authority hadn’t been awarded the $26 million grant this time around. It had been a competitive process; $75 million was appropriated for the federal grant, meaning that there would be between three and five awardees nationwide. (One of those awardees appears to be the City of Fayetteville, in North Carolina.) New Haven’s housing authority had requested City Plan Commission approval of the Union Square project’s site plan prior to the application’s submission to give it a competitive edge, but they weren’t able to receive it until after. “We asked HUD for a debrief on our application, and so we will definitely go back in next round,” Draughn said, when applications are available again. “We’ve always known,” she continued, that even if HANH had received the grant, “it would take additional funding.” The Union Square project in its entirety is anticipated to cost nearly $1.5 billion. Among other financing, for the first phase of the project, the housing authority is applying for a competitive 9 percent Low income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) in January — which would help subsidize construction costs — and submitting for a less-competitive 4 percent LIHTC deal. At Tuesday’s board meeting, commissioners also voted unanimously to approve an increased predevelopment loan from HANH to the Glendower Group, the housing authority’s nonprofit development arm, for the Union Square project — from $1.5 million to $5.5 million. These loans generally fund design, environmental review, legal work, and other work required for the housing authority to reach financial closing, aka when investors and lenders finally provide promised funding and the housing authority can begin construction. Loans are also paid back to the housing authority at financial closing. Ed LaChance, the vice president of development for Glendower Group, said that the increased loan amount is largely going toward the contracted architecture and engineering firms — Newman Architects and Fuss O’Neill, respectively. “We purposefully structured the contract to kind of go a step at a time,” LaChance said, because Union Square is such a big project. “We wanted to make sure the design was feasible, the engineering was feasible, and everything would financially work out. We didn’t want to commit the full amount right up front until we knew for sure it would be a path forward.” With the 9 percent LIHTC application in January, LaChance said, there is a path forward. Draughn estimated that, if the application is successful, the housing authority anticipates reaching financial closing for that first phase of development by late 2027 or early 2028. Draughn described that first phase of development, which would face Union Station, as “the gateway to New Haven.” “When you arrive, you will see not only the development but also along the first floor, you’ll see commercial presence there as well,” she said. “We’re excited to present this first phase.” “I’m very excited with this project as well,” said Board Chair William Kilpatrick, who ran the Parking Authority of New Haven, which oversees Union Station, for nearly two decades. “I was involved with TOD [Transit-Oriented Development] when I was working.” As there is another state-funded TOD project in the works, next to Union Station and across from Union Square, Kilpatrick asked whether the housing authority is working in concert with the state and the city. “Are we making sure that both projects will complement each other?” LaChance and Draughn said that they are. “We’re ahead of them,” LaChance said. “So we’re designing it to make sure that it’ll be compatible with those early state plans.” HANH Prez Shenae Draughn: Continuing to move forward with Union Square. Glendower development VP Ed LaChance. The post Feds Nix $26M Grant Bid For Housing Across From Train Station appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less