The City Plan Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved plans for a new four-story lab-office building at 2 Church St., clearing one of the last hurdles before construction can begin on the latest development slated for the former Rt. 34 corridor. Commissioners voted during a special meeting he ld on Zoom to approve both a soil erosion and sediment control permit and a site plan for the 177,022-square-foot building, which Massachusetts-based developer Winstanley Enterprises plans to build next to its existing lab-office towers at 100 and 101 College St. The building is set to house the state-backed nonprofit QuantumCT and a new research and development center for the multinational consumer-products company Unilever. Tuesday’s vote comes three weeks after the Board of Alders unanimously approved a Development and Land Disposition Agreement allowing the city to hand over the 1.8-acre publicly owned parcel to Winstanley. The project is anchored by a $50.5 million state “Innovation Cluster” grant, which will help fund the surrounding public infrastructure, including the tunnels beneath the site and an expanded public plaza. City Plan Director Laura Brown opened Tuesday’s meeting by placing the project in a longer history.  The land was once part of the Oak Street neighborhood, home to largely Black, Italian, Irish, Jewish, and Puerto Rican working-class residents; the city demolished that neighborhood in the 1950s to make way for a highway that was never completed. Brown called 2 Church St. the last of three major developments meant to reconnect the Hill and downtown on that land. “This building will be one of the most visible buildings in our city,” Brown said, “at the gateway to New Haven from the I-95 highway.” Developer Carter Winstanley said the project reflects a shift in New Haven’s economy after decades in which companies left the region. “We now are starting to see tenants choose New Haven,” Winstanley said. “This is a rare moment in time. We’re seeing a huge amount of momentum in this market that justifies and warrants this building being built.” Because the soil erosion permit required a public hearing, much of the commissioners’ questioning focused on construction logistics. “This is a busy construction site, and it’s in a tight physical location,” said Westville Alder and City Plan Commission member Adam Marchand. “It’s not like building on former farmland in North Haven or something. This is downtown New Haven with a lot going on.” Joseph Lenahan, a civil engineer with Fuss O’Neill, said roughly 28,000 cubic yards of soil will be hauled off the site over the course of construction — about 1,400 dump truck trips. Ted DeSantos, a senior vice president at Winstanley Enterprises, said trucks will travel through the tunnel service drives beneath the site and exit toward I-91 and I-95, with hauling typically limited to between about 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to avoid rush hour, subject to city traffic permits. DeSantos said the site could see 150 to 200 construction workers on a given day at peak. Contractors will park at the Air Rights Garage, the Temple Street Garage, and at a lot at 46 Prince St. The building itself will have only 35 parking spaces, in an underground garage accessed from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. A separate agreement with the New Haven Parking Authority allows up to 400 parking permits at the nearby Temple Medical Garage. The project will also expand the public plaza between 2 Church St. and 101 College St. by nearly 50 percent, creating a pedestrian connection between South Frontage Road and MLK Boulevard. Marchand said he supports the goal of making the site a place people walk to, not just drive to. He also raised concerns about pedestrians crossing the frontage roads, where he said drivers often move fast and traffic is heavy. DeSantos agreed.  “I cross those streets all the time, and I agree completely with you,” he said. “People drive fast on those frontage roads.”  He said the project will install a crosswalk at Congress Avenue and South Frontage Road that the city had planned during an earlier phase of the Downtown Crossing project but deferred. No members of the public testified on Tuesday, and the commission received no written testimony. Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said major construction is expected to run from 2027 to 2029, overlapping with the city’s own Arc Bridge and Church Street Promenade projects, as well as planned work around Union Station and two new Yale projects in the Hill.  He said the busiest stretch will come around the middle of 2028. “You’ll hear a lot from us,” Piscitelli said, “where we’ve got a lot going on.” The post Lab-Office Development Approved appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less