If any commercial property is emblematic of downtown New Haven’s renaissance, 1151 Chapel Street is one of them.
For decades the six-story structure was a downscale hostelry (though a strangely beloved one) known as the Hotel Duncan. It provided low-cost, few-frills nightly lodging to budget-conscious visitors as well as single-room occupancy rooms to weekly renters on the margins of society.
When its owners explored selling the property in the early years of the new century, there reportedly were few takers.
But then the Study at Yale opened down the block and other markers of Yale-fueled gentrification buffed the once-iffy block of Chapel Street between York and Park streets, and by 2017 the property looked more desirable to prospective suitors. That was the year Chicago-based AJ Capital Properties LLC acquired it for $8 million.
AJ Capital designated an operator, Graduate Hotels, whose niche is “boutique” properties in college towns such as Athens, Ga. and Knoxville, Tenn.
In the intervening two years between acquiring the property and Thursday’s official opening (a “soft” opening commenced three weeks ago), there were plenty of bumps in the road, including a political set-to over unionizing the hotel’s workforce.
Now the Graduate becomes the second “boutique” hotel to open downtown this year, hot on the heels of Randy Salvatore’s Blake Hotel on High Street.
Mayor Toni N. Harp and numerous worthies were on tap Thursday morning to mark the official debut. According to Harp, the newly reborn hotel “honors the long history and rich architectural legacy of New Haven.”
“Your investment has given a landmark integrally tied to our city’s past a future that residents and visitors can enjoy for years to come,” Harp said.
Speaking of on tap, on the basement level of 1151 Chapel is another Elm City landmark resurrected — the Old Heidelberg, the beloved 1757 watering hole that closed in the 1990s and was replaced by a Thai restaurant.
Sterling Shapiro, whose family had owned the Duncan since 1950 before selling to AJ Capital two years ago, called the new owners “the right people to take over the renovation — they had all the right answers.” Shapiro, who ran the Duncan for almost half a century, added that seeing the property reborn Thursday “feels good.”
New Haven Convention & Visitors Bureau head Ginny Kozlowski put the Graduate in the context of burgeoning city-center lodging options, calling the new boutique property an example of how “We’re growing the [hospitality] marketplace — not shape-shifting.”
Tangled up in blue
Graduate New Haven employs some 40 workers for now, and guest rooms rent from about $170 up to $700 per night. Not exactly like the old days.
The décor, appointments and ambiance are supposed to evoke Old Yale.
The guest rooms — their number reduced to 72 from 90 in the old Duncan — are appointed in Yale blue. Vintage photos of campus and local-themed art adorn the wood-paneled walls. A number of historic touches from the old hotel remain, such as the telephone booths in the lobby (presumably for guests who need to quickly change into Superman). The lobby elevator is said to be the oldest lift still operating in Connecticut.
Even Handsome Dan, the English bulldog mascot of Yale athletics, put in an appearance and posed for photos. Every dog has its day — and Thursday was his.
