For a quarter century, Carter Winstanley has been making headlines by changing New Haven’s skyline and helping reshape the city’s economic underpinnings.In 2022, those headlines focused on 101 College, a companion tower to Winstanley’s 100 College building that’s been home to Alexion Pharmaceuticals. As the glass and steel take shape, the project assures Winstanley will […]
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For a quarter century, Carter Winstanley has been making headlines by changing New Haven’s skyline and helping reshape the city’s economic underpinnings.
In 2022, those headlines focused on 101 College, a companion tower to Winstanley’s 100 College building that’s been home to Alexion Pharmaceuticals. As the glass and steel take shape, the project assures Winstanley will continue making headlines through 2023.
The half-million square feet of new bioscience space is fully leased and on target for the first move-ins come fall.
But Winstanley isn’t waiting to take yet another victory lap when the doors swing open at 101 College. He says he has another headline-worthy project in stealth mode with details to be released in 2023.
While Winstanley has become a familiar face in New Haven, he is one of three key players in the Concord, Massachusetts-based regional development powerhouse Winstanley Enterprises. He is joined by his father David and brother Adam in driving developments as varied as retail in Manchester, logistics and distribution space in Enfield, mixed-use in Windsor and, of course, highly specialized bioscience space in New Haven.
Winstanley Enterprises also includes Winstanley Construction Management and Winstanley Property Management.
Reflecting on his lengthy history in New Haven real estate, Carter Winstanley spoke via video from his well-appointed Concord office. The decision to invest in bioscience space came when the analysis of fundamentals in New Haven started to look like those of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where an innovation cluster had developed with firms spinning out of MIT and Harvard.
That led to initial investments in renovating space to accommodate bioscience lab space, which, in turn, led to construction of 100 College, he recalled. The opening of 100 College is widely regarded as the turning point in New Haven’s growth into a bioscience hub, leveraging the innovative energy from Yale.
Today, Winstanley Enterprises controls nearly 2 million square feet of space in what the New Haven Independent has branded “Winstanleyville.” Carter Winstanley bristles at the characterization.
“It’s not about us. It’s about the science and it’s about the community,” he says.
He takes great pride in the science being done, saying “These people are curing cancer.”
And he points to the transformational impact the bioscience industry has had on New Haven. Jobs are being created; young professionals want to live downtown; new buildings are going up; the tax base is growing.
Growing momentum
The Downtown Crossing project is one of the visible byproducts. And Winstanley is again a key player.
As the project works to undo the urban divide created by the construction of the Route 34 freeway half-a-century ago, new developable land was created and Winstanley was there with the 100 College design.
Winstanley recognizes the opportunities for retail and housing projects being created as Downtown Crossing reconnects neighborhoods, but says developers led by Randy Salvatore and Bob Smith are doing good work in filling those needs.
Winstanley says his firm is focused solely on developing more bioscience space.
How much more can New Haven absorb?
“I see this as a 10-million-square-foot market,” he says matter-of-factly. The momentum is there and so are the fundamentals.
A year ago, there was essentially no lab space available. Once the 10-story 101 College opens, a number of firms will be changing addresses but lab space availability still will be limited.
For Winstanley, that’s opportunity calling.
As he looks east toward Boston and west toward New York City, he sees markets starting to shut down due to high rents and a shortage of developable land.
“Rent in New Haven is half of Boston,” he says, adding New York City is another multiple higher.
Does he see the day when a familiar name will seek to leave Boston or New York for New Haven? It’s quite possible, he says with a smile.
Could New Haven accommodate a request for a million-square-foot campus?
“I’m eager to take that call,” he says, adding he has an idea of how to make that happen in downtown New Haven.
Whether that call comes in 2023 or some years later, the Winstanley name isn’t going to disappear from New Haven headlines anytime soon.
