New Haven city officials are moving forward with efforts to revitalize the Dixwell Avenue corridor with a recent vote to acquire four key properties for redevelopment. The city Board of Alders in early February unanimously approved a proposal to acquire 262, 263, 265, and 269 Dixwell Ave. from Ocean Management company affiliates using $1.3 million […]
New Haven city officials are moving forward with efforts to revitalize the Dixwell Avenue corridor with a recent vote to acquire four key properties for redevelopment.
The city Board of Alders in early February unanimously approved a proposal to acquire 262, 263, 265, and 269 Dixwell Ave. from Ocean Management company affiliates using $1.3 million in Community Development Block Grant funds, city officials said. The next step is for the city to close on the deal.
Among the properties is the famed former Monterey Club at 265 Dixwell, “a neighborhood landmark that drew jazz greats Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Charles Parker, Billie Holiday, and others to New Haven,” city officials said.
The properties include two occupied multi-family homes and two vacant mixed-use residential-commercial buildings.
In January, when announcing the intent to secure the properties, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker was joined by New Haven Livable City Initiative Executive Director Arlevia Samuel, Dixwell neighborhood community leaders and local jazz aficionados highlighting the larger revitalization effort of this key neighborhood corridor on Dixwell Avenue.
Once the properties are acquired, the city will host a community input forum to help determine how the city will redevelop the property, which also includes a former deli.
The city will work with a neighborhood partner on the housing units and to convey the properties for them to redevelop, city officials said.
This initiative is a key piece of the city’s investment in the larger Dixwell Avenue vision, which includes the new Dixwell Community “Q” House, ConnCAT Place at Dixwell, and 70 new affordable housing units under construction at 340 Dixwell by the Beulah Land Development Corporation.
The “Q” House, originally established in 1924 and revitalized in 2021, served as a center for the historic Black community in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods for generations, providing community-based services for residents of all ages, according to its website.
The new Q House includes the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, the Stetson branch of the New Haven Public Library, and the Dixwell/Newhallville Senior Center, in addition to spaces managed by Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership, Inc. (LEAP).
In January, ConnCORP officials announced a $10-million allocation from the state Bond Commission to replace a shopping plaza with a mixed-use development with housing, commercial, entertainment and cultural centers on Dixwell corridor properties.
ConnCORP CEO Erik Clemons said Dixwell and Newhallville sections of New Haven are neglected parts of the city that need aggressive redevelopment plans.
