Science Park plans advance for new housing, lab space

With several key approvals in recent weeks, plans to redevelop sections of the former Winchester firearms factory at New Haven’s Science Park are moving forward with a goal of new housing, retail, lab space and neighborhood access.

The Board of Alders’ Legislation and Tax Abatement committees approved plans last week to amend the Science Park Development District blueprint to allow for expansion of the area and demolition of derelict structures at the site, along with tax abatements to move development plans along. 

Developer Alex Twining, working in tandem with New York-based LMXD and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, is seeking to transform the former gun factory into a live-work-play neighborhood. 

In addition to the existing Winchester Lofts complex, another 200-plus units of housing are planned for a lot currently used as parking as part of the planned Winchester Green development. The aldermanic committee approved a tax abatement due to the developers’ pledge to make 20% of the new housing affordable. 

The full Board of Alders is expected to vote on the district plan amendments and tax abatement in coming months. 

Science Park CEO David Silverstone outlined the overall vision to demolish unusable structures scattered around the site to speed the area’s transformation in a proposal presented to the committees.

“The amendments proposed in this petition will allow the transformation of derelict and dangerous former Winchester factory buildings as well as surface parking lots into new economy developments, including lab/biotech/office buildings and mixed-use residential structures with restaurants and retail,” Silverstone said. “These improvements will create jobs, provide additional needed housing, including affordable housing, better connect Science Park with the Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods, result in the clean-up of brownfields, and generate taxes.”

Economic Development Director Mike Piscitelli outlined the decades-long struggle to transform the gunmaker’s industrial campus to the New Haven Development Commission last week. 

“Science Park has been a 30-year journey, a 40-year journey to unwind the brownfield issues,” Piscitelli said. 

Contamination from oil leaks over the decades has made a major structure at the site unsalvageable, requiring amendments to the original redevelopment plan to allow for demolition. 

In addition to adding up to 1,000 new apartments in phases, future plans for the site include new retail and lab space and integrating the area into the surrounding neighborhood, “opening it up again with regular city streets and making it part of the Newhallville-Dixwell area and not a confined campus,” PIscitelli said. 

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.