Shortly after New Haven Mayor Justin M. Elicker first took office in January 2020, he was tasked with leading one of the state’s largest cities through the pandemic, while also maintaining focus on his goals and municipal progress.
Nearly four years later, he was easily reelected to a third term in 2023, capturing nearly 80% of the vote.
Elicker’s focus areas have included inclusive economic growth, stabilizing city finances, public safety, education and affordable housing development.
Elicker has helped encourage significant redevelopment projects, including the $90 million Winchester Green development that will give rise to a five-story building housing 283 mixed-income apartments in Science Park.
A new phase of the mixed-use Square 10 redevelopment project on the former New Haven Coliseum site will bring a new 277,400-square-foot life sciences and tech office building to downtown. Other phases of the massive project, in various stages of development, call for several hundred new apartments, 16,000 square feet of retail space and 25,000 square feet of public open space.
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The city’s burgeoning bioscience sector this year will see the opening of 101 College St., a 525,000-square-foot life sciences tower. New Haven has been gaining traction as a bioscience hub, helped significantly by the presence of Yale University.
Prior to being elected mayor, Elicker was on the New Haven Board of Alders. He also served as executive director of the New Haven Land Trust. The married father of two was an elementary and high school teacher, and an adjunct professor of education policy at Southern Connecticut State University.
Elicker has a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Environment.