New Haven, CT – Becker-Becker, a Fairfield-based design & development firm recently broke ground for a community owned food cooperative as the final phase of construction of the 32-story, $190 million mixed use tower at 360 State St. in downtown New Haven.
Bruce Redman Becker, president of Becker-Becker, noted that: “We have always been committed to providing a high quality grocery store tenant on the site and believed that the location presented an excellent opportunity for any established grocer to call home, however we found that the economic climate and urban conditions of the site where not suited to a standard grocery tenant. Through a collaborative effort with the citizens of New Haven we set out to create a member-owned food cooperative with the mission of providing convenient access to affordable and healthy food. The community has been incredibly supportive and we’ve broken ground on Elm City Market with a planned opening for the summer.”
360 State Street is a compact development program consisting of a 25-story residential tower atop some 30,000sf of ground level retail and office space and a four-story public parking garage. Leasing of some 500 rental apartments beganlast August. They include 50 affordable units and 450 market-rate units, with a wide range of housing options from efficient studios, one and two-bedroom units, to expansive three-bedroom penthouse units with terraces.
The new building houses 31,000sf of amenities including a fitness center, library, pool, green roof with native plant gardens, and lounge rooms.
Becker said his design team worked very closely with Suffolk Construction, the construction manager, at the start of the project and during construction to continually refine the design. “For example,” he said, “a few months prior to starting the project, we worked with Suffolk and our structural engineers DeSimone to revise the entire structural system, changing from a traditional poured-in-place system to a staggered truss and prefabricated structural slab system. This allowed us to save significantly on material, labor, and time during construction. We constantly worked with our development design and construction team to refine scope to stay on budget and schedule, but also to create a project that was more in tune with the market’s needs, and to improve the energy efficiency of the building as financing became available for such upgrades.
“With 360 State St., we have transformed a long-vacant site into the greenest new structure in the State,” said Becker. “From our use of recycled stone for countertops, to thermostats that know when you’re home, to a pool heated with a fuel cell and elevators that recapture their own energy, the building is designed with half the carbon footprint of a conventional apartment building and the energy savings will be passed onto our tenants through lower utility bills.
“360 State St. will be the state’s first LEED Platinum residential project.
“Our firm has been committed to sustainability since our founding in 1950 and would never consider building any other way. We’re also incredibly fortunate to have an investment team committed to sustainability and aware of the long term benefits of building green. Our investors, MEPT and their advisors from Bentall Kennedy truly are at the forefront of sustainable investing, and the building couldn’t have reached the national acclaim it has without their support.
Becker continued, “360 State Street is a quintessential B+B project, in that it achieves our social goals of revitalizing an underutilized urban site, providing much needed affordable and market rate housing and retail directly next to a major transit hub, bridging the gap between two neighborhoods that were previously disjointed, and now encouraging development and investment in the surrounding neighborhood and city at large. Secondly, it achieves our environmental goals, producing energy on-site, re-using storm water, and other measures leading to a 50% carbon footprint reduction. Thirdly, it achieves our quality urban design and architecture goals, with a landmark tower for New Haven, an incredibly detailed and meaningful façade designed by Kent Bloomer Studio, and beautiful interior spaces by Deborah Berke & Partners.
“Finally, it will achieve our goal of economic success. Our development team has sourced and is finalizing over 10 sources of city, state, and federal funding to supplement the financing of our major union pension fund investor, MEPT. The project created over 1,000 union construction jobs during the greatest recession of our time, and will continue to create over 400 permanent jobs, and spur additional development in New Haven. Our apartments are leasing faster than our anticipated schedule and tenants have been very happy with their homes, the success of which is due to our exceptional property management and leasing team from Bozzuto Management.
