Mayor Elicker Welcomes Hines Development to New Haven at Wooster Square Groundbreaking
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Today the City of New Haven celebrated the start of construction on “The Whit” Wooster Square, a mixed-use community going up at 630 & 673 Chapel Street. New Haven Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli and New Haven City Officials joined at the groundbreaking, as well as Tommy Craig, Senior Managing Director at Hines, a global, Houston-based, privately-owned real estate investment firm developing the two-building project.
“The Whit” Wooster Square will bring 230 rental apartments and approximately 5,600 square feet of street-level retail space to the Wooster Square neighborhood. The two buildings are going up on the site of a surface parking lot and old office building. They have brick facades and steel accents inspired by the historic warehouse and mill buildings in the neighborhood.
“We are pleased to be launching a project that will do so much more than add new housing and retail space to the City,” said Mayor Elicker. “The Whit Wooster Square will create a vibrant hub of commercial and residential life in the Wooster Square neighborhood. Its design pays homage to the City’s past but meets the needs of the evolving innovation economy on which we are building our future.”
The five-story project, situated less than a mile from the New Haven Green and Yale-New Haven Hospital, is centrally located between State Street Station and Union Station, providing a walkable, bicycle-friendly neighborhood with easy access to rail transit envisioned by City and state planners.
“The innovation-based economy of New Haven brings a global, forward-thinking demographic to the city,” Craig said. “As one of the first large-scale rental developments in the Wooster Square neighborhood, The Whit Wooster Square will catalyze the revitalization of the first few blocks east of downtown.”
The site is located right at the edge of the Wooster Square neighborhood, connected to Downtown by the Chapel Street Bridge over the Northeast Corridor rail line and has long been contemplated for redevelopment in a manner consistent with the architecture and sense of community in Wooster Square, as well as the vibrant, mixed-use character into the Downtown. The vision was articulated in the Wooster Square Planning Study, which was completed in 2017 following an extensive engagement process with the community.
“As part of our efforts to support economic recovery, we are building a much stronger community connected to job opportunities here and along the regional rail system,” Piscitelli said. “The Hines team is delivering on a vision of lasting quality, consistent with the objectives of the Wooster Square Study. We look forward to building a lasting partnership with Hines over many years,” he concluded.
About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 225 cities in 25 countries. Hines has approximately $144.1 billion of assets under management, including $75.5 billion for which Hines serves as investment manager, including non-real estate assets, and $68.6 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has 165 developments currently underway around the world. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,426 properties, totaling over 472 million square feet. The firm’s current property and asset management portfolio includes 576 properties, representing over 246 million square feet. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world. Visit www.hines.com for more information.
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