Sadie Bograd

What once sat as empty parking lot space on 183 and 253 State St. in downtown New Haven will soon become two new apartment complexes, dubbed the Frontier and the Iron. 

On Sept. 2, the Board of Alders signed a land disposition agreement to sell the parking lots for $1.29 million to two New York and Providence-based developers. Developers will begin construction of the Frontier as phase one of the State Street project before tackling phase two, the Iron. 

“It’s a really big moment for the city,” Michael Piscitelli, the city’s economic development administrator, said. “This is one of the larger projects that we’ve approved in some time. It fills a key gap in the downtown between the two train stations, so State Street to Union Station.”

These apartments are set to be mixed-use — incorporating retail, commercial and residential space — and mixed-income with a minimum of 25 percent affordable units, according to a June letter Piscitelli wrote to the Board of Alders about the proposed project. 

Developers currently plan for the Frontier to include 147 apartment units, 38 of which will be affordable, across seven stories, Piscitelli wrote to the News. The 12-story Iron will contain 300 apartment units, including 78 affordable units and 45 workforce units, designated units for workers located near their workplace.

According to Piscitelli and economic development officer Malachi Bridges, the city is also considering a partnership with Build for CT — an affordable housing program associated with the Connecticut Department of Housing — that could raise the total affordable housing units in the project to 35 percent of total units. All Build for CT workforce housing units would be in the Iron. 

While Ward 7 Alder Eli Sabin ’22 LAW ’26 thinks the city has a lot more work to do to create more affordable housing, he said the State Street project “absolutely helps us move in the right direction.” 

The new project will also aid local businesses downtown, Sabin said, and increase public safety on State Street.

“It’s been sort of a no man’s land for a long time, and now there’ll be more people around,” Sabin said of the vacant parking lots. “The redesign of the streets happening at the same time as the development is going to knit the neighborhood back together.”

Ward 6 Alder Carmen Rodriguez, whose district will encompass both the Frontier and the Iron, lauded the development. 

“We’re going to have more walkability, we’re going to have more residents in the area, which I think the benefit would be for the whole city,” Rodriguez said. “We’re going to have folks utilizing our rails, whether to go to work, come into our city, or also those residents that live here in the event that they work in other areas.”

Construction will begin on the Frontier in June 2026 and will conclude in early spring of 2028, according to Piscitelli’s cover letter to the Board of Alders.  

Jake Robbins contributed reporting.