A new phone is ringing at 936 Chapel St.: an AT&T store has opened for business.
Wedged between Dunkin’ Donuts and Dynasty Jewelers across from the New Haven Green, the store opened early this month, replacing the Edge tattoo parlor, which shuttered two years ago.
“I think an AT&T store is better than a tattoo parlor,” said Ward 7 Alerwoman Frances “Bitsie” Clark, whose ward encompasses the store. “AT&T’s at least a company that’s got some sort of prestige.”
Clark, an AT&T subscriber, said the tattoo parlor was an inappropriate use of the commercial space but added that the current store’s black facade is unappealing.
“I really like that there’s an AT&T here,” said Arti Patel, a Dunkin’ Donuts cashier, who works next door. “I was over there a few days ago to pay my bill.”
She said having the retailer close by has been a gift, and she is certain she will stay with the carrier when her contract ends next month.
The storefront’s windows are almost empty and the only decorations are two small advertisements for new Samsung phones. Inside, the walls are equally bare — the widely-spaced shelves are stocked with a limited selection of phones and accessories.
“It is kind of empty,” said New Haven resident Mary Swain, a T-Mobile user standing in Dunkin Donuts Wednesday evening. “But it’s new, it’s still growing.”
Swain, a former AT&T customer, said she may consider switching back to her original carrier now that there’s a store downtown. But for the time being she will have to remain on her children’s T-Mobile plan because, she explained, “I’m homeless and my kids take care of it.”
Storeowner Pete Persano did not return phone messages seeking comment Thursday night, and Rich Baldino, the store’s sales manager, declined to comment. The store is an authorized reseller, not a corporate branch.
The new shop also appeals to Yalies, four students said. The students, who are internationals, said before the store opened it was inconvenient to sign up for a AT&T plan. But now, they said, it is just as easy to sign up for AT&T as for T-Mobile.
Charlotte Wang ’12, from Montreal, said when she arrived at Yale the only wireless carriers within walking distance were T-Mobile and Sprint.
At the time she chose T-Mobile because she had heard it was cheaper than Sprint, she said. But this summer, she said she subscribed to AT&T while doing an internship in Texas so she could have an iPhone.
“It’s a great idea,” Wang said of the new AT&T location. “It just gives students more choice.”
Founded in 1983, AT&T is the largest provider of local, long distance telephone services in the United States and has over 150 million customers.
When Bruce Alexander ’65, vice president for New Haven and state affairs and campus development, received a community leadership award at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale in October, he challenged state officials to improve Connecticut transportation, especially train service from New Haven to New York City and expansion of Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport.
In return, Gov. M. Jodi Rell last month appointed Alexander chair of the Connecticut Transportation Strategy Board, which manages transportation initiatives for the state. After 25 years as a senior executive of the real estate development corporation the Rouse Company, Alexander came to Yale in May 1998. He recently sat down with the News to discuss his new role and challenges facing the Transportation Strategy Board.
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Q. What will your role as chair of the Transportation Strategy Board entail?
A. It will be to offer suggestions about transportation strategy to the governor and legislature.
Q. How will you balance being an advocate for Yale with your state role?
A. In this case, I am an advocate for all the citizens of Connecticut, but issues important to New Haven and southern Connecticut have already been incorporated into the long-term transportation strategy plan.
Q. What are some of those issues?
A. They include enhanced train service to New York, Boston and Bradley airport in Hartford; supporting [Tweed New Haven Regional Airport]; and encouraging all modes of transportation that reduce highway congestion and air pollution. How these initiatives will be funded is of course the major concern in Connecticut as it is in states throughout the country.
Q. So how will they be funded, considering the state’s ongoing budget problems?
A. Well, first, close to $4 billion is needed for preservation projects even before any new initiatives necessary to support economic development are undertaken in the future. There are two main issues facing the state where the Connecticut Transportation Strategy Board might be helpful. First, how will projects be funded? Second, because of the budget constraints, what might the principles be under which the governor and legislature decide which projects get priority?
Q. A majority of funds for state transportation projects comes from the federal government, right?
A. About two-thirds of the funds are provided by the federal government. This year, there will presumably be a reauthorization of the federal transportation act by Congress. So another task will be to help the state think about how it would like to impact federal legislation. I’ll give you an example: under the current act, tolls from federally-funded highways can currently be used only for the upkeep of those particular roads, instead of for mass transit or other transportation needs.
Q. So the state would like to see those funds used for other projects besides roads?
A. Well, some of us, but perhaps not the road builders.
Q. Tweed’s expansion seems to be well underway, and we’ve also seen new Metro-North rail cars and plans for a railroad from New Haven to Hartford. Where will we find the money for more new initiatives?
John Shi ’12 spent more than three hours one weekend this fall combing New Haven retailers for wine glasses. That frustrating experience, he said, inspired him to streamline the way Yalies shop.
His solution: YaleLocal, a Web site that Shi said will help students find the products they are looking for at New Haven businesses. Shi said YaleLocal is an online search engine that centralizes product information from local businesses and provides users with directions, product ratings and prices.
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“The shipping costs and time spent waiting are usually unnecessary when New Haven has so much to offer,” Shi said.
The service, which Shi is still developing with his business partner Will Hutchinson ’12, will expedite users’ shopping for everything from toiletries to textbooks. Shi has already registered YaleLocal as a Connecticut business and said the site will be fully operational by August.
Currently, Shi and Hutchinson are pitching the Web site to New Haven store owners and encouraging them to join the database, Shi said. Hutchison, the project’s graphic designer, said YaleLocal will have a simple, user-friendly interface — a “Google for everyday student needs.”
Shi said he hopes most of the more than 500 vendors in Yale’s vicinity will participate but declined to specify how many have expressed interest. He said he has already reached out to a number of local retailers, one of whom is Jeremy Cobden, manager of official Yale apparel shop Campus Customs on Broadway. Businesses that sign on will pay YaleLocal a fee to list their goods and services on the Web site, Shi said.
“As a student-run business, YaleLocal has more potential than a national program approaching students with a big, impersonal list of products,” Cobden said. He added that Campus Customs and similar businesses could use YaleLocal.com to market promotional discounts directly to Yalies.
According to a survey the duo sent out to Yalies in December, 85 percent of the 400 Elis who responded indicated that they would use a service like YaleLocal.
One student, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins ’12, said YaleLocal could have broad appeal and considerable potential for growth into other urban markets.
“The strategy sounds like a great way to empower consumers, something that could easily be tailored to communities outside New Haven,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
President of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Anthony Rescigno said YaleLocal is a business New Haven could benefit from at a time when New Haven retailers are losing customers to online or suburban vendors. Implementing effective clientele software could potentially help them regain their competitive edge.
“It’ll be great for business here in New Haven if these students can make it easier for people to find what they need without heading to malls in the suburbs,” Rescigno said.
Prior to founding YaleLocal, Shi ran an online marketplace for discount introductory psychology and introductory macroeconomics textbooks.
His solution: YaleLocal, a Web site that Shi said will help students find the products they are looking for at New Haven businesses. Shi said YaleLocal is an online search engine that centralizes product information from local businesses and provides users with directions, product ratings and prices.
The service, which Shi is still developing with his business partner Will Hutchinson ’12, will expedite users’ shopping for everything from toiletries to textbooks. Shi has already registered YaleLocal as a Connecticut business and said the site will be fully operational by August.
Currently, Shi and Hutchinson are pitching the Web site to New Haven store owners and encouraging them to join the database, Shi said. Hutchison, the project’s graphic designer, said YaleLocal will have a simple, user-friendly interface — a “Google for everyday student needs.”
Shi said he hopes most of the more than 500 vendors in Yale’s vicinity will participate but declined to specify how many have expressed interest. He said he has already reached out to a number of local retailers, one of whom is Jeremy Cobden, manager of official Yale apparel shop Campus Customs on Broadway. Businesses that sign on will pay YaleLocal a fee to list their goods and services on the Web site, Shi said.
“As a student-run business, YaleLocal has more potential than a national program approaching students with a big, impersonal list of products,” Cobden said. He added that Campus Customs and similar businesses could use YaleLocal.com to market promotional discounts directly to Yalies.
According to a survey the duo sent out to Yalies in December, 85 percent of the 400 Elis who responded indicated that they would use a service like YaleLocal.
One student, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins ’12, said YaleLocal could have broad appeal and considerable potential for growth into other urban markets.
“The strategy sounds like a great way to empower consumers, something that could easily be tailored to communities outside New Haven,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
President of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Anthony Rescigno said YaleLocal is a business New Haven could benefit from at a time when New Haven retailers are losing customers to online or suburban vendors.
“It’ll be great for business here in New Haven if these students can make it easier for people to find what they need without heading to malls in the suburbs,” Rescigno said.
Prior to founding YaleLocal, Shi ran an online marketplace for discount introductory psychology and introductory macroeconomics textbooks.
YouRenew, a Yale student start-up, will relocate from its current headquarters on York Street to a recently leased 3,500 square-foot property in Science Park after the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute helped the business to find the space.
Cofounder Rich Littlehale ’10 said YouRenew — which pays consumers for their unwanted electronics and then either sells or recycles them — is moving because it does not currently have enough room for its growing number of employees and the increasing size of its operations. The move will occur in about a month, by January 2010, he said.
Though YouRenew will pay more for rent in its new space, Littlehale said, the increase in cost will be offset by a projected increase in revenue: With more space, the company will be able to attract more customers, he said.
“We have positive outlooks on the future for the company and think that Science Park will be a great place to grow the business,” Littlehale said. “I think it will help give our company more credibility in the sense that we can handle larger volumes of [used] devices and process them effectively.”
Bob Casey ’11 and Littlehale founded the company in March 2009 under the auspices of YEI, which supports students’ entrepreneurial ventures and helps them to obtain financial backers. YouRenew began with two employees, working out of the YEI student incubator space on York Street, and has grown to employ 20 people today. The company currently occupies over half of YEI’s space on York Street, YEI Deputy Director Shana Schneider said.
YEI played a key role in connecting YouRenew with officials at Science Park, Littlehale said. In the wake of an economic recession, at a time when may small businesses owners are holding tight and hoping for the best, Littlehale and Casey said they are confident the company will remain financially viable after the move. In October, Littlehale and Casey told the News that YouRenew was on track to break even this year and become profitable in 2010.
“YouRenew is not recession-proof,” Littlehale said. “We’ve just been fortunate so far to need to take one step up to a bigger facility that is better set up for our needs.”
Schneider said YouRenew’s move is like a graduation from the YEI program into the real world. YEI has “been there since the beginning” with YouRenew, she said, adding, “They’ve been through the process exactly the way we would like to see any student venture go through it.”
Schneider added that she hopes YouRenew’s success serves as an example for other students hoping to go through YEI’s training program, which includes a summer fellowship program and brainstorming sessions.
In October, Littlehale testified in Washington, D.C., about the government’s policies on purchasing energy efficient products, speaking before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement. BusinessWeek also recently selected Littlehale and Casey as two of the magazine’s “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25.”
“Vegan clothing store” might bring to mind tie-dye, hemp necklaces and “organic brownies.”
But at 11:30 a.m. today, just such a store will celebrate its grand opening on the corner of York and Elm streets. So in addition to vegan jambalaya at their college dining halls, Yalies will be able to get upscale, meatless fashion from Kerin.
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“It’s a three-pronged idea,” said Andrea Kerin, who co-owns the boutique with her husband, Chris. “We’re animal-friendly, earth-friendly and people-friendly.”
The Kerins said the boutique sells “high-fashion” items for men and women that do not contain any animal products. They said the store targets all fashion-conscious men and women between the ages of 18 and 35, not only vegans and vegetarians.
“They’re just beautiful clothes that happen to have less of a negative impact,” Andrea Kerin said. “The vegan [aspect] is not how we draw people in.”
New Haven was a logical locale for the boutique, said the Kerins, who live about 35 minutes away in Easton, Conn. Chris Kerin thought of the idea of the store more than two years ago with his 20-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, because they both are vegan and had difficulty finding clothing free of animal products. But it was not until Jacqueline spent the summer in New York City researching designers of vegan clothing that the store started to become a real possibility., they said.
Once they had a business plan, the Kerins had to decide whether to launch the store in Westport, where they said they would have been able to charge higher prices, or in New Haven. But when they found out that the PETA’s young adult division, PETA2, had ranked Yale as the fourth vegetarian-friendly university, they knew they that’s where they had to be, Andrea Kerin said.
Chris Kerin said the York Street building was an ideal location for other reasons as well: the Broadway district has plenty of foot traffic. He and his wife also hope to invite Yale students to help select the next season’s merchandise.
But most of all, the Kerins said they want to appeal to socially conscious Yalies.
“A lot of [older] people are already set in their ways,” Chris Kerin said. “When people are college-age … they’re investigating the world, willing to learn and change.”
Andrea Kerin, who said she is vegetarian and “almost vegan,” said the store will make shoppers more aware of buying products with wool, leather or silk in them. Andrea said even shearing sheep for wool can include “unkind” practices that injure the animals.
“[There is] an impact on animals,” she said. “They aren’t living on green hillsides leading happy, unmolested lives.”
Everything about the store, from its construction to its merchandise, is not only animal product-free, but also environmentally sustainable: the floor is covered with recycled porcelain tiles and the clothes are all organic or fair-trade certified. A display table is even made out of a reused red Volkswagen Beetle hood.
New technology has made vegan clothing possible, Chris Kerin said. For example, instead of leather, the shoes Kerin sells are made from man-made microfiber fabrics.
Shebani Rao ’12, the president of the Yale College Student Animal Welfare Alliance who said she leads a vegan lifestyle, said that though she is excited about Kerin’s opening, it is really individuals’ food and lifestyle changes that will have the biggest impact on animals’ welfare.
“The number one thing you can do is change how you eat,” she said. “Awareness shows in making difficult lifestyle changes.”
Caroline Nguyen ’13 is looking forward to showing her spirit at her first Game — in part, by purchasing lots of merchandise.
And at the Yale Bowl on Saturday, she will have a chance to do so. For many years, Campus Customs on Broadway, the officially licensed Yale merchandise store, and the Boston Culinary Group, a food vendor based in Cambridge, Mass., have had sole control of concessions at the Yale Bowl on its busiest day of the year, officials from both companies said. Despite Yale’s losing season so far, the officials said they anticipate that the 50,000 attendees expected Saturday will flock to their stands.
Patrick O’Neill, the director of sports marketing for the Yale Athletic Department, said large-scale firms, such as Campus Customs and the Boston Culinary Group, bid for spots at Yale’s main athletic events approximately every five years for five-year contracts. The Athletics Department does not have a preference for local vendors; rather, the department focuses on the quality of the merchandise.
“It’s a financial decision on our part, and we want to go with vendors who we feel best suit what we’re trying to do,” O’Neill said.
He said the Athletics Department prefers to use fewer vendors to ensure the quality of the products being sold, adding that the companies sell clothing and food of reliable quality. The vendors are not contracted for a particular booth but for the right to sell their merchandise on Yale’s property, O’Neill explained.
“We don’t have very many people bidding on it because of the scope of the bid and the commitment that you have to have,” O’Neill said. “It needs to be by a company that can commit to these events.”
He added that the vendors the department chooses tend to be large vendors that specialize in either concession or merchandise sales. At this year’s Game, Campus Customs will supply college merchandise, such as football gear and sweatshirts, for The Game, one of the store’s owners, Jeremy Cobden, said Wednesday.
“It’s all attendance driven,” he said. “We’re expecting 45,000 to 50,000 in attendance, so we’re bringing lots of merchandise.”
Cobden said Campus Customs does not directly sell the merchandise. Rather, it sub-contracts the sales to Hamden-based N&D Athletics, which will sell both Yale and Harvard merchandise at two tents — one on either side of the Bowl. Workers will set up the tents before tailgating starts and will continue to sell until everyone has exited the Bowl, Cobden said.
Although he said he expects Campus Customs will turn a profit this Saturday, he added that attendance at the Game this year is projected to be lower than in past years because of the Bulldogs’ losing streak.
“Last time [in 2007], we were having a great season, so they were predicting a full stadium,” Cobden said. “This year, they’re projecting a less-than-full Bowl, so we won’t bring more merchandise than last time.”
Meanwhile, the Boston Culinary Group, which has an office in Wallingford, Conn., will serve the food Saturday.
At typical Yale football games, the company offers hot dogs, popcorn and hot chocolate, as well as other goodies, at its stands near the entrances and bathrooms of the stadium, its food and beverage manager, Mary Lou Reidel, said Wednesday. But because attendance is typically higher at the Game, the company will also dispatch carts that offer fried dough, baked potatoes and clam chowder, among other foods, she said.
“Hopefully we won’t have long lines, and the clam chowder will help keep people warm,” she said.
Reidel said the Boston Culinary Group serves food at many other Ivy League schools because its owner and CEO, Joseph O’Donnell, is a Harvard graduate.
O’Neill said the Athletics Department is satisfied with the services that both companies have provided over the years.
“We’re very happy with what they do, and our fans seem to like the product,” he said.
Two students interviewed agreed. Jacqueline “Beanie” Meadow ’11 said she cannot wait to sample the offerings this year.
“Fried dough is delicious, especially with powdered sugar,” she said. “Baked potatoes and clam chowder are too healthy for a football game, but it would keep you warm.”
Kick-off for the Game is at 12 p.m., and tailgating will begin at 10 a.m. Parking passes for the Bowl have been sold out since Monday.
A potential tenant for 84 Whalley Ave., which Staples will vacate next Saturday, has some area residents up in arms.
Save-A-Lot, a national discount grocery chain, filed papers Friday seeking permission from the City Board of Zoning Appeals to turn the 17,000 square-foot building into a discount grocery store. Sheila Masterson, executive director of the Whalley Avenue Special Services District, an organization that advises businesses in the area, said she opposes the proposal because, based on studies the organization has commissioned, she thinks there could be a “higher and better use for that particular site.”
Whalley Avenue businesses must have an opportunity to thrive, she said, and because there are already three grocery stores on the street, Save-A-Lot is a less desirable tenant because it could draw customers from existing businesses.
Masterson said the Whalley Avenue Special Services District does not oppose Save-A-Lot’s proposal because it caters to a low-income clientele.
Three members of Whalley Avenue Revitalization, a citizen’s group that operates in the area, said they also oppose Save-a-lot’s proposal. Francine Caplan, the organization’s spokeswoman, said the area needs a greater variety of business. Caplan also said the organization does not oppose Save-A-Lot’s proposal because it would likely attract low-end customers.
Caplan and the revitalization organization met with Dan Charest, operations manager of the Acre Group, the New Hartford-based property management firm that manages 84 Whalley, to discuss potential tenants for the site.
“We told him we wanted things like a Target or something that would attract everybody in the city,” she said.
Masterson also said she would like to see a clothing chain such as TJ Maxx move into the lot. She said the lack of affordable clothing stores in the area forces New Haven residents to drive out of town to make basic purchases, which costs the city tax revenue.
“You can’t buy a plain old pair of socks in this town,” she said.
Kelly Yong, owner of Gourmet Heaven on Broadway, which is less than half a mile away from 84 Whalley Ave., said the grocery store would lose business if Save-A-Lot moved in.
“It’s not good for us,” she said. “I wish I could do something about it.”
Charest, who manages the property for owner Monquidh Al-Sawaaf, said Save-A-Lot has not yet formally tried to lease the property but is negotiating a prospective lease.
“We’re not sure of anything at this point,” he said. “[Save-a-lot] is doing their market analysis to see if they want to propose a lease.”
Although Save-A-Lot has formally proposed the move to the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, Masterson said the still company needs to resolve issues pertain to parking availability and how Save-A-Lot will use the facility before they can lease the property.
New Haven Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy said as long as the zoning issues are resolved, Save-A-Lot will not have to seek further approval from the city before signing a lease.
“My office won’t have control over what company becomes the tenant,” she said.
Five New Haven residents interviewed expressed divided views on Save-A-Lot’s proposed move. Three of the five said they supported the proposal while the other two said they opposed it, saying there are already enough grocery stores in the city and that other businesses would better fill the space.
On the other hand, all six Yale students interviewed said they support Save-A-Lot’s proposal because they would benefit from the new store’s location and cheap prices.
The Board of Zoning Appeals will consider Save-a-lot’s proposal during its next meeting Dec. 8.
MIDDLEFIELD, Conn. — Crisp leaves scatter on the ground, the scent of fresh produce wafts through the air, and rows upon rows of freshly fried cider donuts sit on trays. Add two 18-hole golf courses, the best apple pie in the state and a full-service deli, and you get Lyman Orchards.
Founded in 1741, Lyman Orchards has been passed down through eight generations of the Lyman family, at least two members of which were Yale graduates. Originally a small produce-based family farm, the orchard has evolved over the years from an apple grove into an “agritainment” experience center.
John Lyman, the current executive vice president of Lyman Orchards, said that while the orchard’s primary business is still the apples themselves, the business has needed to grow in unconventional ways.
“Our challenge as a business is to look at ourselves from a guest-service perspective,” he said. “We are producers but we are also creating a customer experience.”
He said a major part of that customer experience is something he calls “agritainment,” a term that encompasses certain activities the farm runs including a corn maze, horse-drawn carriage rides and, of course, apple picking.
“People used to pick apples to save money; now it’s an annual ritual for families,” Lyman said. Jim Watson, an employee of Lyman Orchards for more than 25 years and currently its produce manager, said he has noticed the changes as well.
He said he used to dump apples by the bushel to make cider. Now, Lyman Orchards no longer produces its own cider. Instead, the orchard outsources its cider production to Carolson Orchards in Harvard, Mass., because of increased federal regulations: If the orchard wanted to produce its own cider, it would need to build its own cider-producing plant, Lyman said.
But while the orchard may no longer sell its own cider, it does bake its own apple pies — award-winning pies at that. Named Connecticut’s best for over 12 years in a row by Connecticut Magazine, the Lyman apple pie is based off numerous family recipes passed down and perfected over time, Lyman said. Sales of apple pies generate some 20 percent of the orchard’s annual revenue, Lyman said. Since the orchard opened the bakery more than 15 years ago, apple pie sales have been the fastest-growing segment of the entire company, Lyman said.
In order to focus on growing the bakery and expanding its “agritainment” offerings, Lyman has downsized the size of its orchards. In the 1960s, Lyman apple trees filled over 200 acres of land; now it’s about 100 acres. However, Lyman said a more efficient planting system has improved the land’s productivity.
At Lyman Orchards, customers can pick their own apples or buy them at The Apple Barrel, the orchard’s store. The store, with its rough-hewn wooden boards, is piled high with seasonal fruit, and sells more than one million apples every year. The store generates almost 45 percent of the orchard’s revenue and also has a full service deli and bakery. It also sells Old Tyme candy, packets of dried soup and countless apple-related products such as apple butter.
But not only is Lyman dedicated to expanding the family business, he also believes in creating bonds between customer and farmer. Lyman said he works closely with Red Tomato, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering sustainable agricultural processes, mainly in New England.
Sue Futrell, communications director at Red Tomato, called Lyman dedicated to the cause, saying that Lyman helped develop the eco-apple program, a certification and production protocol for apple growers that emphasizes ecologically sound methods of pest management. Lyman is a “pioneer in developing the most ecological growing processes,” she said.
The Lymans began commercially growing fruit in the 1890s, and Lyman credits his father with instituting the most radical changes in the way the orchard operates such as the bakery and the expansion of The Apple Barrel. That Lyman, a Yale graduate, spent fifty years at the helm of Lyman Orchards, Lyman said.
The orchards remain privately owned, though its board of directors includes a number of non-Lymans. John Lyman said this is a deliberate choice aimed at maintaining a more objective perspective on the business.
Though John Lyman decided to return to the family business, he said his siblings were not as keen; his sister is a journalist and his brother an insurance salesman. His three children are still in school, though they’ve spent summers working at the farm. But he has no major concerns about the farm’s future management.
“We’re much more than just a farm,” he said, “Someone will step up.”
After almost a year of delays, a $150 million renovation of a 600,000 square-foot complex at Science Park is expected to begin in spring 2010, said David Silverstone, president of the Science Park Development Corporation, a non-profit of which Yale University is a board member.
Since fall 2008, the corporation has had trouble financing the restoration of the buildings, which used to be the Winchester gun factory, on the 7.35-acre lot known as Tract A. Silverstone said the renovations were supposed to start no later than February 2009. The first phase of the project, renovating the 150,000 square-foot complex at 275 Winchester Ave., will total $40 million. The entire project is expected to cost $150 million, he said.
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In addition to creating hundreds of construction jobs, the renovated complex will have commercial space and residential housing, bringing life and activity to a part of New Haven that has not had it before, Silverstone said.
The dilapidated factory buildings that comprise the site are located along Winchester Avenue and Munson Street, and the development corporation has plans to turn them into commercial space, Silverstone said.
The development corporation has not yet finalized the details of how the project will be financed, but Silverstone said the corporation is exploring ways to obtain funding from both private and publicsources.
Earlier in the year, Silverstone said, financing “evaporated” because of the economic turmoil, and it became difficult to secure credit for large projects. He said he has to keep the project’s financing details confidential because they have not been finalized.
He explained that the project may receive funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The development corporation is also seeking a federal historical tax credit to help with the structures’ rehabilitation, said Sheila Anastas, the Science Park Development Corporation executive director.
One reason the renovations are likely to be expensive is because the buildings were built during an era when lead paint and asbestos were used, he said. Also, chemicals and construction debris that were buried on the site need to be removed before it is habitable. Anastas said the group is also seeking federal funds to offset the cost of bringing the buildings up to current environmental standards.
Tract A is part of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, according to the New Haven Preservation Trust Web site. The district used to be home to Winchester, one of the nation’s leading firearms manufacturers, established in New Haven in the late 19th century and purchased in 1931 by Olin, a chemicals and manufacturing company.
Olin then sold the complex in 1980 to the U.S. Repeating Arms Company after deciding it was too expensive to manufacture firearms in New Haven. When U.S. Repeating Arms went bankrupt in 1989, the Belgian Herstal Group acquired the factory and closed it 2006.
As of Oct. 1, the development corporation had renovated three large abandoned buildings, demolished two other buildings and erected a parking garage, all in Science Park, Silverstone said.
Carter Winstanley of Winstanley Enterprises, a Massachussets real estate developer involved in rehabilitating Science Park, said that last year renovations began on 334 Winchester St., a single-story building located across the street from Tract A. The project is expected to be completed by January. Currently, Winstanley Enterprises is recruiting new tenants to the space, Winstanely said. Yale is the main tenant of 344 Winchester St.
Yale has not been confirmed as a future tenant of Tract A, Anastas said.
The Science Park Development Corporation is also in the midst of getting approval and financing for a daycare center to be built on the vacant lot on Munson and Ashmun streets.
At New Haven’s Fashionista Vintage and Variety, items come and go. A pair of lederhosen were snatched up by a burlesque dancer on her way to Los Angeles. An English suit was shipped to Ireland for the birthday of an Irish theater troupe leader.
Store owners Nancy Shea, 54, and Todd Lyon, 52, are not the average clothing entrepreneurs. They host parties at their 33 Church St. second-floor loft, serve champagne to customers and sell secondhand merchandise such as pirate hats and prom dresses. Although Shea and Lyon have sold vintage clothing since 2008 — with the motto “Vintage treasures, rarities, oddities, eclectic beauties, kooky one-of-a-kind wonders and nostalgia trips” — their special expertise is customer service, they said. At a time when many New Haven retailers are struggling, Town Green Special Services executive director Rena Leddy said last week, Fashionista continues to grow because it fills a niche: vintage clothing.
“We find the ideal pairing of wonderful old items with people who love them and take care of them,” Shea said. “It sounds silly, but it’s all just recycling.”
Shea, an environmental planner by day, and Lyon, a writer, are somewhat soulmates themselves. Lyon, a tall, lanky, platinum blonde woman, wears knee-high black boots, a tight black leather skirt, black sweater, huge silver hoops, black beret with a snowflake pin, and skull and crossbones cuff bracelet that emphasizes how her hands frequently flutter around as she speaks. Also in black, Shea is a shorter woman, with bouncy auburn hair, cowboy boots and a plastic left forearm with a burnished silver watch.
After first meeting at a New Year’s Eve party eight years ago, the pair immediately bonded. Lyon said her friendship with Shea is special because the pair imagines “all these crazy ideas,” she said. “But we actually do them — like open a vintage clothing shop.”
In late 2004, Shea and Lyon faced a dilemma with their overflowing closets. Neither could bear to throw out many of their one-of-a-kind clothes. So in December 2004, they decided to hold a Fashionista tag sale in Shea’s apartment. Although Shea could not recall exactly how financially successful the first sale was, soon Shea and Lyon were organizing approximately eight tag sales each year. These tag sales, often spur-of-the-moment decisions, Shea said, snowballed into incredibly labor-intensive productions, requiring them to hang all the clothes on racks all across the room and then return all the clothes to their closets after each sale. Shea said she felt the clothes were slowly pushing her out of her apartment.
After almost three years of tag sales and 700 people on the “Fashionista Tag Sale” e-mail list, Lyon said, the pair decided to open a store. Shea and Lyon said they did not start the store with a formal business model or even a cash register. They still do not have either. Money is kept in a frayed black purse Shea wears around her shoulder while working in the store. Neither has any previous retail experience.
Still, Shea and Lyon were both self-professed “workaholics” they said. Nonetheless, both owners acknowledged that “if we entered this business to become millionaires, we failed miserably.”
Fashionista pays its bills, but Shea said she and Lyon are “not able to pay themselves salaries.” Shea said that during the recession last year, she did not notice an increase in foot traffic to her store. Her customers do not try to bargain hunt, she said. Rather, they try to find alternative clothing styles. A vintage piece is one-of-a-kind.
Leddy said the only two vintage stores in New Haven are Fashionista and English Building Market on 839 Chapel St. At English Building Market, Carol Orr, the owner, said she has noticed an increase in customers looking for vintage clothes. In the past, graduate students and faculty members were common customers, but now, she said, more undergraduates shop there too.
Orr’s store opened two years ago, and she has noticed that as a result of the downturn, the store’s business has improved. (About 5 percent of the store’s sales are from vintage clothing, Orr said.) Other retail stores, in contrast, have not been so lucky. Orr said nearby retail stores have been hurting.
“People now are looking for different funky things,” she added.
Compared to other stores, the two vintage shops in New Haven have been thriving during the economic downturn, Leddy said.
She added that while there has been no increase in demand to open thrift stores downtown, the economic malaise may change the concept of the downtown “traditional retailer.” For instance, she said, unconventional businesses, like architecture firms, have expressed interest in leasing retail spaces in the area.
Fashionista has an unconventional style and, because of it, has developed a base of loyal customers, such as Carys Johnson ’12. Johnson said she has purchased several costumes for parties and now wears them regularly.
Every piece of vintage clothing has a history, and each history adds to what Lyon calls the store’s “crazy vibe.” At Fashionista, each piece of clothing is accompanied by handwritten tags. Although some tags are straightforward in description (“1950s bustier”), others, such as “boring yet strangely chic grey cardigan” and “zee French maid apron. Tres bien!” are more opinionated. Shea says each piece at Fashionista is handpicked.
“There is nothing random,” she said. “We have to reject a lot of stuff.”
Lyon and Shea said they are knowledgeable about vintage fashion and eager to help customers. But they also like to have fun. They offer patrons complimentary champagne upon arrival. The owners also host dress-up karaoke parties, where guests play a variety of dress-up games, dance and often return the next morning “rav[ing] about how much fun they had,” Lyon said.
Customers are not reluctant to attend more than one Fashionista party as the selection of clothes constantly changes, with new additions arriving daily, Shea said. Lyon and Shea said they love imagining which customer will buy what piece. Sometimes, they can predict who will fall in love with a new addition, but sometimes, they said, they are completely taken by surprise.
David Lat LAW ’99 did not always want to be a blogger. Armed with degrees from Harvard College and Yale Law School — where he was vice president of the conservative Federalist Society — Lat worked at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for two and a half years before moving to the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office in 2003. While serving as a federal prosecutor, Lat founded an anonymous gossip blog about the federal judiciary called “Underneath Their Robes.” He resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2005and began editing the snarky political blog “Wonkette” in 2006. That year, Lat launched “Above the Law,” which bills itself as a “legal tabloid” that covers law schools, law firms and legal personalities. Now, he is the managing editor and in-house attorney for the company Breaking Media and its network of four blogs, which includes “Above the Law.” Lat talked to the News about blogging and “big law,” the elite circle of America’s highest paying firms.
Q: How did you come up with “Above the Law”?
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A: I was at “Wonkette” for a couple of months, enjoying blogging but missing writing about the law, which is the subject I’m most interested in, and I wondered why there was no “Wonkette” or “Gawker” for the legal profession.
Q: Why move back to covering just the legal world?
A: There are so many political blogs. You have Politico, The New York Times, The Washington Post. It’s a very crowded space. What I like about covering the law is there are not many competitors. I feel like we can be a bigger presence in this space. Also, I’ve invested all these years in my education and training. I’ve got a larger Rolodex. I still practice law. Don’t get me wrong — working at “Wonkette” was fun, but I’m even more happy doing this.
Q: Was the original concept of “Above the Law” different from what it is now?
A: In some ways it’s similar, and in some ways it’s different. I remember one sentence I used in the proposal for “Above the Law” — I wanted it to be a virtual watercooler for legal profession. I think it has become that. Whenever there’s a big or juicy story in the legal world, it certainly ends up on the blog. What I didn’t realize was there was a hunger for in-depth reporting about the legal business. People are more interested in the micro stuff. We’ll dig down really deep so people will even complain that it’s trivial. Even really small info: [if one] firm is paying [employee] bonuses, the people down the street want to know how much they are.
Q: How do you generate material?
A: Generally, sometimes we think up ideas for our own features, but a lot of the time our info is sourced from our readers because if we get half a dozen e-mails on a given topic, this is what people want to talk about. One difference between blogging and mainstream media is, I think, the traditional MSM [mainstream media] approach is, “We will decide what you will read.” Blogging is much more interactive. Sometimes you won’t think this is big news, but it is big news. Sometimes we’re educated by our readers about what is newsworthy. We look at our traffic a lot — we want to look at what works, what doesn’t.
Q: Do you consider yourself a journalist or a blogger or both?
A: Probably a little bit of both. I think my answer to that is changed. I think I used to perhaps disclaim the “journalist” label. I thought it was restricting. Now, I’m beginning to realize the line between the two is actually pretty porous. I’ve written for The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and there’s not really a huge difference in terms of the overall functions. Sure, when I do a print piece, it goes through multiple rounds of editing, but at the end of the day, you’re still trying to inform, enlighten and entertain. Blogging is much more fast-paced, but I don’t think they’re terribly different. One misconception is we’re thinly sourced. We have a vast network of sources. We also reach out to the firms for comment. We’re very candid, and we let people who don’t necessarily have voices, have voices. I think the line between blogging and journalism is really thin now. I think that certainly if you have a large, well-read blog, you should have the same privilege to keep sources confidential. I don’t know why we should have reduced privileges just because we don’t kill trees.
Q: Where do you see yourself going?
A: Blogging used to be a step to something else, but now people are realizing this is a really great job. Someone can be a reporter for 20 years. Why can’t you be a blogger for 20 years? Blogging is really grown up now. I enjoy what I do, and I’ll plan to keep doing it for the foreseeable future. My biggest advice to new bloggers is do it because you think it’s fun. It could it lead to something, sure, but do it because you enjoy it.
Correction 11.10.09
A previous version of this article misstated that David Lat LAW ’99 wrote for The New York Times Magazine, in addition to The New York Times and The Washington Post. In fact, he writes for New York Magazine.
