On Tuesday, officials announced that $7.5 million that will go toward the redevelopment of Fair Haven's Grand Avenue.
“It’s a really hopefully comprehensive approach to Fair Haven,” Carlos Eyzaguirre, the deputy economic development administrator for the City of New Haven, said.
The projects announced would essentially redo Grand Avenue from end to end, according to officials. The money is a combination of a $6 million grant from the the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development and $1.5 million in city ARPA money.
It is set to spark a three phase overhaul that would take about three years to complete. Poised to tackle repaving, traffic calming, streetscape upgrades like sidewalks and a new public plaza for the community to gather at the corner of Grand Avenue and Poplar Street.
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“Fair Haven is hopping, but it's about to explode,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said. "This investment will just make this community one that we already love but we will embrace in so many ways.”
Officials representing the Fair Haven section of New Haven noted in Tuesday’s press conference there have been no major investments in Fair Haven Infrastructure in almost 25 years.
They added this is a big investment, but there is more coming, too.
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“It’s a place people know that they cherish, it’s an asset of the neighborhood, it has nostalgic value and it’s a real asset to the neighborhood,” developer Charlie Adams with Pennrose LLC said.
Pennrose has partnered with the city as well as the cloud company to convert the Strong School, currently sitting vacant, into 58 units of housing. That project is a roughly $27 million investment, set to start at the end of 2024.
The conversion also comes with a promise from developers that the historic building that spent a century educating students, will remain in place.
“This is a way to preserve the asset for the next 100 years,” Adams said.
Students that walk the Grand Avenue corridor were also excited to hear about the coming upgrades, hoping it will make them feel safer on their trip to and from school.
“It can be really dangerous like walking out to school and crossing the street,” Nathalia Marcano Gutierrez, an eighth grader at the Fair Haven School that sits along Grand Avenue, said.
She hopes upgrades mean safety for the next generation of students getting an education in the Fair Haven district.
“I am really hopeful, I hope the next generation gets a better neighborhood, a better environment,” she said.
