NEW HAVEN — Neighborhood, city and business leaders joined the developer of the new Olive & Wooster Apartments Wednesday to dedicate a new 6-story, 299-unit, high-end apartment complex that is the first of several such buildings going up between State and Olive streets on the edge of Wooster Square.
“This is incredible! Imagine standing on the corner of Chapel and Olive five years ago — and then snap your fingers” and see what it looks like today, said Mayor Justin Elicker.
He reminded the few dozen people who turned out for the dedication in a lounge at the complex at 87 Union St. that there is more on the way.
There are many things going on in New Haven, of which the Olive & Wooster Apartments are a part, “and we’re doing it all in an inclusive way,” Elicker said at a reception
He lauded the work of New York developer Darren Seid of Epimoni Corp., who also has two other buildings he’s working on nearby, pointing out that the Olive & Wooster “luxury apartments” building already is about 30 percent leased.
Seid and his team are “working hard with the Wooster Square community” to make his new buildings part of the community “but also reimagining it,” Elicker said.
Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre said the new building, an example of transit-oriented development which has been in the works since 2014, “really speaks to a larger connection of downtown to Wooster Square,” and said downtown is being reconnected to the Hill neighborhood in another project.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
Alder Carmen Rodriguez, D-6, said it was gratifying to see “the conversion of the Hill and Wooster Square” and two neighborhoods “coming together.”
Eyzaguirre introduced Seid by thanking him “for believing in the city and believing in the site.”
Seid said “it’s been a long and winding road to arrive at this point” for Epimoni and its partner in the development, Adam America. He thanked “all our equity partners, all of whom had never before invested in New Haven.”
He thanked Elicker and his staff “for helping pull us through” a very difficult time during the pandemic.
In designing the new complex, they “tried to speak to Wooster Square” as much as modern constraints would allow, Seid said. He said he was gratified “to play a role in the revitalization of this pocket of New Haven.”
Studios begin at $1,786 to $1,820, depending on square footage. Olive & Wooster Apartments also has one-bedrooms beginning at $2,200, with larger units up to four bedrooms going for $5,700. Tenants have an option to rent furnished units.
A room in one of its “co-living” spaces — essentially, apartments where people get matched with roommates but each have their own, separate leases, start at less than $1,200, Seid said.
The building also has 8,000 square feet of retail space.
Other speakers included Ginny Kozlowski, CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven, and Garrett Sheehan, president and CEO of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.
Kozlowski said the Olive & Wooster Apartments is “a major component” of the city’s earlier Hill-To-Downtown plan and she was pleased to be able to watch the building being built from her office on Orange Street.
“This is such an awesome day to see this project come to life,” said Sheehan.
Epimoni, which also is building projects at 20 and 35 Fair St., will grant the city an easement for a greenway that will open up Fair Street to the public.
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