Groundbreaking Held for 49 Affordable Apartments on New Haven's Whalley Avenue

NEW HAVEN, CT — Officials broke ground Tuesday, Oct. 27, on a five-story, 49-unit affordable apartment building on Whalley Avenue, on a stretch of storefronts that has sat empty for years, the New Haven Independent reported. It is the milestone St. Luke's Episcopal Church has worked toward for close to two decades.

The St. Luke's Development Corporation, a nonprofit tied to the church, is building it with the Glendower Group, the development arm of Elm City Communities, the city's housing authority. The site takes in several parcels on Whalley Avenue, Dickerman Street and Sperry Street, and the building will have 1,300 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor.

"We are breaking ground today, not just on 49 units, but 49 futures here in New Haven," said Shenae Draughn, president of Elm City Communities.

Who Can Live There

Every apartment will rent below market to households earning 30 to 80 percent of the Area Median Income. Forty-four units come with federal rental assistance, so tenants pay no more than 30 percent of their income in rent. The housing authority will hold 20 percent of the apartments for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of it, and tenants will come from its existing waitlist.

What It Costs

The city puts the project's total cost at $32 million. Draughn said construction financing comes to about $14.4 million. The state Department of Housing is putting in $3.3 million, and the state's Community Investment Fund another $5.9 million.

State Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno spoke to the price. "They are expensive because of the people they're going to serve," she said, "but they're very important."

A Church's Long Push

Dr. Samuel Andoh, president of the development corporation, said car dealerships and other businesses lined Whalley Avenue from the 1920s to the 1950s and left contaminated land behind when they moved out. That decline led the church's rector at the time, Father Victor Rogers, to ask parishioners what the church could do to help revive the neighborhood, and the development corporation was the answer.

The group won Board of Zoning Appeals relief for the apartments in 2016, after five years of searching for financing, and the City Plan Commission approved site plans in 2023 and again in 2024, when the building was cut from six stories to five to save money. Andoh thanked the Greater Dwight Development Corporation, which he said bailed the project out "on a number of occasions, when we were this close to going under."

Andoh paid tribute to two leaders who did not live to see the groundbreaking, longtime president Bill Spruill and Sheldon Reinhart. Robin Golden, speaking for the Glendower Group's board, said Spruill took up the apartments in earnest once St. Luke's had built an 18-unit home for seniors close by in 2007. "I only wish that Bill was here today," she said. "And now almost 20 years later, here we are."

"This is a very complex project," Rev. Thomas Jackson said of the long wait. The land was contaminated, the parcels had to be gathered from many owners, and the work spanned several city administrations, the Independent reported. Jackson credited the congregation: "This project has come alive because the people in St. Luke has kept it alive."

Mayor Justin Elicker drew on the Book of James, "Faith without work is dead," and credited the church with carrying its mission past Sunday worship. "With this project, we see faith in action," Elicker said.

What Comes Next

City officials expect construction to take about 12 months. Elicker said about $1 million in state money will pay for traffic-calming work on Whalley Avenue between Orchard and Sperry streets, to be finished by the time the apartments open.

"This is a proud day," Andoh said. "This is a hopeful day and this is a blessed day."

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