Yale Withdraws Exemption Request for 282 Prospect St.; Assessor Corrects Records

Yale Pulls Back Tax-Exemption for Prospect Street House; Assessor Corrects New Haven's Tax Roll

Yale University has reversed a request to remove a Prospect Street property from New Haven's taxable grand list after Acting City Assessor Alexzander Pullen was informed that the house had not yet been converted for university use and therefore does not qualify for a tax exemption.

The New Haven Independent first reported on March 13, 2026, that Yale had moved 282 Prospect Street off the tax rolls. Five days later, Pullen received a call and email from Yale explaining that while the property had been assigned to the office of the university's Provost, "it had not yet been converted for its intended purpose and would remain taxable until it is converted and occupied."

Pullen said the assessor's office has since made the correction, placing the property back on the taxable grand list.

The Property

282 Prospect Street is a single-family house built in 1896 and located in the Prospect Hill National Historic Register District in New Haven. Yale has owned the property since 1989.

The city appraised the property at $1,157,800, with an assessed value of $810,460. Yale paid a total of $31,932.12 in real estate taxes on the property during the current fiscal year. Because it remains on the taxable rolls, those payments are continuing.

How It Happened

Under Connecticut law, properties owned by Yale — a nonprofit educational institution — may qualify for tax exemption when they are used for educational or institutional purposes. When a property transitions from private use to institutional use, the owner notifies the city assessor's office, which then reviews and processes the change.

In this case, Yale notified the city that 282 Prospect Street was being assigned to the office of the Provost. That notification led the assessor's office to initially move the property to the exempt list. After the NHI reported on the change, Yale clarified that the transition was incomplete: the building had not been physically converted or occupied for its new purpose.

A Second Yale Property Was Also Affected

The original March 13 NHI report covered two Yale properties: 282 Prospect Street and 53 Broadway. The 53 Broadway property has been successfully converted into art studios and remains on the tax-exempt list.

282 Prospect Street is the only one of the two that has been corrected back to taxable status.

Context: Yale and New Haven Taxes

Yale University's tax-exempt property holdings are a persistent subject of political and financial discussion in New Haven. As of early 2026, tax-exempt properties make up approximately 56 percent of New Haven's total real estate value, according to the New Haven Independent. Yale is the largest contributor to the city's tax-exempt grand list.

As a nonprofit, Yale is not legally required to pay property taxes on most of its holdings. The university makes voluntary payments to the city — known as payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs — but those payments represent only a fraction of what would be owed if the properties were taxable.

The correction in the 282 Prospect Street case preserves $31,932.12 in annual tax revenue for the city.

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