Gateway Community College Relocation to Downtown

Economic Impact Summary:

* Located on the former Macy’s and Mally’s sites

* $200 million facility, 1st LEED Gold Certified public project in Connecticut

* 380,000 square feet

* 11,500 full/part-time students; 645 full/part-time faculty

* Average age of Gateway students is 28

* 600+ car parking garage built into the site

* Bring 70 specialized academic programs

* Construction begunn in November 2009 and will be completed for opening in Fall of 2012

* $1.2 million PILOT Payment

* 184 FT and 364 PT jobs

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About The Gateway Downtown Development Project

On June 3, 2004, the State of Connecticut and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. jointly announced the historic Gateway Downtown Development Project. The project includes $240 million in state bond funding to relocate Gateway Community College and the Long Wharf Theatre to brand new facilities in the New Haven downtown and includes new housing, retail, offices, and commercial space components. When the Board of Aldermen approved the amendment to the Downtown Municipal Development Plan for this Gateway Downtown Development Project, they approved a concept plan that includes Gateway Community College, Long Wharf Theatre, commercial and residential uses, a hotel, open space for public use, parking facilities, and infrastructure improvements within the project area.

Gateway Community College

Gateway Community College – one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the State with more than 11,000 students and 645 faculty and staff members – is currently housed in two facilities. One facility is located on Long Wharf and the second is in North Haven. Through this development project, the College will be consolidated and relocated to downtown New Haven. The new college will be built on the former Macy’s and Malley’s department store sites, otherwise known as 2 Church Street and 20 Church Street. The facility is planned to have approximately 380,000 square feet of space, with publicly accessible uses on the first-floor street level including the culinary arts program, an early learning center, gallery space, and the bookstore. The project also includes an on-site parking garage with approximately 600 cars for College use. Before the College could move downtown, the former Macy’s building needed to undergo significant environmental cleanup to remove the asbestos and hazardous materials inside the building and demolition of the exterior structure. Environmental remediation was completed in August 2007, and the bulk of the demolition was recently completed in October 2007. The City and the State of Connecticut are completing the land transfer so the College can begin its first phase of construction. The new college is estimated to cost more than $200 million. Architects Perkins + Will are working on the schematic design. Construction begun in November 2009. The new facility is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2012.

Related Project

As part of this project, the State has agreed to provide $30 million to relocate Long Wharf Theatre from its current location in the Food Terminal on Sargent Drive to a portion of the site that is currently occupied by the Coliseum. The Theatre is currently in the midst of a capital campaign to raise the remaining funding needed for the relocation as well as to create an endowment fund. Long Wharf Theatre currently has an audience of 100,000 during a season, and attendance is expected to spike to 120,000 with its downtown move.

Redevelopment of the former Coliseum site:

Following the completion of the demolition of the Coliseum in 2007, the City selected Northland Investment Corporation as the preferred developer to redevelop the Coliseum site with a mix of uses on the site. The City, Northland, and Long Wharf Theatre are currently negotiating to determine the mix of uses, development components, and shared amenities that can be maximized throughout the site. In addition to the Theatre, the site is expected to include a significant residential component, a commercial component (including perhaps a hotel), as well as street-level retail that lines the first floor street-level of the parcel to encourage pedestrian activity and to provide resident amenities in this development parcel. The site will also include parking.

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