Assessing TOD Opportunities for New Haven’s Hill-to-Downtown District

Recently having completed extensive planning efforts for the underutilized Hill-to-Downtown district, the City of New Haven set out to study the transit-oriented development (TOD) potential of city-owned sites located within the district and adjacent to Union Station, the busiest Amtrak station in Connecticut. To help guide policy decisions on catalyzing the redevelopment of the sites, which would involve relocation of the New Haven Police Department Headquarters and offices of other city departments, the City engaged Camoin Associates and its partner MRLD Landscape Architecture to evaluate the real estate market to identify and envision the highest and best uses for the sites, in terms of both private return on investment and public economic and community benefits.

Numerous ongoing development projects and infrastructure initiatives in and around the study area contributed to a highly dynamic and complex market environment, impelling Camoin to take a holistic and long-range view of development potential. Camoin ultimately recommended two redevelopment concepts—a transit-oriented living, shopping, and dining scenario, and a business and technology hub scenario—both conceived based on mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly design principles and a desire to activate the as-of-yet underutilized area by repositioning it as an extension, or “concourse,” of bustling Union Station.

Camoin tested the financial feasibility of these scenarios from the perspective of a potential investor, determining the residual value of the city-owned land, identifying costs the City would have to incur to induce private redevelopment of the sites, and evaluating the economic and fiscal impacts of redevelopment. Equipped with this information, the City is now able to make strategic decisions around relocating the Police Department and future reuse of the sites.

Services

• Real estate market analysis
• Financial feasibility analysis
• Economic and fiscal impact analysis