Cooper Church LLC/Elm Cooper LLC to redevelop parking lot at 85 Elm St. in New Haven

New Haven, CT A surface parking lot the city could never convince the owners of to fill with a garage, will now be developed into an apartment complex with a floor of extended-stay hotel rooms.

Attorney Caleb Hamel, representing David Kuperberg’s Cooper Church LLC/Elm Cooper LLC, pitched the 105-unit apartment complex with 21 hotel rooms, plus a two-level garage, to the members of the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team.

The construction at 85 Elm St. will be next to the former Union & New Haven Trust Co., an iconic building on a corner of Elm and Church Sts., that Kuiperberg converted to a 137-unit apartment building.

Opened last year, Hamel said The Union is 100% occupied.

Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson told the management team that one of the goals of mayor Toni Harp’s administration was to have developers have such a good experience in the city that they would build more than one complex. Kuperberg took them up on that.

Nemerson said the parking, per agreement, will be for the Wells Fargo branch that is on the first floor of The Union. There will be a total of 57 parking spaces where 53 are required under the zoning regulations.

“We are very excited about it,” Nemerson said. 

The plan connects both buildings on the third floor where there will be amenities that can be shared by both complexes.

Hamel said there is a demand for hotel options that are longer than a week or two, but shorter than a rental arrangement. “A lot of people have seen a need for that sort of service,” Hamel said of the market.

Above the hotel, there will be five floors of apartments; 85 will be studios, 15 will be one-bedrooms with five 2-bedroom units. There will be a small lobby space on the first floor.

The management team also heard from Dr. Linda Mayes, director of the Yale Child Study Center, on plans for an $11 million renovation of 350 George St., a building formerly used by telecommunication companies. The renovation will allow the center, which now has three locations, to operate out of one facility. Mayes said the center, which provides behavioral and developmental health services for children up to 18 years of age, had more than 50,000 visits last year.  “The numbers are steadily going up. We are serving many more children and families,” she said. They are now located at 230 South Frontage Rd., 100 York St. and 40 Temple St.

It already has its parking plan approved, a hurdle for Yale properties. Bruce McCann, director of planning for the Yale School of Medicine, said staff will continue to use the current parking spaces assigned to them. He estimated the internal renovations will take 16 months to complete.