Quarry Walk developer looks to build village oasis in New Haven area with 400 units, shops, dining
After carving
out a village oasis from scratch amid the Oxford woods, a developer is
moving ahead with its next project alongside a historic ice pond outside New
Haven — in the heart of an industrial district today, where it hopes to create
a similar haven for people live and visit for shopping, dining and other
leisure activities.
Haynes Group is seeking a zoning change for a 30-acre
property it owns at 300 Elm St. in North Haven, which under
the town's current IL-80 industrial zone designation does not qualify currently
for housing.
Haynes Group aims to change that as an initial step to
moving ahead toward additional approvals it would need from zoning and wetlands
boards before construction could begin on as many as 400 apartments and 150,000
square feet of retail and commercial space. On the residential front alone,
that would rank the project among the 20 largest
residential developments in Connecticut tracked currently by CT
Insider.
At a meeting this week, the North Haven Planning &
Zoning Commission tabled further consideration of the proposal to its next
session in early July.
In an April presentation to the P&Z Commission, Haynes
Group compared its goals for the site to
Quarry Walk in Oxford, where it built a modern village including
apartments, retailers, restaurants and
commercial space filled both by chains and independent shops, including a
Market 32 grocery store. As the case at Quarry Walk, the North Haven
development would include a child daycare center.
Haynes Group also plans to build a walking trail at the site
and a "community green" for concerts and other activities during the
warmer months, with a bandstand backed by the vista of Bruces Ice Pond
according to firm principal Patrick Haynes, who led the P&Z
Commission presentation in April.
"What we plan to do in North Haven is very similar in
overall size and scope," Haynes said. "People can live — go have
an ice cream, sit out on the green, listen to some music, enjoy a spring night.
Come walk your dog, even if you don't live here. It's a place for the
community."
While New
Haven has been an
epicenter for Connecticut residential development, projects thin out
heading north along the Interstate 91 corridor. Haynes Group has owned the
North Haven property for more than two decades, located at 300 Elm St. and
hemmed in by I-91 and Sackett Point Road, along with an industrial park
opposite North Haven High School.
In addition to a number of industrial and commercial
businesses on the opposite side of I-91 along State Street and Universal Drive,
the site is opposite North Haven High School with residential neighborhoods
just beyond.
Recognizing North Haven High School's significant existing
impact on local traffic, Haynes Group said it is planning a traffic study to
identify how to add new lanes and traffic signal patterns to improve the
corridor's flow.
Behind a screen of trees is Bruces Ice Pond, one of
several in North Haven where ice was cut and sold to dairies, butchers and
other businesses in the days before the advent of electric refrigeration.
Haynes Group plans to make the pond a key part of the development's appeal with
leafy walking trails and viewing spots, not dissimilar to those it created
along elevations of the historic quarry in Oxford.
Haynes said the company plans to seek input from the
community on a name for the development.
The number of cars coming and going on any weekday are one
testament to Quarry Walk's success, in addition to the patronage those
businesses get from renters in more than 160 apartments at The Residences at
Quarry Walk. Another 65 apartments are in the works.
Quarry Walk proved a boon to Oxford on another front, Haynes
said — after parts
of town were devastated by flooding in August 2024, Quarry Walk helped
generate more than $1 million in donations for disaster relief.
"Businesses that have come to Quarry Walk have created
somewhere around 2,000 jobs — many of those are jobs that did not exist
before," Haynes said in April. "We have somewhere north of 50
businesses — many of them are startup businesses and many of those
are people who live in Oxford."