$12.2 Million Approved for Four New Haven Projects at CIF Board Meeting

NEW HAVEN – Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) and Senator Gary Winfield (D-New Haven) today announced that four New Haven projects received a combined $12.2 million in state funding through Round 9 of the Community Investment Fund 2030. The CIF Board approved $66,409,000 for 27 projects statewide, and New Haven’s four account for 18 percent of all the funding.

Senator Looney serves as co-chair of the 21-member CIF Board, which the General Assembly created to direct state bond funding to municipalities and nonprofits for community development, housing, health services and economic revitalization projects.

The four awards are:

• CitySeed: $6 million for the Greater New Haven Food Business Incubator and Food Resource Center, an 18,786-square-foot former manufacturing facility at 162 James Street in Fair Haven. The project creates shared commercial kitchens offered at below-market rates, a teaching kitchen, cold and dry storage, a home for Sanctuary Kitchen, and flexible workspace for CitySeed and mission-aligned partners.
• Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP): $2.8 million to complete renovations at the Roslyn M. Meyer Community Center at 31 Jefferson Street, including a dance studio, black box theater, rooftop deck, kitchen and pool improvements, accessibility work and HVAC upgrades. LEAP projects the renovated building will let it serve an additional 500 children and 250 adults each year.
• Christian Community Action: $2.5 million to renovate the ARISE Center at 156 Davenport Avenue in the Hill, co-locating other CCA programs and adding on-site childcare, legal aid, and career and workforce services.
• Fair Haven Community Health Clinic: $900,000 to build out approximately 1,800 square feet at 374 Grand Avenue for developmental-behavioral pediatrics, co-located with behavioral health, primary care and dental services and delivered by bilingual providers, for children with neurodevelopmental conditions including autism and ADHD.

“These four awards represent the exact mission the Community Investment Fund was created to address,” said Sen. Looney. “CitySeed, LEAP, Christian Community Action, and the Fair Haven Community Health Clinic are institutions that anchor their neighborhoods, and each of them has been asked for years to do more than its building allows. Twelve million dollars in a single round is the kind of investment that strengthens the fabric of New Haven in ways residents will be able to see and use. I am proud to lead passage of these items as co-chair and grateful to my colleagues on the CIF Board for their partnership in delivering this funding.”

“The Fair Haven Community Health Clinic award is money to build the rooms that close the gap so a family in Fair Haven waiting eight to twelve months to get a child evaluated,” said Sen. Winfield. “And the LEAP award does the same thing for children in other New Haven neighborhoods. New Haven asked the state for buildings that match the work our institutions are already doing. The state said yes.”

The Community Investment Fund has invested in several of these organizations before. CitySeed acquired the James Street facility with a CIF Round 1 award and developed the project through a Round 5 planning grant. LEAP carries a $1.3 million Round 8 CIF award into this phase of its renovation, alongside $1,952,032 in federal HUD funding and $2,450,000 in philanthropic support. The Fair Haven Community Health Clinic received $3,000,000 in Round 1 for a project that has since been completed.

Contact: Lawrence Cook | lawrence.cook@cga.ct.gov | 860-604-9279