This blog is the product of student research for the Cases in Commercial Real Estate: Design, Development and Innovation course at the Yale School of Management, Fall 2018. Five of us chose to research and write about Stamford, Connecticut, which is in the midst of a $6 billion building boom, for the opportunity to study an active real estate development project happening close to New Haven. This explosive growth in Stamford has raised a variety of questions about design and innovation, planning and governance, financing and marketability, and community and gentrification.
Following is a brief introduction to the subject and some of the related challenges faced by the Stamford government, residents, developers and businesses.
Stamford, Connecticut, has experienced waves of commercial growth over the past 50 years. The 1960’s and 70’s saw controversial change: major office towers were built along the main street of an historic New England town, and an indoor shopping mall with a vast concrete parking structure was developed in the heart of the downtown. Growth slowed in the late 80’s and 90’s only to pick up again around the turn of the century with more office buildings, apartment towers, renovation of the mall, and a new University of Connecticut campus in downtown Stamford. The 2008 financial crisis caused a return to market instability in the Stamford office rental market, with a 30% vacancy rate in 2017, including a vacant 700,000 UBS office building and trading floor.
Downtown prospects today are not all bad. In 2017, the University of Connecticut opened the first Stamford residence hall for 260 students in the downtown, and a large central downtown site (dubbed the “hole-in-the-ground” since the site was abandoned and has remained untouched following foundation construction almost 40 years ago) broke ground on a large mixed-use apartment complex.
In addition, the past ten years have seen fast growth on the other side of the interstate highway and the train tracks. Developer Building Land and Technology broke ground on the privately-owned 80-acre Harbor Point development on the Long Island Sound, with goals of 4,000 new rental units along with a new boardwalk, marina, office space and retail. To date, around 2,700 of the Harbor Point apartment units have been built, along with numerous units in other developments that have joined in the pursuit of the profitable South End rental apartment market. Issues of concern surround this fast-paced development – namely that change is being driven primarily by developers rather than an inclusive group representing governmental and community as well as economic interests. Specifically lacking is a process for community-driven planning to include voices from the existing working class neighborhood, which are not heard during the recent process for approving area developments. As a result, new buildings and sites may not be consistent with public plans and goals, (such as resiliency, sustainability, transportation patterns, park and open space design, and design of proper building scale) and there is concern that the Harbor Point community is gentrifying the South End of Stamford.