The head of a Norwalk-based nonprofit has asked the Board of Alders to extend a previously approved tax break before it expires on Dec. 31 — to give his company enough time to try to buy the luxury Winchester Lofts apartment complex in order to turn it into affordable housing. One of that buil ding’s current owners, meanwhile, told the Independent that the property is not for sale. “This thing has been an enigma to me,” the neighborhood’s alder, Troy Streater, told the Independent in a Tuesday interview about what might be going on with Winchester Lofts. “One minute, it’s not for sale.” The next minute, a nonprofit leader says “he’s buying it.” Streater said that, if this new tax-break-extension request appears before an aldermanic committee for review, he’ll make sure to press all sides on what is going on here: Is the property for sale, or is it not? This latest turn in the months-long muddle over what’s next for Winchester Lofts is detailed in a proposal that was included as a “communication” on Monday’s Board of Alders meeting agenda. That proposal was submitted by The Mary Fund’s Frank Farricker, who is seeking an extension to a 17-year tax break that local legislators signed off on in September. That tax break — which would reduce taxes on residential units designated to be ​“affordable” down to a base tax of $2,000 per unit, per year, for a period of 17 years, with a 3 percent annual increase — will take effect only if Farricker’s nonprofit follows through on buying the 159-unit, factory-turned-apartment complex at 275 Winchester Ave. by the end of December. Farricker previously told the alders that his nonprofit plans to significantly reduce the rents at 120 of the existing Winchester Lofts apartments, and that he needed the local tax break to make that purchase and conversion possible. These three months later, Farricker’s nonprofit has yet to acquire the Winchester Lofts. In a Dec. 9 letter included in Monday’s aldermanic submission, Farricker wrote that his company is still on track to make this deal happen. “Due to the impacts of the most recent government shutdown, we are discovering that our timing for closing will likely be pushed into late January/early February 2026,” Farricker wrote. “We are full steam ahead for closing thanks to support by the Alders, but closing itself is contingent on the abatement being in place.” Thus this request for “an extension of time for the abatement to complete the closing and move ahead with this exciting project.” Winchester Lofts’ current owners, meanwhile, do not appear interested in selling. In late August, the Winchester Lofts property manager distributed a memo to all of the building’s tenants stating that the property is not for sale. Steve Rosenberg, a New Jersey-based landlord who co-owns the Winchester Lofts complex through the company Winchester Loft Ventures LLC, told the Independent the same on Tuesday. “This property is not for sale and is not under contract with the Mary fund,” he wrote in an email comment. Farricker, a former chair of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee and a former head of the Connecticut Lottery, declined to comment further for this story. Farricker’s latest letter to the Board of Alders. Meanwhile, right next door on Winchester Ave., lots new apartments are just about open … Credit: Thomas Breen photos … and lots more dilapidated former factory buildings next door on Munson and Mansfield are still coming down. The post Deadline Looms For Winchester Lofts Tax Break appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less