HANH Prez Draughn, confident that housing authority will close on clock shop property. The ex-clock factory, in September. Credit: Thomas Breen file photo The Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) is one big step closer to acquiring the dilapidated former Hamilton Street clock factory — aft er the agency’s board took two key votes to support financing the future acquisition and renovation of that industrial property into roughly 130 new homes. The housing authority’s board took those votes Tuesday during its latest monthly meeting at the agency’s headquarters at 360 Orange St. The board voted unanimously to authorize a $1 million predevelopment loan for the clock-shop project to the Glendower Group — the housing authority’s nonprofit development arm. It took a separate unanimous vote to commit $21 million in tax-exempt bonds towards that same development, which is expected to cost $70 million to complete. Board Chair William Kilpatrick and commissioners Danya Keene, Elmer Rivera Bello, and Kevin Alvarez were all present at Tuesday’s meeting, and all backed the two clock-factory-focused resolutions. HANH President Shenae Draughn said that the housing authority intends to close on the 133 Hamilton St. property’s sale in January. The housing authority plans to transform the historic industrial complex into an approximately 130-unit residential community, where all units will serve low-income or moderate-income households. The project is expected to cost around $70 million, financed through a combination of tax-exempt private-activity bonds, 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, federal and state Historic Tax Credits, and other public-private funding sources. The property itself is still owned by a company called Taom Heritage New Haven LLC, which bought the clock shop in 2018. At the time, that company was controlled by Scott Reed of the Oregon-based Reed Community Partners. Over the years, Taom Heritage — under Reed’s leadership — failed to follow through on plans to redevelop the industrial property into 130 apartments, letting it fall instead into tax foreclosure and sustained decay. HANH first announced its plans to buy the long-vacant New Haven Clock Company property in 2023, when the clock shop was in the midst of a city tax foreclosure. The auction date for that foreclosure kept getting pushed back, as Taom Heritage and the housing authority tried to salvage a 2024 purchase and sale agreement that would see the housing authority buy the ex-factory for $4.5 million. The deal had been held up by Taom Heritage’s failure to complete environmental remediation at the site; the building was beset by squatters and fires and anti-blight and safety notices from the city. Then, in September of this year, a group of clock shop creditors succeeded in stripping Reed of decision-making authority at Taom Heritage. Now Bill Kraus, a long-time clock shop redevelopment advocate who led a push to force Reed’s holding company into involuntary bankruptcy, has control over the holding company that owns the Hamilton Street property. The $1 million predevelopment loan approved at Tuesday’s meeting will fund environmental testing, architectural and engineering review, historic preservation review, financial modeling, and more. “We think this million dollars will get us to closing,” said Ed LaChance, vice president of development for the Glendower Group, at Tuesday’s meeting. “We know it’s a property we can’t let sit there long. It’s a sensitive property and we’re all concerned about its physical condition.” LaChance said that the loan will be paid back from development funds at the closing of the sale, through means like tax credit equity, Department of Housing capital funds, and Connecticut Housing Financing Authority construction financing. “Is there any high risk that we won’t close?” asked Kilpatrick. No, said LaChance. “We’re already talking and planning on it, but we haven’t been accruing funds. So we’re ready to hit the ground running.” Draughn agreed. “We do not see this as a risky deal for us in terms of development,” she said. “This is our traditional way by which we do a tax credit deal.” Draughn also noted the agency’s ability to access the tax credits available for the rehabilitation of historic buildings, which will bring additional equity into the development. “We don’t see any challenges with the actual closing,” Draughn said. She noted that in all of the housing authority’s developments, “we’ve never not closed a deal.” The board then authorized the loan. Later in the meeting, the housing authority board approved a separate resolution “to declare the official intent to issue tax-exempt multi-family housing revenue bonds for the clock factory redevelopment project” to the Glendower Group to finance no more than $21 million of the project — or 30 percent of the estimated total development cost. “Our intent is to issue our own bonds for the clock factory project,” said LaChance. “It’s basically us going on record saying, ‘We’re going to use our bond funds, so we’re letting you know any costs we incur can be paid back from those bond funds.'” The resolution states that this declaration of intent, known as an inducement resolution, signifies the housing authority’s “good faith and reasonable expectation” to issue those bonds but is not a “binding agreement.” The inducement resolution is required for federal tax purposes to allow Glendower Group to continue with predevelopment and financing activities that might be reimbursed from future bond proceeds. The state allocates bonds to HANH for affordable housing projects, according to Draughn. The housing authority then issues the bonds on behalf of the project for the Glendower Group, which will then do the actual development. In line with federal law, to issue the $21,000,000 in tax-exempt bonds, the housing authority is required to host a public meeting and publish a notice at least seven days in advance. The board also approved that action. As for the actual sale of the clock shop factory complex by Taom to the housing authority, Draughn said that HANH is wrapping up “final due diligence items.” When the sale is complete in January, HANH will undertake a year of architectural work. The plan is to begin construction in 2027 and complete the project in 18 to 24 months. Reached for comment, Kraus, the current manager of the clock shop property, said, “I and all the creditors are looking forward to moving toward closing and getting the building in the capable hands of the housing authority as soon as possible.” “We basically have done what we needed to do,” he said about Taom’s work at 133 Hamilton St., which has included repairing the roofs, repairing deteriorating brick work on the building, and conducting some non-regulated environmental cleanup. The post Housing Authority Nears Clock Shop Purchase appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less