St. Aedan’s Church sprawls out on the tidy streets of Westville like an outgrowth of nature: old, ornate, and breathtaking. It seems to harken back to a New Haven of a time long ago, or at least long before the Dunkin’ Donuts a block away. But soon some people will call this church home—or, at least, part of it.
Plans are currently underway to convert the former convent next to St. Aedan’s into nine shiny new condominiums. The convent was constructed in 1957 alongside St. Aedan-St. Brendan School, a K-8 school founded in 1956, and St. Aedan’s church, built in 1922. For the past decade, however, the convent has been used sparingly. In 2013, it finally went up for sale—and caught the attention of Fernando Pastor, chief architect of the project and founder of development company SEEDnh, which specializes in the sustainable redevelopment of old buildings.
Historic conversions like the one at St. Aedan’s have been going on for decades. Even the conversion of church property into condominiums is not a new concept in New Haven. St. Michael’s Church in New Haven’s Wooster Square has been constructing residential spaces on its lot, though the project has become mired in lawsuits and legal difficulties. In recent years, however, this kind of refurbishment has come under more scrutiny in the growing national debate over gentrification.
This has been an especially controversial issue in New Haven. As the population of young, middle class professionals has increased, it has placed pressure on older, low-income communities in the city. Projects like the Winchester Lofts, which has built luxury apartments out of an abandoned arms factory in the Dixwell neighborhood, have been criticized for disrupted the fabric of neighborhoods and pricing out residents who have lived there for years. Westville, while only a few miles away from Dixwell, is a neighborhood with very different dynamics.
Westville is already a relatively developed, affluent neighborhood, and the condo construction might not bring large changes to the community. “This is not downtown,” said John DeStefano, former mayor of New Haven and current Yale professor. “This kind of project is not going to shake things up as much in Westville as the downtown neighborhoods.”
Though the project itself may not have serious consequences for its surrounding community, it is part of a larger pattern and community dynamic that is drastically reshaping New Haven’s housing market.
The project will serve a growing need for housing among certain niche demographics in a city lacking wide diversity of housing options. Pastor has a very clear vision of the kind of residents who will be moving into the former convent. “Empty nesters,” Pastor says. “People who can’t afford to keep up a lawn and pay the higher taxes.”
For older residents without children or the desire to care for a larger home, the condos offer a chance to move out of the suburbs and settle into a relaxed, comfortable life closer to the conveniences of a large city. Young urbanites, too, are being scoped out as potential future residents for the project—especially professionals linked to Yale. With the opening up of the two new residential colleges in 2017, Yale will bring even more faculty and staff to New Haven. As of now, condos are relatively uncommon in Westville and East Rock, neighborhoods dominated by freestanding homes. Other than that, large apartment buildings downtown are some of the only options for young professionals in the city. All of these factors, Pastor claims, show that there will be a strong market for the condos once they are completed.
Pastor is excited to carry out his plans and sees the refurbishment project as an overwhelmingly positive development. He is no newcomer to refurbishing old buildings into competitive living spaces; his previous projects include converting an abandoned factory in East Rock into apartments and the rehabilitation of several old manor-style homes in the city. He was quick to counter the idea that his new project represents gentrification. “It’s not gentrification. Gentrification often comes with kicking people out, and we’re not displacing anyone,” said Pastor. He went on to explain that they’re only refurbishing what was previously an abandoned space.
Beyond not actively displacing anyone, DeStefano doesn’t believe that the condo construction will have any major impact on the surrounding area. In his evaluation, gentrification has already transformed Westville, where the median household income stands at $85,395, more than double New Haven’s median of $38,482. But he is also skeptical in general of people’s current quickness to condemn gentrification.
“People always speak of gentrification with negative connotations,” DeStefano says. But he argues that gentrification is not an entirely adverse phenomenon and that perhaps it should be embraced, or at least tolerated as a valuable step in the evolution of the city.
Jim Paley, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services, has been a community leader in fighting for residents who have been displaced from their homes, and agrees with DeStefano’s sentiment. “New Haven has neighborhoods that are right next to one another; one of which might be all white, and one of which might be 97.5% black,” he said. “In order for these neighborhoods to be more diverse and more socioeconomically integrated, we need to have an influx of higher-income people coming into the neighborhood.”
In Paley’s eyes, displacement is a negative consequence of gentrification. In many areas outside Westville—notably downtown neighborhoods like the Hill—this gentrification has created significant tension as citizens are forced out of their homes and into increasingly unstable living conditions.
But when the influx of new residents adds economic diversity and displaces no one, it can strengthen communities. “Integrated, diverse neighborhoods are among the strongest, and those are the kinds of things we want to aspire to in New Haven,” Paley says. The condos at St. Aedan could prove to be an example of that.
The project at St. Aedan’s convent should pass approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals in the next few months, after which the additions and renovations will take about another year. Once completed, Pastor’s renderings show that the pitched roof and old brick facade will still look down McKinley Ave, altered only very slightly by a new enclosed stairway and elevator between the existing convent and its small chapel. Years after the last nuns took their rosaries and left, new inhabitants will find a home inside the brick arches and glass windows around the corner from St. Aedan’s Church.