Science Hill is proposed site of industrial park

Thirty years ago, Connecticut razed 26 acres of state land with plans to expand its highway system, but nothing actually happened. Decades later, those 26 acres are still empty. But plans by the Science Park Corporation may soon end the vacant condition of this area.

The Science Park Corporation, along with various other institutions, has been developing plans for an expansion of its current industrial park facility which is located past the Divinity School on Prospect Street.

Route 34 Biomedical Park, as the new site will be called, has been in the planning stages for nearly two years and "has been kicking around for a long time," according to Science Park Executive Vice President Paul McCraven. By renting the unused 26 acres from the state, Science Park will obtain the land necessary to provide 1,200,000 square feet of space for offices and research labs. Just one building is currently planned. This so-called "incubator building" will provide potential developers with the opportunity to rent a limited amount of office space while development of the land continues. The company is now looking for possible tenants to fill the site.

"We're hoping for ground-breaking within this year," an enthusiastic McCraven said. "The first building is very sophisticated so it should take about 18 months."

The Science Park staffers working on the Biomedical project have their work cut out for them, McCraven said. The company received about $5 million in seed money from the state and a commitment from Yale University to rent space in the new buildings. Despite this support, the project still needs serious fundraising.

The premise behind the area is the same as that of Science Park. The company will try to attract startup companies and help them develop their corporations. While Science Park companies are more industrial on the whole, such as the rifle manufacturer and the metal shop currently located there, the Biomedical Park plans to focus on the emerging field of Biomedical research and engineering.

"[The Park is] a real opportunity because of its proximity to the Medical School and the Yale/New Haven Hospital," McCraven said.

Representatives from the major institutions in the area, including Yale and New Haven, sit on the board of the project. Community involvement has also been strong, and the Science Park Corporation, according to McCraven, has put "communities at the table all along."

Linda Townsend of the Dwight Corporation, a community association that represents the Dwight/Howe neighborhoods, is one of those community representatives. "My aim is that it enhances the community, as opposed to taking away from it--that's my personal agenda," Townsend said.

The company's plans have not met with universal approval. In Dollars and Sense magazine, GESO member Lauren Appelbaum, GRD '99, criticized the park in a scathing article which also broached topics such as Yale's "union-busting."

"[Biomedical Park] would become a gentrified moat protecting the white-upper-middle-class University, and poor black and Hispanic residents would be forced into the Hill," Appelbaum wrote. She also mentioned the potential of biohazardous material coming from the facility and being stored in the area.

McCraven said he did not understand how anyone would have that reaction to the Biomedical Park project, reiterating that all surrounding communities were involved in the planning stages and would benefit from the "taxes, jobs, and stability" that the Park would bring. All Environmental Protection Agency regulations and disposals procedures would be followed regarding biohazards, he said.

Despite the financial and political challenges it may face, the Biomedical Park project is a more promising future for New Haven than Connecticut's abandoned highway plans of 30 years ago.