GOOGLE MAP
Under consideration: the building labeled “158 Main” and the one labeled “New Headings” in this Google Map image.
There’s a public hearing scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday in Ansonia City Hall about whether the city’s planning and zoning commission should allow a downtown building owner to convert office space into market-rate apartments.
A company called TTM158 LLC — own two buildings on Main Street: 158 Main St., roughly opposite Seccombe’s Men’s Shop, and 200 Main St., opposite the Wells Fargo Bank.
The LLC’s owners include Tony Mavulli, who owned Villa Bianca in Seymour, and his son, Tonino.
158 Main St., built in 1988, has four floors. 200 Main St., built in 1923, has three floors.
According to meeting minutes from a March 25 Planning and Zoning meeting, the plan (which could change) calls for seven apartments on the third and fourth floor of 158 Main St. The lower two floors would remain commercial.
The upper floors would be a mix of studio and one-bedroom apartments, along with one two-bedroom, according to the meeting minutes. Those same minutes also state the apartments in both buildings would not be “low income.”
Rents would range from $1,000 to $1,300.
Over at 200 Main St., the office space on the upper two floors would be converted into 19 apartments — studios, along with one-and-two-bedrooms.
Parking could be a wrinkle for the proposal. As it stands, 158 Main St. was approved for 70 parking spaces, according to meeting minutes. 200 Main St. already has access to 79 parking spaces.
That’s almost in-line with what would be needed for residential, though the parking is sure to be reviewed at length by the commission.
There is currently public parking at the Ansonia train station directly behind 158 Main St., on-street parking along West Main Street, and a large municipal lot between the Ansonia train station and the Ansonia Rescue Medical Services building.
Right now there are two nonprofit tenants in 158 Main St. — BHcare program services on the fourth floor, and The Valley Independent Sentinel on the third. Statewide Appraisal Service, a business owned by Tonino Mavuli. An accounting firm in the building moved to Shelton within the past year.
200 Main St. has at least three tenants.
Both 158 and 200 Main St. have had high turnover. The Valley Independent Sentinel, at just 10 years old, is 158 Main St.‘s longest current tenant. An insurance agency, a state office, two medical offices, and an accounting firm have all come and gone over the past decade.
In an email, Tonino Mavuli said the market for office space on Main Street Ansonia just isn’t strong — but newly-constructed apartments are doing well.
“The market for apartments is great right now,” Mavuli said. “Most buildings are operating at 90 percent plus occupancy. They fill up quickly when there are vacancies. We can’t say that with office tenants.”
Ansonia isn’t the only place where office space is being converted into apartments. On Elizabeth Street in Derby, the upper floors of an office building near the Green was converted into apartments. In Seymour, a former school was converted into apartments.
Mavuli said the office-rental market as whole is depressed, making it even harder to compete with places such as Shelton, where there is a much higher volume of new office space.
“Business offices want to be around other offices, and we just don’t have that in Ansonia,” Mavuli said. “And now Shelton has lowered office space there to $12 to $14 per square foot for nice spaces that were at least $20 a square foot five or six years ago.”
Mavuli said he didn’t arrive at the idea to convert from office space to apartments overnight.
“We were offering a year free rent, build out and $10 per square foot and couldn’t get any interest,” he said.
Click here for a letter from the city’s planning and zoning chairman that makes people aware of Monday’s meeting.
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