Ikea seeks to turn New Haven’s Pirelli building into hotel

The Pirelli building on Sargent Drive in New Haven The Pirelli building on Sargent Drive in New Haven Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Ikea seeks to turn New Haven’s Pirelli building into hotel 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN — It has been 16 years since the city enumerated a number of good uses for the architecturally significant Marcel Breuer Modernist building on Sargent Drive, but it continued to remain empty.

Next week, however, Ikea, the Swedish furniture store, which owns the onetime office building, is on the City Plan Commission agenda seeking approval to repurpose the structure to a 165-room hotel.

The potential hotel operator is not identified in the site plan documents, which cover parking, storm drainage, landscaping and lighting.

The letter to the commission says the “expectation (is) that the building will become an attractive purchase opportunity as a hotel. This approval will fulfill New Haven’s need for new hotel rooms, while rejuvenating a long vacant, architecturally significant building at the gateway to Long Wharf and downtown.”

The interior plans would be something that are reviewed by the building department, not City Plan.

The site was approved in 2002 by the Board of Alders as a Planned Development District which allowed for construction of an Ikea retail center with abundant parking.

The city has been talking to Ikea officials for some time about using the Breur building for a hotel, but there had been concerns on the part of the retailer that such a reuse not take away from its parking needs.

The narrative accompanying the proposed site plan said the Planning District Development set a minimum parking standard of 4.18 spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross retail floor area, which applies to the entire PDD for all its uses.

The application said it was understood that Ikea would be the largest traffic generator and that the parking could be shared with other uses. The number of spaces will remain the same and there likely will be agreements stipulating that parking for Ikea customers not be reduced.

The 100 Sargent Drive site originally was approved as a PDD for the proposed Galleria Mall, which died after a full-bore campaign against it by a competitor — Westfield Properties, which at the time owned the Connecticut Post Mall in Milford.

The concrete Breur tower is commonly referred to as the Pirelli building after Pirelli S.p.A., a tire company, bought it from the the Armstrong Rubber Co., which had commissioned it as its headquarters.

The only change to the building was made in 2002, when a warehouse that was attached at the back was demolished.

The owners said they plan to plant trees that will “complement the existing landscape ... and to provide privacy at the landscaped garden space north of the building”

As far as lighting is concerned, fixtures will be installed on decorative 16-foot-high aluminum poles. The plan said they will be “dark sky compliant with a hidden light source and sharp cutoff to provide the safe light levels for the proposed parking and pedestrian areas.”

The proposal sent to City Plan said there are no changes proposed for the exterior of the building, “although the facade will be cleaned and deteriorating elements will be replaced. The existing sign structure will also be retained.”

New Haven, which needs more hotel rooms, now has a number of approved and planned hotels around the downtown areas.

Randy Salvatore of RMS Companies is building a long-term stay hotel on George and High streets; Spinnaker Real Estate Investments is looking to convert 80 Elm St. to a small hotel, a property that originally was a church before it was a bank.

David Kuperberg’s company has been approved to build a 105-unit apartment complex with 21 hotel rooms at 85 Elm St. near Church Street. Also, a plan has been in place for years to build a hotel on Route 34 near the Continuum of Care headquarters.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577