Vita District Redevelopment & Stamford Hospital

Stamford, Connecticut

The Vita District is an excellent example of organizations that are aligned by a shared desire to effect positive change in their community. With a half-billion addition underway, Stamford Hospital has long-served Stamford’s West Side neighborhood, and is seeking innovative approaches to health, wellness, and preventative care for residents. Additionally, they need strategies to accommodate their long-term growth plans in a land-constrained community.

Charter Oak Communities, a nonprofit, has had success implementing best practice community development initiatives over a period of decades, and has turned its attention to Stillwater Avenue (the West Side’s business district) as a means to catalyze the local economy.

Development Strategies identified market-based development opportunities to rejuvenate Stillwater Avenue, including mixed-income housing, senior housing, storefront retail (including a green grocer), medical office, and institutional space.

Working alongside David Gamble Associates, a catalyst project was identified to accommodate identified demand for a mix of uses in a new mixed-use building. Development Strategies modeled several financial and legal arrangements for the lynchpin of the project—a new, 500 space parking garage that will serve the hospital and the Stillwater corridor’s business district.

Using the economic analysis provided by Development Strategies, Charter Oaks Communities is assembling the necessary gap funding from local, state, and federal sources, in order to get the mixed-use catalyst developed.