Former gun factory to be renovated into homes

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A breakthrough in plans to revitalize New Haven's old Winchester Repeating Arms factory. A financial business just finished renovating one section.

For 140 years, guns were made in the building. Now, a developer is taking a shot at turning the old factory into homes.

"Well, I think we're really excited because it's preserving a great piece of history in the Winchester rifle factory, but it's also developing a product we don't have enough of in the city in loft housing," said Kelly Murphy, New Haven Economic Development Director.

However, developer Forest City was having trouble getting investors to cough up quite enough money to start what its calling "Winchester Lofts." However, now the State of Connecticut has come through with $4 million.

Usually when we talk about a new development coming to town, we show you artists' renderings of what the individual units are going to look like. In this case, the developer says, that whole design process was put on hold because of the trouble with the finances.

We do know that the buildings clean up well. A student financial company called "Higher One" opened up its corporate headquarters there earlier this year. That's expected to bring more than 300 jobs to the City's Newhallville section.

Winchester Lofts will bring cost an estimated $53 million when completed. The developer won't even give an estimate when that will be. Obviously, there's a lot of work to do.

"And 700,000 square feet is a lot to develop," said Murphy. "We always assumed it would be developed over time and in phases, and this would be the second phase of the project which would be 153 units of housing."

And 32 of those will be priced as affordable housing for people with low income.