Property Sales Roundup: Early Ed Center Expands

9.9.2022

Property Sales Roundup: Early Ed Center Expands

By Thomas Breen

New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT — A Fair Haven Heights-based early childhood education nonprofit continued its citywide expansion by purchasing two adjacent commercial buildings in Westville Village for $1.995 million.

That was one of the latest local property transactions, as recorded on New Haven’s online land records database. (See below for a full roundup of recent city property sales.)

On Aug. 31, the Friends Center for Children Inc. purchased the two-story, four-unit office building at 881 Whalley Ave. and the single-story, four-unit retail building at 883 Whalley Ave. from 881 Whalley LLC for $1.995 million.

That two-building, 0.55-acre property last sold for $343,688 in 2019. The city last appraised it as worth $1,557,100.

The seller of the property is an affiliate of the local megalandlord Ocean Management, while the new owner is a Quaker-influenced early childhood education program that currently operates out of locations on East Grand Avenue and Blake Street.

This latest purchase comes less than a month after the Friends Center bought the now-closed former Ciné 4 movie theater property at 371 Middletown Ave. / 25 Flint St. for $1.3 million — with plans to convert that 1.93-acre site into a bustling campus for affordable early childhood education. It also comes as the Friends Center plans to open yet another childcare center at the future Dixwell Plaza redevelopment to be built by ConnCORP.

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