One of the first priorities identified in the plan was the need for additional space in the neighborhood elementary school. GDDC contributed a large part of the local match the New Haven Public Schools needed for State funding to build an addition including a gymnasium for the former neighborhood Timothy Dwight School. This was the first time a neighborhood group had provided most of the local match for a school construction project, and the beginning of a partnership with the New Haven Public School system.

The neighborhood through the Dwight Central Management Team, negotiated long-term community use of the new 10,000 square foot addition which opened in 2001. This agreement continues today with the Amistad Academy charter school that purchased the former Timothy Dwight School. GDDC and the DCMT worked with state legislators to ensure that neighborhood students be given priority within the required city-wide admissions lottery for the Amistad Academy Elementary School.
 

GDDC worked with a private developer on this $15 million project, partnering with the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) and its subsidiary The Retail Initiative (TRI). A $1 million grant from the State of CT to GDDC ensured the neighborhood’s investment and role in  the project. The Yale Law Clinic played a major role in negotiating the terms of the agreement and drafting the legal documents. The Plaza is now owned by a GDDC-affiliated corporation. Shaw’s Supermarket opened in the Plaza in 1998 as the initial anchor supermarket, a first in this decade for the neighborhood, followed by Stop and Shop.  

By bringing Shaw’s and Stop & Shop to its urban community, GDDC created a shopping experience for New Haven usually found in the upscale suburbs. Building on this successful development, GDDC negotiated the development of the Stop & Shop Fueling Station on an abandoned site adjacent to the shopping center in 2011. Thanks go to the City of New Haven which conveyed this property to GDDC.

GDDC negotiated a contract with Stop & Shop to create a new fueling station in an empty lot formerly an abandoned gas station on lower Whalley Avenue. The lot was a dead spot in the neighborhood and the site of numerous undesirable activities. GDDC and DCMT were committed to rebuilding lower Whalley Avenue as it is the gateway for northwestern residents into New Haven. The City of New Haven owned the lot and sold it to one of GDDC’s subsidiary corporations under a Land Disposition Agreement so that it would be developed as a fueling station. 

GDDC worked with local, state, federal and institutional partners to raise $3 million to build the Alvis Brooker Building at 230 Edgewood Avenue which houses the GDDC offices and the Montessori School on Edgewood. The Yale Urban Design Workshop provided the design and construction supervision for a strikingly modern structure.

The Montessori School on Edgewood (MSOE) opened in 2006. It is the first publicly supported Montessori School in New Haven. GDDC developed the school with the support of the New Haven School Readiness Program and the CT Department of Social Services in order to provide full-day, full-year childcare and learning experience for children six months to five years old. Because of the availability of several City, State and Federal subsidies, and a generous grant from the William Casper Graustein Memorial Fund, children of all income levels are able to attend MSOE.

The Montessori Teacher Training with Gateway Community College and the Center for Montessori Teacher Education and Minority Workers Training Program with the Federal Department of Labor were both created to assist both the new school and the neighborhood residents.