A Plan in New Haven to Right a Highway's Wrong NEW HAVEN - In the 1950s, this city, like others, believed that the best way to get people back from the suburbs was to build more highways. A result was the Oak Street Connector, a limited-access spur off Interstate 95 leading to the central business district. The thought was to make it easy for suburbanites to drive in and spend money downtown, instead of at new shopping centers on the outskirts. But like other urban renewal projects from the era, what seemed like a good idea at the time is now considered by many to have been a big mistake. The highway, part of Route 34, severed the Hill neighborhood from the heart of downtown and hastened the Hill's decline, because nobody wanted to walk across a wide, busy highway to get to the neighborhood, according to city leaders, business owners and residents. This has been a problem for the fortunes of the Hill in general, as well as for Yale University, whose medical, nursing and public health schools and hospital are there, and for the growing medical industry that has sprung up around it in recent years. But city officials say help is on the way from Downtown Crossing, a $135 million redevelopment plan that has been years in the making. Echoing recent efforts by San Francisco, Milwaukee and Boston to alter or remove their highways, Downtown Crossing targets a one-mile, mostly sunken section of the connector running roughly between Orange and College Streets. Though details are still being worked out, the plan calls for building streets, sidewalks and buildings on platforms above the existing highway. The city's grid in the area would be restored, creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment, and the Hill would be reattached. The highway will have fewer exits into the city and will lead directly into parking garages. Downtown Crossing would create 10 acres of new, developable property and increase the tax rolls, according to the city's Office of Economic and Business Development, which is overseeing the project. This summer, the project took a major step closer to reality, although some opposition exists. In June, Winstanley Enterprises, a Massachusetts-based developer that has been awarded a two-and-a-half-acre parcel where it intends to build a 426,000-square-foot office tower, lined up a major tenant. The tenant, Alexion Pharmaceuticals of nearby Cheshire, will take 325,000 square feet in a 12-year lease, though the rent was not disclosed. The 11-story building, to be called 100 College Street, has mostly sailed through the city's approval process, which culminates on Aug. 6, when the Board of Alderman will vote on a necessary rezoning. The project, which includes ground-floor retail and is ringed with plazas, is scheduled to break ground next year, after a $35 million state project to realign the highway is finished. The tower is expected to open in 2015. Having an anchor tenant is critical in securing financing for the $100 million project. No lenders have committed yet, but Carter Winstanley, a principal of Winstanley Enterprises, said that with an anchor tenant, financing should be easy. Alexion will relocate to 100 College from Cheshire, where 300 employees work in a handful of buildings, though it will keep facilities in Rhode Island and Cambridge, Mass., according to Irving Adler, a spokesman. The company, a global operation with 1,100 employees that did $783 million in business last year, makes Soliris, which treats a rare blood disorder. It's also a homecoming for Alexion, which was founded in 1992 in New Haven and relocated to Cheshire in 2000. Sweetening the deal was a $51 million incentive package from the state to help keep the company here. Some of the state loans, grants and tax credits are dependent on Alexion's creating 200 to 300 new jobs by 2017. Mr. Adler praised the biotech hub emerging in this part of New Haven, adding that "the move enables us to keep pace with our growth and expand into a state-of-the-art facility." Most of Alexion's employees, at least initially, will commute from Cheshire and other suburban towns, meaning they will most likely drive cars into New Haven every morning. While the rezoning for the 100 College development did not require the developer to put in additional parking, there will be a six-story, 850-space parking garage.