The Vision · North Haven, CT

Introducing Sackett & Elm: A New Vision for North Haven

A walkable village by Bruce Pond, where North Haven will live, shop, dine, and gather in one place. Here is the plan, the location, and the thinking behind it.

The Sackett & Elm village — a new walkable destination for North Haven.

North Haven has always known how to balance everyday convenience with a real sense of place. The Sackett & Elm Project is being built with that same balance in mind — a walkable, village-style community where people can live, shop, dine, and spend time, all in one connected destination.

Set on an underused site near Sackett Point Road and Elm Street, just off Interstate 91 and wrapped around Bruce Pond, the project brings together apartments, a grocery-anchored retail center, restaurants, offices, a daycare, walking trails, and a central town green. The idea is simple: take a quiet, overlooked parcel and turn it into a place the whole community can use.

What Is the Sackett & Elm Project?

The Sackett & Elm Project is a mixed-use development in North Haven, Connecticut. The plan calls for up to 400 new apartments across two residential buildings, alongside roughly 100,000 to 125,000 square feet of commercial space for grocery, restaurant, retail, and service uses — all organized around a town green, a daycare, and a network of walking trails that follow the edge of Bruce Pond.

"Mixed-use" simply means these uses live together rather than apart. Instead of housing in one place and shopping in another, a resident can walk downstairs for coffee, a visitor can park once and spend an afternoon, and the town green stays active because there is always a reason to be there. It is designed to feel like a place, not just a collection of buildings.

Where Is the Site?

The site sits near the intersection of Sackett Point Road and Elm Street, with access planned from both. It is minutes from Interstate 91, putting it within easy reach of New Haven, Hartford, and the wider region — the kind of local-access-plus-highway-proximity that works for residents and retail tenants alike.

Then there is Bruce Pond. Rather than treat the water as a constraint, the plan orients the open space, walking trails, and gathering areas around it — the sort of natural amenity most developments have to manufacture from scratch. Today the parcel is largely underused. Sackett & Elm turns it into something the whole area can enjoy.

Concept art of the walkable village core and town green.

What Will Be Built?

People want specifics, so here is what the plan brings together:

Who Is Behind It?

The Sackett & Elm Project is being developed by Haynes Group, a family-founded company that has been building in New Haven County since 1985. Haynes is not new to this kind of work — and the best way to understand what they are building here is to look at what they have already done one valley over.

Quarry Walk, Oxford, CT — a former quarry transformed into a walkable town center by Haynes Group.

In Oxford, Haynes turned a former quarry into Quarry Walk — a 30-acre, grocer-anchored, walkable community that residents and visitors now use to live, work, and play. It is the first community of its kind in the state, with luxury apartments, a town green that hosts events all year, and a mix of national names and locally owned shops. Sackett & Elm draws on that same playbook.

Why It Matters for North Haven

A village-style development does more than add buildings. Quarry Walk offers a real-world preview of the kind of impact a project like this brings to a Connecticut town — new local jobs, a stronger tax base, and everyday amenities within walking distance. Sackett & Elm brings that same combination of activity and convenience to North Haven, on a site that is currently doing very little for the community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Renderings and concept art are for illustrative purposes. Final design, square footages, unit counts, and uses may be refined as the Sackett & Elm Project advances.