Alexandra Daum and Lauren Zucker, Yale News

As associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, Lauren Zucker oversaw the historic $52-million increase in Yale’s voluntary contribution to the city, the recruitment of national retailers and Black-owned local businesses to downtown, the consolidation of Yale’s dominance on Broadway and over $3 million in pandemic assistance to New Haven nonprofits. 

After 13 years in the role, Zucker retired last Thursday, with Alexandra Daum, the former state Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner and a New Haven real estate entrepreneur, taking her place as one of the key players in town-gown relations.

“Lauren’s been passionate. She’s a connector,” said Patricia Melton, who has worked with Zucker on almost a daily basis as president of New Haven Promise, a scholarship program for New Haven students that is partially funded by Yale. “She has brought us resources that help us to do our job better to strengthen us and connect us to other nonprofits. I really can’t think of a better partner.”

Daum inherits an Office of New Haven affairs that has become increasingly intertwined with the city and its residents, but nevertheless has received criticism over the University’s control of retail districts such as those branded as “The Shops at Yale.” 

After the University’s purchase of 59 Broadway in November, Yale’s residential property management company notified non-Yale tenants that they would have to leave at the end of the year in accordance with Yale’s affiliate-only leasing policy. A petition calling for Yale to make an exception to this policy has amassed over 630 signatures with signees condemning the University’s “takeover,” which the petition calls “disrespectful.”

Zucker did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the affiliate-only policy. 

Carol Lopez Horsford, founder and broker at Farnam Realty Group in New Haven, also foresees Daum facing difficulties attracting business to the University’s retail properties post-pandemic. Lopez Horsford said consumers are now more interested in instant shipping than shopping in person, posing challenges to the bottom line of Yale’s retail tenants. She said that balancing student needs with New Haven demand will add another layer to this dynamic. 

“The University just has to figure out what they want to do,” Horsford said. “Are they for our students or are they for New Haven or are they going to try to do both? That’s for them to decide.”

Farnam Realty Group, Horsford’s company, has previously managed properties in New Haven for Daum. Hosford described Daum as a “dynamic leader” with an “entrepreneurial spirit.” 

Daniel O’Keefe, commissioner-delegate for the Connecticut DECD who previously worked for Daum when she was commissioner, also praised Daum’s leadership. O’Keefe said that Daum possesses a “fundamental understanding of how to support a community’s growth” with a focus on creating vibrant spaces of both residential and commercial use. 

“Part of what [Daum] really led was a balance between economic growth and lifting up communities that have suffered from structural inequity,” O’Keefe said. “[Her departure] was a loss for the state. I would have worked for her forever. She showed authenticity, great judgment, leadership and empathy.” 

Since joining the DECD in 2020, Daum fostered community development initiatives such as the Community Investment Fund 2030, which provides up to $875 million to projects focusing on economic development in “historically underserved communities” in Connecticut. Another initiative Daum headed, the Connecticut Communities Challenge Grant program, awarded a $6 million grant to New Haven to implement public safety and traffic improvement on Grand Avenue in the Fair Haven neighborhood.

Prior to her tenure as commissioner, Daum founded Field Properties, a real estate investment firm in New Haven. Daum, a New Haven resident, has also worked in real estate development at Trammell Crow Residential in Northern California and served as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company. 

“Living in New Haven has illuminated for me just how much potential Connecticut cities have,” Daum told the News in 2022, following the announcement of her appointment as commissioner. “It just illuminates how important it is to have these dense, urban centers where you have academia, culture, retail, office, residential all in one place, all accessible by foot.” 

Daum declined to be interviewed for this article, citing her newness to the role.

Yale’s official announcement of Zucker’s retirement listed the Office of New Haven Affairs’s support of New Haven’s booming biotech industry, close partnerships with community organizations and millions in aid to nonprofits supporting New Haveners during the pandemic, including over $700,000 to combat food insecurity, as some of Zucker’s biggest accomplishments. 

In order to ensure the survival of their retail tenants during the pandemic, Yale University Properties paused and reduced rents for its tenants, Zucker wrote to the News. She said that no tenants were forced to close. 

“That being said, it has been a true team effort and any achievement would not have been possible without the great work of my colleagues in the Office of New Haven Affairs, and the strong support of and engagement with our community and our civic partners,” Zucker wrote in a statement to the News. 

Zucker declined to comment on her future plans or the challenges she faced as associate vice president. 

Melton, the president of New Haven Promise, said that Yale has been “wonderful” and supportive of the organization’s mission to make college and a stable career accessible for New Haven public school students. Melton specifically noted an annual internship fair hosted at the Schwarzman Center, Yale’s hiring of dozens of New Haven Promise scholars as interns and a University-funded scholarship for students seeking a degree at a historically Black college or university. 

Mayor Justin Elicker told the News that Zucker played a role in the 2021 negotiations between the city and the University that resulted in a $52-million increase in Yale’s voluntary contribution to New Haven over the course of six years. The 2021 agreement also established the community development-focused Center for Inclusive Growth and a new policy requiring Yale to offset tax revenues lost by the city when switching properties to tax-exempt uses. 

“Over the past 4 years, the relationship between Yale and the city has dramatically improved,” Elicker said. “Much of that is because of [University President Peter Salovey’s] willingness to really take a significant step forward in Yale’s engagement and contribution with the City. And I mean that not just because of financial contribution to the city and the other components of our understanding, but in general, about the communication and better understanding that we need to be partners.”

Looking toward the future, Elicker said that he sees potential in Yale’s investment in historically underserved communities and affordable housing. Elicker added that he was “heartened” by the appointment of Daum to associate vice president, who he knows through her work in the city, noting that she “deeply cares” about New Haven. 

The Office of New Haven Affairs expanded to include University Properties in 2014.