Builder Buys Fire-Damaged House, Eyes Another Restoration

A Bethany-based builder who has spent the past two decades rehabbing rundown local rental properties has purchased — and begun fixing up — a three-family house on Elm Street that has been vacant ever since an October 2024 fatal fire. That small-scale developer, Ferdinand Escoffery, made the purchase just as he is finishing building four new apartments at the site of another fire-damaged house , on Colby Court in Upper Westville. “OK, I need my next project,” he recalled thinking in a recent interview with the Independent. That next project will be 516 Elm St. — where 32-year-old Kenneth Mims died by suicide in a fire in October 2024 , and where Escoffery now plans to gut-rehab and restore three apartments. According to the city’s land records database, Escoffery’s company National Construction LLC purchased 516 Elm St. on May 22 for $240,000. The property’s previous owner was 56-58 Avon Street LLP, a company controlled by the oft-cited landlord Jianchao “JC” Xu, also of Bethany. The three-family house last sold for $109,900 in 2009, and the city last appraised it for tax purposes as worth $300,000. City land records also show that Escoffery’s company received a $392,000 mortgage loan for 516 Elm St. on May 22 from Pinnacle Financial Services 1 LLC. Escoffery, 49, said that he has spent the past two decades rehabbing dilapidated homes across New Haven. He estimated he’s restored or newly built more than 30 units of housing all across the city — from Hallock Avenue to Winchester Avenue to Dixwell Avenue to Colby Court. Born and raised in Jamaica, Escoffery trained as a furniture maker and carpenter. (“I used to love making French windows and doors,” he said.) He said he moved to New Haven roughly 25 years ago and worked for different contractors, including JT Construction, before starting his own business in 2003. Escoffery lived on Munson Street in New Haven up until 2010, when he said a stray bullet was shot into his home and “grazed” his stepdaughter. As much as he loves New Haven, he decided he needed to move his family out of town. He now lives in Bethany — while still working in New Haven. Escoffery said he had been in talks with Xu for a while about rehabbing 516 Elm St. “Finally, we closed the deal,” he said. “My plan for the building is to fully renovate it, bring it down to the studs, get rid of all the fire damage.” Escoffery said he’s done exactly this type of work before — most recently at 452 Dixwell Ave., a two-family house that was wrecked by a fire in July 2024. Working for the property’s owner, Escoffery renovated that building, which is now open and occupied again. Escoffery said he hopes to have 516 Elm St. rehabbed in the next four months or so. He’s already pulled an exploratory building permit and his team has begun cleaning out and gutting the property.