NEW HAVEN — A union issue in New York is threatening to spill into New Haven as the city continues to vet a potential developer for the former Veterans Memorial Coliseum site downtown.

The city has narrowed the field to three teams, but it is most interested now in two, Northland of Massachusetts and Archstone of Colorado.

The Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ, has written to the city, charging that maintenance personnel at Archstone’s new residential complex at 515 W. 52nd St. are paid less than the prevailing New York City wage, which 32BJ generally sets, according to Kurt Westby, Connecticut director of 32BJ.

“With one in four people in New Haven already living in poverty, the city cannot afford to approve a developer who may undercut wage standards for the workers who maintain the new development,” Westby says in a letter to city Economic Development Administrator Kelly Murphy.

But Matthew T. Smith, executive vice president of Archstone, in a response to the Westby’s letter, said maintenance personnel at nine of 11 apartment buildings they own in New York are unionized, eight of them by 32BJ.

“As a company, we support our associate’s rights under the Labor Relations Board to organize or not organize in a democratic fashion,” Smith wrote.

Lee Bloch, vice-president for mixed-used projects at Archstone, said his company is “union neutral. If our employees want to organize, they organize and they can choose whatever union they want.”

Lynzcy Kryzwick, spokeswoman for 32BJ in New York, however, said 32BJ was already representing property service workers at eight Archstone buildings, before Archstone acquired them.

Archstone became privately owned in October 2007 “after merging with and into a partnership jointly controlled by Tishman Speyer and Lehman Brothers,” according to a company statement.

As of the end of 2007, Archstone’s portfolio included 416 apartment complexes, which they either owned outright or in partnership, for a total of 86,389 units, the company said.

Archstone Clinton is the high-rise luxury apartment complex in two-24-story towers with ground-floor retail at 52nd Street and 10th Avenue that is the subject of Westby’s complaint. Rents start at $2,960 for a studio apartment in the 627-unit complex.

“It is particularly concerning to us that they are undercutting the wage standard adopted by 90 percent of other luxury buildings in New York City,” Kryzwick said. “This should be a serious consideration for choosing the developer in New Haven.”

Archstone has also built a shell for two nonprofit theaters at the West 52nd St. complex. An important component of New Haven’s proposed development in Ninth Square is re-location of Long Wharf Theatre to the site. As part of vetting the potential developers here, city officials have visited the building in New York.

Two years ago, Local 32BJ organized maintenance workers at the office buildings in New Haven, but not residential apartments.

All three developers still in the running propose variations of housing, retail, commercial, parking and Long Wharf Theatre on the Coliseum site, while Archstone, which is partnering with C.A. White, Charter Realty & Development, Pelli Clarke Pelli architects and DRC, also includes a boutique hotel.

Westby said if a developer seeks public assistance, he would like to see a commitment to reasonable wages and health care for workers in the building.

Tony Bialecki, deputy economic development director in New Haven, said under current city rules, if there were a subsidy for a city project, such as with the Becker and Becker building at State Street, the developer must agree to pay prevailing construction wages and hire a certain percentage of minorities.

The Board of Aldermen also, as part of redeveloping the Coliseum, adopted specific language on unionization if a hotel were located on the site.

The developer must agree to a “neutrality agreement” and “not interfere with the formation of a union.”

Bialecki said they have never faced such a situation involving service workers.

“We certainly would be open to having discussions with the developer. I doubt that any developer in this day and age would have any problem negotiating with a union,” he said.