David Waldman is at the forefront of balancing Westport”™s strong daytime retail presence with a thriving nightlife that has eluded the town since a restrictive liquor rule was imposed.
“We”™ve always been a successful retail downtown and we still are,” said Waldman, president of David Adam Realty. “But we really have a nightlife issue and I think the town now has the incentive, drive and motivation to change that. The developers who are doing work in this area are under the same feeling.”
The Westport Planning and Zoning Commission, working with the Westport Downtown Merchants Association, last fall did away with its “1,500-foot rule,” which prohibited establishments with liquor licenses to be within that distance of one another. Waldman said the change is considered low- hanging fruit as the town looks at re-evaluating its zoning rules. Waldman is the former president of the merchants group and is currently vice president.
“There have been some zoning regulations put in place over the years that have had a negative effect on businesses,” said Larry Bradley, director of the planning and zoning commission. “The 1,500-foot rule was one we could very simply see didn”™t make much sense and do away with.”
The rule came about as a way of keeping Westport”™s downtown from becoming a “bar town.”
Waldman said, “what it really did was prohibit new restaurants and establishments and much of a nightlife from thriving at all.” He said the demand for nightlife was pushed to South Norwalk and Fairfield, each of which now has thriving dining and bar environments, and had also spawned the terms “Fairfield envy” and “SoNo Envy,” used avidly by the public to describe what is missing from Westport”™s downtown.
“By the time we”™re done, Fairfield County will have Westport envy,” Waldman said. “What we do with the nightlife directly relates to the further development of our daytime culture.”
As soon as the 1,500-foot rule was dropped, Waldman began work on a project that is bringing the well-known Southport restaurant Gray Goose Cafe to Westport on Church Lane. The project is reflective of the care necessary to develop in Westport. David Adam Realty moved the historic 1802 Federal-style Sherwood House, which will be home to the restaurant, eight feet closer to the street in order to preserve the building rather than level it. The restaurant will occupy about 3,500 square feet on the ground floor and the second floor will be 2,000 square feet of commercial office space.
Restaurants such as Rizutto”™s and Mario Batalli”™s Tarry Lodge, have also entered the area in the short time since the 1,500-foot rule was dropped.
The Gray Goose project is directly next to another large David Adam Realty development that by spring will bring the trendy retailer Urban Outfitters to the town.
Urban Outfitters will also be bringing its concept store Terrain to Westport. The store would be located in the former Curran Cadillac property at 561 Post Road East and is second in the country. It will sell garden equipment, offer landscaping services and incorporate dining and other retail.
Gordon Joseloff, Westport town selectman, said Waldman”™s attention to the details of the town are what have positioned him as the “poster boy” of the positive evolution of the town.
“David is Westport through and through,” Joseloff said. “He has a very good feel for the community and has deep ties to all areas of the town; that”™s a
very attractive quality to have in one of your prime downtown developers.”
Joseloff said Westport does have a protective mentality toward change, and through voices like Waldman”™s it has become apparent that it is possible to remold the town for the better without losing its distinct characteristics.
“You can see in a number of properties he is working on he is very sensitive and aware to the character of the community,” said Joseloff. He said the anti-social nightlife mentality of Westport hasn”™t just touched on its restaurants and bars, but its other nightlife elements like cinema.
“There was a time when Westport’s downtown had five cinemas, now we have none,” Joseloff said.
Currently the Westport Cinema Initiative is in talks with the town”™s planning and zoning commission to reverse that, going through the approval processes for an overlay district. The new district zoning would allow the nonprofit to partner with a developer and build a cinema arts theater. With little surprise Waldman is on the board of the cinema panel.
“We are not looking for a large theater, but something more refined like the Jacob Burns theater in Pleasantville, New York,” Waldman said. “We are in need of elements that promote a sense of community here that many people feel has been lost.”
Waldman also has been involved in the town’s discussion of a project looking to approve the Baldwin lot to be built out into a parking garage, allowing riverside space to be converted into green walking areas. His opinions on the project were given as a resident of Westport, and vice president of the Downtown Merchants Association. Waldman said the parking garage, as it is being proposed will not be visible from the street, but rather go underground and be fronted by additional retail.
“We are really on an upswing in Westport,” Bradley said. “We are fortunate to have developers like David who have a lot of ideas and are interested in promoting a distinct Westport flavor of activity in our downtown. There”™s a lot of buzz.”
Waldman”™s most exciting project may yet be in the future; he and three other partners have a project on the boards called Bedford Square and managed as Bedford Square Associates, which includes Waldman, Lance Sauerteig , Dan Zelson and Paul Brandes. According to the pre-application for the project, the development plans to convert the downtown Westport Weston Family Y and the adjacent property at 35 Church Lane into a mixed-use complex that would include residential, retail and commercial spaces when the Y relocates to its new site at Camp Mahackeno.
The project calls for around 60,000 to 70,000 square feet for restaurant and retail space, more than 40 condominiums, approximately 100 parking spaces in an underground garage and public pedestrian areas.
