Stanley Seligson stepped from a sleek black import beside 145 Main St. in Norwalk recently. It was a bright, breezy summer day and he smiled, shaking hands with a confident grip. The building just reached 100 percent occupancy.
The success of 50,000 square feet of commercial space at 145 Main St. for Seligson is only part of a much larger equation that, as he and Seligson Properties Director Jeffrey Kaplan see it, is helping transform Norwalk into a destination.
Among other initiatives, Seligson is the driving force behind the Waypointe mixed-use developments in Norwalk. The first of 480
phase-one apartments are now on the market and Kaplan said interest has exceeded market expectations, with 150 already rented.
Waypointe”™s two phases will eventually total 774 apartments and 90,000 square feet of commercial space. Big-picture ideas incorporating the words “business” and “Norwalk” have dominated Seligson”™s entire professional life.
The Waypointe venture has taken two decades to piece together. Seligson assembled the properties, eventually bringing in Greenwich-based Belpointe to manage the project”™s finances and to be the official development partner. Belpointe now runs its Belpointe Real Estate office at 467 West Ave. in Norwalk, headed by Paxton Kinol. Phase one is nearby on the east side of West Avenue. The office houses Belpointe”™s real estate development team and serves as headquarters for the Waypointe project.
Kaplan and Seligson still seek the old adage “location, location, location,” and their data reflect that ethos. Kaplan called Waypointe “the most valuable dirt in Fairfield County ”” fully developable at the nexus of I-95, Route 1, West Avenue and the Route 7 connector that leads to the Merritt Parkway.” He called it the “easiest-to-get-to” property for commercial tenants.
“It”™s going to make Norwalk a destination,” Kaplan said, citing Waypointe amenities set to include a pedestrian-only restaurant row and expanded shopping opportunities.
Seligson called Waypointe”™s restaurant scenario “a very eclectic piazza, public gathering place and destination.”
The first phase is costing about $400 million to develop and along with the 480 apartments holds a thousand-slot garage. “The response has been above projections on the rentals,” Kaplan said. Phase two is expected to break ground in early 2015 when construction begins on The Berkeley, a 150-apartment building across the street from the Loehmann”™s Plaza, which the Waypointe partnership owns.
Waypointe will have the Stepping Stones and Lockwood-Mathews museums for neighbors, providing open public space on the Norwalk River. Kaplan, who identifies himself as “a reverse commuter” ”” a Miami-born Fairfield County resident ”” is secretary on the Stepping Stones Museum for Children board of directors.
Seligson has lived in Fairfield County most of his life, now in Westport. He said all his business enterprises ”” whether a catalog business or the region”™s largest distributor of tobacco and candy ”” have been conducted in Norwalk, dating to the 1970s. He admits to being older than 40, but no more. In those years, his grasp of all things Norwalk has morphed into a grand business synergy.
Waypointe is a game changer, Seligson said, but the less-flashy 145 Main St. building offers its own economic dynamic.
Seligson bought the then-20,000-square-foot building in 1986. Since then he has added 30,000 square feet and will soon announce that a fifth tenant, still unnamed, will join a Weston-Westport YMCA Gymnastics Center facility; Keystone Inc., a disabled-services provider; excavation, demolition and carting company Amec; and a children”™s fun center to push the building to 100 percent occupancy. The fun center ”” called Pump It Up Inflatable Party Zone ”” attracts 3,000 visitors per month. It is within a mile of more than 20,000 people and within three miles of 88,000 people. It is also at the hub of 10 big stores that include Walmart, Lowe”™s, two Stop & Shops, Stew Leonard”™s and Home Depot.
Regarding Waypointe, Seligson said the equation called for municipal help. “We”™re abiding by all the rules,” he said, specifically citing affordable housing requirements. “There has to be a synergy between government and business for this to happen. Without the cooperation of the city, why not pack up and build in the North Dakota shale fields?”
For 20 years Seligson worked with municipal leaders ”” he cited the former Moccia and current Rilling administrations ”” on the comprehensive plan now coming to fruition in Norwalk. “It has been a community partnership” Seligson said. “Everyone had to work together to make something like this happen and it is finally happening.”
Kaplan said the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, too, has worked in concert with the mayor”™s office to shepherd Waypointe from abstract to brick and mortar.
