Over the past two decades, downtown Stamford has transformed from a dayside commercial business hub to a 24/7 hotspot for restaurants, retailers and residential developments. At the center of the business district, a small family-owned restaurant, Curley”™s Diner, tells a story of how the city coveted its prime real estate space so much that the owners almost lost their property altogether.
Diner owners Maria Aposporos and her sister Ellen Anastos were approached by the city”™s Urban Redevelopment Commission in the late 1990s with a proposal to buy the land under their property through eminent domain. The asking price was $240,000, which Aposporos said was significantly less than her appraiser”™s assessment of $1.5 million.
The city”™s redevelopment agency head had been eying the acreage of Curley”™s Diner, which is nestled on a side street in the middle of various multimillion-dollar development projects. The commission pressed the offer with plans to sell their property to a Boston-based development company, Corcoran Jennison Development, for a marked up price of $4.6 million.
When Aposporos refused the money, the courtroom battles began. In 2002, the state Supreme Court ruled in Asposporos”™ favor and the city decided to stop pursuing the property.
“We”™re not permitted to pay beyond fair market value,” said Rachel Goldberg, general counsel at the Urban Redevelopment Commission. “So we tried to engage the developer with her to negotiate transactions, and they weren”™t successful. The city and commission decided not to redo the process. We decided that it wasn”™t worth pursuing her a second time around.”
Twelve years after winning the court battles, Aposporos sits inside her diner eating chicken wings and a homemade salad for lunch, as she talks about how the downtown has become a magnet for new businesses and how she feels strongly about leaving her diner as a legacy.
“Right now, I”™m staying here,” Aposporos said. “They”™re going to have to give me a lot of money because I”™m not leaving for peanuts. No one is going to make me move.”
Robert Edwards, one of Aposporos”™ regular customers, said he has been a loyal customer at the diner for as long as he could remember, and he said he pays her a visit every morning.
Aposporos playfully said, “Yeah, he visits me except when he goes to Alabama and then comes back sick from the food. Then I need to nurse him back to health with my soup.”
Curley”™s Diner, which has been in its boxy metallic armor since 1977, somehow blends in with the bustling downtown. With 12-story high-rises, new hotels and restaurants developing alongside it, the diner”™s aesthetics are still congruous with the city. The Stamford Downtown Special Services District, an organization that focuses on ways to draw businesses and people to the city”™s downtown, has made it a priority to ensure that old and new mesh through various zoning efforts.
“The main mission of this organization is to bring life and vitality to the older downtown streets and buildings that have been impacted by the development of the mall and commercial buildings,” said John Ruotolo, vice president of the organization. “We were the applicant for a zoning regulation called the architecture review design district, which is focused on façade preservation and new façades that fit into the neighborhood.”
The older neighborhood near Curley”™s Diner, is primarily made up of standard brick buildings with inset windows, surrounded by apartment buildings that incorporate the same concepts of exposed bricks and inset windows to fit the area, Ruotolo said. He added that aesthetics are an easily overlooked yet crucial component for attracting businesses, residents and visitors to Stamford, which he said is no longer just a “9-to-5 type of downtown” but has become a “24/7 city” over the last 15 years of development.
“In the next five years, there will be a continued balance of mixed-use growth with restaurants, residential and retail,” Ruotolo said. “The occupancy rate in the downtown is 95 percent for retail, and we want to keep it that way. It”™s important to fill empty spaces and work with downtown businesses to ensure businesses are going well for them.”
Currently, Stamford has 9.7 million square feet of office space, 1.75 million square feet of retail space, 2,200 hotel rooms and 6,400 residential units in its immediate downtown quarter-mile radius near Atlantic, Bedford, Broad, Main and Summer streets, Ruotolo said.
“The residential component and commercial office space has caused an in-fill of retail and restaurant and entertainment,” Ruotolo said. “We still have businesses in the downtown that are more than 50 years old. One example is across from Curley”™s Diner, there”™s Pappa”™s Pizza. A cleaner on Bedford Street, Wolfe”™s Cleaners, passed the 50-year mark. There”™s always some turnover in the real estate space, but we still have over 80 restaurants in the downtown.”
