With downtown residential projects restarting, SoNo business owners are attempting to seize the moment in increasing daytime foot traffic just as surrounding towns are doing the same.
Stephanie Pelletier, the area representative of F.D. Rich Co., the largest commercial real estate owner in South Norwalk, said the retail art district is in the midst of a very crucial time in its evolving business culture.
“The continued development of SoNo has the potential to establish the area as a unique live-work-play community situated in one of the nation”™s most desirable areas in terms of demographics, location and accessibility,” Pelletier said. Creating connections between the businesses is core to that goal, she said.
“South Norwalk is currently in competition with all of our surrounding area downtowns,” said Matthew Storch, chef and partner of Match Restaurant on Washington Street and co-chair of the SoNo Collaborative, an advocacy group of businesses and residents in SoNo.
He said Darien, New Canaan, Fairfield and Westport have all “come alive” in terms of taking on an effort to grow a socially focused retail environment in their downtowns. Storch said South Norwalk cannot simply rely on its uniqueness and rest on its past laurels any longer.
“There are some very real challengers for the feet in the other area towns,” Storch said. “We need to be engaged in that competition.”
On the cusp of becoming reality are 232 apartments in the newest phase of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners 95/7 project, as well as the former Waypointe mixed-use project that was bought by new investors.
“We are finalizing approval,” said Kim Morque, president of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners. Morque said Spinnaker will soon begin to map and build on the 10-acre portion of the project that is north of the development”™s existing apartment building, The Maritime.
The total project is expected to bring in about 1,000 new downtown SoNo dwellers and will also include an additional 125,000 square feet of retail space, 650,000 square feet of commercial space and a 150-room hotel.
Morque said Spinnaker is also beginning to consider the redevelopment of the former Norwalk Co. building, which it owns with Building and Land Technology and sits vacant next to the Maritime Aquarium. Plans are for the building to contain a retail and residential-commercial mix.
Of the 95/7 project, which during the economic downturn had been criticized as being a prime example of stalled development, is an example of how development requires patience and consciousness of long-term cycles Morque said.
“We have our heads held high,” said Morque. “In our business you have to understand that economic cycles happen, and that”™s not something you can control.”
Emil Albanese, chairman of the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, is tasked by the city to promote commercial appeal and strengthen its economy.
“These mixed-use developments should do much to accentuate the parts of our community that are underserved and whose potential is unrealized,” Albanese said.
South Norwalk, with its strong nightlife, is a place that begs for a community that can support a daytime shopping culture, he said.
Berkeley, Calif.-based MJB Consulting was commissioned by the Norwalk agency in January and found SoNoӪs daytime workers make up the majority of people on the streets during the day. The report also found that that those workers typically spend money at quick-service food operations like Soup Alley and Bulls Head Market Caf̩. The study said the value of downtown residential real estate was a clear path to supporting a daytime shopping culture.
Pelletier said an influx of individuals living within walking distance from South Norwalk will mean that downtown retailers and restaurants will have a major opportunity to create customers that live in South Norwalk.
On the other side of Interstate 95, the Waypointe Project, which also made little movement during the economic downturn, has recently picked up new investors. In June the project managed by Stanley Seligson of Stanley M. Seligson Properties gained investment partners Greenwich-based Belpointe Capital L.L.C. and San Francisco-based MacFarlane Partners.
The project, which is just north of the Stepping Stones Museum off of West Avenue and will cover 10 acres and include 725 apartments, has had its $200 million first phase approved. The phase will consist of 330 apartments and 45,000 square feet of street-level retail space to be built between Orchard and Merwin streets. Demolition is expected to start in October with construction beginning in December and occupancy slated for the end of 2012.
F.D. Rich also has SoNo development plans. Its most exciting features include an eight-story, 125-room hotel development at 41 S. Main St., which would also include a 10,000-square-foot office-use portion. The hotel project is called The SoNo Grand.
“Norwalk is a great city with visionary leadership and deep citizen participation,” said Tom Rich, president of F.D. Rich Co. and owner of T.R. SoNo Partners. “It”™s also well located from a transportation standpoint, which is one reason why it”™s been so successful to date.”
Rich said the next wave of residential development would be one that encourages future office and retail development.
Also likewise stalled but still pending is POKO Partners Wall Street development plan that includes a phased development of 380 apartments, 870 parking spaces, commercial and retail space, as well as the development of a small performing arts center, is looking to begin moving dirt as well.
Kenneth Olson, CEO of POKO, said the company is finishing its financing and expects to begin construction by the end of this year and be completed in 2012. The project has since its inception become 100 percent rental.
